Adam's Last Day of School

I'll get to Andrew's birthday later, but I wanted to post pictures of Adam's last day of school first.

Last Thursday was Adam's last day of school. We dropped him off at 9 and then Dan, Andrew, and I came back about 10:30. His teachers handed out a "scrapbook" from the year to each of the students and gave them a stuffed graduation dog. The scrapbook is really neat. They had him sign his name in Sept, Jan, and May, so you can see the progression in his writing. He drew a self-portrait the first day of school and then again later in the year. They even had his weight and height from Sept. and May (he gained 2 pounds and grew 2 inches).

After each child had their book, the students got to throw the dogs in the air instead of a graduation cap. Of course, the boys really got into that. They threw them multiple times. Then, we gave the teachers their gifts informally and slowly filed down to another room where they had finger foods (that parents brought in) for all the kids and their families from all three of the 4 year old classes. I was really quite sad that we weren't going to see his teachers anymore (I really like them), so I tried to get Adam to go over and say, "bye" again before we left. He ran over and yelled, "Bye", and then ran off. Each of them grabbed him and made him hug them, though. Anyway, here are some pictures...

Oh, and the first 2 pictures are of his Friday teachers and one of his best friends at

school.

Birthday Cakes...

Here's a preview of Andrew and Tammy's birthday cakes. For Adam's 2nd birthday, I made him an Elmo cake...but it didn't seem appropriate for Andrew, since he doesn't really watch Sesame Street. However, he LOVES Boz. So, about a month ago, I looked online for some ideas to make a Boz cake. I found a person who had made a cake by free-handing the frosting on the top of the cake. I am by no means artistic, so I knew I couldn't do that, but I remembered that my mom showed my mom's club how to do a buttercream transfer last fall. So, I printed off a coloring book picture of Boz and created it. I thought it turned out really cute...and Andrew loved it. He kept saying, "Boz!". Don't look too close at the picture, though, since I didn't do a great job of keeping the chocolate crumbs out of the frosting :-).

Now, we kind of decided last minute to celebrate Tammy's birthday also, so Julie hadn't really thought about what she was going to do. She asked Tammy on Saturday what kind of cake she wanted, and she said she wanted a turtle cake (since she's going to get a turtle sandbox on her birthday). So, I looked online and found an idea to use a Pyrex bowl for the body and cupcakes for the head and feet. It turned out really cute...I couldn't believe we pulled it off! I freehanded the outline for the turtle's shell using the example on the internet, and two of Julie's daughters did the rest of the decorating...it makes it a lot easier to do cakes when you have daughters to help!

I'm also going to include a picure of Andrew "blowing" out his candles. More pictures later!

Happy Memorial Day!

I wish everyone a happy Memorial Day today. Most importantly, we thanks those who have served our country!

We had a wonderful day today...we had one of Dan's sisters and her kids and Dan's parents over today for the usual Memorial Day fare...hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips! We had a lot of fun and celebrated Andrew and Tammy's birthdays. I have lots of pictures to share...but I probably won't have them edited today...maybe tomorrow. Also, Adam had his last day of school on Thursday, so I have some pictures from that also.

Our Anniversary Trip, Part II

Here are some pictures from the Little Pioneer Village. Like I said in an earlier post, they had an area where the little kids could play where they didn't have to worry about breaking anything. They had a pioneer house with dishes and food, as well as a barn. You could "milk" the cow and collect the eggs in a basket. They also had a wagon that you could drive or ride in. Adam enjoyed playing in the house. There was a big black pot that he kept putting vegetables in and "cooking" in the fireplace. They had some girls in the house dressed up in costumes who were playing with him. As we were leaving, he was calling one girl his friend and said he wanted to invite her over to his house so they could play house. Luckily, she wasn't within earshot (and she wasn't a little girl). He has a habit of doing this when we are at random places playing...like McDonalds. He'll come up to me and loudly ask if his new "friend" (the one he just met a half hour ago) can come over to his house. Of course, this friend and his mom can usually hear this :-). Or he'll ask if he can go over to their house :-).

Anyway, Andrew was obsessed with the baskets and the eggs. He carried his basket everywhere, including into the house. He set it down for one minute and was very upset with a little girl started playing with it. He also loved to put it in the wheelbarrow and on the wagon. He had a hard time pushing the wheelbarrow at the beginning (it kept tipping over and his eggs would spill everywhere...to his consternation...because he felt that any kids who were helping him pick up eggs were "stealing" them), but he got the hang of it quickly.

Dan and I had fun...because we were able to sit down for a few minutes and watch.

Our Anniversary Trip, Part I

As I alluded to in my Mother's Day post, we had a great weekend. We left on Friday night and came home on Sunday. A couple of years ago (before Adam), I went on a weekend scrapbook retreat to this hotel. As I sat and enjoyed myself, I thought that Dan would really like it here. It is in a rural area with farm fields all around, and the hotel had a wonderful fireplace in the middle of the lobby (it was the winter). So, I convinced him to visit for our anniversary 4 years ago, and this was our 4th trip there. They now have an addition to the hotel with a pool and a wonderful gameroom with air hockey, ping pong, foosball, and a basketball shooting game. They also have a Village next door with historic houses from the area and a wonderful restaurant that is housed in a big barn that was moved from a nearby farm.

We had wonderful weather on Saturday for our visit to the Village, and the boys had a lot of fun. It was a "Day on the Farm" so they had lots of people in costume and lots of activities going on. They also have a Little Pioneer Village where the boys could play and not worry about ruining anything (I'm going to include pictures from there on a separate post, since there are so many). However, of these things to do, the boys favorite things to do were: for Adam - ride the train, play with the gravel in some of the roads, play in the Jail building (hopefully not a sign of things to come), play in the Little Pioneer Village, eat ice cream, and run ahead to the next activity. Andrew's favorite activities were to play with the gravel in the road, pull the wagon (but NEVER sit in it!), run after his brother, ride the train, play with the eggs in a basket in the wheelbarrow in the Little Pioneer Village, break (I mean play with) my sunglasses, and eat ice cream.

After the Village, since he missed his nap, Andrew had a bit of a meltdown during dinner. But, we did get to eat (me quickly before I took Andrew back to the hotel). Mmmm, the broasted chicken was good. Dan and I also got to watch plenty of old shows like Leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy on TVLand (since we don't have cable). Adam took a couple of dips in the pool (Andrew wasn't interested), and we hit the game room a couple of times. All in all, a good trip. OK, here's the million pictures! It looks like Adam wasn't there in most of the pictures...and that's because he wasn't...he was usually running ahead!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all you moms out there are enjoying your special day! I know I am... We went away for the weekend to celebrate both our anniversary, which was last week and Mother's Day. I'll post pictures of the Village that we visited in another post, but I wanted to post a couple of pictures of my day.

As soon as we woke up this morning, Adam wanted to give me my gift and cards...so since it was before showers, etc. I waited to take a picture of my gift until later. They got me a purse...it's really cute...it's almost as if I had picked it out myself :-). I'll post a picture of me holding my gift. I'm also going to include a picture of me and the boys...since that's the reason that I get to celebrate the holiday :-). Adam's being silly, as usual, and Andrew is trying to escape the picture (although you can't tell it...since he looks like an angel there).

Anyway, we ended up going to get some ice cream sundaes for "dinner" and they were giving out free single scoops to moms. I almost got an extra single scoop for the car-ride home (since Andrew was wearing half my sundae on his coat), but they had a coupon to get it on a return visit...so now we have an excuse to come again...not that we need it. It's usually calling our names after church on Sunday mornings! Anyway, I had a wonderful day...and I hope you did too!