Happy 3rd Birthday Isaiah!

Isaiah turned 3 on Friday. I'll probably say it every year, but it's hard to believe he's already 3! Didn't I just bring him home from the hospital?

We celebrated the special day by having a few friends over for lunch and playtime. A few months ago all Isaiah could talk about were fire trucks and how he wanted to be a fireman, so I decided I would go with a fireman theme. A friend of mine had made a fire truck cake for her oldest boys 3rd birthday. She graciously shared the pictures she'd taken and I did my best to copy her creation. She did warn me that it took her several hours to decorate. I'm sure I spent somewhere around 2 hours on it. Partly due to the fact that I didn't have enough powdered sugar, so at 9 p.m. I was running to the store to get another package, then back home to finish mixing the frosting. Then adding enough red food coloring so it would look red and not pink. Apparently there is a food coloring gel which works better for that sort of thing. If I ever do this again I'll be sure to remember that! For this being my first real cake decorating effort, it actually didn't turn out too bad. By the time I actually went to bed somewhere around 1 a.m., I had a crick in my neck that is still there after three days.

I'm not sure what I was hoping for as far as a response from Isaiah. When he saw the cake he just looked at it and then asked "Why is it a fire truck? That's silly!" Then he tells me "I wanted a police car."

I just had to laugh! It all just goes to show once again that a lot of this effort was really about me and not so much about him. All he really cared about was getting to eat the cake!

It seemed like everyone had a great time, especially Isaiah. Today he asked me "Am I still 3?" Maybe he thinks after the party's over then you're all done being 3! Happy Birthday Isaiah! We love you so much!

Spring is Here!

While much of the country experience unseasonably warm weather during the month of March, here in Seattle it was just the opposite. Fortunately, April seems to be shaping up to be fairly decent. We've been enjoying the warm spring weather by spending most of our time outdoors.

Today while I was at work, Jeremy and the kids played in the yard and they discovered how to climb the tree in our front yard.

More Easter Fun

We were very fortunate to have lovely weather for our Easter Weekend. I think it's the first Easter in recent years where we could actually be outside in short sleeves! Somehow the gorgeous weather just makes it that much easier to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

Saturday we took part in the community Easter Egg Hunt at the park. These things really aren't so much a "hunt" as they are a scramble. Despite organizer's efforts to have some semblance of order by dividing kids into age groups and such, it really is just pure chaos. Both Evelyn and Isaiah seemed to enjoy themselves despite only being able to grab 6 and 2 eggs respectively. Evelyn was certainly more aware of the discrepancy between the amount of eggs she ended up with compared to some of the other kids. Fortunately she got over it once she opened her eggs and saw that there was actually some cool stuff inside.

Sunday was church and another egg hunt. This time the kids were prepared for the competition - and parents were more involved in enforcing the rules so that kids weren't hoarding all the eggs.

The best part though was spending the afternoon with many of our good friends at the Need house. This has become an annual tradition for us and Denise and her mom put on a fabulous egg hunt for the kids as well as the adults.

Decorating Easter Eggs!

Haircuts

It's been a while since the kids had haircuts. Up until recently I would take them to Great Clips to get their haircut. Alas, I'm getting too cheap to pay $13 a pop for a kids haircut, and Isaiah especially needs at least a trim more than every 6 weeks.

I figured - how hard can it be. I did a little research (meaning I watched a couple videos on YouTube).

This is actually the 2nd time I cut the kids hair. This time went a little quicker. For Isaiah, I mainly just trimmed up the long hairs around his ears and in the front.

Isaiah after his cut.

Evelyn wanted her hair SHORT. This isn't the first time she's said that. So this time I decided, OK we'll go for it. It will always grow back.

Evelyn before

It was a long time for her to sit still - the hair salon is much quicker! It didn't turn out too bad if I do say so myself. It looked a lot cuter and more how I envisioned it after we washed her hair and let it dry curly. She seems pretty happy with it which is the important thing. With a little more practice and some better tools I might actually get pretty good at this!

After