Monday, February 27, 2012

Garrett's 4! {the final post}

Okay, so it's only taken me 2 weeks to get his birthday post{s} done and last night I finally managed to get the pictures off my camera.  Yay! 

So, last but not least, his actual birthday!  This is the first year he's really "gotten it" as far as birthdays go, but it was still a little confusing as to why we'd already had his party, but then were celebrating again.

But, he certainly felt like it was his special day!  Mostly because he, alone, got to choose the dinner menu.  Exciting stuff, people.  And what might a 4 year old choose for dinner?  Why fish sticks, mac & cheese, and green beans {okay, so that was my addition} of course!  The best part, however, was {naturally} dessert.

A little back story on this one . . .

We watch a lot of Sprout around here.  Even when we're not watching, the tv is usually on Sprout for a good portion of the day.  Leading up to Valentine's Day there was a commercial {that we saw 832 times a day} advertising chocolate covered strawberries.  Now, I don't know that my child has ever had a chocolate covered strawberry.  But he knew he wanted to have some.  Every freaking single time the commercial would come on, he would stop what he was doing, come find me, and inform me that "Maybe sometime we can get some of those!"  Every. Single. Time.  And I'm not exaggerating.

So, around rolls February 13th and the birthday boy gets to choose dinner.  Including dessert.  So . . . what does he choose?

Strawberries and chocolate, of course. 






















And man, did he {and little brother} ever enjoy them!!



He had on the perfect shirt for the meal.




I don't even want to know how he ended up with chocolate on his elbow!

Not sure about this face!  Ha!

I hope he never grows a moustache.

It was much more fun to rub the chocolate on his lips than it was to actually bite the strawberry!

Sufficed to say, he was thrilled with his special birthday meal on his special birthday plate, but the highlight was definitely dessert.  He was quite excited to open his Peter Pan DVD from us and I'm sure he'll be thrilled when we go see The Fresh Beat Band at the end of March, but I honestly don't know if even that will compare to the thrill of the chocolate and strawberries.  I really hope he's always this easy to please!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Bowling, Chins & Elbows

So on the Saturday before G's birthday, we had a bowling party for he and his little friend, Sayla, who had turned 3 the week before.  Isn't she just edible??!






















The day started with Oma, Shannon, and Todd in town.  Hudson helped take a few years off of Todd's life {and the poor guy couldn't understand why I was taking pictures of him guarding H from tumbling to his death} ha! . . .
He's on the back of the love seat, for those wondering.  I mean, how else would you watch it "NOOOOOO!" {snow}
. . . and we also admired our cupcakes which were being safely stored in the oven.  Away from Hudson and Miles.

And, after naptime, it was party time!

None of the 7 kids had ever been bowling before, but they all seemed to have a great time.  As did the adults.  Mission accomplished.




Oma was on Hudson duty.  Poor Oma.





After a couple hours of bowling, we all headed back to our house for pizza & cupcakes.  Yum!




Love those fake toddler smiles!

LOTS of helpers!
And, other than the evening ending with a gash in a chin, some smoke inhalation, and a call to 911, we all had a wonderful evening!!  We seriously need to tone down these kid parties.  One of the kids fell and gashed his chin open in our kitchen {but is fine!}, Rich attempted to burn the house down when he put 3 pizza boxes in the fireplace at the same time {and closed the flue in the process!!}, and Sayla's grandmother slipped on some ice outside on her way down the street, fell, and along with a nasty bump on the head {hence, the 911 call!} busted open her elbow.  An ambulance transport, x-rays, and 2 staples later, she's sore but healing fine.  The excitement never ends! 

But, the birthday boy {and girl!} had a blast and G has already said he'd like to go bowling again.  Score!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Phone Dump Friday

It has been a loooooong time since I unloaded pictures from my phone! So, without further adieu, here is our life in cell phone pics from late December, January & February.

       Sweet brothers!                        Merry Christmas to me!

 
                  "Look Mommy! It's a Christmas Tree!"           Love.

January 7, 2012 . . . The first time G wrote his name.

 Modeling the hats Aunt Shannon made. 
With one sock. 

The bumper was lying outside of the crib before nap time.  And this was during.

How I found him one night.

Salad spinning is fun!

Wow.

Playing on Pappy's shower chair.  In the kitchen.

We had a little lesson in Cause and Effect . . .
 CAUSE

 EFFECT

The result of giving vitamins during bath time.

Wearing Pappy's hat.  With no pants.  My little ragamuffin child.

A small disclaimer for the following 3 pictures.  They were taken on different days.  In 2 different states.  And we had done laundry in between!
Crazy hair.

How I found him 3 nights in a row.  Makes this teacher mama's heart happy.

 "Ca-chow!"

 He's worn his "haaaat!" around the house all week.  Probably not a bad practice.

 "Look Mommy!  I'm a knight!" Um . . . okay.

 Monkey see, monkey do.

 And, finally, from yesterday.  The weather's been positively lovely so we went to Frying Pan Park...a very cool park/working farm. There were even 2 baby sheep that were born on G's birthday! Exciting stuff.  Although, as far as Hudson was concerned, all the animals were quite cool.  Especially since everything was a "Moo!"