Happy 2nd Birthday, Chloe!

Yesterday was Chloe's 2nd birthday. We had so much fun! First, I had birthday cupcakes to finish! Katie came for the weekend so she got recruited into helping:

We make a great decorating team!

And I'm happy to report that the finished product was WAY better than last year's!

We started the birthday festivities at the water park!  Check out my birthday diva:

We were beach babes together:

We had fun getting splashed...

...and going around the "lazy" (crazy!) river together:

Chase had fun splashing around, too!

After the water park we headed back to my house for pizza, cake, ice cream and presents!  It doesn't get much better than that!

We all looked a tad disheveled after getting soaked at the park, but we didn't really care!

Chloe was sooooo excited when we all started singing to her!  She reached out and grabbed my hand when we started.  It was adorable:

She pretty much just ate the frosting off her cupcakes (yes, plural... it was her birthday)!

Ahhhhhh.... Satisfaction!

Then it came time for... PRESENTS!!!!

Daddy got her a tricycle, which she loved...

...until it was time to go!

Then we got a huge dramatic face-down temper tantrum in the middle of the road:

Welcome, terrible two's!

I put all the pics (there are lots!) in our Photo Album if you're interested!

 

Chloe's Birthday Preparations

Chloe's 2nd birthday is Saturday! I have already started preparing for my motherly duty of making her cake (cupcakes). The pressure is on.... I have to make up for last year's princess cupcake disaster! Click here if you need a painful reminder....

Anyway, I am more confident about this year's venture. I found something cute and and decided to put my own creative spin on it. And unlike the "creative licenses" I took last year, I think these ones will actually work! *fingers crossed*

Anyway, we started the process today with candy sorting!

 And along the way we had to do some taste testing (of course)!

(Man, Chloe's hair is a mess!!)

And... Ta Dah!  Presenting.... The candy I will be using for Chloe's cupcakes!

Chase was very proud of his work:

So the candy is all sorted but now I have a BIG problem. The leftovers:

And there's about to be more, because I didn't get enough of some of the colors I need, so I have to buy more tomorrow! This is dangerous. I can't have this stuff sitting in my pantry. I'm about to give it all away.

(If I don't eat it all first.)

Stay tuned for the finished product (and wish me luck)!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today was the big 3-5. I've been OK with every birthday up to this point, but 35 was a little tougher of a pill to swallow. I mean, it rounds up to FORTY!!!! But I'll get over it.

Those who know me well know I'm big on birthdays. If I had it my way the world would stop spinning every year on June 10th and everyone would drop everything they were doing to worship me. I believe it should be a national holiday and the only acceptable response to my requests on that day should be "as you wish." Just sayin'....  Ha ha!

Anyway, I trained Chase well. He counted down the days to my birthday for me, and this morning I woke up to "Mom?" and instead of the words that usually follow ("I'm hungry"), I got, "Happy Birthday!" What a way to start my day.

So since my birthday fell on a Sunday I decided the whole weekend should be dedicated to me. Saturday we celebrated at the splash pad with our friends Erin (my friend) and Nathan (Chase's friend)!

Chloe thought it was fun to glue herself between my legs...

...but after awhile I had to put a stop to that (ummmm... slightly uncomfortable in a public place!) and she had to pout dramatically about it (which she does really well):

Today we decided to go to the park for a bit.  We tried the obligatory family self-portrait but were not very successful this time:

The kids had fun, though, and I got a few good pics of them:

They had fun on the swings, too.  They had the weirdest looking swing there that Chase loved.  I'm thinking maybe it's a handicap swing or something?

After awhile Chloe got tired of swinging so I put her down and Chase begged me to push him really high.  He was soaring through the air, and on the way back toward me Chloe bolted right behind him and BAM!  The back of his gigantic chair swing smacked her square in the face and laid her OUT, flat on her back.  It looked painful!  But it was pure comedy the way it happened.  She was fine, but there were a few parents around that were having a hard time holding back their laughter (as was I... I admit it)!

Afterwards we went through the Sonic drive-through (because it's my birthday so I can eat whatever I want).  I heard Chase in the backseat singing "Happy Birthday" and realized he was making a video:

Yes, that was me saying, "You should tape me, because it's my birthday!"  Yeah, I get a little diva.  Hey....  It's one day a year!  Just humor me!

When we got home Chase found a dandelion in the yard and rushed to get it for me.  "Mommy, I want to give you this flower for your birthday!"  It was the sweetest, most wonderful gift I received today... straight from the heart! 

After lunch we had cupcakes and Chase recorded the event.  This, again, was taken with his camera so the video quality is not great.  But it is quite interesting:

When I saw it I said, "Chase, you chopped my head off!" and he said, "Well I was trying to get the cupcake!"  He definitely knows where his priorities are!  Anyway, it was cute.  Chase was jealous of my candle, though, so he had to have one, too:

Omigoodness....  I'm half-way to 70!  Lord help me!

P.S. More pics are in our Photo Album if you're interested!

Chase's Pre-K Graduation

Friday was Chase's Pre-K graduation.  To tell you the truth, Brian and I thought the idea of a Pre-K graduation was a little ridiculous, but Chase was so proud that it made the event totally worth it!  Here he is with the rest of his "graduating class."  He is in the back row, all the way to your left:

He gave the audience quite a show when they called his name:

They also sang a song for the parents:

And then we got to eat cake!  It's a passion we both share:

I can't believe he's going to be in Kindergarten this fall!  My baby is growing up!

More photos are in our Photo Album if you're interested!

Chase's Baseball Pics

We just got Chase's baseball photos in from Keina Cook Photography (please respect copyright). Just had to share!

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day today I asked Chase what he wanted to do (because let's face it... my Mother's Day would not be fun if the kids weren't having fun doing what they wanted to do!).  I suggested the zoo but Chase didn't want to go.  He wanted to go to the park and to McDonald's.  We compromised and had a picnic at the park and ice cream afterwards.  The picnic was totally fun:

I attempted some pics of the three of us, but it was quite the photo shoot! You can see all our attempts in our Photo Album if you're interested (there are some hilarious shots in there of all of us trying to get it together)!

I did manage to get a couple decent ones.  Chloe had a habit of diving into the camera every time I told her to smile!

After the picnic we decided to play on the playground.  We lasted about 10 minutes before Chase fell and busted his lip open on a stone wall.  It took forever for me to get him calmed down so I could figure out where all the blood was coming from.  He sat on the wall like this for the rest of our time at the park (while Chloe played on the slide):

So we decided to just head out for ice cream. I wasn't sure Chase would be able to eat it because you couldn't even look at his lip without him bursting into tears. I took a picture of the battle wound at TCBY and this is not a staged face. This is exactly how he looked:

Then I told him to make a pathetic face (because that's just my twisted sense of humor) and this is what I got:

Anyway, apparently ice cream is magic (like I didn't already know that!) and Chase was able to eat it and start smiling again.  Chloe shared my ice cream and when ours was gone she hit her brother up for some of his. Because he's a sweetheart, he decided to share:

And at one point I just looked over and saw Chase sitting completely still, just like this:

I asked what he was doing and he said, "I'm frozen!" like "Duh, Mom!" Ahhhhh, kids.  Gotta love 'em!   I'm so thankful to have them in my life.  They can be challenging at times, but life's most powerful rewards come out of its biggest challenges.  They are my prizes!

Happy Mother's Day!

Video Album

I have added a video album to this site (the link is on the right).  If you want the password to see some of our little family videos (mostly taken with my phone), let me know!