For the Birds (and Sunflowers)

How do you get two sick kids into the car when leaving the doctor's office, when instead of getting in the car they would prefer to play under the pine tree? Well, you help them pick out two nice pine cones and promise to help them make bird feeders after nap time, of course! Our kiddos decided that they would like to spend the nice, long, Memorial Day weekend batling strep throat. Being as it was near 100 degrees all weekend, I honestly didn't mind staying in and resting up in the cool air conditioning.

 Surprisingly, the pine cones survived the onslaught of peanut butter

wielding children and made it to the bird seed portion of the competition!

The finished products waiting to be enjoyed by our feathered friends.

After hanging our bird feeders we checked on our sunflowers and watered our garden.

 Week 4: May 26, 2012

I think I am just as amazed as the kids by how fast these things grow!

Dancing in the Rain

Our little girl loves to dance. Our little girl loves the rain. Who could resist the chance to snap some shots of her dancing in the rain? Not me! It was the perfect spring rain and she loved every minute of it. Colton toyed with the idea, but never made it past the shelter of the garage for more than a few seconds before retreating from the raindrops.

The joys of childhood are countless. I love watching our children enjoy such simple pleasures and how they soak them up without any worries or cares. I wish I could bottle up those smiles and contain the happiness of their youth. I know that in the future, times will be harder and they will be burdened with the stresses I remember from my own childhood. Until then, we will relish in these days and keep clicking on the camera.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Colton!

Our little guy is two!!! Since the moment I sang "happy birthday, to you" to Colton when I woke him up that morning, he was eating up every bit of attention and loving all the celebrating.

Yep, those are matches on the cookie cake.

Turns out I didn't have the candles I thought I did. Oops!

Good thing Colton didn't know the difference.

Gotta love the blue tongue!

Colton with his new tractor. He was so excited when he saw it.

But, he's yet to want to get on and ride it!

We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the adventure that has been the last two years, than to "Go, go, go, on an adventure" with a Cat on the Hat party! The challenging part came when I discovered Cat in the Hat party supplies are hard to come by, except online. I love a good creative challenge, so I opted to make the invitation and birthday banner myself.

The incredible cake my friend, Linda, made.

Ready to PARTY!!!!

Pinata time!

And, then Daddy got his hands on one of Colton's presents!

For some reason, I suspect this gift wasn't really intended for Colton.

Wink, wink.

Then, it was payback time!

Slip 'n' slide is way better when Daddy

gives you a little push!

It was a great day! Everyone had a blast playing, splashing, chasing, eating, laughing, and celebrating! There was no better way to celebrate Colton's special day.

Sunflowers: Week 3

We have a sunflower garden!

We planted our 9 little pots in the garden Saturday morning. They will grow so big and beautiful and tower over the little ones as we watch them all grow!

I love this one: The looks say it all, "it's too hot".

It was a hot morning and we were ready to get in the house, have lunch, have a nap, and get ready for Colton's birthday party!

Big Boy!

Our little guy has a big boy bed! We were a little nervous about the transition. Clara did great when she switched to a twin bed from her crib. But, as it turns out, Colton has a whole different personality than his big sis! Nothing that was easy with Clara has been easy with Colton. We were expecting to have to go up countless times and put him back in bed, or to have super early mornings because he didn't want to stay nicely once he was awake. He has proved us wrong! Since the first night, he has stayed in bed, slept great, and even stays there and plays for a while until we can get up there to say "good morning".

He was so excited to have a pillow and a big blanket!

Sweet little guy all zonked out.

Colton has developed is own little routine and preferences. He has to have certain animals and snuggles in there with him and he wants to do prayers and lullabies in bed instead of the rocking chair, now. He gets all comfy with his head on the pillow, pulls the blanket up over him and is ready for sweet dreams.

Sunflowers: Week 2

Man! Those suckers sure do grow fast! And, I'm not talking about the kids. Our nine little sunflower pots are all full of tall green sprouts. We will be ready to plant them in the ground by next week.

When you can't get a cute smiley picture,

a fun candid one will always work, right?

Almost ready to plant in the ground

Sunflowers: Week 1

We have sprouts! The first one appeared two days ago. As of this evening, there are sprouts in 8 of the 9 pots. I bet that last pot will have a sprout by the end of the weekend.

Thanks to our cousin, Nick standing beside me while I took the picture,

we actually got smiles and laughs from the kiddos for this week's pic!

Lots of little spouts! Can't wait to watch them grow!