Just enjoying summer

Last week we hit a splash park for play group. We enjoyed ourselves. One of my favorite moments was when E was suddenly the cool kid on the playground with this little boat and treasure chest. I also thought it was cute when A went and lined up with the big kids to wait for a turn at the water cannon.

I turned away for a moment to find out what E was up to. I turned back to check in on Miss A and found that she had made her way to the front of the line. The other kids were just sort of staring not sure what to do. I went over and grabbed her to let the other kids have a turn but I thought to myself --shame on those big kids for letting such a little one push them around.
And of course a day at a spray ground isn't complete until E pulls his signature move.

My luck almost ran out

This is one of the big reasons I don't actually play a real one of these.

Br's co-worker liked the last slot machine cake so much she asked me to make one for her sister's birthday. Although the last one came together rather uneventfully, this one was a mess during the whole process. I don't know exactly what went wrong. The first cake I made completely crumbled before I even finished icing it. After an almost failed attempt #2 I decided to change the shape a little. It stayed together only long enough to get covered. Then the sagging began. I propped it up overnight to help it set up. That worked until the heat of the next afternoon kicked in and the sagging got out of control (notice the picture does not show the back of the cake). AHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Serious stress. I set up a sort of scaffolding in the box and said a little prayer that it would make it to the birthday in one piece and then swore off cake making. I made some cupcakes as a back up plan/apology for the inevitable demise of the cake. I was definitely stressed until the next day when Br reported that it had survived.

Guess who went to the zoo

Despite E telling me that he's already been to the zoo so he doesn't need to go again, we met up with some friends at the zoo this week.

We splashed with friends in a little stream.

We splashed even more at the spray pad. (and drank a little of the water)

We met some animals

We fed the birds. This one got up close and personal with me. (I literally had a blue bird on my shoulder)

We explored

Rested a little (Notice how E decided to embrace the animal inside by putting random vegetation in his mouth).

We saw more animals

and then ended our visit with a ride on the little train. (it was really cool because it actually went into the animal enclosure)

Thanks E for giving in and letting us go. I hope you had a good time.

If it isn't obvious, Br likes golf

So Br had his birthday a little over a week ago. It was his wish that I didn't throw him a party so I didn't. All he wanted was german chocolate cupcakes to take to work, some new golf stuff, and of course to play golf. The kids and I showed up at his work to eat cupcakes with him and his coworkers and our friends were nice enough to have the kids over while Br and I played some golf. Well Br played. I hit a few balls, searched for a lot of balls and drove us around in the golf cart. Happy birthday future PGA tourer!

Our athlete?

Anyone who has spent any time with Mr. E knows he has A LOT of energy. I mean A LOT. We've been trying to work on focusing that energy in positive activities and sports was a logical choice. Two weeks ago he started playing baseball. Well I guess it's technically blastball. The kids hit the ball off the tee and run to 1st base. There is only one base but it is really fun because it makes a honking noise when the kids jump on it. Here's E's first up at bat.

In blastball there are no positions, everyone just sort of stands in the field and waits for the ball to get hit. E's team is a bunch of 3-year old boys who are convinced that you win by being the one who gets the ball. They all run into a big pack wrestle a little and fight for the ball. The kid that gets the ball celebrates and the rest of them cry. I say all, but what I really should say is everyone except E. Here is his fielding approach. (He's the one in the red and black hat).

So much for trying to help him get some energy out. I think his favorite part of the game was sitting in the dugout drinking Koolaid. Miss A really enjoyed playing in the dugout.

The last play of the game E's approach to fielding finally worked out for him. The ball rolled to his general vicinity. All the other boys clobbered each other to the point that the ball was knocked free and E picked it up. He was so happy. As he left the game he just kept telling me "E win!" (after we left every practice he kept telling me that his friends had won but he hadn't won yet).

After the game we headed to McDonald's for some dinner and ice cream. Gotta love those free kiddie cones!

E may not be headed straight for the major leagues but we did have a nice evening at the ball park.

My baby turned 1

I’m having a little bit of a hard time accepting it. Maybe that is why I kept putting off planning her birthday party. Despite the lack of planning we still had a nice LITTLE celebration. The theme was Miss A and the purple crayon, inspired by the book Harold and the Purple Crayon. Here’s the invite. Because she is not as excited as her brother is about large groups we only had a few friends over to help us celebrate (so please don't be offended if you miss it). We were excited to have Grandma Tori, Jojo, and Auntie B come out and help put the party together. Thank you for all of your help. It was so great to have you. The backyard was decorated with white and purple streamers, balloons, pinwheels, banners, and tissue paper pompoms (my friend Amy introduced me to them from Martha Stewart.com) and a few characters from the book. We lined things in purple tape to try and make them look like they were drawn with a purple crayon. We had some of Miss A’s favorite’s: coloring, bubbles, playing outside and the bounce house.

It’s hard to find purple food so the menu just consisted of blue corn tortilla chips and dip, mini blueberry muffins, purple goldfish, and blueberries and black berries (I forgot to put grapes on the shopping list). To round out the meal a little we also grilled up some hot dogs. I had dreams to dying the condiments purple and making purple buns from scratch and then I realized there were other things in life that I could find to fill my time. For dessert we had purple velvet cupcakes and little pie cupcakes (in the book Harold makes a picnic of his nine favorite pies). I’m a little embarrassed at how little time I was able to put into Miss A’s cake—not my finest work. She surprised me in how little she ate. It wasn’t long before she was begging to stop.


This look reminds me of how I feel after I’ve stuffed my face with things I shouldn’t eat. Like usual, E really enjoyed himself and his cupcake. I think that by the time present opening rolled around Miss A was done partying. Although E was super excited about new toys.

We had a purple candy bar for the adults to put together a party favor and we found a few little purple toys for the kids to take home.

Overall it was a really nice evening. Happy Birthday Babes! How 'bout we do it again in about a year?