Ethan turns 4!

We woke up early on Ethan's 4th birthday and headed to the best place around here to get donuts!

 Ethan of course went for the vanilla sprinkles donut, and told me that Lincoln really wanted the vanilla with coconut sprinkles. To me, it looks like Lincoln wanted the entire case. Do you see how he's protecting his bounty?

 We got the donuts home intact (Ethan held them on his lap for the ride home, so that really is an accomplishment), and Ethan got to blow out his candle on top.

 Lincoln wasted no time in devouring his donut. 

 Although both of the boys seemed to prefer the others' donut, so we practiced our sharing and everyone was happy.

 Everyone wasted little time talked and mostly just cramming.

 These were my donut selections. Oh, anything with almond paste will make me swoon. I will have you know though, that Ethan enjoyed the old fashioned donut for lunch though. Breakfast and lunch of champions, right? Maybe that's why he didn't take a nap later...

 This is how he felt after eating the donut, I didn't think the "crash" would happen quite so suddenly.

 He made a quick recovery though once he noticed the pile of goods, just waiting to be opened.

 The rest of the day, I dedicated to making this masterpiece! I am very proud of my first solo-attempt at working with fondant. Never a good idea to do in a pinch, but I certainly am not going to make this kind of an effort just for the sake of practicing, it was far too much work!

 That night we had a few friends over to enjoy an obstacle course.

 I was planning on having them hold hands as a train to get through, but decided they probably would enjoy just racing through better. I think themes can be a little too much effort sometimes. They sure are cute, but a lot of effort.

 I didn't get pictures of it, but we did have railroad tracks up to our door (made from duct tape) and a detour sign to lead them to the side gate. There there was a sign that said, "Give us your loudest CHOO CHOO and the conductor will open the gate." Then where they came in, there was a railroad crossing sign. 

 Dinner was fabulous! (I can say that, because John did all the BBQ-ing) He made tri-tip, hot dogs, and grilled corn, and Jane cut up the fruit for fruit salad, and I opened the container of potato salad. I was too exhausted after all the cake-making. 

Evidently red is the best color for blondes. Maybe there was a little more theme-ing going on!

 Then it was present time! I was amazed at all the kids' willpower in looking at the pile of presents.

 And if there was any theme at all to his presents, it went with the party theme! I don't think we need any more Thomas paraphernalia.

 And he loved every minute of it!

 The boys were all so excited to see all the train and car things! Grammie Pammie sent a whole package of goodies, with a new coat, blanket, and lots of cars things.

 Jane brought about a million presents for Ethan to open, including a huge art easel with a giant roll of paper along with markers, paint and chalk. She also got some super cute dress-up clothes, including a bee costume for Lincoln. I'll have to get pictures of it all sometime.

 The big present from us was this super sweet orange "specialized" bike. Ethan was so excited and wanted to ride all around from then on.

 We finally persuaded him to get off the bike for the cake. 

Here is a somewhat extended version of our Happy Birthday song!

 Ethan got a drivers suit of Lightning McQueen from Papa Rex and LeeAnn. He was so excited about it that he wanted to wear it to bed that night, even though it was about a hundred degrees in his room.

UPDATE: Jane got a great picture of the easel in use later this month. He is starting to love coloring! I love hearing him explain what he is drawing!

Ethan is one spoiled boy, we were amazed at all the generosity of everyone. I don't think we need to buy any presents for Christmas now, there isn't anything he could need!

Ethan goes to Preschool

I cannot believe it! My little boy is old enough for preschool now! He has been so excited to start school, he's asked more about school in the past 4 months than he has asked about his birthday in the past week.

 Such a handsome big boy!

 He definitely will have the coolest backpack around, so that will give him a head start. 

 Mrs. Perona is so awesome! She had some new friends in the side yard to meet all the kids as they came in. Ethan went straight from the bunnies, "Poopsie" and "Sweet Pea," inside to put his backpack away. He was totally fine. I, myself, wasn't even prepared to get a little teary-eyed. But if you know anything about me, then you will realize just getting teary-eyed and not having full blown tears is a pretty big accomplishment. Good luck little man!

Happy Labor Day!

John did what a lot of people don't do on Labor Day and that is, WORK! We were lucky enough though that he was able to finish a little bit early so we could still enjoy some fun times with friends. We got to visit what we call Camp Webster and do all the fun things that that entails. 

Anthony brought a shotgun, so the big boys spent some time shooting clay pigeons.

 The kids spent a lot of time on the beach in the mud/sand,

 Or if you look very closely you can see the kids on the zip line. Who has a zip line on their property? Geniuses I tell you. Or is it Genii? So much fun!

 We had some wagon rides.

 And spent lots of time on the slide going into the river from the dock,

 and of course, what everyone does on the Delta, boating!

 Of course, the food couldn't be left out. The Hiatts converted us all to veggie stix. They certainly must have changed them, because I remember them tasting like styrofoam, and they pretty much just tasted like potato chips -- although maybe I was really hungry ;) 

 Look how cute their family is!

 These guys love the camera, and wagon rides.

 Janelle took us on the "Jungle cruise,"

 where there was a little time for more posing,

 But most importantly there was time to go FAST!

Thank you Websters for inviting us all out to the camp! And thanks VanDykes, Hiatt's and Tuckers for all the entertainment! What a great way to spend an evening!

Truckee Weekend

We have mastered the art of vacationing this summer. I think everyone at our church thinks we have quit entirely; we have been gone so much this summer. I think I was here a total of 4 Sundays this whole summer. We just know how to play. We went straight from our Monterey week to a weekend in Truckee with 3 other families. 

The night that John and I were in charge of dessert, we made s'mores with the Rossi's traveling fire pit (Don't you think the Pioneers would be jealous?)

 Another family shot. See? I wasn't kidding about making a real effort here. I need options when someone asks for a family shot, dang it.

 The kids all loved roasting their own marshmallows.

 And only some of them caught on fire. Strike that. Quite a few did. But because I'm a total square, I made the kids eat their burnt marshmallows. Dude, we only brought one bag for 24 of us. Sheesh. Besides, kids hardly have any taste buds anyway.

 But the dream of it all was that we brought multiple kinds of candy to put on the s'mores. Sure, we had the Hershey's chocolate, but we also brought Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (my fav), and Junior Mints (John and E's favs). Dream come true. Although, I do have to say that with the thickness of the Reeses Cup, it really works better if you let the cup melt a little before consuming. It takes a whole lot of willpower, but if I can manage for a few minutes, ANYone can!

 The house we stayed at was my former boss's boss, the head honcho at my old work and it was supremely nice! I think they just finished building it this year. In fact, they just finished the plumbing in the bathroom downstairs the morning of the day that we got there. We were so lucky to be there!

 We rotated breakfast, dinner, and dessert, and I think it ended up working out just fabulously! Sure the fridge was crowded, but I think it would have been worse had we all been preparing our food separately!

 Lincoln decided he was not a fan of his high chair anymore this trip. Maybe all 15 of those other kids running around got him thinking, "why am I the idiot strapped in this chair?" and he certainly revolted.

 Overall, the kids got along fairly well. I think with that many kids and that kind of chaos all day long, the kids are certainly going to get overwhelmed. But they stayed cute for most of the weekend.

 We had two trips to the beach over the long weekend, and the second beach, Sand Harbor ended up being our favorite.

 Just look at this view! And those rocks across the way provided some excellent entertainment for people from our group to swim over and jump off.

 We spent most of the time just digging in the sand and swimming in the chilly water.

 My boys are smiling anytime they are dirty.

 Another trip we took was a little hike down into Emerald Bay. Yes, it is a little hike as in duration (only 1 mile), but as far as difficulty, and difficulty for a 6-month prego lady, it was quite the treacherous terrain. That hill was wicked steep. Up at the top of the hill (To clarify -- you start at the top, hike down, then hike back up), they had some fantastic rocks that Ethan loved to climb to his hearts content and jump off.

 I love that his eyes are completely clamped shut in this picture.

 Lincoln even got his climb on. Good thing we brought the Keens. Those shoes stick to everything.

 We waited up at the top for the rest of the folks to get ready to hike down, so we spent some time taking pictures.

 We did eventually reach the bottom though and got to enjoy some fabulous views along the way.

We even stopped to each some lunch and listen to the beginning of the tour guides' schpiel. 

Then we went on a little side hike until we realized that we couldn't climb up the steps with our stroller. So we had another little photo shoot while we waited.

 And thank goodness we got a family shot too!

 Then we hiked our way back to the stop taking FREQUENT breaks! It was so steep we made Ethan get out and help push too. Character building is our top priority around here, people!

 A view on the way up. If you look very closely you can see the little stone castle built out on the rock for tea parties.

 Looks like we might have made Lincoln stay in the stroller a little too much today. Just look how happy he is to be running around.

 Back at the cabin we enjoyed some relaxing time in the hammock. What, Ethan, are you not relaxed? 

 And of course, took some group shots in front of the cabin.

 Including some girl shots. (Ahem, I may or may not have just pinched April's behind in this photo, yep, April, IT WAS ME!)

 But before we had to leave, Ethan spent some time jumping out some energy.

Definitely a weekend well spent with friends. Thank you Jacobs, Rossis and Dolls! and Thank you Hogans for letting us use the castle!