Garrett's 3rd birthday: Star Wars

Garrett's 3rd birthday was a smashing success, complete with a visit from Chewbacca!!  All the kids, even the 7 and 8 year olds were excited about it.  There was quite a range of kids, from 1 1/2 year old Rohi to 8 year old Conor.  They mostly ran around and played and had a great time.

 All Vader prep is complete.

 Ian and I were up until 2 am making the cake

 Ellie, Garrett and Eva from French preparing to meet the enemy

Heath and Garrett do battle 

 Pizza the Hutt is served

Chewbacca, my buddy!

Aaaah.  

Ian and Chewbacca (our friend and colleague, Mark Urban)

Garrett asked me later why Chewbacca didn't say happy birthday.  I told him it was because Chewbacca only speaks Kashyyyk, not English.  He was satisfied with that response. 

Ellie finally agreed to a hug

Applause from the friends

Lindsay takes a crack at it

Garrett and Eva from school, a new friend from his big boy class.

Vader head.

They finally got to eat the cake.  There was none left!

Summer Fun

Ellie Bean, before she strikes....

It has been incredibly hot here in Boise. But, we have a plastic pool so we know how to beat the heat.

I'm going to get you...you better run

Weeeeee

Might as well just do it myself since I'm going to get wet anyway

Maniacal laugh

Fun in a bucket

Kauai visit: Part 2

Dennis and his cousins who came to help him celebrate.

Relaxing on the lanai.  So glad to be in Kauai. 

Little G is happy playing with his toes.  Ian is happy being in Kauai.

Out for a fancy evening to celebrate Dennis' 70th and retirement.

Ellie Bean at the beach.  She had a lot of fun building sand castles with Daddy and Uncle Deedoot.

This is our girl who didn't like swimming.  By the end of a week she was spending most of her time in the pool.

Our friend J. Wayne and his daughter Jaycee.  I think she has already been on a surf board.

Kauai Pictures: Part 1

I love shave ice and ice cream. I love eating everyone elses ice cream too.

 The view from our porch.  As Ellie says: "Mommy, I miss Kauai house.  It's the best.  When can we move there?".

 Ellie having a coconut water.  She liked to lounge by the pool with her coconut water, a book and her towel, just like the other ladies.

Shave ice is the best! Especially with Pommi and Deedoot.

Eleanor's First Tea Party: 4 girls from her class and Lindsey from across the street came for fancy dress and tea

 Lindsey is 10 months old.  She loved following the big girls around and was having a great time just watching everyone. 

 Autumn says: "I'm not sure about this party thing, but okay, I'll give it a try"

 Anneka was lovely in a yellow dress.  Most of the girls double dressed up in Ellie's princess and fairy clothes so its hard to see what they actually wore.

 Lucy is in one of the fairy outfits.  She is 4.  She and Anneka have the same birthday.

 Andrea wore a beautiful orange hat with a bow (but only until she could take it off :-).  She is 3 1/2 like Ellie.

 Autumn says okay, now I'm having fun.  She is in one of Ellie's princess dresses too.

 Ellie says "Say Cheese".  She was having a grand time and had lots of fun showing everyone her room and her dress up stuff and her dress up shoes that make lots of noise when you walk in them.

 Everyone at the table, enjoying their cupcakes and brownies and tea sandwiches.

We had such a fun time.  Everyone brought some food which made it a lot easier on me.  I am sad that I did not get a picture of my mom's hat which was a multi colored floral number that was her mother's.  We hope we can do it again next year!

Snowy Day

Ellie and I played outside for a few hours while Garrett was napping. We had big plans: Snowman, snowpig, snowdog and snowcat. We were distracted by Snowbirthdaycake (yes, real sprinkles and real cake decorating for the snow. It was quite tasty) and Snowshaveice.

"Smile Ellie". This is after she became a giant and bashed the snowman down. We also had fun making snow angels and shoveling snow.

Snowkitty survived the giant for about 20 minutes

Who me? Snow giant?

We came in to warm up and to get Garrett up. Then we went back out with the whole neighborhood to sled down the hill across the street. Even little Lindsey Kate came out for a few minutes to observe the fun. It was rain/sleeting by then and so wet that I couldn't take any pictures. However, Ellie was yelling "weepee weepee" (which is how she says "whoopee") as we went down the hill. Garrett made a number of runs with me, Kristie and Shawn (his fire captain buddy across the street). He did climb on a sled by himself once but I managed to prevent him from careening down the hill. Ellie and Autumn went down by themselves and ended up in the bushes but were laughing and only partially disheveled.

Here we are after sledding, the pink cheeked crew:

My Little Helpers

I decided to attempt making chocolate chip cookies tonight with both kids! As you can tell, they both had a great time.

Flour, I need more flour!

I kept them busy by giving them a little brown sugar to eat too.