A new Earth Day tradition

This weekend, Jeff planted two new trees in the backyard. Since it's also Earth Day today, we decided to start a new tradition of taking a picture of the kids next to these trees each year on Earth Day so we can see how they all grow.




This tree will hopefully grow up (but not too big, because it's a dwarf) and give us McIntosh apples someday.


And this one (also a dwarf) is a Golden Delicious.

One more nice spring day picture with the flowers:

Lucas is ONE!

Wow, hard to believe Lucas is actually a year old. Of course, the year has flown by.

Here's what his special day was like:

He started out the day by just being his usual cute self...

...and played until morning nap time. I went to the store to pick up the cakes and other food for the party while he napped. He was still asleep when I got home, so I helped Jeff get ready. Soon the guests started arriving and we all had a nice lunch. After lunch, we decided to let him go after the gifts however he wanted until he got tired and ready for his afternoon nap.

I don't think he believed we were going to let him get into all those things!

He ripped some of the wrapping, but mostly just pushed things around. Alyssa helped him with the unwrapping.

He liked ripping the paper,

but this shiny, crinkly, non-ripping stuff was pretty nice too.

After not too long, he started to get sleepy and cranky, so we put him down for a nap. The plan was to do the cake after he woke up, but he wasn't in a very good mood when he woke up.

This hat didn't help matters.

I got him a drink of milk and that seemed to make him feel better.

He liked that fire, so it didn't stay around too long.

After a few more tears, he finally got down to business and attacked the frosting.

He never did get much cake, mostly just frosting.

The heartbreak of clean-up, thanks to Aunt Charisse.

Everyone left soon after cake, so it was then that he decided to show off his new talent of pulling himself up and holding on with one hand.

The day ended with a bath to remove the last of the blue frosting from his hair and ears. Alyssa blew him some bubbles in the tub, but he wasn't all that impressed. Oh well, it was a long day.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Tongue twister

Last night during dinner Alyssa had to clean off her glasses and we came up with such a funny tongue twister that we could barely finish eating because we were laughing so hard. Try it!

Greasy glasses are gross!

Pump It Up

We had a birthday party for Brendan this afternoon at Pump It Up. It was fun, but ouch! my aching wallet! I knew it was going to be expensive, but I think I was in denial about that big of a number. And then there were all the extras like the cake and food for the adults. I hope he liked it because it's not happening every year!

My pictures didn't turn out very good, unfortunately. Weird lighting + non-stop kids = crappy pictures. But here are some anyway.

A bunch of kids on the big slide.

Brendan coming down the big slide.

Brendan and a buddy playing basketball.


Lucas liked the little car.

The birthday king on his throne with his cake.

The party table.

Some gifts:

Alyssa and Lucas tried out the throne:

When we got home, we let Lucas play with the birthday crown. Brendan was NOT happy - he thought Lucas was going to break it, but he can't do much damage with only two teeth!

Coming soon: Lucas's party! (And then I'm partied out...)

Bummer

We got my cousin's wedding invitation today. No surprise there - I knew he was getting married on May 26th and I was really, really looking forward to going. I haven't been to a wedding in a long time and this being family, there would be a lot of people I knew there. A few weeks ago I started knitting an afghan as a wedding present and have been working on it every spare moment because it's going to take a long time to finish.

So I open the invitation and it's "adults only". Since my whole family will be at the wedding and we don't have any sort of regular babysitter (not to mention it's not near home, and I was planning on it being an overnight thing), we have no one to watch the kids. But even if we did, I feel like if my kids aren't welcome, I don't want to go anyway.

So we're not going and I'm disappointed. And I really don't feel like working my butt off on that afghan anymore.

Not a bad boy

Hmm, what's this?


Let me stand up and get a better look at it. Maybe I should just touch it with one finger.


Wow, I can pick it up.


But I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be playing with it.


Hey, where did it go?


Oh well, the paper's fun too!

Okay, Lucas, I'll forgive you this time for getting into my yarn, but only because you slept in your bed the WHOLE night last night! Just think of what I'll let you play with if you do that on a regular basis!

Winter, winter, go away

It's been snowing for 5 days straight. It's not really accumulating, but it's April and it's kind of depressing to see it snowing and snowing and snowing. Boohoo, I want spring!

I'm not tired

Wow, this hasn't happened in a while! Usually I'm literally nodding off by 10:00 and here it is past 11 and I don't want to go to bed.

It would probably be smart to finish folding that laundry out in the basket. Ugh, I hate folding laundry and I've already done two loads worth today. Besides, I don't have anywhere to put it. Lucas only made it til 10:30 in his own bed and now he's in my bed with Jeff, so I can't go banging around in there. There's another reason I'm not in a big hurry to go to sleep, I guess, having to share my bed and all.

He'd better last a little longer in his bed tomorrow when I have Easter Bunny duties to perform and I need access to my closet.

Well, I guess I'll go watch the news or something...

Happy Birthday Brendan!

Brendan is 5 years old today! It's been quite the journey from this:
April 2, 2002

to this:

April 2, 2007

Yesterday we had a small party with all the grandparents, Great Grandma Steele and Aunt Charisse, complete with Spiderman cake, presents and balloons:




Today when we picked Alyssa up from school, she had a surprise for him. She and lots of her friends have been working on making him cards and drawing him pictures. He liked them, but I'm not sure it meant as much to him as it did to me. What an incredibly sweet thing for a big sister and her friends to do! Here are all the things she had for him:


And in just a few days we'll be having a party for him at Pump It Up. I've heard from a few of his classmates and friends so far and I hope a lot more can come! Especially since I don't have to do anything except pay for it!