a trip to the zoo for Reid's birthday

The boys and I visited the Zoo for the first time on Reid's birthday! We went with two friends who are seasoned zoo-goers so they knew where to go and what was worth seeing on an especially crowded day. I was really impressed with the Zoo and the amount of animal interaction! The boys had a great time and were troopers throughout the heat. We're excited to visit again and see more animals and exhibits!

Almost the entire crew, just missing two! 

Face to face with the tiger (that is not a mirage!) and not even startled by it!

Barely holding both boys so they could see the elephants swimming! This lasted about ten seconds before my back about gave out. ;) I love these guys and watching them experience new things!

the boys' birthday party (& a gender reveal)!

We celebrated the boys' birthdays with a joint party in the backyard, just like last year! (Only a different backyard, since we weren't in our house quite yet!) We were so thankful for yet another year of a clear forecast which allowed us to have the party out back and let kids roam free and play in the water. We like to keep their birthday parties simple and more like a barbecue than a party: good food and friends, games for kids and adults, and cake at the end of course!

We set out corn hole for the adults, a sprinkler, soccer balls and goals, a water table and the kids were happy as can be!

^^Possibly my favorite picture of Reid!

Cake time! I made Jake's cake, a number 5 with a dinosaur theme (reminiscent of his 3rd birthday!), but I outsourced Reid's cake to our neighbor. Reid absolutely loves our neighbor and she just so happens to be pretty darn good at decorating cakes, so she took on the challenge of making a puppy cake for our little guy who loves seeing puppies (not getting close mind you, just looking at them!) He was so thrilled with the cake, even if his face doesn't reflect it in the picture. ;)

After enjoying cake, we did a gender reveal for baby #3! When I was pregnant with the boys, Deric and I always found out the gender during the ultrasound, which was still exciting. But we decided to do something a little more exciting this time and I asked a friend to help us with a reveal. We'd just been at the doctor for the ultrasound a few days before the party, so we didn't have to wait much longer to find out! It was definitely hard at the ultrasound not to peek though!

^^I promise Reid's not upset! ;) I was so shocked and I think Deric was too! Even though we'd had an inkling all along that it was a girl, I was still so surprised. And it was so worth it to wait a few days for a fun reveal with friends!

^^White balancing my camera totally worked against me somehow, sadly!

And then after the excitement, it was back to the water for the kids! A friend lent us their slip-and-slide and the kids had a great time on it, once they got the hang of *sliding* rather than falling. Such a fun party for the boys and I'm glad they were able to have all their best buddies--and cousins-- with them!

decorating the tree (and the house!)

So as much as I love Christmas, the actual setting up of the Christmas tree and decorating it is not my favorite part. I love the tree once its up and decorated and making the living room so cozy-- and I love all the memories tied to the ornaments-- but the whole process is not too much fun, in my opinion. This year, because we were traveling home from Michigan the weekend after Thanksgiving (when we're usually putting up the tree), we did the tree decorating in stages. First day, got it out of the basement, put together and fluffed up. Pine needles were everywhere because Jake thought he was helping us out by shaking the needles out of the tree storage bag. Hilarious.

That next evening, we managed to get the lights wrapped around the tree and brought up the ornaments. Poor Jake wanted so badly to decorate the tree but we just couldn't get to it right away since we had to do other things like groceries and meals and getting ready for the week coming up. So that next afternoon while Reid was sleeping and Deric was obviously at work, Jake convinced me to decorate the tree with him. Usually we make it a whole family affair but I knew Deric doesn't love decorating the tree, so Jake and I did it ourselves!

The best part was watching Jake's excitement over *finally* being allowed to get the ornaments out of their boxes and choose where to put them. Of course we had a few lessons here and there about ornament placement ;) but otherwise he did a great job spreading out the ornaments and covering the entire tree! I did make sure to put the special ornaments around the top half because I wasn't sure what Reid would do with the tree. Thankfully his curiosity has waned and the ornaments stay put. (Can't say the same for the Christmas train, however!)

This was our first year to decorate the outside of our home and I was so, so excited for it! I found inexpensive lights at Target one afternoon while there for something else (always how it goes) and called Deric to measure off the roof line. As soon as I got home, Deric climbed out through a second story window to put lights up and the boys and I tried to rake leaves while we watched him climb around the roof. Jake chose colored lights and I love how they look! Nearly every house on our street is decorated and its so fun to see when we drive home after dark.

Looking for Dad way up on the roof!

Someone got cold and went in to supervise Dad up close!

The last bit of color right before a windstorm this weekend stripped all of the trees bare! But we also had some snow this weekend so I am definitely not complaining! I love seeing snow in December!

Back inside, a few other decorations have gone up too, like this felt tree I made when Jake was one. Its not getting much playtime with this active one year old, but Reid (and Jake) will still occasionally decorate it with the ornaments. The train around our tree is the biggest attraction and I'll post some photos and videos of Reid watching the train because it is the cutest!

baking pumpkin pie with Jake

I'm not sure where Jake got the idea, but he mentioned to me a few times before Thanksgiving that he wanted to bake pumpkin pie. It worked out perfectly that we celebrated an early Thanksgiving two weeks early with one side of Deric's family, so the day beforehand Jake and I got started on our pies. It was a good opportunity to involve Jake on the whole process of reading the recipe, buying ingredients at the store and then doing the actual baking and I knew he'd like having more responsibility in the process.

So first, we read through the recipe and jotted down a list to take to the grocery store...plus a couple extra things we needed. (I had a back up list on my phone in case I forgot what we needed because that handwriting is so cute but sometimes hard to decipher ;) )

Let's see if I can remember...
"pie crust
1 can pumpkin
2 cans (evaporated) milk"
...continued on the back

Then Jake and I headed to the store by ourselves and he got to push the cart and navigate the aisles to find what we needed.

Trying to find pumpkin pie puree amidst alllll the pie filling choices!

Can't get over him trying to read his own writing!

Back home we got right to work on the pies! The recipe was so simple and perfect for Jake to really help with. He's helped me bake for a while and I'm trying to give him more freedom and responsibility lately-- more than simply dumping and mixing ingredients. We can laugh now about the time he was sitting on the counter and broke an egg on his lap. It wasn't funny in the moment but now he thinks it is. And now he's learned to crack the eggs over the bowl, a lesson we all figured out at some point!

One of my favorite things about our house is this big counter that has room for both boys to help me bake. I'm not the "fun imaginative play" parent in the household but I figure it balances out when my activities ends with something good to eat! ;)

Jake's pies turned out great and he got so many kind compliments from our family that next day. I tried a tiny slice but pumpkin pie is just not my thing! Thankfully the rest of the family were big fans and we went home with only two slices left, one for the chef and one for his pumpkin-pie loving dad.

a space-themed Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun this year! Every year has gotten more fun as the boys understand trick-or-treating a little more, plus I love seeing them dressed up in their costumes. We had friends over for dinner and then scoured the neighborhood with them. I feel like we got a late start on trick or treating but we started at 6! We had a group of kids ring the doorbell at 5:30 and it totally surprised me. So by the time we headed out just a little later, it seemed like we were the last ones out the door...and we were the last ones walking home at 7:45, surprisingly!

Jake was hung up between being a robot or an astronaut for probably a month leading up to Halloween! I'll admit, I steer his decisions based on what I can feasibly create, but he also loves robots and astronauts so I didn't feel too bad. ;) But then after looking online for costume ideas, I worked harder to steer him in the astronaut direction because 1) we already have an astronaut costume and 2) the diy robots just weren't that much fun unless you want to go all out with a cardboard head, and I knew Jake would hate to wear that. So he settled on the astronaut as long as he could have a "robot" jet pack, aka a jet pack he could actually play with! That was just fine with me. Deric figured out the jet pack while I worked on making Reid a rocket ship costume.

(I thought I might have better luck with some photos if I put them in their costumes earlier that afternoon before the excitement but clearly, no. Reid couldn't stand the thought of staying *on* the porch long enough to get a picture!)

This one's a framer. ;)

I love how the rocketship costume turned out but it was freezing that night. So after we stuffed Reid into two jackets, the costume was a *bit* snug. (I'd planned for just one jacket!) But he didn't care. He managed to walk to a few houses and then Reid and our friends' youngest snuggled up in the double stroller and let the big kids get the candy for them. Smart move!

We loved being able to trick or treat in our own neighborhood this year and meet a few more neighbors! It makes me excited for years to come and traditions to continue!

first day of pre-K!

Jake started prekindergarten at church a few weeks ago! He goes three mornings a week just until noon. He loves school so far and has had no hesitations about going, excluding a few minutes of nerves when we dropped him off on the first day and he realized we were leaving him there. ;) But he comes home and tells me about the things he made and the snack he had--so many cupcakes right now to celebrate all those summer birthdays!--and then I pry more information out of him because I just wish I could be a fly on the wall in his classroom.

I believe Deric was saying something along the line of "eyeballs" to get these genuine laughs and smiles...what a goob!

I took the inside photos first that morning and I wasn't sure if I got a good one so I lucked out and got some genuine smiles on the front porch too!

I love seeing him put on his backpack each morning! He just looks so big and so small at the same time. Its hard to believe he's already old enough for "school" and that his real school career will be here in no time! But he's so ready and I'm proud of all the new things he's accomplished lately!

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!