Jessica's 7th Birthday!!

This year we had a great party planned for Jessica's birthday . . . the boys were going camping for the Father's and Sons Campout so the girls were going to have a fun girl's night with ice cream and painting our toenails while watching "High School Musical." Then the next night, the whole family would go to Chuck E Cheese with the Bairds and Henry and Ellis (cousins staying with us) to celebrate her birthday. However, the day before the campout, the boys in our house started getting sick and by Friday night all of them were sick and couldn't go camping. This really messed up all our birthday plans.

Though she was sad about changing plans, Jessica was nice enough to let us rearrange her birthday party. So on Friday we had a family party (not wanting to get anyone else sick) and had pizza and made our own ice cream shakes while we watched "High School Musical." Then she opened her presents!

She got a Generation Girl Doll, Eva, which was her favorite present!

She loves her new umbrella and danced in the rain with it the next day.

She even got a jewelry box from Germany that Dave brought home from his last trip.

Since we had ice cream shakes on her birthday, we didn't make the cake until the next day. Jessica helped design and decorate her own cake. She decided to build a castle out of candy so using Kit Kats, a graham cracker, Rolos, Whoppers, a Ding Dong and lots of frosting, we constructed her castle! Looks good Jess! She even got the lucky penny!

She had to wait a whole week but we finally even got to go to Chuck E Cheese to finish celebrating her birthday. She had the choice to bring one friend with her and she chose to bring her cousin, Megan. We actually brought the whole Baird family and we were lucky enough to have Ben and Jenn extend their vacation in D.C. (after returning from England and Scotland) so their family was there, too. We celebrated Ben's birthday at Chuck E Cheese that day, too!

We all had a great time and even though it was spread over a week, we got all the birthday party plans in! Happy Birthday, Jessica!

Berlin (and Bourne)

Last week I was in Berlin on a business trip and had a brief chance to look around this very interesting and history-rich city. I would love to spend more time there--that is, when work is not getting in the way, and I am definitely putting it on my to-see-with-Kara list. To the right are a few pictures I snapped with my blackberry. From top to bottom: (1) Reichstag Building (historical parliament building built in 1894). More on that ... (2) Brandenburg Gate (Monumental entry to Unter den Linden leading to the palace of the Prussian Monarchs). More on that ... As a Bourne and Matt Damon fan, I also could not resist snapping a few pictures from locations used in The Bourne Supremacy (3) Westin Grand Hotel on Friedrichstraße (near where Checkpoint Charlie was located). This is the hotel used by Pamela Landy and the CIA when they set up shop in Berlin. You should recognize the interior terrace levels - a shot which features a couple times in the movie. (4) Alexanderplatz (big shopping plaza). This is the location of the scene in which Jason Bourne uses the protesters and trains running through the plaza to "kidnap" Nicky for information. (5) Train Station at Friedrichstraße. This station, which spans the Spree river was used as part of one of Jason's escape scenes. He times the trains just right, jumps the tracks, jumps off the bridge onto a barge, scales back up the bridge, and then doubles back to the train station to escape the police pursuit. Man, makes me want to watch the movie again. And yes, besides the Bourne Supremacy film locations, there is a lot of other cool stuff in Berlin and the surrounding region (e.g., Potsdam). I highly recommend making a stop in the area if you have the chance.

The Darndest Things ...

Anyone with a child knows that some of the most memorable moments at home are those times in which your child becomes an unintentional--or even intentional--comedian. You all know what I'm talking about--the times in which your child's total honesty combines with his or her less-than-complete mastery of language and social norms to produce absolute and impromptu hilarity. It's what's meant when we hear people remark that "kids say the darndest things."

Well, multiply the opportunity for "darnest thing" moments by four times (Lucy isn't quite contributing yet) and, well, you get the picture ... Here are some of our favorite "bits" from our kiddie comedy troupe over the years.

(This is a Dave & Kara Collaborative Post)

• I'm a meatball. Recently, Seth has started into the "silly" phase in which he likes to be the center of attention and therefore likes to make people laugh. Often it's a fairly slapstick show, but sometimes there are comic gems. Take for example, the time when Kara told Seth he was being funny and acting like a goofball. He promptly replied: "I'm not a goofball mommy, I'm a meatball!" We couldn't agree more.
  
  
• Pound the Corn (5/29/10). Dave took Jessica and Caleb to do some grocery shopping and because they had been so good he let them "help" choose the produce and put it into bags. Aside from the fact both the potatoes and apples ended up on the store floor at one point, it was a fairly successful venture. (Although one mishap was caused by Jessica pretending to be Santa and "throwing" the bag of apples over her shoulder to carry it to the cart.) When they started bagging the corn, Caleb asked "Dad, do we need to pound the corn"? Dave responded, "Do you mean shuck the corn"? But Caleb replied, "No, no, do we need to pound the corn ... on the scale over there"? We had just finished weighing the potatoes, which had tipped in just over 5 pounds (Lbs). I guess Caleb wanted to know how much the corn weighed by "pounding" it. Way to make your own verb, Caleb!
  
  
• National Arburrito! (3/23/07).While getting ready to visit the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., Jessica exclaimed: "Let's go to the Arburrito! (Incidentally, one of Jessica's favorite early sayings was "Aye yaye yaye!")
  
  
• "I Gor-fot!" For a while, Seth used to say that he "gor-fot" something when he had "forgotten" it.(Try saying that outloud. It almost sounds like a bad thing.)
  
  
• Good Decisions (2/09). In joy school, Caleb had been learning about good decisions. One day after school, Caleb and I were sitting on the couch and Seth walked past. Caleb turned and said, "Mom, I made a good d.. (pausing to think of the word)." "A decision?" I said. "Great, what was it?" He responded: "I didn't trip Seth." (Should that really have to be a decision?)


• Stranger Danger Misapplied (9/16/07). At the beginning of the school year, we had a refresher course in stranger danger for both Nate and Jessica. We had been working on not hitting other people (especially siblings), so we wanted to clarify that if a stranger ever tried to take them or touch them, they were supposed to hit and fight them and scream as loud as they could. Nate said that he would hit them in the stomach, and I told him that it would actually be better to hit them in the nose and make their eyes water and get away. Over a month went by and the topic did not come up again. Then we went to a party with some friends ... The kids were playing nicely when one of our friends informed us that Nate had just punched his kid in the nose. We were obviously shocked. Come to find out, the boys had been roughhousing and Nate's friend said that he was going to tackle Nate as hard as he could. Nate told him not to, and said,"If you come near me, I'll punch you in the nose, then your eyes will water and I'll be able to get away." The boy apparently ignored Nate's warning, and Nate made good on his promise.
  
  
• Statue of Delivery (11/5/07). Caleb's favorite site on a family trip to New York. "I see it mom, the Statue of Delivery!"
  
  
• 1pm Tee Time (1/8/07). Nate had been having a hard time getting up for school lately and it came to a head one morning. When trying to wake him up that day, he grumpily replied, "I didn't get any sleep last night and I'm going to sleep in and play golf this afternoon!" He then pulled the covers over his head. I stood there for a minute laughing ... then dragged him out of bed (literally).


• I'm a Stinker (4/25/06). At a picnic lunch, Jessica would not sit down for 2 seconds to eat. She kept running away from us all over the park. She finally ran back up to us and with a cute smile on her face said, "I'm a stinker!"


• I'll be Gorgeous (5/25/06). After begging to do her hair in curlers after a bath, Jessica remarked, "Now when I wake up I'll be gorgeous!"


• Woof, Woof (12/07). For a while, Caleb believed that if he ever got in trouble (i.e., was getting scolded) he would make everything better by pretending he was a puppy dog and saying "woof, woof." He was so cute that it almost worked!


• Aaaaachoooo! (2/08). After sneezing four times in a row, Caleb turned and said, "Mom, I have the bless-yous!"


• It's Cold Outside (12/05). One winter day when Nate was in kindergarten we were all piling into the car to go somewhere. I remarked, "It's cold out today." From the backseat, Nate, responded, "No, mom, it's D@$n cold outside." Thinking we misheard him, we asked what he had said, and he responded, "It's not cold, it's D@$n cold oustide." The things kids pick up at school! We then had a nice chat about avoiding certain types of adjectives.


• Let Them Eat Cake (3/09). Caleb: "Mom, I'm going to invite you to my birthday party because I need a cake."
  

Wrestle Mania (Small Fry Style)!

With three boys in the house, let's just say there are plenty of analogies that cross my mind in the midst of the noise, destruction, and chaos ... "three-ring circus," "herd of elephants," "Lord of the Flies" ...

Recently, however, the "main event" with Caleb and Seth has been bare-chested, mixed martial arts wrestling. It all started one evening during the routine bedtime rituals. The boys were changing into their pajamas, when half-way through they started to wrestle around. It reminded us of WWF and we burst out laughing at these two boys -- who were quite seriously wrestling with their shirts off -- and because they got a lot of attention the first time, they now feel the desire to put on a show for the family regularly. Hope you enjoy some of the pictures we snapped.

In this corner, weighing in at 30.1 lbs -- Seth the Sledge Hammer Ludlow

In that corner, weighing in at 44.6 lbs -- Caleb the Bone Crusher Ludlow

Germany - Again ...

I'm testing out mobile email posting, so here goes. I'm sitting on a plane, just about to take off from Frankfurt. It's my 9th trip to Europe in the last year for business, and this trip was extremely short. I arrived Monday at 7am local time and I'm leaving Tuesday at 11am local time. I'm hoping the trip was short enough I'll avoid any jet lag. We'll see.

The only bright side to these trips is that I've been a United Global Services member for a while now and I usually get upgraded to 1st class.

Today, I'm on my favorite flight - the upgraded United 767-300. It has a sweet first class "cocoon" (see picture). It honestly makes the 8 hour flight a pleasure.

I've also posted a picture of the Cathedral ("Dom") in Cologne. I took it a couple trips back, but this is basically the view from the hotel I stayed in this trip.

Here's another picture of Cologne - this time from the top of the Cathedral.

Happy 5th Birthday Caleb!

Caleb turned 5 last week so we went mini-golfing with our family and our cousins!  Caleb also got to bring a friend along so Luke joined us too.  The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.  Check out our expert golfers.

When the ball wouldn't go where he wanted, Seth would help it with his foot. :-)

The big kids golfed in their own group since we were all too slow!

Caleb got a lava dragon webkinz from his brothers and sisters and was so excited!

Ouch!  Jessica does a real "bump on the head" by dropping the presents.  Good thing Caleb is tough.

Caleb wanted a Star Wars cake decorated with the action figures we have.  But once we got decorating, he decided to throw on a few extras, too!  Happy Birthday Caleb!

It's Not Easy Being Green

Lest Kara is too bashful to post this, I thought I'd beat her to the punch. Last week we attended a ward talent show and Kara performed Loathing from Wicked with one of her friends. I told Kara that it was perfectly fine to just sing the song -- but of course that wasn't good enough -- they had to put on a little "Broadway." Kara played the part of Elphaba and, yes, even painted her face green, and her friend played the part of Galinda. The girls did a fantastic job (not surprisingly) and sounded terrific together.

Seth, who hadn't seen Kara until she took the stage, however, did not think the performance was terrific at all. He jumped on my lap and asked me repeatedly, "What's wrong with mommy? Why is her face green?" When Kara left the stage to sit with us, Seth retreated from her and didn't want anything to do with a green-faced mom. He was very glad the soap worked that night and the paint came off (as was I).