Happy Birthday Mommy

Gromma and Mommy trying to avoid Bob the dog!
Aunt Valmere and Aunt Glenda are partners in crime!
Everyone should have a pirate visit on their birthday! I had Captain Eli!
Bob and Nate are always up to no good!
Mommy and her boys!

What a special birthday I had this year! My Mom was in town which was a special treat! We had lunch with Aunt Valmere and Aunt Glenda at a favorite cafe! We ate yummy take out for dinner and Gromma made the best cobbler for dessert! What a treat!

Ninjas

Ninja Nate in his ninja outfit of puffy vest and swim trunks!
Look at that fierce Ninja face and move!

The boys love to play Ninjas and these are a couple of their best ninja poses!

Puppet Parade Adventure

Lining up for the parade
Waiting for the drummer to set the marching beat!
Who was that masked man? It's Eli the Knight!
Kitty Nate holding his kitty puppet sign!

In early April we spent a fantastic Friday afternoon celebrating the arts with puppet making, a puppet parade and enjoying a real puppet show! Eli made a Knight helmet and a knight puppet and Nate made a kitty mask and a kitty puppet! They marched down the main street in downtown champaign to the beat of an awesome drummer! We then got to watch two puppet masters perform! Amazing!

My Baby is 4: WAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

What a squishy armful of birthday boy
He got to wear the fancy Chevy't hat for the birthday song!
making a wish!
Blowing out his candles!
Birthday Giraffe Cupcakes for the boy who wants to be a giraffe when he grows up!
Best friend dance party (with a Konga drum) at his birthday lunch!
Birthday party jungle animal crafts with friends
2 four year olds and 3 fives year olds= crazy town
Birthday party at the Little Gym
That is Nate flipping up and over!
The King family!
pretending to sleep during the warm-up on the mat
Mr. Giles is the best! Nate was so happy that Mr. Giles helped out at his party.
Nate and his good buddy rolling like wild men
The birthday boy getting high fives from all of his friends
Monkey!
Jungle Animal cake for the big party!

My baby is 4! How did that happen? We have been celebrating since Sunday when we had Nate's big birthday party at the Little Gym! We love that place and they put on a terrific party for my sweet guy! We had 12 kids ages 3-5 (only 2 girls) and it was C-R-A-Z-Y! Nate had a jungle cake and awesome jungle hat party favors!

Today we celebrated with giraffe cupcakes for breakfast, followed by present opening! Then I got to spend some time at school running a birthday craft table (we made jungle animal bookmarks) with the preschool class to celebrate Nate's birthday! It was seriously funny! Those kids say the most random things. We had an amazing lunch with the 5 best friends: Eli, Nate, Max, Sophia and Leo (chicken Mc Nuggets, french fries, and cupcakes=best mom ever). We had a scavenger hunt, a game or 6 of hide and seek, cupcakes, craft projects and a dance party before the friends were picked up! Then we had quiet time (thank you universe for an actually quiet, quiet time). We finished the day of with our celebratory dinner at Chevy's only to learn that they no longer give out sombrero's here (darn you recession). They let Nate wear a fancy one for the song (gross...) and he was content! Whew! what a day!

Some things you should now about my littlest love. Nate is perhaps the sweetest boy you will ever meet. He snuggles, kisses, hugs and loves on me all day! He is also the craziest child you will ever meet and can't always contain his random acts of chaos! He is the best friend you could ever have. If you are his friend he will love you until the end of time. He LOVES older girls! Ridiculous. He lives in a world of music and song and we know that he often hears his own music in his head. He talks with his whole body and often dances while talking if he is excited! He can write his own name and lots of other words and though he had us fooled, he knows his letters, the sounds they make and is getting ready to jump into reading! He is a numbers/sequencing maniac and has the soul of a maniacal engineer. The most special thing about my Nate is his love of life! He is so content with his world and we are so thankful to have him in our lives! We love you baby!

Two feral dogs: Eli and Nate

Feral animals on the loose
Feral animals take flight
A-N-I-M-A-L
GRRRRRRR!!!!
Yes, he really is that cute and I have no idea why he is half naked!

We had friends over today and made these dog/bear/big cat masks! The masks inspired the boys to act like completely wild animals and get half naked! Oh wait, they do that anyways!

The Circus: Zing, Zang, Zoom

Wizards making cotton candy disappear!
The Elephants and riders!

Barnum and Bailey's Circus came to town and the boys and I met up with a couple of other families to watch the magic! The show had a magic theme "Zing, Zang, Zoom" and the ring master was an amazing illusionist! The boys loved the magic! Beyond the magic the favorites were the dog and cat acts (seriously silly), the modern day clowns (no scary makeup), the motorcycles in the cage act, and the elephants! Nate (and his mommy) did not like the lion act because we felt like the lions weren't happy getting flicked by the whip! Nate asked me to make the man stop hurting the lions and it broke my heart! I love his sweat little heart! I made the mistake of getting them cotton candy (that came with a wizard hat) and a lemonade that came with a lion cup cozy...they were whacked out for about 4 hours! All in all it was so much fun to share the magic with them! Next time, we will sneak out for the big cat act and back in when it is over!

The Big Melt: Winter 2011

60 degree weather + 12 inches of snow= tons of puddles
Full out sprint to jump in the big puddle
On the prowl for the biggest puddles in the hood
Yeah!!!!
Splashing with feet wasn't good enough so they splashed with their whole bodies
It's the Puddle Jumpers
B-E-S-T Eli picture E-V-E-R!!!
My Sweet Faced Nate

Oh what a day! A few weeks ago we had a lovely break from this nasty winter and enjoyed a day of 60 degree weather and massive puddles! Nothing beats jumping in puddles with the King Brothers! We spent more than an hour hitting up all the big puddles and mud areas! They had to strip naked on the front porch and take a middle of the day shower after they were done! Which only made it all the more fun!