Happy Birthday America

Happy Birthday America is what my husband decided to call our 4th of July party. And this is one birthday party he had fun planning!:)

The party began with Andrew P. pulling in on his riding lawn mower,
which he sold to us and decided this was the best way to get it to our house.

Dessert!

A mean game of Bocce Ball

Miss Ida entertaining

A game of cards

Love the hand holding...and the imaginations!

Our very own concert!

Don entertaining :)

Can you tell what's going on here?
An attempt to have Corey touch Spartan logo.
He didn't fall for it, even with the offer of beer!

Sparklers!

Carys holding ice on her finger after
touching the sparkler as soon as the fire went out. :(

The kids thought a chair on top of the car looked like fun.
Of course, parents promptly told them
this would not end well.
So one of our guests went and
grabbed duct tape to strap the chair down
and make it at least appear more safe.
Well, the kids had fun!

Finished off the day with fireworks seen from our yard.

Caedmon's 3rd Birthday Party

While constructing this cake,

I kept muttering under my breath that I'll never do this again!
But Caedmon made it all worth it!
He ran around the house throughout the evening chanting,
"train cake! train cake!":)

It cracks me up when kids start "over" smiling for the camera.
He was pretty geeked about his birthday party.
It was so much fun this year with him understanding what it was all about.

Blowing out the candle.

When the first two attempts didn't work,
daddy helped out.

Enjoying cake

Time for presents!

Carys getting in on the action.

Caedmon knew he was getting Thomas the Train for his birthday
and after he'd with all of the gifts his friends had brought him for a little while,
he informed me he wanted to play with Percy and the coaches.:)

I had so much fun watching Caedmon enjoy his party this year. After all his friends' birthday parties this summer, he was ready for his turn and knew what to expect!

I can't believe he'll be 3 tomorrow! Where does the time go?! My baby has grown up! Even the way he speaks; his word choices and complete sentences amaze me!

Caedmon, you are a joy to us! We thank God for placing you in our lives! We love you so very very much!

Carys' First Birthday Party

Caedmon actually had an interest by his first birthday, therefore, the dog theme.
But Carys had no interests that I had noticed
so we found a cute tablecloth and based our theme on it.

Her mouth is stuffed with something from supper.
She did manage to swallow it before she dug into her cake.

Waiting for her to figure out she needs to get rid of one thing in order to consume the other!:)

We don't usually let her have a pacifier throughout the day, but she was not a happy camper with all those strange people in her house...

The cake is gone and the pacifier is back in place!

Caedmon trying out cake for his first birthday...love the difference between the two. Everyone commented on how Carys made quick, messless work of her cake...Caedmon was another story. 'Course, she had the advantage of having had cake for the first time a couple days before.

The one person she allowed to hold her.

Matt is a friend in our small group.

Presents were a little overwhelming.

Laying herself down and trying to cover up with her new blanket.

She's playing peek-a-boo with her blanket.

And this is the happiest she's been since the beginning of the party...
most everyone went outside.:)

Cuteness:)

The kids hanging out together

The boys

I think fun was had by all...mostly...
that's questionable where the birthday girl is concerned.
Oh well.
The party is really just an excuse for us parents to get together, right?!:)

Christmas Party

We were invited to a no-kid Christmas party this year. After much thought about who to ask to watch our children, we finally asked a 16 year old friend. This was a big step, for me anyway. We rarely leave our kids and this is the first time we've done so with someone so young. We were right up the road and I planned to come home and put them to bed, so I figured two hours wouldn't be too much with two children. Little did I know that my daughter would scream for the full two hours!!! :/ She was about 6 1/2 months at the time and already experiencing separation anxiety! Yikes! She continues to be a mommy's girl!

Sam did a great job, juggling a screaming baby and still making it fun for Caedmon! She probably read half of our book collection!:)

And we had a great time - should get out by ourselves more often!:)

Birthday Boy!

Caedmon turned 2 on September 28, which landed on a Monday, so we had his birthday party on Sat. It was fun for me to reminisce about the previous year and see how much had changed, not just with Caedmon himself, but our lives in general.

Last year, we had moved up two weeks prior to his first birthday and many of our friends from down state came up for the party. It made it easier to leave knowing that we'd see each other again in a couple weeks.

This year, we were able to invite Caedmon's little friends! It was good for me to just step back and see how far we've come in a year! Moving is never easy, and making new friends can be difficult, but it CAN be done!:) I'm very thankful for friends, new and old!:)

Anyway, enough about that and more about the birthday boy!

It's hard to believe he's 2! I don't even know where to begin! He's come so far in a year! At his first birthday, he wasn't even crawling yet, choosing to do the army crawl instead. Now my little boy is talking up a storm, repeating everything, saying things we didn't even realize he knew, counting up to ten fairly well, singing the ABC's as well as just singing in general. Music is one of his latest fascinations. He loves listening to music, making music with anything he can find, dancing, singing and having mommy sing - he often commands, "sing mama sing!":)

He also recently learned the emotion of fear. He has no trouble sleeping in complete darkness, but he's scared of the moon. Yep, the moon! We're not exactly sure where this fear came from. The only thing we can figure is when we switched his room, his bed faces the window now. He's obsessed with the moon and when dusk hits, he's close at hand or on the couch refusing to go anywhere else. And he'd just assume go to bed - I didn't realize kids actually liked to go to bed, but my son does! He asks for it! I think part of it is that he feels safe in his bed.

We got rid of the high chair a couple months ago. Sometimes he sits in a booster seat; a lot of the time, he'd just rather go without.

We've had the training potty in the bathroom for awhile now as well, but making no progress with that one. We talk about it, ask him if he wants to use it, but he usually doesn't want to. Corey wants to push the issue, I'm fine with a slow pace. I'd rather continue to change diapers than deal with the accidents that are inevitable!

Well, that's some of the milestones that come to mind. Sorry this is so long. My blog is a journal for me since I don't have a baby book.

Here are some pics from the birthday party.

The theme was farm animals -
it wasn't much of a theme, mainly the cupcakes:)

We decided we could have saved money
and just bought him a package of balloons!

Carys getting some attention

The guy table

enjoying friends

singing:)

This reminds me of his first birthday -
what a look! He really does like cake!:)

Carys is loving the attention!:)

When there are kids at your birthday party,
do not expect to open your gifts by yourself!
Thankfully, Caedmon didn't care!
Daddy taking time right then and there to read his new book to him

We had such a good time!
So thankful for friends and good excuses to get together!:)