Birthday Girl!

We played several games at the 1st birthday bash today. One was "Who's that baby?" Only 2 of these are the birthday girl. Grandma & Grandpa came. We played kickball. She looks a little worried that her team might not win, doesn't she? We bribed some people in the park to pose as our friends. We had pizza, peaches, pop... ...and of course CAKE! We also played a game where the baby chooses an item with deeper meaning for her life. It's a cool Korean tradition for 1st birthdays. Guests could guess before hand which item she might pick. (String = long life or tailor, Bell = harmony or musician, Cup= full life or chef, Jar of Coins = prosperity or business, Paint Brush = Sees beauty or artist, Book = knowledge or scholar) At first it looked like she might go for the book. But then she picked up the cup of rice...SO A FULL LIFE! Her friend chose the bell. Happy 1st Birthday, Sweetheart!

Lazy days?

We are enjoying our summer, but I think it's only "lazy" for the kids who don't have homework. For the parents who have to come up with more activities, some semblence of learning so their brains don't turn to mush & who push double strollers up steep hills on a regular basis to go to the park, it's anything but lazy!
Here's some of our adventures:
Going to the playground is fun for kids & getting there is good exercise for mommy!


D just turned 8 and will be baptized soon. (For more information about our views on baptism, click here)

Miss H will sing at the baptism. She's so pretty in her dress.
We went downtown for a PBS kids event. (You can see I cut my hair to get it off my neck.)


I made a teepee for the kids to play in until we get a playhouse built. Miss H is sitting in it in her pjs... Lazy days of summer!

Space Party

D wanted a party to celebrate the new house & the end of school.
So this weekend we had 8 eight-year old boys over for a Space party. It was crazy, but fun. Here's a peak. (Miss H & Lil'Stinker are sporting the "jet packs" made from a cereal box, painted silver, and soda bottle feul tanks.)


We had pizza for dinner. We did a space race relay where they wore jet packs, squirted aliens with water guns, shot moon balls into a rocket & orbited around cones. Then we had them build space objects with legos. (This was the only calm part of the party- we were amazed how they quietly & cooperatively constructed legos!) I made a moon cake for dessert. It was fun!

Cakes

Miss H is now 3! She was thrilled with the Little Einstein's rocket. She also received a bunny quilt. She's in pjs for these pictures because she opened her presents at 7:30 am- who can wait?!

Not that I make fabulous cakes, but I'm always looking for kid cake ideas, so I thought other might also. If you click on the "cake" label at the bottom of this post, it will pull up pictures of:
Dora cake
Bunny cake
Via Rail cake (my son may be the only child on earth who is a fan of the Canadian passenger railway, but I'm adding it anyway)
Diaper cake
Cars donut tires cake
& Fancy Nancy cupcakes

Here are some great cakes from other blogger friends:
Hannah Montana cake (from Becca)
Robot & Skateboard cakes From Lisa- she also has some cute cupcakes & a volcano cake posted the same month
Duck cake (from cousin Sally)
Adorable monkey cake from the friends who gave us the name "Lempskies"
Pirate cake (w/ hilarious story! from my friend Amy)

It's been a somber week. I attended the funeral for a baby. My cousin's daughter (who lives just south of here) delivered preterm & the baby only lived 10 days. Sure made me want to hug my kids 10 times more! Our heart really goes out to them.

Happy 6th Birthday!

As a follow up, things went very well in NM. The kids were really good for me (mine because they were happy to be with cousins, theirs because nearly every kid acts better for strangers than for their own parents... they aren't certain of the limits and don't want to push it when there are no other credible adult witness around.) The picture above is from a hike we did to the edge of the mesa.
D celebrated his 6th birthday with a ride on a real passenger train.
He was so excited & kept saying "this is the BEST birthday I've ever had!" Of course, he only has 6 to choose from and probably can't remember 3 of those, but that's beside the point. He had fun.


Here's a funny picture of the baby:

Cars Party

D is a cars movie fanatic. He wears cars shirts & cars briefs, takes a bath with cars bubbles, sleeps in cars pjs under his cars sheets. He has a cars backpack, can quote the whole cars movie, listens to the cars soundrack, & can't wait for cars II.

Here are a few pictures from his cars party.
We played "red light/green light" and had a "cozy cone challenge" where the kids raced backwards like Mater, used sidewalk chalk to make cars whatever color they chose (like Ramone), bounced a cars ball, weaved in & out of cozy cones, stopped at Luigi's for a "tire treat" (aka mini chocolate donut) & then raced to the checkered flag at the finish line. They had lots of fun & wanted to do it several times- I think mostly for the donuts. It was a great day for my favorite cars nut.

Fancy Nancy Valentine Party

Miss H had a party today with 9 other friends It was crazy, but fun. The theme was "Fancy Nancy", the adorable character from the children's book series who loves to be fancy. This was quite the stretch for me b/c I am such a minimalist usually.

My mom helped me make fancy cupcakes when she was visiting. We love it when they come!



Here's a bonus shot of the baby. He is 4 months old now, growing fast, & is endless fun! We call his little dragonfly his "hug bug".

Happy Valentine's Day!

PS- Our big news for the month is that we are going to visit my brother who lives in England. He's lived in Europe since we were in law school, but we haven't had the money to visit there until now (and not a moment too soon- he's moving back to the states at the end of next month). So, cheerio!

While we wait...

My mom flew in on Tues. to help us with the new baby. Ever since she bought her tickets. I've been saying Wed. would be the perfect day to deliver. That's a week before my due date, which is when I had the other two. But, Wed. came & went with no baby. Even though a due date is technically an "Estimated date of delivery", the closer it gets, the harder it is not to think of it like a library due date... the exact date an item must be received before penalties apply!

So, while we've been waiting, we've had some fun adventures with the kids (pics. below), taken lots of long walks to encourage contractions, and made a soft fleece cover for the infant car seat. (I've never been fond of the original cover design, but was pleased how our car seat makeover turned out. I'm also including a picture of the cute diaper cake that inspired the design.)

Here's to hoping my next blog post includes a happy delivery story!