The birthday weekend

Lucky Evan. He was able to celebrate his birthday twice :-) Once last weekend with his Daddy's sisters and once this weekend along with my birthday! We had a nice joint birthday party. I did have everything Cars themed again, but we split ideas for a cake. I ordered a Cars decorated Cold Stone Creamery Cake. All I can say is YUM! It was great!

It is the official start of my birthday week (which yes, I ripped from my cousin Jess, but seriously?! Who doesn't want a whole birthday week!) First: party! which was a Mexican fiesta and much fun. Second: presents.. an iPod touch, which I can tell, I love! Third - adult fun - aka.. time without kiddo conversation (get your mind out of the gutter!) Tim and I had a date night and went to Wicked and the Rock Bottom Brewery. It was awesome and fun. For the upcoming week? My first night of class, the kids at my parents since daycare is closed (which is sad, but good too. I have homework to do!) and Tim and I will enjoy another date night. Then, hopefully some shopping for me for a birthday present for myself!

Today we all had a great day. I started it out with some exercise and great conversation with a great friend. Then, we were outside... a lot! Tim was cleaning one garage, the kids and I were cleaning another. Let me tell you - they were great helpers! Evan was driving his little Lightning McQueen car all around, watering flowers, and Emma was helping me sweep. It is nice when they can contribute a bit to what is going on. This afternoon was the Packer game, which ended well!, and helping Tim wrap trees. That is a favorite yearly ritual that is enjoyed by all.

Let's see - back to the party. Here are some pictures of the weekend:

First, the party:

Evan after eating his cake. He loved it. It had a Lightning car and a Mater car on top that he could play with. He was in heaven.. and very, very messy.

One of his presents?? A Thomas the Train set that is an add-on set to the one Tim and I got him. He loved it and was carrying it around until someone would open it. He received more track from the Kelloggs also.



So, I ask you... how many people does it take to put together a train set?

The final product which Tim finished yesterday during the kids nap time:

Now, the problem is that it is sitting in my living room and basically takes up the whole space.

And some lovely flowers I received from my new group at work! How nice and what a great surprise! I have never had flowers delivered to me before.

I had a fun conversation with Emma yesterday morning about my birthday. We were sitting at the dinner table eating breakfast and she says out of the blue:

"You know, Mom, it isn't fair that you don't have presents to open because it is your birthday today." So, I tell her that I got to open up my presents the night before so it was okay. However, if she thinks it isn't fair, she should tell Daddy. (yes, maybe thinking I could get another present!) she responds "Well Mom, I did, but he said that you got to open them yesterday so you were fine." So, I ask her what she would buy me if she could pick out a present for me. "Mom, I would buy you a Barbie. A mermaid barbie!" Of course! I am not surprised at all that she would pick that out for me!

Here are some pics from today in the yard:

Tim and the kids on the lawnmower in our backyard.

A fun picture of Emma:

And Evan closely guarding the tool he uses to trim the trees. It was lost for a few weeks and he definitely missed it. Now he proclaims "Found it! Found it! Daddy!" as Tim found it in a bucket today when we were cleaning.

And Emma and Evan helping out...

And Emma annoying her brother and giving him a hug. She tends to love him too much. She likes to put her arms around Evan, hug him, or give him a kiss and he always shrugs her off or pushes her away. Actually, she may just do it to annoy him.

And Sage was there too.

Here is another adventure from the past weekend: Megans.

On our parsley plants in the herb garden, we have these unusual looking caterpillars. The kids love the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" so they are constantly looking at the caterpillars, picking them up, moving them, talking to them, whatever. We have tons of them on there - probably about 10 in total. So, we decided to put two of them in a jar and take care of them to see if we could see them turn into a butterfly or moth... whatever they are. The kids were so excited at their new pets and Emma was constantly carrying them around. Evan is always saying "Megum!! Megum!!" and wanting to carry them around also. All was good for 2 days. Then, yesterday it turned deadly.... We brought both Megans outside to feed them and forgot about them. They were exposed in their jar for about 20 hours and they subsequently died due to exposure (or so I think). Emma was very sad, but what can you do? Our fault for not being good caterpillar owners.





A close up of the two Megans. Look closely one above her hand and one below.

And finally, three pictures from tonight. My sister and I shared babysitting this weekend so Tim and I could go out for my birthday and she could enjoy a night out with her hubby. All the kids were at our house playing outside and were having a ball. It was so much fun to watch and listen. They were climbing up and down the slides, running into each other, doing slide trains with each other and having a great time. It is moments like this that I love. No, my kids don't have the life I did when I was young. My Mom stayed home as did my aunts and we played together with the cousins all the time. I was not in daycare, but my kids are. However, when I see them play and laugh and have a great relationship with their cousins, I realize that they are still okay. They are fine and developing normally and have a great life. They don't have the idyllic farm life that I had, but they still have it very good. Not quite Norman Rockwell, but pretty damn close in my mind. So, when I think that we should move closer to my job as it would make things easier at times, it is nights like this when I know I never could.