Precious Moments

Colin and I don't get a whole lot of time with our boys. During the week we see them for a few hours each night before they have to go off to bed. Colin and the boys love to play this game where they get on his back and he screams "aaaarrrr" like he's some kind of monster. They just love it, and all of the other games he plays with them. It's pretty rough play so I'm usually just watching and laughing. I caution them a lot but we haven't had any stitches or broken bones yet (knock on wood) so I guess they're okay.

The boys each have a set of "super hero" jammies. They are the first ones they wear each week. They just can't wait to put them on. Ryan loves to play super heroes and usually chooses Iron Man, Super Man, or Spider Man. Evan usually has to be a bad guy. Daddy likes to be Wolverine and I'm either Poison Ivy, Nice Poison Ivy, or Cat Woman. He is so funny!

Ryan got an awesome tool set from his girlfriend Rylee for his birthday. He loves to watch Bob the Builder. Here he is one night dressed up in his gear watching TV. Such a funny little guy. Colin says these pictures will be nice blackmail someday. :)

classroom

Walks-With-One-Shoe

Evan is in to the strangest little phase. He prefers ONE shoe on. He likes having his shoes on, I think because he knows that means we're going somewhere. However, I'll put both shoes on him and before you know it, he's got one shoe off. I took some pictures to prove it to you. Each one was taken on a different day and I think a different pair of shoes even. What a funny little guy. He's 18 months old today!
This is Evan right before nap-time (can you see it on his face?) wearing his Thomas the train tennis shoes.

This is Evan wearing his cute little Converse on our way to the Hobble Creek campground.
Notice he's holding the other shoe in his hand.

This is Evan wearing his Nerf sandals. I think these might be his favorite shoes but it's hard to say. He does love them all. Aren't his chubby little legs so cute?

This is Evan on Sunday. Pretty sure this was right before church because of course he won't keep them on long enough for us to get out the door!

I just realized this, but he's wearing the right shoe in each picture.

What funny little quarks do your children have?

Hobble Creek

Last weekend we took one last Summer fling and went camping at Hobble Creek. I took the boys and went with my parents. We had an okay time but I got sick on Monday and we had to bust outta there and run to the doctor's office. I think the boys had a fun time and my parents seemed to enjoy themselves as well.
Camping Gear + Kid's Gear

+ Two Car seats = I need an SUV. But I'm willing to wait until I have a mortgage.

Evan jumps in the stroller because he knows it's time for a walk.

Grandpa teaching Ryan how to build a wood tee pee for making fires.

Grandpa supervising the boys around the campfire. Evan only fell into the fire pit once. Luckily the fire wasn't actually going and I did catch him before he was down in there too far.

Ryan chillin by the campfire.

Evan chillin at the campsite. Ryan says "camp-set".

This is our little tent. I like the big one a lot more and so does Ryan, he informed me, but it worked well with just the three of us. It was a little bit cold and the nights were an adventure getting both boys to sleep. Evan had a hard time and cried a lot but Ryan did fine. The tent doesn't keep much noise out. The other campers kept me up quite a bit.

They added this sweet playground but I didn't take any pictures of the boys playing on it. Here they are swinging. Evan does surprisingly well on the "big" swing.

I let my dad play around with my camera and he showed me how to do a few things. I've always wondered how to take pictures like this of water. It took us some trouble-shooting but he eventually got this shot!

Grandpa and Evan.

Evan

My boys on our little camp-out.

My parents posing for a cute little picture.

Justin brought his unicycle. Evan just cracks up every time he gets on the thing.

To turn around, Justin jumps up in the air. Pretty cool how I got him mid-jump here eh?

So anyway, that was our little camping trip. No pictures of me what-so-ever. I need to do something about that. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the doctors said it was stomach flu.

Ryan turns 4

Ryan turned four this summer! He's getting so big and learning to be more independent. He loves to learn new things and has gotten in to some older types of toys and ways of playing as well.
I've never thrown Ryan a real Birthday Party so I decided that he was plenty big enough and that I'd do it this summer. It was really nice because I was able to do most of the planning and preparation before I had to back to work.
Ryan helped with the whole process. He got to choose who to invite, what kind of party it would be, where it would be at, what they would do. He even helped me with the invitations and soon he'll be helping with the Thank-you cards.
I took a lot of pictures and had a hard time leaving many of them out, so enjoy the post because there are a lot of pictures from that day.

Ryan and Evan waiting for the guests to arrive.

I got this sweet decoration box from "the-only-store-I'm-allowed-to-shop-at" and it was really nice because it had pretty much everything we needed and I didn't really have to put a whole lot of thought into it.

I loved these hanging decorations so much I left them up for a whole week after the party. Evan destroyed them of course.

Our table inside of the house. I should have put the gifts here so we had more room outside, but everything turned out okay.

I loved this Happy Birthday sign too. I left it up after I took everything else down.

This is the table outside where I put the pizza and food for everyone.

Evan with a noise maker. Luckily for me, the noise makers were actually really quiet.

Hi Evan!

Steph; Rylee's mom, our neighbor and friend, holding my niece Emry.

Kelly; my cute neighbor and friend, Sydney's mom.

Nana, chatting with the neighbors at the party.

Jess & Emry came to the party too.

Look

How

Fast my new camera can take pictures! I love it.

While we were waiting for all of the guests to arrive, we played this cute little cars game in the living room. The only real complaint I have about the day was that it was super windy. I hate eating outside when it is windy. Aren't his little girlfriends just the cutest things ever!

Maycee, Ryan, Sydney, and Rylee. Sorry Rylee you sorta got cut outta that one. oops.

The main event was the slip-n-slide. I got such a great deal on it since it was the very end of the season, but it took me four stores before I found one, and it was the very last one.

This is Curen.

This is Rylee. I think she was a bit leery of the water slide.

This is cute little Maycee taking her turn on the slip-n-slide.

curen

Sydney knows how these things work!

Ryan getting a bit adventurous with the slip-n-slide.

Charlie was a pro on the slip-n-slide.

After we ate pizza, we did the pinata. I love pinatas. I guess my second regret was that I didn't let the kids take a second whack before having them pull the strings. Anyway, they all got tons of candy and didn't complain a bit.

Here's Rylee taking a swing.

And Maycee.

Sydney

nice action shot of Curen

Look out man, that kid knows how to swing.

Oh and Evan had to take a turn too.

With the help of Grandma.

Charlie

So, I'd never seen this string thing before but basically you just let each of the kids grab a string and the bottom falls out. Supposed to be safer than hitting it with a baseball bat.

All of the kids eagerly getting their candy spoils from the pinata.

Evan's not sure what to do.

Colin was great at holding the pinata for the kids to hit.

Grandpa kept Emry in the shade. It was a nice hot summer day.

All of the kiddos at the party: Curen, Ryan, Charlie, Maycee, Rylee, and Sydney!

Oh yeah, two more! Emry and Evan on the ends.

Ryan opened his presents after the pinata. Everyone was so generous and Ryan absolutely loves all of his gifts. Even his new outfit Aunt Jessie. He really does love clothes as much as the rest of us do.

I got him a digital camera. Imagine that, your first digital camera at the age of 4! Fisher Price has a cute one. I was really wanting to get him one but didn't really decide until Stephanie told me she got Rylee one. I saw hers and my decision was made. He's really liked it too!

Funny thing was, the night before the party he was asking if he could use my new camera, and I was like, "no!". But I was thinking, "yes, I got him the right thing!"

Grandma got him a bike. He's so excited about it. He likes to ride it but unfortunately, I haven't really gotten much of a chance to let him ride it yet since we live on this stupid hill. He freaks me out when he rides because he's not too great with the breaks yet but I know he'll learn and I can chill out more about it.

Then it was time for cake, or cupcakes rather.

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Blowing out the candles.

The kids loved the cupcakes and they were so easy and super cute. Sam's club, if you were wondering- thanks Mom!

All of the kids trying to dig in and me trying to make them be polite. :)

And there you have it folks! A successful Birthday Party.