Thomas’ Racecar Party

My cute nephew Thomas turned 4 on the 24th, and my sister-in-law threw him an amazing racecar party. Thomas is one of William’s very best buddies, so we were so excited to help him celebrate.

To get the party started, they made their own license plates, with foam letters, stickers and glitter. Then they were off to the races, driving their cars down the “race track.”

There were balloons filled with prizes, and each kid got to pop a few.

Trying to hit the wheels with water balloons… I love how each kid is armed and ready…

And then to the most exciting part… the CARWASH!

Spencer and Andrea built this awesome “car wash” sprinkler out of PVC pipe. It was a HIT. They circles through this thing until they nearly dropped with exhaustion. William kept saying, “I’m not clean yet!”, aka “I need to go through again!”

Such a fun idea, and such a great thing to do on a hot day!

Once they were all washed out, it was off to cupcakes, traffic lights and playing with prizes…

 

Don’t forget to “fuel up”

At the end they each got a trophy. Thomas was one happy birthday boy, all the kids had a blast!

A fun busy day

Today has been a really fun day (especially for William), so much so that I think I'll document it after not opening my blog for a few months. There were so many little details that I want to remember. 

After Ann's morning nap we decided we would walk down the street and check out the new Dunkin' Donuts that opened yesterday. William wanted a Captain America book from the library, so I figured we'd hit two birds with one stone. William rode his bike over, and thought it was pretty cool that a police officer was directing traffic in the parking lot. It was so busy that the line for the drive through went out into the street. I debated waiting until after we went to the library to go in but William was so excited for donuts that I figured I couldn't turn back. I didn't look at what time it was when we walked in, but  the line took forever. William didn't mind though. He loved looking at all the pictures of the donuts, playing in front of the fan, and sitting on every single chair we passed. Ann was very patient in the stroller, adding to the chaos with an occasional high-pitched scream that she has gotten so good at. They both loved getting balloons halfway through, too. 

 William chose a rainbow sprinkle donut, but when we got to the library, he decided he wanted one of the other's I chose. He loved the powdered sugar, and was even more excited when he discovered the chocolate cream inside. They messed up my order, so Annie got a chocolate frosted donut instead of the relatively non-messy glazed I had ordered for her. What do you do. We walked over to the library to eat our treats, and woman who works at the library walked over to us. I was worried she was going to come tell us we couldn't eat our donuts at the tables, but instead told us that balloons are not allowed in the library. If they float away, you'd never be able to get them down from the high ceilings. Understandable, but a little sad to tell William and Ann we had to throw their balloons away.
I don't think Ann took a single bite of her donut, but managed to get frosting everywhere. William was covered in powdered sugar. William said they were tasty, but I still think Banburry Cross is better!

 After our donuts we walked down to look at books. We scored by finding an Ironman book next to the Captain America book. Life doesn't get much better than that. At least not for a 3 year old. He carried his books into the ice cave where he made friends with a boy in a Buzz Lightyear shirt. I went and found his other request. A book with a picture of Darth Vader.  We left and walked to Danny's office to share our treats with him. William sat on the front of the stroller, holding his Ironman book, and leaning back on to Annie, making her giggle like crazy. So cute.
At Dad's office, William was so excited to share his treats with Dad. It's been a while since we'd been in, so most people in the office had never seen Annie walk around. It is pretty amazing how much they change in a few months time.
After naps we dropped Annie off to play with our neighbor Jane until Dad got off work, because William and I got to go to a movie to celebrate Auntie Char's birthday! We went with Grandma, Char, cousin Max, and Aunt Andrea. Annie does NOT like to be left with people, and was pretty upset about us leaving her. William, on the other hand, was bouncing off the walls with excitement.

He was on the edge of his seat most of the time (when he wasn't leaning back with one leg crossed over his other knee like he always does). When the movie started, the played a little commercial for the sound system. He kept saying, "wow!" and "cool!!" over and over. He would take the drink, put the straw to his mouth and just sit there, so into the movie that he'd forget to drink. Every once in a while he would go to ask me something, and forget he needed to be quiet, but quickly caught himself. And best of all, during the final round of the scare off, he was just so dang excited that he leaped from his seat, and jumped up and down cheering. It was so great. Nothing better than to go to a movie with an excited 3 year old!

 After the movie we walked past a big advertisement for the Pixar movie Planes that comes out later this summer. There was a big pitter that he just couldn't get enough of. The rest of the night William talked about getting away from the lady at the library, and scaring all the grown ups. So funny that those are the two parts that he remembers most. I was nervous he'd be afraid, but pushed my hand away when I put it on his back to see how he was doing. William is at such a curious and adventurous stage of life. It was so fun to see him in the theater setting.
Ann of course forgave me for leaving her, and ran to me when we went to meet them on their walk outside. She's such a sweet heart. Poor girl is teething, so she has been drooling like crazy. But she's so happy, and so silly. And she can scream with the best of them. I just tell myself that at least they are happy screams.

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter last week. We had Easter dinner at my parents, and then Monday night with Danny's family. His parents had been in Thailand and Japan for a month, so it was also a welcome home party. They spoiled us all with fun gifts from their travels. I wish I had pictures of Monday night as well!

 I finally loaded these pictures on to the computer, and as I was looking at them, I was a little overcome with how blessed our family is. We have incredible family. Our parents are so supportive of us, and we have wonderful relationships with our siblings. William and Ann have fun cousins who they adore. We are grateful to live so close to most of them (and sad that we don't get to see some as much as we'd like!).

 As a side note, I have to show off this beautiful Easter dress my mom made for Ann. The smocking in it is incredible. Annie is one spoiled girl! (She loves the dress, and in church on Sunday decided she didn't want to crawl in it, and has been walking more full-time ever since.)

 Anyway, Danny and I have truly been feeling blessed as we've been talking about what healthy, happy, independent, strong-willed, silly children we have.  It is so fun to watch them learn and grow. Ann, lately, has had such a strong opinion on things. How she eats, what she wears, how we hold her, who holds her, and so on. William is such a kind boy (with a wild side, of course), and a fun big brother. We love our two goofballs.

 Anyway, after dinner at my parents William and Ann took advantage of the nice weather and spent the rest of the evening outside. The trampoline and the swings are two of their favorite places to play!

Big 1 year old!

A few weeks ago our baby girl turned 1, and what an amazing 1 year old she is! It amazes me how much personality this girl has. She loves clothes, purses (or buckets, or anything else you can fill and empty and carry around on your arm), shoes, hats (putting them on and taking them off. Not a big fan of wearing them around), but at the same time loves cars and airplanes, and wearing William's jetpack.

My mom made her a green dress a month or two ago, and when we tried it on her, she got SO mad when we tried to take it off. So we put it back on her and she wore it around the rest of the day. Then a few weeks ago we saw a cute little green with white polkadots raincoat at the store, and decided to try it on her. Whether or not we were going to get it didn't matter. She was NOT letting us take that thing off of her. We had to cut the tags off of her to check out. I guess green is an appropriate favorite color for a St. Patrick's Day baby!

Spring and summer are going to be so fun with this girl. She loves being outside, eating dirt and woodchips, and walking around. She's been taking steps for over a month now, but has just recently voluntarily started to walk around. So cute to watch those wobbly legs.

She loves to eat. She loves it when I put a bowl full of anything in front of her, and hand her the spoon. It's so nice to be able to give her the freedom to feed herself. She gets quite a bit in her mouth successfully, but is also a bathe-me-after-every-meal type gal.

She signs really well. She started just before she hit ten months, her first signs were all finished and drink. In addition to those she now does eat, bath, banana, and a few others. She's not too big on words yet, but kinda says "dada," and she can tell you what cows and monkeys (mostly Curious George. She's a big fan) say. It's pretty darn cute.

She is a good "helper", always helping me "sort" laundry, load and unload the dishwasher, and put toys away. Basically it's really hard to get anything down with her around, cause she always wants to do things her way.

Her favorite books are Curious George board books, and she loves flipping through paper books as well.

She loves William and loves to be with him, and wants whatever he wants. Which is pretty sweet, but a little hard for a big brother who loves his independence.

I absolutely love the way her hair curls out around her ears and along the back.

She folds her arms for prayers, and every once in a while during a meal, she'll fold her arms and mumble a few sounds and keep eating. It's pretty darn cute!

I can't remember her stats from the Drs appointment. I know she was 19 lbs 2 oz (17th for weight) and was in the 60th for weight. She's so busy, it's no wonder she is on the low end for weight.

She is a momma's girl, which is kinda fun, but is also going through some intense separation anxiety issues. But once she warms up she is pretty social!

She's such a happy girl and has brought so much joy into our home and family. We love our sweet girl!

The boy is 3

Like every mother who posts about their child completing another birthday, I'm blown away by this boy turning 3 (a few weeks ago). He is such a good kid, and it was so fun to spend time with him during the week of his birthday, celebrating him. He had a week of celebrations, having cake and ice cream with my family one Sunday, and with Danny's the next, opening presents on the morning of his birthday, a party with some of his friends on his birthday. He loved every minute of it. He is so good with sharing (most) everything with Ann, so it was nice for him to be able to be in the spot light for a bit!

 We really love William to pieces. He makes us laugh with his silly faces, and funny ideas. He is so thoughtful, and shares so well.

He is so good at saying please and thank you, and gives great hugs and kisses. I need to savor that while it lasts!

He doesn't really care what he's wearing except for what is on his feet. He loves his cowboy boots and fireman rainboots (from Halloween a year and a half ago. I'm not quite sure how he still gets them on his feet). He loves dress ups, especially super heroes and Captain Hook. He still loves to dress up like Buzz, too.

His favorite books right now are Curious George. He asks to read them every night.

The bike he got for his birthday is probably one of the BEST things we could have gotten him. He LOVES to ride it anywhere we'll let him. Can't wait for warmer weather! (sidenote: we had to get him a helmet because the one sized age 5+ was too small!). Besides riding his bike, he still loves all things cars (sometimes I feel like I have cars coming out of my ears), Toy Story, anything fire department related, pirates, and superheros. He has a tender side, too, and takes good care of Annie's dolls!

He's still our tall boy, in the 90th percentile for height, and the 70-something for weight.

We have been so blessed to have such a healthy happy boy!