Birthday (continued)

We're officially finished celebrating Molly's birthday now. Year four festivities included a family party in Denver, cake at home on the big day, birthday push-up pops and gift bags at school, and a big birthday bash last weekend at the playground and beach. What?! We didn't mean to drag out Molly's birthday so much. It just kind of happened.

The birthday celebration at school was a little anti-climactic. I felt bad not including her school friends in the weekend party, but there were just too many kids to invite and I didn't want to leave anyone out. It was fun to see her class at snack time, but I made a mistake with the gift bags. The cute Sofia the First and Spider Man markers I included weren't washable. Molly colored with them when we got home and made a total mess on her hands. I hope the other parents aren't annoyed!

Passing out stickers and gift bags at school

I think we had our biggest success with the birthday party at Evanston Lighthouse playground and beach. It just couldn't have gone any better. The day before the party, it rained cats and dogs. Jason and I were a little nervous because we didn't exactly have a back-up plan for 35 people. But we totally lucked out with the weather and the day of the party was absolutely gorgeous, warm and sunny with low humidity. We ended up with a great turnout. All the kids played well together at the park. And then a big group of us also hit the beach after lunch for a little sand play and fun splashing around in the lake.

Kylie, we missed you and Nick, but Lainey sure had fun!

Mark was the master of the tire swing and had all the kids giggling like crazy

Even the little kids got into the fun -- Lucy and James had a blast swinging with Grandpa

Can't go wrong with pizza and cupcakes. Happy fourth birthday, Molly!

Four years and fancy free

Happy fourth birthday to the Molls! We had a small, post-swim class celebration this evening with my parents. Jason and I didn't even have time to wrap the presents, but Molly didn't care. She got a pink soccer ball, a cupcake game that she's been eyeing for weeks, and a pretty awesome art box.

So far, I think age four is pretty great. Molly has been super sweet, super silly, and even semi confident lately. She jumped in the pool from the side today and went under. I'm proud of her. Time to download a new timeline for the blog counting down to age 5!

Per Molly's request, we celebrated with a pink cake with My Little Pony decorations and a #4 candle. Thanks to Grandma for making the cake and bailing out a working mom!

Mud bath

We're officially back from vacation, and, although I have many wonderful pictures to post, they will have to wait until we settle back in and deal with our latest home disaster -- the mud bath. It appears our contractor left a hole in the wall of our basement where the old pipe used to be. The Chicagoland area was hit with a huuuge storm while we were on vacation and the mud just flowed on into our basement through the hole. 

Fortunately, my mother discovered the mud when she was over using my sewing machine. She alerted us to the problem, cleaned up the laundry room floor, and helped get a contractor over to plug the hole. 

Unfortunately, the damage is even worse than she initially thought. Jason started ripping up the carpet after work this evening and discovered that the mud went almost everywhere. It destroyed a bunch of Jason's art stuff and sketch books. It flowed into our storage room and ruined a box of Jason's childhood memorabilia. It also soaked through the box holding our wedding pictures. Thankfully, the pictures were sitting on plastic bubble wrap and don't appear to be damaged. 

What a pain in the rear end! The bright spot in all of this is that we get to officially celebrate Molly's 4th birthday tomorrow :) Happier news to come in posts later this week!

Laundry room floor

Hole in the wall -- behind the copper pipe

Summer vacation

The O'Gradys are on vacation! We've had a wonderful couple of days so far, knocking around Denver and Boulder. We've been hanging out with friends, spending time with family, and thoroughly enjoying the hot and sunny weather outdoors. Tonight, Jason and I celebrate our anniversary (7 years!!). Tomorrow, we'll drive up to the mountains for a few days. I'll write more later, but here are a few quick pics from the trip so far.

Meet the newest co-pilot for Southwest Airlines

Blasting monsters with Cora

Beer tasting with Uncle Roger, Aunt Sue, Scott, and Brian

More beer tasting...Avery Brewery in Boulder. When in Rome, right?

Molly mermaid

Molly had her first solo swim class on Tuesday night. No parents in the water. No singing and splashing. This was serious stuff. Molly hung on to the side of the pool with the other kids and practiced floating on her back, kicking, and even jumping off the side. All with a swim belt on, of course! She had a huge smile on her face for the entire length of the class and has been talking about swimming ever since.

All dressed up and ready to go

Waiting patiently

Floating -- it's a little blurry because of the zoom. Parents had to watch from the balcony.

While I was observing the class from above, I realized what a difference there is between age 3 and age 4. Last year, Molly had meltdown after meltdown at ballet class, so we decided to take a little break from activities. Now, at swim class, she's totally fine. But the younger kids, who looked closer to 3, all freaked out and refused to leave their parents or get in the pool. Interesting. This gives me hope that Molly will be ready for soccer in the Fall. She better be...Jason signed up to coach!

Anyway, this last picture has nothing to do with swim class, but it's about the cutest one I've ever seen of James. I felt like it belonged on the blog!

James is in a really adorable phase right now. He just likes handing stuff to people. So cute!

Let's hear it for the dads

My Sunday started early. My dad showed up at 7:00am to babysit Molly so Jason and I could run a race. I left without saying "Happy Father's Day."

Later that day, I realized I forgot Jason's card at work and wouldn't be able to give it to him until Monday. I hurried through an art project with Molly while he mowed the lawn just so he would have something to mark the day as special.

Of course, I had every intention of calling or texting my father-in-law, but then got caught up getting the house ready for people to come over that evening.

This would not have happened to me on Mother's Day.

I feel terrible. I have such great dads to thank and I did a lousy job of showing my appreciation.

My dad taught me to love sports, to work hard, and to always tell the truth. Without him, my finances would probably be a mess. He thinks everything that Molly does is just delightful.

Jason is the most modern of modern dads. He does almost all of the cooking, grocery shopping, and daycare pickups. And he never makes me feel bad about any of it. Molly and I both know, at all times, how much we're loved.

My father-in-law would drop everything this minute and drive from Virginia to Chicago, no question, if we needed him to. He makes Molly laugh harder than anyone else can.

These dads are so great, they almost let me get away without saying, "Thank you." I know I'm one day late, but I hope the message is loud and clear. Happy Father's Day!

Stickers work!

It's been a month since I first wrote about Molly's nap time troubles and I'm happy to report that...the stickers are working! I think we've done it for 4 weeks now, with Molly going 7/10, 9/10, 6/6 (short week), and 10/10. Nap time struggles are pretty much nonexistent these days. She's even slept a few times.

This is what good behavior looks like :) Molly's teachers clearly know what types of stickers will motivate her. 

I can't give all the credit to the stickers. We talk about listening and being good at nap A LOT at home with Molly and at school with the teachers. We've brought in a few really cool books, including a princess encyclopedia (thanks, Jake and Corinne!) that make nap time a little more interesting. We've slowly been returning the toys that we initially confiscated. And we've been laying on the praise and high fives whenever she has a good day.

But I have to give most of the credit to Molly. She's been working really hard and I can tell she's proud of herself. She's listening better at school, better at home, and seems to have ditched the bratty behavior that we were so concerned about. Relief.

I know we can't spend too much time basking in the glory of Molly's sticker success. We've got to keep working on it and coming up with ways to make those two hours easier to deal with. She's got another year and half of naps to get through until Kindergarten finally starts (ugh). But I'm feeling pretty good about the way things are going right now. Next up...table manners!