Luke's 7th Birthday

Luke had a Mad Science birthday party. It was a lot of fun to watch Luke help the Mad Scientist leader do fun science experiments and learn while having fun.



She made a playing card turn from a 6 to a 7.



Doing some experiments with Luke. His Mad Scientist name was Kaboom! She called him that throughout the party.









Making his silly putty. All the kids got to make/shake their own silly putty to take home.





Opening gifts. He looks so happy in this picture.



Getting ready to blow out the candles of his volcano cake.







At the end of the party, we exploded some diet coke by dropping mentos into the 2 liters. Each child got to take home a 2 liter and roll of mentos so they can make a big mess at home, too.



Happy Birthday to my sweet, smart, fun, loving, incredible boy. He made me a Mom on February 27, 2004 and changed my life for the better. I love you, sweet boy!

Green

Spring. Oh, Spring. Please be here to stay.

More Outside

Over the weekend, it was warm enough to "wash" the car. Maiya really enjoyed her bubbly sponge.

Brother Love

I hope they always love each other like they do now.

Parks

The weather has finally started to make a turn for the BETTER, so we have been taking advantage of it with a lot of outside play and trips to different parks.

My three cuties hanging out on a tree.



Happy Evan.



Luke never stops moving!



Boys like sticks.





Cute little pose.



Maiya is happy climbing up and down the stairs.

18 month well visit

Maiya had her well visit today. She is growing and doing well.

Since she has finally started walking, she is going down on the weight scale a little bit. That is exactly what the boys did - they plumped up for the first year and then when they started walking around and moving more, they dropped a little on the charts. She is still in the 5-10% weight range, so she's not too tiny! And, she is 31 inches tall, which is in the 25-50%.

Overall, she's going well and charmed the socks off of all of the nurses at the office. That's my girl.

Sounds and Words

Recently, Maiya has finally started copying some of the sounds we make. She will say "nii nii" when we say "night night." She will say "mamamama" if we say it first. Same with "dadada."

I've been trying to get her to connect certain sounds with certain things. I'll say "pa, pa, paci" when I give her the pacifier before she gets into bed. Or, I'll say, "Sh, sh, shoe" when we're putting on shoes.

This week, she finally said, "pa" when I showed her the pacifier! And, today, she brought me her shoe and said "sssssssss." I think we've had a break through! I hope more real words follow soon!

Random Pictures

It is getting warmer, so we cranked up the grill last weekend. Dan and Evan were sporting their manly aprons.



We found a cool motorcycle when we were shopping. So, of course, we took a picture.



Maiya has discovered the fun that comes with riding in the car with the windows rolled down. She has recently gotten her first ride in Daddy's car (her carseat is usually in the van). And, when we were driving through our neighborhood, I put the windows down and she thought the wind was very fun.

This one is blurry, but I love her expression.



It's a little too windy, Mom.

Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day by making and decorating a heart shaped cake.





Happy boys with their cake.



Giving each other some love on the official day of love.



And, our littlest Valentine was super cute sporting a new pink dress and leg warmers with hearts on them. I think she knew she looked cute.







The look on her face in this picture made me fast forward about 14 years and I saw teenage Maiya giving me her "diva" face.



Cute little heart legs.



Happy LOVE day!!

Valentine's

Aren't these Valentine's the cutest things you ever have seen? Like all good ideas, this one was stolen from HERE.

I took the boys outside and took their picture with their hand in a fist and sticking their arm out. I added a little photoshop action with the "Happy Valentine's Day" and "From, Kid Name" wording. We then printed them as a 4x6 photo, and bought a bag of 88 cent heart suckers. We came home, cut a small slit in the top and bottom of the kid's hand, and inserted the sucker. I added a piece of tape on the back to secure the sucker since they would be handled a lot before they made it to their destination (classmate cubbies).



As you can see, they are super cute (cute kids help)! If doing it again, I'd get Evan to hold his arm out to the side a little more so that the sucker wrapper didn't cover his face.

All Aboard!

Evan is our current household train conductor.

First, he'll get out a ticket.



He'll punch your ticket.



Then, you can come aboard!