Austin's Birthday

I can't believe my baby is 2!

He is everything BOY.  He loves running, climbing, exploring and does his best to keep up with his older brother and sister.  He will not be left out of anything. 

Since Austin loves anything with wheels we decided to make the theme of his birthday party Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and boats).  Instead of having organized games we left it a play date feel.  We had an area with cars and a ramp, an area with trains, little planes, and wading pools with boats.

My little helpers were having a grand old time getting everything set up and ready for the party. Lincoln and Austin were helping to fill the wading pools and somehow ended up drenched.  Hmmm.

As always I learned how to do some new things on my Silhouette and was really excited about that.  This time I learned how to weld objects, which basically means taking several shapes and making them one shape.  This was great because it gave me the ability to create a basic silhouette of a car, boat, plane, and train without having to glue a bunch of pieces together.  I really liked how it turned out.

 

 

 



In the past, I have enjoyed being clever with naming the lunch items.  However, this time I decided not to.  Partly because all the cute ideas I had or could find involved a lot of work and effort that I figured would be wasted on a bunch of 2 year olds that wouldn't have even realized the fruit they were eating was put together in the shape of a car.  Haha!  So I settled for car, plane, and boat cookies and cupcakes with fun transportation toppers.

We made sandwiches for the kids (which I did cut into shapes) with fishy crackers, pretzels, watermelon, and yogurt.  Then made Chipotle style burrito bowls for the mamas.  Funny thing was that a majority of the kids chose to eat the beans and rice over the sandwiches.

The kids seemed to have a good time.  They played with everything we had out to play with along with all the other toys in our playroom.  The only child who seemed disappointed was our little friend Gage who was upset about me not getting our toy guns out.  :o)

 

After Austin's birthday play date we had just enough time to clean up and get the birthday boy a nap before we had family over for a little dinner celebration.
 

In addition to our normal family we were also excited to have Kristen's sister, Kira, over.  She was so nice.  Even let Payton teach her how to make rainbow loom bracelets.  We also were lucky enough to see Uncle Anthony.  He just happened to be in town this weekend.  What luck!

 
It was a really nice day and I think Austin loved being the center of attention.

 

 

Happy Birthday Buddy!

A Busy Day

Today was a crazy busy day.  We started by taking finally Payton to the Dermatologist.  She has had a muluscum rash since February.  Originally our pediatrician said not to worry about it, because she only had a few warts but she has gotten a lot more and they are not getting better. 

I love the dermatologist, she was great.  Payton even liked her.  The dermatologist described muluscum as a virus on the skin that the body builds up an immunity to.  I guess it is kind of like chicken pox.  After talking to one of the parents of the kids in her class I found out that several of the kids had it during school around the time Payton first got it.  Unfortunately, Payton has not yet started to build an immunity to it so the dermatologist has prescribed a cream that will help her to develop to immunity so the rash will go away.  We are all excited to see if it works.

After our doctor appointment we headed over to have a playdate at Dorie's house, one of Payton's friends.  We had so much fun.  I thought we were just going over to play in the sprinklers but they had so much more planned. 

 

A wonderful lunch, sandwiches, homemade soup, snacks.  It was delicious. 

Sharon, Dorie's mom, also planned to has the kids decorate T-shirts with puffy paint.  I love how creative the kids are.  Although, I will say that standing next to a 2 year old using puffy paint can be dangerous and to only stand close at your own risk.  Haha!  Paint goes everywhere.

 

For dessert, they planned ice cream sundaes.  So good!

After the playdate, we came home to prepare for Papa Ralph's birthday dinner.  It is so nice being close to family so that we can celebrate together so often.

Ashley's 20 Birthday

I can't believe Ashley is 20!  Yikes!

So glad we got to help celebrate by having dinner, cake and ice cream, and watching her open presents.

Dinner was quite eventful, a friendly neighborhood wasp wanted a little taste of everyone's steak.  I was so proud of myself for staying calm...and then going inside to eat my steak.  Haha!

Michelle did a great job on the cake, it was delicious and Ashley's favorite color!  Awesome!

The kids had a blast making "pixi dust" out of sidewalk chalk. They collected it and put it in little Ziploc bags all the while getting chalk handprints and footprints all over the place.  Grandma was real excited about that.

Dave's sister, Jen, and I decided a few months ago to get Ashley a Lululemon hoodie for her birthday.  I have been wanting to give it to her ever since we bought it, I had to hide it in my closet so that I would stop thinking about it.

She loved it.  She said, "I am finally part of the club!"  Haha!

So cute!  Happy Birthday Ashley!

Casa de Fruta

Today we ventured to Casa de Fruta to meet up with my Grandma to have lunch and celebrate her birthday.  We love to meet here for many reasons but one of them being that the kids can play at the park for a little while after we are done eating. 

It is truly amazing how much kids can remember at such a young age.  Austin remembers every time we come that there is a train that he can climb and play in.  Through all of lunch he kept saying that he wanted to go out to the train.  It kind of reminded me of the seagulls in finding Nemo, "Mine. Mine."  But instead we heard, "Train. Train."  Haha!

There is a train and carousel ride at Casa de Fruta but we have never been on it with the kids because it has never been open when we have gone.  Today was different, everything was going so we took advantage.

The kids played at the sluice.

Rode on the Casa de Choo Choo.  It was VERY hot.

Rode on the Casa de Carousel.  VERY HOT!!!

Then stopped for a well deserved treat. ICE CREAM!  Did I mention it was hot?  I am surprised we didn't melt.

It was really hot and we were all tired and feeling a little icky when we left but had a lot of fun at the same time. 

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Shaved Ice Machine

While at Walmart we made a little impulse purchase and bought a shaved ice machine.  Best summer purchase ever!  Haha!  The kids loved it and so did mom and dad. :o)  I have a feeling this will be used a lot this summer.

Our friends Gage and Ben had their birthday party this afternoon.  It was an Army themed birthday.  They had face painting, an obstacle course, and took the kids on a short hike.  So fun and creative!  And such a great location, Aimee's parent's live out in the woods.  So beautiful!  Even with all the fun activities I think Lincoln's favorite part of the whole party was throwing the parachuting paratrooper in the air.

There were two little dogs running around, not really sure who they belonged to but I know they belonged to someone there because they were on leashes.  Haha!  Austin LOVES animals and was so excited when they let him take little Stella for a walk.  He had the biggest smile on his face and was talking to Stella the whole time.  This totally made his whole day.

Another Birthday Party

May is definitely the month for birthday parties.  I think we have had one or two each weekend this month.  Today was Payton's friend, Maia's, party at Happy Hollow.

I am still laying low so I didn't get to go but thanks to Dave taking all the kids and the pictures sent to me by other moms I got a glimpse of all the fun they had.  I love pictures!

Rock Candy

Uncle Rob and Kristen gave Payton directions and all the ingredients to make rock candy for her birthday.  So fun!  Today we decided was a perfect time to make it.  Both Payton and Lincoln were so excited to help.  Thank you Uncle Rob and Kristen.

Payton's Mermaid Party

Today was Payton's long awaited Mermaid Birthday Party.

Mermaid skirts for all the girls and party bags to put them in. Check!

My mom and I spent many an hour making these little beauties.  I couldn't have done it with out her help.  She basically cut everything then handed it over to me to sew.  There was glitter EVERYWHERE.  Haha!  I will admit that seeing the girl's excitement as they found out they got to KEEP them and watching them all run around in them made all the work worth it.

Under the Sea decorations. Check!

My friend, Aimee, helped with the decorations for girl's camp last year, the theme was "Just Keep Swimming" from Finding Nemo.  When she found out that Payton wanted to have a Mermaid Party she offered to let me borrow the decorations.  SWEET!

My other friend, Jessica, threw an Under the Sea party for her daughter a few years back and graciously let me borrow some of her decorations as well.  Double SWEET!

Gathering up these decorations made me remember how Dave and I had planned to decorate our room and bathroom in a beach theme.  When we were down in San Clemente a few years ago we bought a bunch of sea shells, coral, and even brought back a bunch of sand.  Unfortunately, all of it is still in a box in our bedroom and not decorating anything...except Payton's party.  Haha!

Everything seemed to come together perfectly.

 

Payton wanted to play some old school party games, which we tried to give Under the Sea names.  There was Shark Attack (basically hot potato with a balloon), Fish Fish Mermaid (Duck Duck Goose), and Musical Chairs (I ran out of creativity.  Haha!).

My friend Jessie and I found and idea on Pinterest that I was so grateful for.  The idea was to have a treasure chest full of little prizes so when a person got "out" they got to go pick a prize from the chest.  It worked out wonderfully, no one was upset when they got out.  In fact, I think some of the girls tried to get out.  :o)

 

Under the Sea Crafts.  Starfish headbands and/or hair clips.  Fish and/or sea shell sand art necklaces.

Payton came up with the headband idea all on her own.  Fortunately, someone on Pinterest also had the idea so I had a little help in bringing her idea to life.  :o) 

Found the little sand art necklaces on Oriental Trading Company.  Note to self, do not let the Little Mermaids jump on the trampoline with these little necklaces on and full of sand.  Getting one to the face is not pleasant...

Lunch.  Peanut butter and jelly fish sandwiches, sand dollar crackers and shark teeth cheese, fishy crackers, fruit of the sea, ocean potion, and sea water.

The "Sweet Grotto".

The mermaids.

 

 

Celebration!