Happy 7th Birthday to My Amazing HUDSON!

Hudson turned 7 on Sept. 13.  I still like to tell the story of how CRAZY I was when I was pregnant with him. (Yes, even crazier than normal!)  I was so nuts that I convinced myself that I would simply die if the child was born on an even numbered day.  Evan, Eric and myself all have odd birthdays, so I desperately wanted this to be the case for this little guy.  Luckily, my doctor didn't even bat an eye when I told him of my NEED to have him on an odd day.  And again, luckily, the doctor was on call on the 13th, and we had already chosen to induce.  And that's how Hudson got his odd numbered birth date!

Even cooler, I later realized, is that the boys in the family all have the number 3 in their birth date: Evan 3rd, Hudson 13th, and Eric 23rd.  I am 11th.  Yes, I am still slightly off kilter, but I just love the coincidence of the dates!

Hudson got to celebrate for three days this year.  It is a tradition at school to wear free dress on your birthday, but it isn't allowed on Fridays because of Mass.  (Hudson's birthday was Saturday.)  So we bumped the free dress back to Thursday, and he chose to have his cupcakes brought to school on Thursday as well.  The class sang to him, Sr. Monica waved his arms around, the kids had a cupcake, and he got to read the spelling sentences for the test later that day!  Big stuff!

I cracked up for a couple reasons.  1. Sr. Monica gave him a birthday certificate with four pencils attached that had the name "Austin" on them.  I'm not sure if she figured, eh, close enough, or if she is true to nun form in not wasting and giving away what is extra.  Hudson never noticed, but it made me chuckle.  2. A kid later that day told me my cupcakes were good, but they tasted a like olive oil.  Um, okay kid, even though no olive oil was used in making them.  I blamed Hudson!  3.  Another kid ate a few bites, declared he didn't like his cupcake and said he wanted to take it home to his mom!  Oh the joys of 2nd graders!

I didn't get any pictures of Hudson on Thursday with his classroom cupcakes.  Had other stuff to worry about that day.  The beginning of this year is keeping me hopping!

However, on Friday, it was all about the Rat House...AKA Chuck E. Cheese.

 Hudson wanted to celebrate at Chuck E. Cheese, his favorite place in the world, apparently.

 He chose John and Sam to come home from school with us to play and then head to pizza.

 John is in 4th grade, but we are good friends with the family and Hudson ADORES him!  I always say that John is Hudson's best friend, but I'm not sure it goes the other way around!  John is always very good to Hudson in any case.

 You can see how excited Eric is to be there!

 Opening presents.

 Such excitement!  This toy flies far in to the air!

 Very cool gift from John.

 Whatever do we buy with 1000 tickets?

 Fake teeth.  Sam got Hudson a gift card to Target.  The kid has more money than I do right now!

 Birthday donuts on your birthday.  It has become a tradition of ours.

 I can't believe he is 7.

 We let him open one present before heading to his soccer game.

 A new soccer ball!

 It's the ball they used for the final World Cup game this past summer.  Dad pumped up the ball and we headed to his match.

 The kids won their game, and Hudson played great defense!

 Little boys are funny, but they are also a lot of fun!

 Evan's team had a game as well, so we were out at the field from 9 a.m. until almost 2 p.m.  I was a bit tired.  We headed to Deli Delicious for lunch.

 Bad picture with the sun from the window, but I told Evan to take a birthday shot with his brother.

I hope little man enjoyed his three days of fun.  He still will get a bit more attention from my side of the family and he gets to go on a major shopping spree with his birthday money!

Here are some facts about Hudson.
1. He is brave.  Evan often uses him for comfort!
2. He is very smart, but doesn't care all that much about performing in school.  I think he figures, I know this, why do I have to prove it to you?!
3. That being said, he loves taking AR tests at school!
4. He wiggles.
5. He wiggles a lot!
6. He loves playing on his tablet.
7. He is a soccer defender like his brother.
8. He likes to cook.
9. He seems to be popular at school.  All the kid say hi and bye to him.
10. He likes playing with the older kids.
11. He loves candy like his mom.
12. He likes his dogs.
13. He still wants me to help him get dressed in the morning.
14. He is FUNNY!
15. He learned to swim in the deep end this summer.
16. He is reading chapter books.
17, He does not like homework.
18. He is tough.
19. He is loving.
20. He is my favorite 7-year-old!

Need to Ramp Up My Photo Taking

I have not been taking very many pictures lately.  Not sure why.  Plenty of boring, regular, everyday type stuff has happened: soccer practice, school, dishes, laundry, grocery shopping.  Don't be jealous of my exciting life.

There have also been a couple of missed photo opportunities where I guess I either didn't have my phone or I just plain forgot to take a picture: OLPH Night at Storyland/Playland, soccer game (we lost), and Hudson's cupcakes in his classroom today at school.

Here are the only two pictures on my camera roll from this week:

 I have no clue why I took this picture.  I am guessing from the striped hanky in the front that it was from the weekend when I was still battling a nasty cold.  Buddy is in the top corner of the bed.  Covers are rumpled.  Strange.  Very strange.

This picture has a nice story to it.  Being that I teach 8th grade, I don't get a whole lot of colored pictures, letters, drawings, etc. from my students.  Younger grade teachers get niceties like this all the time.  Eighth grade teachers?  Not so much!  So imagine my pleasant surprise when an 8th grade boy no less walks up to me and hands me a little origami swan!  So cute!  I loved it and pinned it to my board!

Hudson's birthday is on Saturday and his little party at Chuck E. Cheese is tomorrow.  I'll be sure to take pictures!

Great Dinner Last Weekend and a Head Cold This Weekend

 Last Monday on our day off, we worked together to create a really good dinner.  Eric found a recipe for foil packet potatoes on Facebook.  They were so delicious!

 They had bacon in them.  Yeah, they were that good!

 A little bit of onion, bacon, and super thinly sliced potatoes.

 And a pat of butter!  Amazing!

 We had enough potatoes for three packets and Eric put cheese in one of the packets.  Those were really good, too.  While Eric made the potatoes, I made a really good cream cheese stuffed chicken.  It was such a comfort food kind of dinner.

And I forgot to take any pictures of the finished products!  Too busy eating!

 This week was extremely busy.  It was nice to have Monday off for Labor Day, but man did we pack a whole lot of stuff into four days.

-two flag football practices
-two soccer practices
-one after school parent meeting
-one Safe Environment training
-one LNI meeting
-one kid throwing up
-one business meeting
-one Mass to plan
-one family night at Storyland

And then I caught a cold in the middle of all that.  And today was picture day.  Lovely.

 This is how I looked this morning.  Puffy face, exhausted from being up since 3:30 because of congestion and headache, itchy eyes, dark circles.  LOVE taking pictures on those days.

At least Evan is cute.

Fall, Hurry Up And Get Here!

I never used to love Fall decor, but as an adult, I LOVE it!  I didn't decorate last year.  Probably too stressed out, tired, busy, and crazy.

This Labor Day weekend (Hudson calls it Libber Day!), I am relatively caught up with "stuff" in general.  Lesson plans are done.  House isn't sparkling clean, but it isn't atrocious, groceries are bought, clothes are washed (even sheets!), and I'm feeling decently relaxed.  I decided to pull out the Fall decorations.

I spent the afternoon putting stuff on tables and shelves and finding ideas on Pinterest.  I even took a quick trip to Dollar Tree to buy a few more NEEDED items!  Here are a few results.

 Family room coffee table.  I love my glossy fake fruit.  I already owned all that stuff.  Not even sure where it came from.

 The little side table by my side of the couch.  I need more candy to fill the pumpkin dish.

 Side table in the corner of the couches.  I'd like some pine cones for the basket.  I repurposed the milk jar as a vase, and our engagement photo works perfectly with the color scheme.

 Part of the fireplace.  I used wine glasses as candle holders.  I want to finish this area by hooking up the garland so it isn't drooping all weird.  I also want to get a bunch of fake pumpkins for the big vase and then poke empty, skinny branches into it.  I got the little scarecrow at Dollar Tree.  Hudson decided that was where he needed to live.  I think he's cute.

 The side table in the formal dining room.  Candy in the dish would look nice along with possibly switching out the candles in the holders.  However, if this table has nothing more done to it, it won't bother me.

The dining room table.  I really love using table runners when I decorate, but I didn't want to spend too much money.  I found an old Fall flag that I never opened and decided to use it as the "runner."  I like how it turned out!

I could easily spend much more and go crazy to create a fall forest in my house, but I think the touches I have added are quite nice as is.  In any case, it makes me happy to see the orange, red, and green colors throughout our home.