Choo Choo Train Party

The day for the choo-choo train party has finally arrived! The weather was worth the wait, that's for sure! This place was absolutely wonderful. It was as if we stepped onto a model train track. Miles of tracks weaved in and out of the beautiful acreage property. It truly was unbelievable.

Because Isaiah was the birthday boy, he got to be the conductor on a special birthday train. What a treat! He was in charge of the remote, and so he could stop and go as he pleased.

It was so much fun to see him having such a great time. This was definitely a dream come true for Isaiah!

All the "employees" are volunteers. These guys get paid in smiles, and we were thankful for their dedication and service.

Isaiah received a special conductor certificate for doing such a great job driving the train. Of course that certificate will be a keepsake item!

There was so much to do and only 2 hours to do it. After Isaiah's special trip, we decided it was time for the cake.

Isaiah has had this cake picked out for almost half a year.  He was so excited to finally get his own train cake.

I also made a "healthier" option--carrot cake cupcakes. Even though Isaiah wanted the big cake, he really prefers to actually eat cupcakes.

We lit the candles, sang the song, lit the candles, sang the song. Repetition seems to be our tradition! The song only happens once a year for each child, so it's worth it to do more than once!

Isaiah loved all his presents. He got a few more trains to add to his collection along with some Thomas the Train clothes and accessories. He was loving all of it!

After the treats and presents, the kids played at the sandbox. We could have been there all day, playing and riding the trains, so 2 hours went by too fast!

As we were leaving, Isaiah was wanting to know if we could come back again for his next birthday. That means that today was a success...but a lot can change in a year! Who knows...we may be back, or we may be on another adventure!

Thunder Game

TJ had been given 4 Thunder game tickets for tonight's game. Niah loves basketball, and Isaiah loves ANYTHING to do with balls...so it was a toss up as to whether or not Aliya or Kiahna would have the remaining ticket. It was finally decided that Aliya was the one who wanted to go the most, so earlier tonight the 4 of them headed out for the game.

Kiahna and I had our own special date while they were at the game. We went to Bricktown and had a coffee treat before watching The Lorax 3D at the theater. We had a very special time, but when we got home tonight, we heard ALL about the game...and apparently it was a good one!

My understanding is that our team lost by a point and some unfair calls from the referee. Now while that may have been the most important thing to my husband and oldest daughter, it was NOT the most important thing according to Aliya and Isaiah.

According to Isaiah, the best thing was seeing Rumble, the team's mascot. He now LOVES Rumble.

According to Aliya, the best part was when they (TJ and the kids) were on the BIG SCREEN! Apparently, the camera was impressed with the excitement from the kids, and they displayed the action on the big screen--which actually had the reverse affect because once Isaiah knew he was on TV, he became instantly shy. All-in-all, the night was a huge success!

Our New Dining Room

On Monday we had a knock on our door. The maintenance guys told us they needed to check our place out to see if a leak on the neighbor's side was actually coming from our side. Well, sure enough it was--it was coming from our bathtub drains! I know there probably is never a convenient time or a time that I would voluntarily want to have this intrusion, but NOW was REALLY not a good time.

We live in tight quarters. What that means is that we have to use every available space for storage...so moving out our dining room is not as simple as moving a table and a few chairs. Oh! and I forgot to mention that just a few weeks ago we had already moved ALL the furniture/stuff out because they just laid the new floors? We had just gotten everything put back together!

Well, the guys came and jack-hammered our new floor up--only about a foot from the wall. They spent all day fixing the leak and left after they poured the cement back in. They told us that they would be back in a few days (once the cement dried) to finish putting it all back together. As he was walking out, he mumbled something about "unless there was another leak that pops up". Well, guess what popped up? Yesterday OUR side flooded. So now we had another mess on top of a mess. The guy came back out and made sure the water was shut off. He said he would be back today to get it all fixed.

So today they jack-hammered some more until the hole is as big as you see in the picture. I forgot to mention that they never sealed off the area, so all the dust and mold, etc. was blown up and into the air for us all to enjoy. By Monday evening--just a few hours of all the dust blowing--we were sick. Yesterday Niah had to skip volleyball practice because we are miserable.

I am ready for this to be over, but it will probably be about a month before we can stop eating in our living room. They are going to have to relay the floor which means at some point we will have to move EVERYTHING (not just the dinning room) back out again so they can redo the floors. The next few weeks will be challenging for sure. I guess I am in need of some more character building!