A Whisk or a Sword?

You decide...

Happy Birthday, Papa

We hope you have a great day!

AJ's Corner

AJ has discovered a new favorite spot in the house. It's in a corner of the kitchen and he loves it. He will take toys and stuffed animals to this corner and just hang out and play. I love it. Since it's in the kitchen I can keep a close eye on him, and he's not then always on top of me while trying to cook dinner, unload the dishwasher, etc. Tommy has even joined him sometimes to play in the corner. Here are a few pictures.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to the three men in my life. I can't imagine a day without you three. You make me laugh, you make my cry, you make me feel like the luckiest mommy and wife around. I love you three so much.

Tommy's Birthday Party

This year we held Tommy's birthday party at the carousel in downtown St. Joe. This was such a great idea! We did this on a Sunday afternoon and while the carousel was open to the public, it was not crowded at all. We had our own party room right next to the carousel. We had cake and opened presents and then headed to the carousel for a few rides. For the first ride, they announced Tommy's birthday and played happy birthday while the kids were riding. I packed up my camera at this point and totally forgot to take pictures of them on the carousel, but did snap a few photos during the first part of the party. Tommy and AJ had a wonderful time. AJ has a tendency to always want to keep up with the big kids. It was funny to see him running around the carousel with all the other kids laughing and smiling. It was truly a good time.

The birthday hippo. This used to be downtown with all the zoo animals.
Great way to reuse it!

One more shot of the cake before the deconstruction!

AJ checking out the gifts

All the kids!
We hope you had the most wonderful birthday week, Tommy! We love you.

Toy Story on Ice

We surprised Tommy with tickets to see Toy Story on Ice. We didn't tell him until we arrived at the United Center. He was so excited! The show was so much fun. Tommy's favorite part of the show was when Zurg and Buzz battled. AJ was amazed by the whole show. He loved it. We were in the third row, so we could see all the characters very well. AJ would point and giggle every time Woody would skate by. He is AJ's favorite. Chris and I enjoyed the show too! It was a lot of fun and makes us so excited to get back to Disney World this summer!

The boys and me before the show

An appearance by Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy before the show!

Toy Soldiers!

Slinky Dog

The Potato Heads

Bullseye and Cowgirl Jessie

ZURG!

Buzz's entrance

The battle!

Woody!

The Aliens!

Lotso Huggin Bear

Tommy's Birthday Cake

Tommy requested a Toy Story birthday cake and wanted all the guys on it. So we set out to plan this cake. To fit everyone on the cake, we thought it best to make a three tier cake, this was fitting since there are three Toy Story movies. Each layer would represent one of the movies, more or less.

This cake took me about 16 hours to make over the course of three days. I had limited time due to the boys. So I made the marshmallow fondant during nap times. I personally think marshmallow fondant is much tastier than regular fondant. You can also store marshmallow fondant in the fridge for several weeks, so this worked well for me as I couldn't do this whole cake all at once. Once the fondant was finished I spent one afternoon baking all the different cakes. Then it was the assembly of the cake which took about 4 hours and some help from Chris. There was powdered sugar everywhere! I think we ended up scrubbing the floor at least 4 times to get the stickiness off! Well, I think it was worth it because the cake turned out awesome. Here are a few pictures.

Blizzard 2011

We woke up last Wednesday not knowing what to expect. When we looked outside, some spots in the yard at a couple inches, while some drifts were more than 2 feet! It was complete white out conditions and as luck would have it, we had a huge drift right at the door where the dogs go out to go to the bathroom! Here they are trying to find a way out!

Quality Reading Time

There are just no words to describe these pictures...

Whack-A-Mole!

The evenings in the winter can drive someone crazy...at least when you have two very energetic boys! We have been trying to find fun ways to pass the time after dinner to bedtime, because sometimes it seems like that time can go on forever when you are cooped up in the house! We have done puzzles, colored, practiced writing, and cutting. Some of these things are hard for AJ to do at his age, so that's another challenge to keep them both involved in activities. The other night I pulled out whack-a-mole for the boys. AJ has always enjoyed watching Tommy play, but never really got how to "hit" the moles. When now that he is approaching 15 months, things have changed! He took that whacker and whacked those moles! It's so fun to see them playing together. I know they both enjoy spending time together and it's just fun to see as they both grow the things that they can start doing together...even whacking moles!

Why not use hands too?

Happy Snowed In Birthday!

So Tommy's birthday fell on the day of the terrible blizzard! It's always something with a February birthday! We had so many plans for the day, and all had to be postponed due to the weather. Luckily I hadn't told him any plans because I knew in the back of my mind that this blizzard might happen, and sure enough it did. I felt bad that we had to postpone everything, even going out to dinner. As a mother, you always want everything for your kids to put just perfect, but somethings you have to learn are just out of your control. We had plans to go to Silver Beach Pizza, our favorite pizza place, but since we couldn't make it there, we brought the pizza parlor to our house. I went out and bought all the makings for a bacon pizza! That was Tommy's request. We put on Italian music and cooked together. Tommy had a blast making and tasting all the ingredients that went into his birthday pizza. I also learned a great way to make pizza sauce, which I will post on our food blog.

We ended our fun family birthday party with Buzz Lightyear rocket ship cake! What more could a boy ask for? Even though plans had to change, we all had a great time and Tommy had a wonderful birthday. He has no idea what's in store for him this weekend...Toy Story 3 on ice...stayed tuned!

Big pillow Buzz

Rolling out the dough!

Tossing the dough...

and not catching the dough!

Tommy Turns Four!

Happy birthday, Tommy! We can't believe you are four today, what a big boy! The time has gone by so fast. We are so proud of the young man you have become. You are such a smart, kind, and loving child. Not to mention you challenge us every step of the way too! You make us laugh and you melt my heart every time you put other first. Happy birthday to our Tommy Boy!

Enjoy the look back over the years.

We love you so much!