A-squared Adventures

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party

2015-04-10T19:48:00.000-06:00

We recently celebrated Ethan's 5th birthday! Last year my son had a Lego birthday party, but his love for Lego's has only grown. This year he insisted on another Lego birthday party, but this time Star Wars style!

I somehow forgot to take a picture of the entire table, but for decor I did happen to take some individual pictures of the tables centerpieces. I kept things simple. Down the center of the table I placed pictures of my son defeating Darth Vader at Disneyland last year, placed next to some of my sons Lego Star Wars ships. The kids thought it was the coolest to see my sons pictures and ships on display.

Since this was a Lego Star Wars party, there definitely needed to be some Lego building involved. First on the agenda was for them to build their own Star Wars ship. I bought each guest their own Lego ship to build. I got these at the check out stand at Target. I gave them each a bag with their Jedi name on it so they had a place to put their ships. I have to admit that I was sort of dreading this activity. The kids were age 4-6. I was worried that I would be the one to end up building all of the ships. I just told the kids that they could follow the instructions or be a master builder and use the pieces to build their own ship. You know what, it worked! Most of the kids were able to build this all on their own, and pretty quickly. Bonus: this taught my son that he can now build Lego's 100% on his own. Now he is so obsessed with doing it on his own that he has taken apart all of his previously built ships and rebuilt them just to prove to himself that he can do it! It has been a life changer not have to build all of my sons Lego's, and probably the best thing about throwing this party!

Look how pleased he is with himself!

Next, we moved on to a little Jedi Training Academy. First up was the obstacle course. Each guest was given a pool noodle light saber for this activity.

We started off by having the kids jump through hula hoops while using their light saber to attack Lego Darth Maul and Lego Darth Vader.

My husband also had a Lego Darth Vadar that he tried to get the kids with while they were walking across balance beam- one pool noodle that I sliced in half.

Then they traveled at light speed- crawled through the boxes- to then fight their way through the storm trooper forest- balloons with storm trooper faces.

Then they got to use their light sabers to pop bubbles.

We also did a death star and tie fighter ball toss.

And they got to bowl over storm troopers. Its hard to tell, but their were storm troopers taped to the bowling pins.

Next we moved on to our death star pinata. I just paper mached a beach ball.

Then it was time for lunch. The main dish was cheese quesadillas. I had some stars wars ship pancake molds from William and Sonoma. I used them to cut out the tortillas. The kids had the option of an x-wing fighter, millennium falcon, or a tie fighter shaped quesadilla.

We also served Vaderade.

We also had some light-saber looking pretzels...

Jello in the shape of Lego's and Storm troopers and Darth Vader...

Some Princess Lays...

And some Obi-Wan Kebobis!

My son really wanted a cake, but I didn't have a lot of confidence in my ability to decorate one. I made cupcakes first as a back up, just in case I failed at the cake. The cake is clearly not professional, but it turned out better then I imagined it would. So we ended up with cake and cupcakes.

The cupcakes are topped with chocolate Darth Vadars and Storm Troopers.

Then for the goodie bag each kid got their own Star Wars mini-figure and a Star Wars fruit snack. It was a simple gift, but they also got to take home their Lego ship and light saber, plus candy from the pinata. I put them in clear bags and taped them shut with a Lego Star Wars sticker,

I got the mini-figures off of Ebay. They are actually knock off ones from china, but they are only $1 each. Their quality are great. They work perfectly with Lego's, you would never be able to tell the difference. At least my 5 year old can't and that's all that matters!

We had a great time celebrating Lego Star Wars style!

-Some of my favorite things about 5 year old Ethan:
-He is super sweet with his sister, and is always thinking about others.
-He is still obsessed with Lego's. I mean obsessed! A majority of our conversations everyday revolve around his latest Lego creations.
-He is also super into doing science experiments.
-He LOVES all sea creatures! We ended up having to get a membership to the Nature and Science museum because they recently had an exhibit on whales. He just kept wanting to go back to the museum to see it.
-His favorite sea creatures are squids. We recently checked out a documentary about colossal squids. He was so fascinated with it that when we finally had to take it back to the library, he cried. He says that it has inspired him to become a marine biologist.
-Ethan is so optimistic and is such a positive kid. I love this little boy of mine!

Strawberry Loving Two Year Olds!

2014-07-17T15:19:00.002-06:00

Annabel and my niece, Ellie, recently turned two! In fact their birthdays are just a day apart from each other. Whitney and I coincidentally were pregnant at the same time. Our due dates were two weeks apart. I came a week late. My sister came a week early. And our daughters ended up being born less than 24 hours apart from each other. Unfortunately, these two cousins live in different states and don't get to see each other too much. This year they happened to be together on their birthdays so we decided to take advantage of it since who knows how many times that will be the case (although, hopefully many times! ) And since these girls love their strawberries, we through them a little strawberry themed birthday party to celebrate them turning two!

I had way too much fun putting this little party together. Everything turned out so cute! And best of all the girls had a great time!

First on the agenda for the evening was a yummy dinner eaten at a very strawberry themed table.

Strawberry lemonade was on the menu for the evening.

Strawberry Fanta was also available.

We ate the most delicious salad made with strawberries, balsamic rubbed grilled chicken breast, mandarin oranges, feta cheese, sesame seeds and a strawberry poppy seed dressing. Yum!

We also had delicious red pepper pesto paninis and just to mix things up a little we offered some watermelon since there were plenty of strawberries in the salad.

After dinner it was time for games. Our first game was "picking strawberries". I had made each cousin a strawberry bucket with their name on it. I hid brachs strawberry wrapped candies around the yard. The kids got to go find them and put them in their buckets. Oh wow! This was a hit. We were re-hiding the candy all night for the kids to find. They loved playing this game!

They were too cute picking strawberries in their matching strawberry outfits!

We eventually had to cut off the candy hiding so that we could get to our strawberry pinata before it got too dark. By the way, I am kind of obsessed with making pinatas. After I made one at my son's Lego party, I realized how easy they are to make. I love it!

Of course, we finished the night with some of my mom's famous strawberry cake! It is so delicious!

Happy Birthday you cute strawberry loving two year olds!

Ethan is 4! We Celebrated Lego Style!

2014-04-18T11:34:00.001-06:00

Hey a new post! Well actually, I doubt this post would have made it to the blog except that I blog a twice a month on a friends craft blog. I just shared Ethan’s birthday party. Since I happened to have this ready to go, I thought I would share it here too. I took out most of the crafty stuff, but if you are interested you can read more about all that on this post.

Ethan just turned 4 and he insisted on having a Lego birthday party. This was no surprise to me as he lives and breathes Lego's. He is obsessed! After he settled on the idea of a Lego party, I may have made the mistake of letting him view other Lego parties on Pinterest. He ended up having some very specific requests like a Lego head pinata, Lego jello jigglers, Orange Lego juice boxes, and an Emmett birthday cake. Because my son was so excited about his Lego party he helped me almost every step of the way. He helped make the crayons, and the jello, and the pinata.Working with him was my favorite part of putting this all together.

E has never been a huge fan of coloring or doing any kind of art project. Until, one day we went to the library and checked out a book about how mini-figures are designed. The first step in the process is drawing out the design. Ever since he read that book he has loved designing and coloring his own mini-figures. I thought we would start the party by doing one of my son's favorite activities. I gave each child a stack of blank mini-figure pictures, and to make it extra fun, some Lego shaped crayons.

My next idea for an activity came from the Lego Movie! What is Emmett's favorite T.V. Show?... "Honey, Where are my pants?" I thought it would be fun to finally find "Honey, Where are my pants?" man, his pants! We played pin the pants.

I found an image of the "Where are my pants?" man, and I had it printed onto a 16x20 poster. Then I printed out a pair of white pants for each kid. I also attached a label with each child's name to the pants. That way we could know who was closest.

Our next activity, by request of my son was to have a Lego head pinata. I was super intimidated by this at first. I wasn't sure how I was going to make one. I found this great tutorial. It was actually really simple to make. Although, I made my pinata about 3 times the size of the pinata in the tutorial. The one they share is pretty small.

Then for the last activity of the party I gave each kid a Lego base with wheels. I let each of them build their own car.

Then we raced them!!! This was by far the favorite activity of the day. I could have let the kids sit around around the Lego table and build for the entire party, and they would have been completely happy.

After some car building we got to have cake! Ethan discovered this YouTube video about how to make an Emmett cake and that was all that he wanted and could talk about for weeks before his party. Even though the video lays out every detail about how to make it, I knew that it was still beyond my capabilities. I hired a good friend to make the cake. I am so glad that I did. It turned out to be the most amazing cake!!! My son LOVED it! I LOVED it! I didn't want to ever cut into it.

At the beginning of the party, every child got a goodie bag with their name in Lego font. They got to take home some Lego crayons, their mini-figure drawings, candy from the pinata, and as a Thank you I made some Lego cookies for them to take home.

And for a few other details. We also had orange Lego juice boxes.

I also used my Lego molds to make Jello jigglers.

My son had a blast at his Lego party! I'm glad that I could make turning 4 so much fun!

A few things about our 4 year old:

He is the most optimistic kid. I felt this is was a very appropriate choice of a birthday theme, because to him EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! He loves life and he loves to find any way to make life fun!

He is also extremely literal. Everything is exactly as it is. He will dress up as Ironman, but he never believes that he is Ironman. I’ll say, “Hey, it’s Ironman.” He’ll respond, “No, It’s Ethan in an Ironman costume.” Or he’ll play like he’s going on vacation. I’ll ask where he is going. He’ll tell me, “Nowhere. I am just pretending.”

He loves science. He is on a first name basis with Bill Nye the science guy. “Mom, I just learned from Bill that…” It cracks me up every time. This kid will talk to you about Volcanoes, the Moon, Dinosaurs or Clouds all day.

He clearly loves Legos. We call him our Master Builder. He will sit at his Lego table for hours and hours just building the coolest things. Although, don’t let him hear you call him a Master Builder. Remember his literal side… Since he wasn’t in the Lego Movie, he couldn’t be a master builder :)

He is the tallest kid. Literally! We just got back from his 4 year check up and he was 110% for height!

I love Ethan’s energy and enthusiasm for life! There is never a dull moment with Ethan!

Hawaii Part 5- Exploring Oahu

2013-09-17T21:25:00.001-06:00

We did leave the hotel and explore the island a little. One afternoon we went up to the Dole plantation for some delicious dole whips and to explore the North Shore.

We also spent an afternoon at Kailua Bay. It was one of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever been too.

The kids loved playing in the waves.

Ready…

Set…

Crash!

I think that I finally made it to the end of our photos. Clearly we had a blast! Now that I have spent days reminiscing, I am dying to go back!

Hawaii Part 4- Character Breakfast

2013-09-15T19:38:00.001-06:00

Hawaii Part 3- Aulani

2013-09-13T12:02:00.001-06:00

I thought I would share a few more photos from around the resort. While we were visiting, there was some construction going on. When we asked what it was for and they told us that they were building more pools. Then they proceeded to explain that when they built the resort they assumed people would stay there and then go out and explore the island. What they were discovering was that people were coming and never leaving the hotel. Well duh! They had a crazy amount of awesome things to do everyday. We did go out and explore the island a little bit. If we had just stayed at the resort the entire time I would have been just fine with that.

They had the coolest kids club that you could drop your kids off at anytime to play. Usually no parents were allowed except for a few minutes each morning. We went with the kids a couple of mornings to check out all of the fun.

Moving on to what Ethan referred to as “the Area.” He couldn’t wait for this to open every morning. The Area is where he spent most of his time. He loved it! I’m sure I could have narrowed the photos down a bit more. When have I ever been good at that ;)

Then there was the perfectly manicured beach, with scheduled treasure hunts for the kids and the greatest sand castle making kits. Why did we ever leave?

They, of course, had Disney characters hanging out all day just waiting for you to come and say hello.

We tried out some paddle boarding one afternoon. Some of us were a little more successful than others. Mostly that is just a poke at Aaron who I don’t think ever stood up. The only reason I can make fun is that there is not a single sport that involves water that I am remotely good at. I did a decent job paddle boarding. Maybe I finally found my water sport.

That was just a glimpse of it all. I shared a lot more photos of the resort in Part one of this five possible six part Hawaii recap. (Yea, I have that many more photos to share.) We had so much fun. We wore ourselves out everyday.

Hawaii Part 2- The Luau

2013-09-11T08:19:00.000-06:00

We were in Hawaii, a luau was a must. It was a fun experience sipping pina coloadas, eating delicious pork, and the kids even got a hula lesson. Overall a beautiful night.

Hawaii- Part 1

2013-09-10T13:52:00.001-06:00

After being welcomed to Hawaii by Stitch with leis and the yummiest fruitiest water I've ever tasted, we spent our week relaxing at the Aulani Disney Resort. Seriously the best hotel to stay at when traveling to Hawaii with kids.

They had the coolest kids area, fun pools, a perfectly manicured beach, slides, lazy river, and Disney characters walking the grounds with Goofy even hanging out in the pool. We ate endless shaved ice. And just had a blast relaxing with our family.

This concludes part 1 of who knows how many parts. This is just the tip of the iceberg of my photos.

Birthday Girl!

2013-09-09T10:45:00.001-06:00

She may have turned one two months ago, but I don’t care…

…she is too adorable to not to share. I love this little girl!

One Year Ago…

2013-07-12T20:42:00.001-06:00

Our baby girl turned one on July 2. I am shocked at how fast that year went by. Annabel is the sweetest little girl. She is so content and happy and has just a calming spirit. She loves her family. She lights up anytime Ethan or her daddy walks into the room. She loves to cuddle. She is our little angel.

Ski Season

2013-05-21T12:34:00.000-06:00

We made it up to the mountains to get our ski on a few times this past season. Ethan joined us every time this year. He loved it! He loved to go fast. He just kept yelling, “faster, faster!”

Here are a few mountain moments off of the slopes.

Our little Eskimo :)

Easter

2013-05-20T11:01:00.001-06:00

I love when I find pictures that I had forgotten that I had taken. I came across these this weekend. Of course, I had to share.

We celebrated the day before Easter with cousins and lots of Aunts and Uncles as Katherine and Greg were in town. We ate yummy ham. We decorated eggs. Ethan discovered his love for hard boiled eggs. I think he may have eaten everyone's eggs.

Then we celebrated again on Easter. The Easter bunny surprised Ethan during nap time.

And Ethan discovered his love for Easter Egg hunts. Almost 2 months later Ethan almost daily hunts for eggs. He hides them. He finds them. He will even fill them with some treat so there is a surprise inside.

Sneaking a peak while grandpa hides the eggs.

It was a wonderful Easter weekend spent with family.

Ethan Turns 3!

2013-05-05T21:24:00.001-06:00

Back in March our boy turned 3! For months prior to his birthday all he could talk about was his orange birthday party. I have no idea where he got the idea from. I would ask if he wanted a Buzz light year party or a Superhero party. The answer was always no. He insisted on having an orange birthday party. So an orange party is what he got.

As always he woke up to his birthday rope filled with toys and candy. He tried to recreate this for about a week after his birthday. Everyday he would get out the rope and then he would lay toys all along it. He loved to pretend that it was his birthday again. I think he likes this tradition.

I set out all of the orange decorations the night before his birthday. When he woke up the house was filled with orange balloons and orange candies. He loved his orange filled day.

That night we had family over to celebrate with pizza and presents and even carrot cake for the orange birthday boy. Although, he woke up the next morning so distraught that his cousins ate all of his birthday cake. Ha!

I had set out a few props and I told the kids that they were welcome to take some photos. These are a few of my favorites that they took. Fun kids!

His favorite present was his new cranky, a remote control crane.

I adore my 3 year old Ethan!

He LOVES to talk. He wants you to listen to his stories all day. He talks really well. There are only a few words that he has trouble pronouncing. Like refrigerator is fridger or fridgery and the sprinklers are just sprinkles. It is just funny to hear him ask if we can turn the sprinkles on.

He has so much energy. This kid still takes a good 2-3 hour nap in the afternoons because he just wears himself out. Some days if he doesn’t get all of his energy out he will ask if he can run. He will either run up and down our hallway, or if it is nice outside he will run in circles on the driveway. This lucky boy got a trampoline for his birthday and he will jump for hours.

He still has a love for trains, and buzz light-year, and his latest obsession is with Wreck it Ralph. And he loves to wreck things. He acts out car crashes multiple times a day.

He runs around the house most days dressed as some superhero. I haven’t figured which is his favorite yet. It may be a three way tie between Batman, Spiderman, and Superman. Some days it is a combination of the three when he will be wearing his superman cape, Batman mask, and then he will shoot you with his spider webs laughing and saying, ”Ha! I just got you all webby!”

He loves puzzles and play dough and going on scavenger hunts.

He insists on wearing his “soft pants” aka pajama pants when we are at home.

He is the sweetest boy. He loves to give BIG hugs, as he likes to call them. He gets upset if you only give him a small hug.

He is an adoring older brother. He loves Annabel. He is always the first one to run to her crib after she wakes up. He will sing her songs until I get there. It is usually some rendition of the Thomas and Friends theme song. He loves to hold her hand in the car. He loves to make her smile. I love when he says “Mom, I make Annabel so happy!” And he does. I think he gets the biggest smiles out of her.

He is so tall! Still 98% for height and weight. He towers over all the kids in nursery. I think I’m glad that he is finally 3 now, because people would give me the strangest looks when I would tell them that my giant child was only 2 years old.

Everyday is an adventure for Ethan. Every morning when he wakes up one of the first things out of his mouth is, “where are we going today?” He finds so many ways to have fun and enjoy life. He has brought so much joy into our family.

We love our Ethan!

Oh yea, Christmas Happened…

2013-02-03T20:03:00.001-07:00

It may be almost Valentines day, but at least I am getting this posted.

This year my entire family came into town to celebrate Christmas. Here is a pretty big glimpse into our Holiday. I take too many pictures :)

Our Nativity

Santa even stopped by to visit.

Annabel clearly wasn’t a fan at first…

But she eventually warmed up.

Santa helped open their Christmas PJ’s.

And he read us T’was the Night Before Christmas

Then we shared our milk and cookies with him.

Matching PJ’s and sibling love?

The family room after Santa came.

And finally Christmas morning arrived.

Here is the infamous 2 hour long stocking unveiling.

If it is Cars, Toy Story or Thomas the train related then it’s a hit with Ethan.

It was a wonderful Christmas!

The Buzz Blaster

2013-02-03T19:58:00.001-07:00

One of Ethan’s favorite rides at Disney was the Buzz Lightyear ride. One day while he was napping we bought him his very own buzz lightyear blaster. Surprisingly, this was the only souvenir that we came away with on this trip. Ethan was thrilled with his surprise, and from the moment he received his blaster the rest of our trip looked like the following…

Disneyland 2012

2012-12-10T22:53:00.001-07:00

We took a last minute trip to Disneyland after Thanksgiving. We had been talking for weeks about going to Disney, but I thought that’s all it was, talk. I didn’t think that we would actually go. Then I got a wonderful surprise on Thanksgiving morning in the form of a handwritten note which led me to a PowerPoint presentation that revealed that Aaron had booked the trip. We were going to Disneyland! We had a blast!

Taking two young kids actually worked out nicely with the help of parent swap passes, fast passes, and the fact that we were there the week after thanksgiving so the park was pretty empty. Since Ethan is 40 inches tall he is officially tall enough for every ride in the park. Not that we took him on every ride, but a majority of them. Although, I’m still not sure how he felt about most of the rides. During the rides he would have his hands over his ears with a terrified look on his face. As soon as the rides were over he would run out saying “That was awesome. Let’s do it again!”

We know that he had a great time. He still says in his nightly prayers, “thank you for Disneyland, and Mickey mouse, and Minnie mouse, and Donald duck…”

I think my favorite part about this trip was seeing Ethan get excited about almost everything. Like I said, luckily we were there at a slow time so lines weren’t too long because when Ethan sees what he wants, he goes for it. Anytime he came across a character he would jump out of the stroller, scream their name... “Woody! or Mickey!” and then proceed to push everyone out of the way so he could give them a hug. Needless to say, Ethan learned a lot about taking turns and being patient on this trip.

Among Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Light year and Toy Story Mania, Dumbo was one of Ethan’s favorite rides.

Dumbo was Annabel's first official ride.

On the Carousel.

We were fortunate to come across Mickey plenty of times. This was our first Mickey sighting. Ethan was just giddy.

While waiting in line to see Woody, Ethan kept asking if he could share his snack with him. I said sure thinking he would forgot about once it was his turn. But nope, Ethan’s first order of business was to give Woody some fruit loops. Woody graciously accepted and put them into his holster.

I think my favorite part of the picture below is Aaron’s face. He may be more excited than Ethan. Aaron was a Disney skeptic when we were first married, but after 4 visits to Disney he is officially hooked.

The parade was toy themed since it was Christmas time. A lot of the floats were Toy Story themed. Woody had his own float. Once the parade was over Ethan ran into the street, cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled “Woody, come back!” It was hilarious!

Everything always tastes better when in the shape of Mickey Mouse.

Annabel’s first official visit with Mickey.

We were fortunate to have a Disney view from our hotel. We got to watch the fireworks from our hotel room.

Talking crush is one of Aaron and I’s favorites, I can’t say Ethan enjoyed it as much as we did. Notice hands on ears.

The new car’s land is awesome!

Meeting McQueen!

This just makes me laugh. I don’t know what it is about Donald, but he received the same reaction from Ethan this year and last year.

I can’t think of a more fun way to start celebrating the Christmas season.

Sorry Annabel, you were asleep.

We discovered the coolest place to watch the fireworks show. We were in line to ride Dumbo when the fireworks started. They had us exit the line during the show. We were standing between Dumbo and the carousal. We found ourselves right in the middle of the fireworks. The fireworks were going off in front of us and behind us. It was incredible.

Bubbles at the Disney Junior show. Bubbles are one of Ethan’s favorite things!

More Mickey time!

Goofy conducting the water show.

Staring Mater down.

It’s probably for the best that I live nowhere near a Disney park, because if I did I might go every single day. I love Disney! I loved our Disney trip!

Halloween 2012

2012-11-14T12:13:00.001-07:00

This year I had no say in what Ethan was going to be for Halloween. Ethan had decided that he was going to be Thomas the train and there was nothing I could do to change his mind. I took him shopping to look at other costumes, but you would have thought I was torturing him by merely suggesting that he be a pirate or even Mr. Incredible. So Thomas it was. The way his eyes lit up at the sight of his Thomas costume was hilarious and adorable. He was obsessed and refused to take the costume off for an entire week. And this kid hates hats, but all Halloween week he kept begging me to wear his conductor hat. I think he may have even slept in it a few nights. We had one happy Thomas on our hands.

We did all of our usual Halloween activities. We went to the Children's museum, we went trick or treating on Metro state campus, we went to the ward trunk or treat, and this year we even added a new activity to our list… we went actual trick or treating- although that may not have lasted very long. Second house in a kid answered the door in a scary costume thus making Ethan terrified to go to any other door unless being carried by Aaron.

Annabel, of course, was also along for the festivities wearing the resident baby costume- the giraffe.

Pumpkin Patch 2012

2012-10-22T15:18:00.000-06:00

We hit up the local pumpkin patch on Saturday.

We made our way through the hay bale maze.

Pet rabbits in the petting zoo.

We raced ducks. This was Ethan’s favorite part of the day.

Ready, Set, Go… “Catch it!” Ethan would yell as he chased the ducks down.

Ethan became king of the hay hill.

And then jumped his way down it.

We buried Ethan in piles of corn. (Oh the things people do for entertainment. I can’t imagine that this was very sanitary :)

We took a hay ride.

We picked out pumpkins.

Ethan pretended to be a scarecrow.

Even Annabel had a great time :)

Mumford!

2012-10-21T13:38:00.001-06:00

I have an obsession with Mumford and Sons! I have loved them for years. Last time they were in town we couldn’t make it to the show. I was pregnant and sick and I was crushed that my body wouldn’t let me go. Then we heard that they were going to be back in town, and that this time they were going to be playing at Red Rocks. I was so excited, and I desperately wanted to go. I knew that with Annabel being so young (I think she was only 6 weeks at the time) that it probably wasn’t going to happen. I put it out of my mind so I wouldn’t get too depressed :)

That was until one morning when I woke up to this sign hanging on my mirror.

It was early in the morning and I was still in zombie wake-up mode so I didn’t quite catch on at first. In fact it took a couple of hours before it clicked. We were going to Mumford and Sons! Words cannot even express how excited I was.

Of course the show was incredible.

Mumford and Sons + Red Rocks = Nothing but Amazing! Check it out for yourself. Maybe you can spot us in the crowd ;)

Stock Car Racing

2012-10-19T13:50:00.001-06:00

Back in June for Fathers Day I gave Aaron a stock car racing experience. Finally this September he was able to use his gift and go race.

He wasn’t sure how fast he got to go, because the cars don’t have speedometers, but they did tell him it was over 100 miles per hour. He had a great time.

Summer

2012-10-05T23:46:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago Ethan woke us up in the middle of the night complaining that his hands were cold. It wasn’t until morning when we found ice cream melting all over the kitchen table that we realized why that was so.

So when Ethan came complaining of cold hands this morning, I fully expected to be cleaning up another mess in the kitchen. What I did not expect as the reason behind the cold hands was the snow that he had escaped into the backyard to play with. I can tell you that I am not ready for snow. I need more summer. So today I was reminiscing about this past summer. I was looking at pictures of a few things that we were up to. Hopefully sharing these photos will keep me feeling warm for a little longer.

Playing in the river.

Swimming at the pool.

Spinning at the park.

A love for play-do!

Eating from the apple tree in cowboy boots.

The ability to run around naked and not freeze to death.

Painting in our PJ’s.

Summer time is the best!

Thomas!

2012-10-02T16:52:00.000-06:00

Guess who came to town the other day… Thomas the train!

Thomas was in town at the Colorado railroad museum. Aaron got tickets to take Ethan. We tried to get Ethan excited about Thomas the week prior to the train ride. Boy it doesn’t take much to get that kid excited. No matter who came to the house, and I mean no matter… we are talking the UPS guy to random solicitors, Ethan would run and get the iPad, and show them a picture of Thomas the Train, and tell them that he was going to ride Thomas on Saturday. Ethan was stoked!

All week he kept asking when, “when do we go ride Thomas?” We kept telling him, “on Saturday you’ll ride Thomas.” Then finally Saturday comes and he goes to meet Thomas. Throughout the day ever once in a while he would stop what he was doing, let out this sigh of relief, and say “Yes, it’s Saturday!” It was like he was realizing and expressing that this was the day he had been waiting for his whole life. He was in heaven.

Introducing Annabel

2012-10-01T15:14:00.001-06:00

I figure it is about time I introduce Annabel to the blog now that she is 3 months old. Let’s just say the last 3 months have been a little busy, but more on that later.

Our cute little girl arrived on 7/2/2012 and she was 7 pounds 2 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. (I like her lucky numbers!) If you are interested in reading the birth story, I posted it on Annabel’s blog. I also posted it under my pregnancy diary. I guess technically the labor lasted a while, but the worst of it only lasted an hour so it wasn’t too bad. And recovery was a breeze this time compared to the c-section that I had with Ethan.

This girl has been amazing, putting up with her overly adoring brother. We tried to prepare Ethan for her arrival, but he seemed to remain pretty clueless. He never talked about the baby. You would ask him questions about the baby and he would look at you with this blank stare, like what are you talking about. Once Annabel arrived that all changed, it was like he knew she was coming all along and it was as if he knew her. She fits in to our family perfectly. Life has just gotten even sweeter with her. It is as if she has always been here.

Most Annabel specific updates will be over on her blog, at least for her first year. Feel free to check up on her over there.

Chalk Art 2012

2012-06-21T17:57:00.000-06:00

Sneaking out!

2012-06-21T17:56:00.000-06:00

Our sprinklers are timed to go off at 7 p.m. every night. That is about the same time that we start getting Ethan ready for bed. The other night I got him a new diaper, put on his pj shirt, and then I got distracted by a phone call. Next thing I know Ethan is no where to be found, at least inside the house. Where was he found? Outside running through the sprinklers. I guess this 100 degree heat is getting to him.

I couldn’t help but get out my camera and take a few pictures. This boy just cracks me up.