the boys' birthday bash

We celebrated both boys' birthdays over Memorial Day weekend and lucked out with beautiful summer weather! We were also lucky and had both sides of our family plus some good friends celebrate with us. We grilled hamburgers, put out all of our yard games and toys and enjoyed time with our friends and family!

I always ask Jake about his birthday cake about a month beforehand because his answers change often, but with enough time I can figure out what he really wants by what he answers most often. ;) This year the options were almost tied between a robot, a jet, a dragon and a castle. I had to discourage the castle and dragon a little because my cake baking/decorating skills are pretty limited and thankfully he stuck with the robot idea the longest. So that's what we did! I spent the day before the party making the cake and it turned out exactly how I hoped!

So Jake really wanted the number 6 on his cake--even after I explained to him that usually you would put a number 4 on the cake for your 4th birthday, he was still adamant about putting 6 on the cake. So I asked him how people would know how old he was turning and he said "I'll just tell them!" And then I asked why he wanted the number 6 instead of number 4 and he said "Well, I really like being 4...but I really like the number 6!" So we ran with it, and I love that little detail.

Easy decorations-- just taped photos on cardboard numbers cut from the many moving boxes we have! I got a little carried away choosing photos and printed out about double the amount I actually needed, but I love displaying photos at our house so they'll be put to good use!

Reid got his very own cake and I really expected him to go all in with it. Surprisingly he took his
time mashing it in his fingers and didn't eat much, but he had just eaten a huge lunch. Guess I should have told him to save room for cake. ;)





The afternoon was plenty warm and the kids were thrilled to run back and forth between the very warm hot tub and the very cold pool while the adults went back for seconds on the birthday cake. ;)

The adults and bigger boys played quite a few rounds of Kuub. I've honestly forgotten how to play it but sometime I'll have to relearn because they had a lot of fun!

And now--somehow-- we've got a 1 year old and a 4 year old!

Reid is ONE!

Reid is ONE! Its so hard to believe. He is the best and busiest little boy and I barely remember life before he joined our family. Reid moves nonstop and loves loves loves to climb up and down on things: stairs, pillows and anything else he can get himself onto. Its the cutest thing to see him climb up and immediately turn around to get back down. He'll so carefully scoot over to the edge, stretch his little toes to the ground and slide off. And he's so proud of himself! He's developed really good balance as a result so thankfully I no longer worry about him when I see him doing this.

 He loves to get into anything Jake is working on and thinks he can keep up with Jake at the playground. He never stops trying to climb up slides and ladders and as a result, I have to keep a hand on him every second that we're at the playground. He pulls himself up and cruises around furniture and just the other day, got himself standing up about ten times in a row! We were playing in the backyard and I don't think he liked the feel of the grass so it was good motivation for him to try out standing!

Reid babbles all day long--and has learned "mama" but he doesn't associate it with me, so I don't count it as his first word yet. Hopefully soon! ;) He refuses to learn the sign for "more" and prefers to just grunt and point with both hands at whatever food he wants next. Just yesterday he learned to give high fives and he loves to give them!

He loves drinking out of water bottles and I got tired of sharing mine with him so he skipped the sippy cup phase and graduated straight to his own water bottle. Deric is absolutely his favorite person and Reid cries so hard when Deric leaves for work! He wakes us up pretty consistently around 6:15 every day and he is such a joy to see first thing in the morning!

On the morning of his birthday, we let him open his birthday gift (in the very festive Amazon box). Deric, Jake and I picked out a pillow pet for him. (Jake got one from a friend at his first birthday and he sleeps with it every night so I figured it'd be a good "toy" for Reid to have as well.) We had to narrow down our choices and Jake chose the bumblebee because he liked that it rhymed with "Bee-dos", one of the many nicknames we have for Reid. So a bumblebee it was!

After dinner we took the boys to get ice cream and let Reid try his first ice cream cone. Totally thought he'd love it but he took a few bites and then had a great time crawling around the table to visit everyone. 

Jake, however, was perfectly happy to celebrate Reid's birthday with ice cream. ;) We all love our Beats Baby so much!