Getting Ready for the Party!

The big 3rd Birthday Party is tonight and I'm taking advantage of a few moments of quiet to sit down and add pictures of the cakes and cookies I made for the boys' party. I don't know if my cousin Brian knows this, but he is my inspiration for learning how to decorate cakes. He decorated his own kids' birthday cakes every year and I always thought that was the neatest thing to do for his kids. So last year I made it my mission to do my kids birthday cakes. Last year it was Sesame Street cupcakes and this year Luke requested Lighting McQueen and Ryan wanted Doc Hudson. I also taught myself how to decorate cookies this past year, so I made little boys with blue and brown eyes for party favors. The boys have been so excited about their birthday cake - they've been talking about it for months - so this morning we got video and pictures of them seeing both of their cakes for the first time. They both said "good job, Mama" which made it all worth it. I'll post later about their party.

Luke and his Lighting McQueen cake.

This one was pretty simple because it is a cake pan and with good directions.

Ryan and his Doc Hudson cake.

There is no Doc pan, so I had to carve this one from a cake made in a bread pan and then I used a die cast car as my model.

Luke with brown eyes and Ryan with blue. They love to talk about peoples' eye color and they both like that Luke has brown eyes like Mama and Ryan has blue eyes like Daddy.

Last Day of School and More Yard Work

The boys finished their first year of school (not real school, but close enough) on Thursday. Unfortunately, Luke woke up really grumpy from his nap when I picked him up, so he left a lasting impression of a fit throwing toddler for his teachers. Overall, school was great for them this year. They loved going and they did alot of fun stuff. If things stay the same for me next school year, they'll go back to the same place and be in the preschool class. Now for a long summer with just Mama (hopefully long, but nice). Hopefully, we can start going to the pool sometime this week. But the Texan in me can't grasp the idea of swimming in 70 degree weather, so we'll wait until it warms up.

Greg and I put in a Pavestone sidewalk this weekend. It turned out really nice and not hard, just labor intensive, especially digging the 8 inch deep trench through solid clay. The boys were able to help by bringing me stones to lay. They were helpful until the ice cream truck drove down our street and Greg treated them to their first ice cream truck experience. Luke quickly chose a cotton candy flavored popcicle, but Ryan took his time selecting an Italian icee, which was the most expensive thing on the menu (just like his Mama). I told Greg we can now expect the ice cream truck to show up every afternoon this summer.




Last, a picture of the boys beginning their lazy days of summer.

Yard Work

Greg and I started to work on our front yard this past weekend, and the boys had a good time helping us out. We were all exhausted by the Sunday afternoon, but we have at least one more weekend before we'll be done. We're going to put in a flagstone walkway this weekend and then add some vegetation and hopefully some curb appeal.


Helping to redistribute topsoil.

Ryan had a good time pretending to mow the yard with Greg.

Luke fascinated with a weed.

Ryan off-roading on the mulch.

Things going on:
Both boys love letters, but Luke is obsessed. I got him some wooden magnetic letters a few weeks ago and he now carries them around with him and plays with them all of the time. One of his favorite things to do with me is to spell words with them. Luke hasn't done a great job lately about eating breakfast, so we got him some AlphaBit cereal to see if that would help. The first morning we tried it I pulled it out of the pantry and showed it to him. He put his hands to face and squealed with delight. He now loves to eat breakfast, as long as it is his AlphaBit cereal.

This is the last week of school for the boys. I'm looking forward to the summer, but also apprehensive of having them home all of the time. They love going to school and they do so many fun things in their class. I've signed them up for swim lessons the first 2 weeks in June (so I can hopefully take them to the pool my myself this summer) and they're also going to play soccer in July and August. I have also started to do a preschool curriculum with them here at home (thank you Cindi for the suggestion). We've done it on my days off the last 2 weeks and they have had so much fun and gives us something structured to do every day. The best part with this program is that it is all pre-organized by day, so I just pull out each day's bag and follow the easy curriculum.

End of school year cookout.

Happy Mother's Day!

We've had a somewhat busy week around here. Greg was gone much of the week so the boys and I were left on our own. We had a good time eating out, going to the playground and hanging out at home and in the backyard. We went to Sweet Tomatoes twice and Panda Express once (I was really in no mood to cook). On Thursday the boys had a little music program at their school. Their class sang 3 songs with the preschool kids and the boys seemed to enjoy it and they participated and sang. I have learned my lesson that in order to get a decent seat, you must be there hours early (which I am not sure if it is really worth it-they were up there less than 10 minutes). This morning Greg and the boys took me to Starbucks for breakfast - it is not worth going out to eat and wait for a table with 2 toddlers - and we had a good time until Luke dumped his entire orange juice down his shirt.

Don't you love the spiked hair? They think that they look so cool and love to show Daddy their "crazy spiky" hair. They usually then add crazy behavior to go along with it.

This cracks me up.

Ryan and Luke are in the orange striped shirts on the front row (but not sitting next to each other).

Ryan - who loves to perform - enjoyed singing on stage.

Luke helping me play Wii Rock Band.

Ryan playing drums with Jeff.

Posing with the craft projects from school. I can't keep everything, so I'm taking pictures of them with some of their cuter ones and then getting rid of it.

Below are 2 videos of the week. The first is a very short clip of their concert and the second is of the boys taking turns pushing each other in the wagon down the hill in our backyard today.