Otis' 1st Birthday and Gramma Pat's 60th Birthday

First, a few randoms from last week. Lewis said, 'Take our picture!'

Best Buds, most days :)

Helping make cookies

I'd had a hankering for cookies last week, so I googled Best _____ Cookie (chocolate chip, peanut butter, chocolate, etc.) to see what the internet had to offer. The first recipe for Chewy Chocolate Cookies was divine. I made them with peanut butter chips, and yum. They were even better the 2nd day. I'm going to attempt some peanut butter ones, next, followed by a chocolate chip cookie showdown. I have two new c.c. recipes to try, but I'm skeptical of whether they can top my usual recipe.

Last week, we worked on a gift for Gramma Pat's birthday--Lewis picked out a butterfly-shaped picture frame at Target, and he painted it for her with a school picture inside:

So focused

At first he did one color at a time, until I had all of the colors out on the plate. Then he switched to dipping his paint brush into each color, every time. So the brush had a dab of orange, light blue, red, blue, and green. It all ended up kind of brownish by the time it reached the butterfly, but who cares. He did a really good job of painting all of the surface this time.

I told him he could cover the plate with the leftover paint, so he very slowly went to work on that, too. :)

Lewis had camp last week until Thursday, so he and I drove up to my parents' house that afternoon to see the Bergstroms (minus my brother-in-law, Joe).

Boys' Breakfast

Emily and I headed to Indy on Friday for lunch and Costco (for Mom's party) while Gramma and Papaw watched the kiddos. Later, Mom and I took Juniper and Lewis to the bouncy house place:

Juni's waiting up top :)

Eyes closed!

Cousin Love!!!

Later that evening, we had a pizza and cake party for Otis' 1st birthday (July 16):

Again, Lewis was trying to help Otis with the candles.

I don't think he (Lew) was successful this time (as he was with Carlton).

Mmmm, Concannon's cake. :)

Lewis' fork efficiency and speed greatly improve when there is cake involved. Same with spoons and ice cream. :)

Saturday, the grandparents took the kids to a horse show (for Juniper) and car show (for Lewis) while Kevin, Emily, and I got things ready for the birthday party. (Kevin drove up after work Friday evening.) Em and I headed over to the pool in the afternoon to set-up for the party while Kevin and the grandparents and Uncle Dave watched the kids.

I don't have many pictures from the party because I was too busy co-hostessing and catching up with people, but I do have some of Lewis swimming:

Moving up to water wings

Because Mama forgot his usual floatie at home :)

Thinking about jumping off the diving board

There goes Juni!!

And Lew!

I know Kevin has some pictures on his phone, too, of him jumping earlier in the evening, but we don't yet have Dropbox on this computer, so I can't get to those pictures at the moment.

The party was great! We went with a peace and love/tie dye/hippie theme, and had close to 50 family and friends, I think. There was a rain/storm chance all day, but it held out just until the very end. Lots of people helped us clean up quickly, so we were able to make it home before the rain came.