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.

Playing Outside in the Unseasonably Gorgeous Weather and Carlton's 3rd Birthday Party

Just as I got all caught up on blogging, the rest of July happened! To be fair, we also got a new computer (because ours started revving up and sounding like it was going to explode), so I've been slow to warm up to the change of figuring out the new one. We've been busy with Lewis at camp, going out to play in this g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s weather, planning a big 60th birthday for my mom (last weekend), and visiting with my sister, niece, and nephew who are in from Boise. This morning, I had a volunteer event, so Lewis is off on a caving adventure with Grandma and Grandpa T. (that I can't wait to hear about). I'm finally sitting down to try to catch up (again).

Way back on July 15th, according to my camera, we went out to Carlton's house to play for the morning. We played with Carlton's new train table, on the swing set, and on ride-ons. Lewis took off on this tractor/trailer combo, but he couldn't keep up with Carlton who had a super nice (and fast!) tricycle. Through a combination of Mama helping push while he steered, we made it down the road and back.

 Wait up, buddy! I'm a-comin'!

 If you look closely, Tonya and Carlton are waaaay down the road.

Another morning, just Lew and I went to the park (Hounz Lane) for the playground and the creek. He spent most of the time walking along the banks of the creek and down under the bridge:

 Hello, down thar!

I was on the bridge above him. :) 

Whee! 

He did play at the playground some before it started raining. He and a little girl were chasing each other down the slide and back up around the stairs. I'm not sure if Lewis knew he was playing a game with her, but I sort of egged it on. I giggled at her every time she came down the slide, and she ran like she thought he was chasing her. :) She was adorable.

That weekend was Carlton's big 3rd birthday and party:

 Lewis ran upstairs and found the tractor and tiller from our previous playtime that week.

 Helping Carlton open his gift

Lewis wanted to go to Carlton's party for days before, simply so he could give him the gift and play with it, himself. :) He (Lew) had trouble understanding that the toy was for Carlton, so at one point, we had to take a break outside for him to calm down. He did and was happy going back to playing with the tractor.

That's a nice segue into the next set of pictures. Lewis didn't nap that day, and the party was right at his prime 'meltdown' time, so please enjoy:

:) I forget now what we were saying/doing/singing that set him off. I thought we were singing Happy Birthday, but then Tonya posted a video of that, sans Lew freaking out. I was laughing too hard to remember now.

Happy birthday to Carlton!

By the end of that and singing, it looked like Lewis was the one blowing out the candles (which he did help Carlton with). Carlton really likes to sing Happy Birthday, so I think that's why he's clapping (after the song ended).

We had a very nice time at the party, and Lewis slept very well that night. :)

3rd Birthday Party

Since Lewis is into all things farming, I decided to go with a tractor/farm theme for his big day. With the brutal winter we've been having, it was fun to think towards feelings of summer, gardening, the farmer's market, etc., so I added a little of that into the decorations and theme as well. 

My friend Kate came over to help me before the party and was such a great help. She kept me on task and knocked out so many items on the cooking to-do list. THANK YOU, sweet Kate!! And to Kevin, who ran errands for me, watched Lewis, and helped out with food and set-up, simultaneously. And to Kevin's parents for hanging out with Lewis on Friday so that I could start getting things ready. Really, really, seriously couldn't have done it without you guys. :) 

Onto the details of our very fun and exhausting party day:

The Very Patient Birthday Boy

:)

The Invitation

Each card had a different animal face and noise stamped on the front of it. Inside, some had green or red tractors or a big red barn. I had a hard time finding farm animal/tractor/barn stickers, but I finally found some at Michaels. I found the little grass cut-outs there, too, which I thought were cute.

The Food

I researched some farm-y food names online and, yes, some of them are corny. :)

Pigs in a Blanket (though I laughed just now realizing they were all-beef)

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Tractor Wheels and Cheese

 Chicken Feed (Chex Mix)

Deviled Eggs

Vegetable Garden

Berry Patch

Apple Orchard

There were a lot of dips, too. We love dips! I made a mustard sauce for the pigs in a blanket, honey mustard for the chicken nuggets, ranch for the veggies, and peanut butter dip for the apples that people seemed to enjoy. I linked the recipe if anyone wants it (Mom). :)

The Drinks

Iced Green Tea

Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade

Coffee

The Cake/Desserts

Haystacks

Cow Tales (candy)

Mud, Dirt, and Worms

Cake/Ice Cream

I bought a tractor cake pan and did my best to follow their step-by-step instructions. They're very helpful, but they can only do so much to help an amateur like me. :) Lewis loved it, so that's what matters most! 

The cake was French Vanilla with buttercream icing. I thought it was really tasty, as did Lewis (you'll see pictures of him eating it, further down...).

Favors

I decided to put one together for Lewis, too, because I knew he'd flip over the Mickey Mouse gardening shovel. :)

Party Time

 I found the balloons online--there was one big tractor balloon, a couple with a tractor with farm animals, and some cow print, yellow, and green latex ones.

 Chow time!

 

 A train!

A dump truck!

 A meeting of the minds, trying to get the train track together. 

 Singing Happy Birthday!

 Blowing out Sniffing his candle...Kevin and I had to help him out. :)

 Icing.was.everywhere!

 :)

 Great-Grandma Dee-Dee, Gramma, and Papaw

In the hustle of getting ready for the party, I put our mail basket out of sight and totally forgot to get the gifts the Bergstroms sent for Lewis, so he opened those this morning:

 More farm animals (and a cat and Peter dog) to add to his collection! Thanks, Bergstroms! FYI, he thought the cat was a baby cow at first. We told him it was a cat, and he called it a 'cow cat' because it was black and white. :) He did that with a dog on TV before, too...called it a 'cow dog.' Very cute.

Juni, your card was so well-done--Lewis loved the princess stamps! :)

Lew wanted to put his Legos together, so Kevin and I worked together on a tractor, trailer, barn, house, horse (I think?) and cow:

 

Lewis thought the tractor and trailer are pretty cool! 

Kevin, building the barn

We also looked up instructions online to build a race car a gator. Lewis ran to his room to get his new tractor book from Gma and Gpa T. and said, 'There's a gator in this book!' :)

Thanks to all for coming to party with us and for the wonderful toys and books and clothing. He's a very lucky boy.