Sesame Street Birthday Dinner

Our middle guy turned 2 today. TWO! It doesn’t seem possible that he’s already two and yet I can hardly believe we’ve only known him for two years.

I’m hoping to get a little post put together next week highlighting Charlie’s current sayings and antics, but for now, I wanted to share the family dinner we had for him this past weekend.

Charlie loves anything and everything Sesame Street, so I fixed some simple appetizers in the spirit of Sesame Street!

Enjoying his dinner

Love this expression

Mmmm… celery!

Opening a gift

“Cookie” Cake

Happy Birthday Charlie!

Our 4th of July…

half a month late!

We had a very special 4th of July, spend with both sets of grandparents! Sorry, for the millions of pics, but these are basically the only pictures I’ve taken all summer, and they all happened on one day!

Me and my daddy.

I got the boys little flags to take to the picnic at Mike’s parent’s church, and they were a big hit.

As were the carnival games set up there…

and the fire truck…

and the homemade ice cream!

Then we settled into our chairs for the fireworks display. Jack LOVED each and every burst of fireworks!

Charlie fell asleep just before they began, and of course, woke when they started. He just watched them quietly, never even flinching for the loudest ones!

Jack wore his daddy’s hat and ran around the grass, shouting “Happy New Year!” Yeah, he was a little confused.

And this pretty much sums up how we all felt at the end of the night. What a great 4th!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I turned 25- a quarter of a century! I'll have to say that my 25th year was the best one yet- so many exciting adventures, not the least of which was becoming a mom. Apparently, though, no one gave Jack the memo that today way my birthday... he was a crabby pants all day! At church this morning I directed the bells. Unfortunately, I had to leave with Jack just after the entrance hymn... so I missed the bulk of the service.

This evening we went to Allison and Kenny's and Allison fixed fajitas- my favorite! I always get them in restaurants because I say they're too much of a pain to fix at home. But Allison didn't seem to mind making them and they were yummy. Above are a few pics of the kiddos tonight. Our camera battery died before cake time, but Kennison decorated a lovely cake for me. You can click here to see a picture of the beautiful cake. For my birthday, I asked Mike if we could go have professional family pictures taken of the three of us. So, now that Jack's hair has been cut, we can put that on the calendar! Here's to another great year!

***UPDATE*** It's now almost 11 pm and Jack is up. We finally gave up comforting him in his room and let him come downstairs for a bit. Apparently Jack wanted to spend a bit more of my birthday with me.

Our 4th in Pictures (a week later)

Since my mom has been in town, you'd think I have more time to blog and post pics, but if you guessed that, you'd be wrong. We've been unpacking and arranging and hanging pictures, etc. Then this past week was my camp show and Jack was sick... ick! So FINALLY, here are pictures from our 5th of July party, which was a blast!

Some camp friends in a rousing game of bocce ball

Jack and Gigi

Jack and Grandpa

Gigi and Kennison

Action Shot

Look, Mom! Just one hand!

Jack in his cute hat from Nana Shelley

Dad grilling

Kennison at Jack's new picnic table

Me and Kennison decorating cupcakes

More St. Patty's Day Pics

I asked Kennison to show me her shirt. She followed directions, but now you can't read it. It says, "Kiss me I'm Irish." They drew green freckles on her at daycare. You know those Vietnamirish with the green freckles... :-)

Our dinner consisted of beer cheese soup, honey lemon chicken and potatoes, Irish wheat bread, green beans, and a apple blackberry cake. Yum-o!

Jack was in good spirits. Note the change in outfit. Yeah, Mom was lovin' that diaper!

Jack earlier in the day (in his FIRST outfit of the day) in the green chair!

Kennison is 2!

Our niece, Kennison turned 2 today, and Allison and Kenny did it up in style. (See the above picture of her saying "I'm two!" with her fingers.) We had a wonderful time at her party! Jack seems happiest these days when Mommy is holding him, so I did just that for many of the hours, wearing him in his snuggli, and Kennison was kind enough to "even me out" by hanging out on my back for a bit.

It was great to see everyone in the Friedrich family and some of Allison and Kenny's friends. Check out the picture of the Friedrich men and their boys (and little lady). It's amazing to me looking at the picture how similar many of their features are!

After the party we decided to go for a walk. Today was the first decent weather day in FOREVER- the sun was shining at it made it above 50 degrees. Wahoo! Unfortunately, by the time we decided to walk, got our stuff together, got the kids bundled up, in their car seats, and out in the strollers, it was cold because the sun had gone down. So... we made it to the corner- then turned around. Jack looks very grumpy in the picture because I kept covering up his arms which he hates. I just didn't want him to get cold! Oh, well, maybe next time our walk will work out better!