three!

How is it possible that "my baby" is three?!  Of course, if Andrew could read, he would protest, "I'm not a baby!"  He doesn't buy my counter-argument that "you'll always be MY baby."  He says, "no, I'm an Andrew!"  He's also a lovebug, a snuggle-monster, a chatter-box, a smarty-pants (so says his sister), a monkey, a little crazy, and more than a little ornery.

His birthday day was pretty low-key, playing outside on his new jungle gym (his gift from Mommy and Daddy), but we had a party the day before with his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Andrew picked out his own party goodies:  purple plates, green napkins, green balloons, a dinosaur cake, party hats, Spiderman blow-outs, and Spongebob streamers.  Which is a pretty good snapshot of this kid... going a dozen different directions at once!

7th birthday party

Evyn's friends came for a party on Saturday to celebrate her 7th birthday.  This year's theme was one of our favorite places - the beach.

the craft table

fruit kabobs, blue jello, and other munchies

I was pretty proud of dessert....  If you know me, you know I'm NOT a baker.  In fact, anything I bake is almost guaranteed to flop.  But somehow I managed to pull this one off  (unlike the brownies I made earlier in the week to share with Evyn's classmates...  that adventure took 6 hours and resulted in lots of brownie-flops in the garbage!).

The girls enjoyed sand-colored cupcakes with blue 'wave' frosting, and chocolate sea creatures on top (all handmade by me!).  Some chocolate beach pebbles and brown sugar 'sand,' and the display was complete.  Pictures don't do it justice, it looked very good- a fluke, for sure!

 

We finished the fun afternoon with crafts, games, singing, dancing, balloon attacks, running around the yard, and general mayhem.

2

On Saturday we celebrated Andrew's 2nd birthday.



2!  Can you believe it?   It hardly seems possible.

The day started out with a test run on his new balance bike  (Yes, that's the bike we were going to give him for Christmas.  We ended up saving it for his birthday gift...  shhhh!  He'll never know)

Then it was time to party!  The grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins came for the fun.

There was one gift he couldn't wait to dig into....  chewing gum!

Evyn and Emily spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Andrew's new Giga Ball

His 2 year checkup isn't scheduled until the middle of next month, so I'll post stats then.

all about turning 6

Tuesday - Evyn's actual birthday- was pretty low-key. In the morning we finished icing rainbow cupcakes for Evyn's classmates. After school she opened her gifts from us. The clear favorite was the Pillow Pet she named Pandy:


Andrew liked her new bike helmet:








The main event happened on Saturday. Evyn hosted her first-ever "friends" party. We all had a great time!
There were games, prizes, ponies, and cake.



There was dancing.....

.....and crafting

....and silly string....


And, of course, gifts!

birthday videos

Andrew loved the attention:

The cake - not so much:

first birthday party

On Saturday our families braved the rain and wind to come for Andrew's birthday party.


They doted on him.... he ate it up....



He wasn't too sure about the cake.
Hard to tell how much of it actually made it into his belly, but there was plenty on the floor, and on him!


Then, gifts!
His favorite (and Evyn's, too) was the 4-wheeler that Grandpa B. got him:

it's a tough life.

Saturday Oct. 3rd Evyn had a birthday party to attend. Afterward, we visited Aunt Chris, then went to the New Holland fair for yummy street-vendor food. With days like this, who wouldn't want to be a kid again?

The birthday party was held at Positive Fitness. Evyn's friend Sophia was celebrating turning 5, and her sister Ana was celebrating her 7th birthday. Check out the pictures of the kids in this post about last year's party... can't believe how much they have grown. (the gym has a policy against flash photography, so forgive the blurry pictures)


The kids' instructor (orange shirt) was a lot of fun. I learned he had a role in a film due out next year, The Last Airbender. Check out the trailer, it looks like a great movie! We're looking forward to seeing it.









Evyn only rode one ride at the fair, with her friends Ryan and Carley... unlike last year, where she rode every ride she could! After that, all she was interested in was her purple cotton candy.