More birthday wishes

Two other Happy Birthday congratulations that I need to pass out for today:

Happy Birthday to my father-in-law, David Frederick, who turns ** today.

Happy Birthday to my nephew, Dylan, (my brother Bob's little boy) who turns 5 today.

The party

We had a small party for Kassady last night. We invited just a few people over to help her celebrate. Fortunately, she hasn't figured out that if you have more people at the party you get more presents. No, those materialistic expectations are confined to Trey who remarked yesterday that he wanted to have a HUGE party with lots of people and presents. Kassady never was aware that the party was for her. She sang along lustily as we regaled her with the "Happy Birthday" song. She seemed shocked when I lifted her up to blow out the candles. "You mean, I can do this?" was the look she gave me. She did enjoy digging through the presents. Emme and Addison gave her some dress-up clothes and I do believe that was the hit of the evening. She tromped around in high heels and a tiara, cheesing for everyone. It was a fun night!

It's hard to believe that my little princess is 2

Kassady has the most infectious laugh

She was very impressed with the balloons. She dragged them around with her the rest of the day.

The Dora cake (a win-win with Kassady, a dedicated Dora devotee)

Kassady was entranced by the flickering candles. She really wanted to touch them.

Trey, Emme, and Noah (you can see his chin) waited for the blowing out of the candles (not to mention the cutting of the cake) with great anticipation.

As I held Kassady up to blow out the candles, she decided to try a different extinguishing technique which involved dousing the candles with large amounts of saliva. She's just like her Mom!

I think everybody got a hand in to help Kassady open her presents. All the kids were ripping off fragments of wrapping paper. OK, I did, too.

Kassady tried to play with all of her presents at once. She thinks that she's hot stuff with her dress-up clothes.

Happy Birthday, Kassady

Yesterday was Kassady's birthday. She is now an official 2-year-old. I say official, because she has been ahead of her time in approaching the Terrible Twos. I guess it's not really Terrible, it's more like the Tornadic Twos. She's a whirlwind of noise and excitement. If anyone in our family would happen to take up base jumping, my bets are on Kassady. She loves climbing, jumping, and yelling (singing). This past year she has evolved into a strong-minded, fun-loving, let's party type of girl. I love this girl so much! She is the sparkplug of our family. As I'm typing this Kassady just dove off of a kitchen chair onto the floor, head-first. This is a typical occurence in our house.

We celebrated with a small party. I'll post a few pics.

no hablo espanol

I would like to thank Dora the Explorer for the educational impact she has had on my little family. Kassady learned how to count to 10 in Spanish about the same time she learned to count in English. Since we don't normally converse in espanol, I attribute Kassady's bilingual progress to the Dora videos she loves to watch. It's funny to walk through the living room and hear Kassady shouting out Spanish words at the screen. Of course, I was well known for my Spanish skills while a student at GBS. My Spanish 101 teacher despaired of my ever communicating intelligibly. I have not failed her perception in the years since then. Si.

I'm not a huge advocate of kids watching videos. However, if Trey and Kassady are going to watch something, I prefer for it to be educational. Here are the Waggoner Film Institute Top 5 picks for kids:

1. Dora the Explorer
2. Blues Clues
3. Little Einsteins
4. Veggietales (we've had some really good conversations about God's Word that were initiated by a video)
5. Higglytown Heroes

Words of Wisdom

Wisdom for the day:

Before you criticize someone,
you should walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, when you criticize them,
you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Thank you, Ken Farmer

Say "Cheese"

I don't know what it is with my kids and cameras, but they are definitely allergic to them. With all of the hoopla surrounding the JonBenet Ramsey case, they have been showing a lot of these child stars, you know the kids with the perfect smile and all that. They parade all over the stage smiling sweetly at the judges.

My kids will never have to worry about that. I say "cheese" and Trey and Kassady immediately freeze into the strangest, most unnatural positions. Trey works so hard to produce a smile that his body spasms forward while Kassady displays what can only be interpreted as a pleasant grimace. They get this from their father (which you can pick up from any of the posted pictures of myself). I need to find some of childhood pics and post them. You would immediately catch on to the family resemblance.

Thank God, they're like that. There is something creepy about those little kids swishing across the platform with perfect smiles. I'll take my normal kids any day of the week!

Roadtrip Recap

About 3:45 yesterday afternoon, I pulled into the Waggoner driveway. It was a long day. Liberty left the Seattle area about 11:00 PM Sunday and at about 3:00 AM Monday morning we were parked by the side of the I-82 due to an electrical problem. I woke up to the sound of rumble strips. I headed up to the front of the bus, wondering why all the lights were off. Dan was just coming in from checking out the fuses. He couldn't find anything out of place, so he put out the emergency triangles and went to bed. I crawled back in my bunk thinking about how vulnerable I was. I sleep closest to the back of the bus and while there is a room between the rear of the bus and my bunk, I would still resemble an accordion should a semi pile into us. My bunk is almost 6 foot long (which is my exact height) and I began to worry about being pile-driven into the closet. Fortunately my fears were unsubstantiated and I woke up none the worse for the circumstance. Come to find out Dan began to obsess with the same thoughts and when I walked to the front of the bus he was camped out on the couch. We had a serviceman come out from Pasco, WA and by 10:30 AM we were on the road.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. We spent some more time in Seattle on Saturday. Still a fan. It is a great city to visit. God blessed our concerts and we were able to reconnect with many of our friends.

It is nice to be home, though. Trey starts kindergarten next week, which is just absolutely crazy. There's no way I should be old enough to have a kid in school. Messed up, is what it is. Last night we went over to the school and met with his teacher. She seems like a great lady and Trey likes her. It's one of those bittersweet moments in life, you know. I'm extremely proud of Trey and am looking forward to his school days and activities, but it's hard to think of him not being my little guy. I know, I know, everybody else has gone through it, but let me wallow in my misery. Trey also starts playing in a soccer league next week. Kindergarten and soccer today, college and marriage tomorrow. I'm getting old.