Six!

Six years ago, we had no idea of the joy that awaited us.  

This spring break, the only set item on our agenda was "celebrate Noble!"

So, we did.

The fun started a day early with a celebration at school.  I was shocked that Noble actually requested a birthday shirt, because he has developed an aversion to my "funny shirts that make people laugh at him."  Oh, okay.  So I let him design this year's shirt, and what he came up with is SO Noble.  

He's old enough now to understand that his birthday is the day he was born, not the day of his party.  

For his classroom celebration, Noble chose root beer floats.  A friend mentioned it last month, and it stuck with him. And they were a big hit with his friends, along with the mustaches we brought along.  Noble started a unibrow trend...because that's how we roll around here.

Last year, we told Noble that from 6 on instead of big parties he could have a few friends over to camp out or have a sleepover, whatever he chose.  Well, when he found out that "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" was coming out the day before his birthday, he decided that he wanted a movie party.  (You know me:  I'd been asking him for MONTHS what he wanted to do...even if it was a little party, I wanted to plan.  But it turns out, it wasn't about me.  Shocking, right?)  So, not quite two weeks before the big day, he finally decided who he wanted to invite.  This was the world's easiest birthday celebration--no invites, no favors, no cake...it's the opposite of any party we've ever done before, and it was exactly what Noble wanted.  

Around here, our tradition is to decorate for the kids so they wake up to a little birthday party.  Since we have cats this year, we had to really think that part through!

Noble came out of the bedroom at 6:00, which didn't surprise us at all...it's his new number, after all.

Daddy & I created a scavenger hunt that would take us through the activities of the day, starting with "get dressed!"

Thank you to all of you who called, texted, and even face-timed to tell Noble "happy birthday!"  

We let Noble choose breakfast, but we weren't surprised at all that he chose donuts (another birthday tradition, started by Lynn wayyyyyyyyyy to close to 20 years ago!).  Reasons #6798 and 6799 we love living in a small town:  Mr. Dale gave Noble a free birthday donut, and Ms. Dorothy led the whole store in singing "Happy Birthday to You" to our boy.  Only she forgot his name, so she sang to "Sweetie"--cracked Noble up!  (Or, as he would say, "cracked him out."  I don't know why.)

This is so Noble--while he was opening gifts, I had to talk to him about showing his gratitude better (we couldn't get him to make a decent thank you video for Aunt Susan and Avery).  I didn't realize it until later, but he totally taught ME a lesson.  Daddy & I wrapped up his birthday book, and that was it.  We didn't mention any other gift because it was part of the scavenger hunt.  You know what?  That kid opened the book and thanked us and we played with it for a while (it's the Wookie book, so the buttons make different Wookie noises).  He was happy with our gift.  And that was that, we went on with our morning.  When I realized later that Noble was totally content with a small gift and didn't blink an eye, I realized that he DOES get gratitude, and he could teach me a thing or two.  Do you know what he asked for this year?  A baseball bat and a book.  Jhido and Kayci took care of those, so Daddy and I were left guessing about what to get.  Luckily Daddy and Noble got out the bikes last week and his gift became obvious.  It was time for our big boy to get a bigger bike!

Noble's second clue led us to the store, where we let him pick out his own bike.  

Of course he had to try them out to find the perfect fit.  

And what do you do when you get a new bike?  You ride it!

After an easy ride around a parking lot, we had tons of fun going up and down the hill down the street from our house.  

I loved seeing Kayci's pink cheeks--

I'm so glad it's the time of year when we get to play outside!

Whenever we asked Noble what he wanted to do ON his birthday, he had the same answer:  Horseshoe Junction!  So, despite the weather, we went.  For the first time we bought the kids wristbands, and that made a huge difference--it was fun to know there wasn't a time limit, or that they could only ride so many rides.  The kids had a blast, and so did we!  The rain held off until the afternoon, so we got to play outside for a long time.  :)

After almost 4 hours and a yummy lunch, we took a break to go home and take a nap.  After dinner we went back and played for a couple more hours...the kids were THRILLED.  And tired!

While Noble napped, Kayci made his birthday surprise (his requested dessert was:  "surprise me!").  We are so proud of her, that she can bake a cake or cupcakes from start to finish with no support.  And Kayci loves being our official baker of the Pharaon family.  :)

She couldn't wait until dinner to show him her creation--Kayci had to wake him up.  I love how they love each other (even though they've now started to pick on each other...but that's another blog post).

Grandma came over for Noble's birthday dinner.  He cannot WAIT to have a wiggly tooth, and is convinced he'll lose one any day now.  It's been bothering him that he doesn't have a tooth pillow, so Grandma helped him out.  Now to have something to put in it...

Noble's birthday dinner request:  meatball soup.  YUM!

 

Kayci chose Noble's favorite color for his cake--I'm not gonna lie, I was worried about orange cake because I assumed it would be orange-flavored.  Thankfully, it was not.  :)

Yes, we let the birthday boy cut his own cake.  And eat two pieces.  

Noble will tell you he had a great birthday, and we had a lot of fun celebrating our boy!

And the fun continues...his favorite friend gave him a helicopter, and I'm not sure who has enjoyed it more.  Well, I am sure, but we'll pretend it's Noble.  :)

And the next item on our Spring Break agenda?  Nothing. 

So far, so good!

Guess who's going for a limo ride????

Oh, I'm sorry--I meant to say, limousine.  Because every time I say limo, someone (ahem) corrects me.

Noble turned in his form today, with 21 items sold.  A big ol' thank you goes out to:

Jhido

Uncle Ronny

Bev

Nana

Auntie Lynn

and Grandma...

...thank y'all so much for making Bubby's latest dream come true!  You can expect your thank you in the mail just as soon as he gets that ride.

Y'all are the best!!!

Noble's Fundraiser

When Noble came home last week and informed me that he "needed" to sell 20 items for the spring fundraiser so he could ride to Cici's Pizza in a limousine, I informed him that he'd better get to work.  So he did--he made a really cute video for y'all asking you to buy stuff from him.  

But I can't get it to load.  Sigh.

So, if you want to help Noble realize his new dream of riding in a limo, please go online and buy something.  Anything.  Or, if you want to order from me, give me a call and I'll have Noble take your order.  By the way, if you want to know what Noble recommends, it's the cookie dough.

Specifically, the colored cookie dough.  

Cause you could make snakes and stuff.

And who doesn't want to eat cookie snakes, y'all?

If you've got free money and free time, head to www.joecorbi.com and you'll need this info:

Online Group Code: 70KRAEBT
Seller ID: 840065

If you're wondering, this isn't exactly how I pictured Noble doing the work himself, but you can bet he'll be writing some thank you notes.

Hopefully, on a picture of him in a limousine.  :)  

Kayci and Noble Search for Bigfoot

It's been a few years since we shot one of these, and our recent camping trip to Bastrop State Park was the perfect opportunity - especially now that Noble is old enough to do a little acting.

Enjoy...!

Halloween 2013

We had a really fun Halloween this year! Kayci dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Noble was Spider-man.

We started the evening off by going to take photos of the kids in their costumes. Then we headed over to Grandma's for some early trick-or-treating and then the REAL fun began...

Every year we take off from our house and walk almost half a mile to find houses that are handing out candy. It seems like there are fewer and fewer every year. By the time we finally get there, the kids are tired of walking and we're just ready to be done already. Then there's the long walk home... So this year we got smart and drove to the street in our neighborhood where we usually trick-or-treat. That worked out well. The kids visited several houses and we loaded up in the car to go home for dinner (we had picked up Schlotzki's).

We watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and then headed out to the porch for our real favorite part of the evening - handing out candy. We didn't have as many trick-or-treaters as normal, but that's okay. The kids got to hand out some candy to a few kids before it was time to head inside for bed.

The kids were exhausted after their day. Noble, in fact. was so tired that after I read him his story, he just rolled over and fell right asleep. That almost never happens.

It was a fun day, but MommyGirl was happy to get the house back to normal and went around last night taking down the Halloween decorations and putting up the Harvest decor.

Here are a few photos of the kids in their costumes. Enjoy!

The Family That Creates Together...

This week is the Washington County Fair. The last couple of years I've entered some photos in the fair photography contest and have usually done pretty well. Last year Kayci entered a couple of photos, as well, and won some blue ribbons for her work.

This year both Pharaon kids decided they wanted to enter photos in the fair. Noble entered a photo he took with his iPod looking out the car window as we were driving one day. Kayci entered a photo she took of Noble a few weeks ago at church. Both Noble and Kayci knew exactly which image they wanted to submit and they stuck to it.

I entered three photos - a shot of a basketball player leaping, a light painting of Independence Hall at Washington-on-the-Brazos and a photo of a dinosaur statue at Dinosaur Valley State Park.

As my pal, Matt Parker, said - "the Pharaons did very well."

Noble won a red ribbon for his photo, Kayci won Grand Champion of her division for her photo, I won Grand Champion and Reserve Champion.

It was a good haul for the Pharaons, but most of all, I was proud that the kids wanted to participate and to show their creativity.

I'm so proud of our little knuckleheads.

What's the big eye-dea?

Yesterday was one of Kayci's favorite days of the year...her annual eye exam. She was excited to get new glasses, and had her fingers crossed that she'd get to try something new, as well.




That's right, this responsible young lady got contacts. Popped them right in and that was that--she had no trouble taking them out at bedtime, either. So impressed with her! She's been wearing glasses for a little more than two years, and it's been a long two years for a little girl who loves, loves her sunglasses. So the first thing we did was to buy her a new pair of sunglasses to celebrate!

I also got glasses when I was 7, but my vision had probably not been great for a while. That's why we were so vigilant about checking Kayci's vision--and we STILL missed it. I felt horrible when James pointed out that she was squinting. :/ We took her right to the optometrist and I'll never forget the look on her face when she put her glasses on for the first time, or the wonder in her voice when she talked about how much brighter the colors were. It was pretty cool to see that face and hear the wonder again yesterday when she opened her eyes after putting the contacts in. To be able to see when you open your eyes, without glasses, is something people with good vision take for granted. I got all choked up to see Kayci experience that for the first time since getting her glasses.

It was a big day. Sigh. She also got glasses, but our insurance doesn't cover new frames for her until next year. Kayci chose the frames I have (sweet, right?) but luckily, the ladies talked her into a more reasonably-priced pair that were a little smaller. For a while there, I told James it felt like I was hemmorhaging money...those fees add up, even with insurance! One of Kayci's classmates was also in the store, and I was reminded of how blessed we are when they had to leave without glasses because they didn't have insurance and couldn't afford them. My heart broke for that Mom who wants the best for her kiddo, just like we do. So that ended my personal pity party about our bill.

Given that I missed when Kayci's vision went bad, I have been watching Noble like a hawk for any signs of squinting, etc. I asked about an eye exam for him and the staff was like, well, we can take a look. Think about it-many 5 year old boys can't readily identify letters, etc. But Noble climbed up in that chair and took the regular eye exam...the doctor was floored, and said she'd never been able to test a 5 year old before. I noticed he was hesitant when there was a group of letters on the screen, and I finally figured out that he was trying to figure out what the "word" was! I think he breathed a sigh of relief when I told him they were just groups of letters, not words. :)

I had been telling him and telling him, you probably won't get glasses for a long time, we're just checking your eyes. Well, imagine my surprise and his delight:




These were his favorite, because they're a cross between Daddy's glasses and Uncle Ronny's glasses. No kiddy frames for this little man!

a Kayci Story

ten years ago today our lives changed, and a beautiful baby girl taught us that you can love more every day.

Krause Talent Show 2013

Yesterday Kayci and her friend Kate sang Taylor Swift's "Our Song" in the annual Krause Talent Show. She did great, and we're so proud of her for having the courage - time and time again - to get up in front of large groups of people and perform. Three years ago, she danced. Last year she played piano and this year she sang a duet. We're constantly amazed at the talents of our Bitty and we thank God for her every day.

Last Day of Preschool

This...

...feels like it was just yesterday.