Birthday Weekend

I turned 28 over the weekend!  We had the best weather I can remember on a birthday in a long time - 50s and rainy :)  I am not a fan of the heat and humidity so I welcomed the chilly weather with open arms!

Saturday we went with my family to the Little Log House Pioneer Village.  There was so much to look at from old buildings (moved to the property to preserve them), antique tractors, a blacksmith and more!  My favorite part, hands down, was the little log house that the whole thing is named after.

Exterior and upstairs

It was built in 1856-57 and was the first building moved onto the property in 1989.  I loved the look into how people lived "back in the day" when times were hard, yet simple.

For my birthday dinner I requested grilled hot dogs, macaroni salad and watermelon - so that is what we had that night!  Afterwards we had a cake batter ice cream cake from our favorite ice cream shop, Izzy's.  

We spent all of Sunday at home.  I did laundry, napped and we hung out as a family.  Sometimes I wish that we didn't live so close to our neighbors so we could enjoy time together without constant knocking at the door by certain neighbors but that's apartment living for you!  

Family photo attempt #692 of the weekend!

Birthday Party Fun

This afternoon we went to a FIRST birthday party for our little friend, Leyton!  It is so hard to believe he is already one!

There was an inflatable bounce house there and Amelia spent almost the entire afternoon in it.  When it was time to leave she was drenched in sweat, literally, from running around and bouncing!

Joe spent more time inside than his sister and found a new interest - the piano.  He played us all lots of songs :)

We wish we got to see Leyton (and his parents) more often and we hope to be able to head down to visit them sometime before the summer ends!

WeHaw's Birthday

This past Saturday was my sister's birthday.  

*Amelia calls her WeHaw instead of Auntie - no one is really sure why but it stuck

We met my family at the Mongolian Barbeque for lunch right away when they opened - so much less crowded! 

photo attempt #647

After lunch we went to the annual carnival at our old elementary school with the kids.  It was just as I remembered it  -crowded and crazy!  Amelia had fun for the most part - once we found some age appropriate activities for her!

Amelia raced the hot dog car at the Boy Scouts' pinewood derby booth - she WON! 

Pick-a-Duck was very popular with my children

After we had our fill of carnival fun we went back to my parent's house so Joe could get a nap in.  Of course, he must have known there was fun going on because he didn't nap very long!

Princess Yahtzee

In our family the birthday person gets their choice of dinner and she picked sloppy Joe's which we followed up with cake.

It was a busy but fun day! 

A Simple Celebration

Yesterday we had a small, family cake and present party for Amelia.  We went smaller this year because we really wanted to have it at our apartment for once.  By smaller I mean we just decided to not have it with a meal involved - only cake :)  

I made her birthday cake for the first time this year (usually my sister makes it.)

My Little Pony birthday cake :)

Amelia with dad's decorations

The four of us!

Joe found himself an (empty) drink!

All in all we think it was a success!  Amelia had fun with everyone over and got a lot of neat new things for her birthday!

Joe's First Birthday

Yesterday we had a small party with family for Joe.  His aunties, grandparents as well as great-grandparents were there!  We kept it simple - presents, lunch and cake.

   

The majority of the pictures I took were during cake...

Joey got so many great new toys and clothes.  We are very blessed that so many people love our sweet boy.

 

Little man had a blast.  He protested naps and partied hard.  

I still can't believe he is already ONE!

One Year

Somehow our little Joey went from this:

to this:

Happy FIRST Birthday, sweet boy! 

80 Years

Yesterday afternoon we celebrated Jason's grandma's 80th birthday!  His sister made lasagna and had everyone over for lunch and cake.

We tried for a nice picture of Great-Grandma and her Great-Grandchildren but, alas, it was not meant to be.  Joe was the only one paying attention - he's such a ham!  

More pretty fall colors on our way home last night :)

Birthday Party Fun

Last Saturday we were invited to celebrate W's first birthday!  We know W's parents through one of my best friends and we all have babies right around the same age.  It is a lot of fun getting together!

H - 11 months, W - 12 months, C - 11 months, Joe - 10 months and D - 9 months

Babies with big sisters!

It was a wonderful afternoon!  We spent a ton of time outside - W's parents have a great yard!  Joe was enthralled with ladder-golf:

He played with this, alone, for at least fifteen minutes.  I'm betting he would have played longer but I took him in for present opening!

There were a lot of fun new toys for W but the hit was definitely the activity table. 

These guys (and gal) loved this thing!  Even Amelia squeezed in there a few times.  We don't have one of these tables so it was brand new to my kids!

Amelia had the best time.  She ran around with dogs and cats, pulled the wagon, played with C's big sister, S, visited the chicken coop several times and her favorite part of any birthday - cake.

Both kids were completely wiped out from our afternoon but they would not sleep on the way home!  Go figure ;)  We're looking forward to the next time we can get together with everyone again! 

 

Birthday Weekend

Friday was my golden birthday!  I didn't do anything too exciting.  I worked all day and then had dinner of salad and lasagna at my parent's house.  It was day two of Joe not feeling too great.

He is teething and with that has come a fever.  It comes and goes.  Friday night while my mom, sister, Amelia and I watched the Olympic opening ceremonies Joe slept on my dad in the recliner:

His little feet were cold so her borrowed his sister's Dora socks...

Saturday was Jason's grandpa's 75th birthday and there was a surprise party for him!  I didn't have the camera out much but I got a picture of Farmer Joe:

and Amelia the puppy:

I had two cakes this year:

Amelia insisted we have birthday candles but we couldn't find anything but a tea light...

Friday I had a yellow cake with chocolate frosting (my favorite) and today we had an Izzy's Oreo ice cream cake!  Both were delicious! 

That's pretty much the highlights of our weekend!  We kept pretty busy but at the same time it was a relaxing weekend and the camera wasn't out much! 

We-Haw's Birthday

**We-Haw is what Amelia calls my sister. It started out as Ah-Hee, then it went to He-Haw and now it is We-Haw. No one is sure why.

Friday was my sister's 25th birthday! She came over to visit the kids and I. We went on a walk and ended up at the park :) Amelia could have stayed there all night swinging!

Joey had his first taste of playground fun in a tunnel!

We stayed at the park longer than we thought so we ordered pizzas for dinner. We seem to end up doing that almost every time Kim visits us...

Saturday afternoon we had lunch with my parents and Kim to celebrate her birthday as a family. We went to her favorite, the Mongolian BBQ in Stillwater. Joe sat in a high chair for the first time!

After our late lunch we went to a park in Bayport that we used to go to as kids (Jason did too!) Amelia is getting braver and braver at the park. This was the second day in a row that she climbed a rope ladder, alone!

Joe had his first taste of swinging. He thought it was great!

After the park we went back to my parent's house for cake and ice cream.

After cake Amelia and my dad fed the animals outside and then went to the school playground down the road. They were gone until dark. In fact, they were gone so long that we went out looking for them, fearing that something had happened! Everything was fine though. They were taking their time walking home and looking at the stars.

Sunday afternoon we went over to Jason's sister's house for a grill out with their grandma and a couple of their friends. Everything was so good! Liz puts out a good spread every time we are invited for dinner. We had to get our shopping done for the week on our way home so we didn't stay too late but we had a good time visiting!

All in all we had a busy weekend! It went by way too fast.