Happy Birthday Galen

My munchkin is 5... FIVE! Five years old! How in the world did that happen?!? Okay, freakout moment over. We recently celebrated Galen's 5th birthday and it was a blast. This was our first "real" birthday party, where parents dropped off kids for games and events - the works. Galen decided he wanted a "Bionicle" (a Lego line of toys) theme. So, we started with the birthday invitation featuring Galen as a Toa, a Bionicle hero, inviting others to join him on the "Great Kanoka disc hunt." Kanoka discs being one of the weapons of the Toa and it tied into one of the Bionicle movies. The house was decorated with Toa colors, red, yellow, black, and we put tons of Thane's Bionicle toys (note I said Thane's) all around the living room to decorate.

We played Pin the Mask on the Toa (which amazingly Galen got dead on the spot), Bionicle Mask Spoon Race, we did the Great Kanoka Disc Hunt, and we had the kids decorate their own discs and do a Bionicle activity placemat. It was pretty fun. Galen's guests were his brother Liam, his cousins Rees, Caden, Victoriah and T.J. and his friends Bryce and Gavin. We invited the younger cousins and siblings and parents to join us after the games for cake and ice cream.

I definitely think the hats and swords/shields repository was the hit of the day. We had kids running all over with swords and a variety of hats that day! Galen enjoyed his presents and he received a variety of Speed Racer (a movie we just saw yesterday, and guess what, all enjoyed quite a lot actually), Hot Wheels, Transformers, a Dragon Egg toys and of course a variety of Bionicle items from the latest movie to a new Toa to a 3 foot spear (foam of course). He was also most pleased to get a new space man helmet to replace his broken one and was happy to see a brand new space helmet in the mix too! He also got a variety of other gifts, but that's a second post to come. So, it was a fun day which we all enjoyed! I still just can't believe my little munchkin is five....

Day at the Park

We went to the park recently, nothing special, just hanging out at the park, but I snapped a few pics and I thought some of these were really cute and I wanted to share them. Liam just wanted to swing and swing. I couldn't get him out of the thing! I think it wasn't until maybe the last 10 minutes we were there that he finally got out, so he must have been in it for about 20 minutes or more! Galen was having a blast, throwing sand as usual, running all over, and trying to play with a couple little girls that were obviously having fun and which he wanted in on the action. It was cute how he wanted to play with them, but it was pretty clear he was a 'boy' and they weren't going to have any of that! Ah, the age old struggle begins at such a young age!

Easter

Easter is always a fun time of year. I've always loved Easter. Not only do I love coloring eggs, but I love easter egg hunts, the candy, but most of all the special time that Easter is. We're still working on developing our own special family tradition, but we have had fun coloring easter eggs every year. This was the first year we let Liam color eggs - as many of you might know, coloring easter eggs can be a dicey and messy process - many opportunities for spills and stains! We waited until Galen was three before we let him help out too. So, here is our first batch of a full family easter egg coloring fest! Mostly Thane and I colored the eggs, but the kids gave us lots of directions about what to do. We all had fun and looked forward to our easter egg hunt the next day.

For our easter egg hunt we use plastic easter eggs that we can put candy in. We've mostly decided that easter shouldn't be about presents, but candy is one thing that is a fun surprise for easter - you just gotta have the chocolate bunny for easter, and who can pass up a Cadbury creme egg? So, we have lots of fun hiding the eggs and then during the hunt there are usually lots of "Hmmm, what's over here?" and "Hey, what's that over there?" but it's a joy to watch their excitement. I think next year we'll move the hunt outside! Hopefully we'll be able to convince the kids to continue with their equal sharing and divying up of the loot once the hunt is over, but, alas, only time will tell and I'm not holding my breath for total peace on eastern morn with two boys ;^)

Happy Birthday Liam

This year we celebrated Liam's third birthday in January. Our little man is 3! I can't believe it. And yes, we're a little behind the schedule in getting these pictures posted, but hey, at least they're posted - right? It was a fun event filled with family. His theme was Spiderman.

Liam specifically wanted a cape for his birthday, with a letter L on the back, in green and yellow (his two favorite colors). So, it was time for mom to break out her sewing machine she'd had for 10 years and never used (other people have used it - just not me!) and learn how to sew - for real. So, believe it or not, I sewed him his cape, and not just one cape, but three! I also made Galen a cape with a G on the back (oh my goodness was that a pain to make), and a plain red cape as well. It took a few days and lots of work, but it's been a joy to see our superhero's running through the house in their capes over the last 5 months.

Liam also gots lots of swords, shields, and star wars toys for his birthday. Grandma and Grandpa loaded him up (meaning spoiled him rotten) with tons of Lego castle toys. He's had lots of fun with all of his toys though and he enjoyed his birthday. We were just glad we were able to convince him that he was going to be three. For the longest time he insisted he was going to turn four like Galen was - he would get quite irrate if you suggested otherwise. About a week before his birthday I finally got him to admit he was turning three! I was worried we weren't going to be able to put a number on his cake for fear of upsetting him! Ah the joys of toddlerdom.

Wildflower Hike

Something we've done the past couple of years, well, when it rains at least, is take the kids on a nature hike to look at the wildflowers up above the college and in the Rademacher range. The boys love to get out of the house and it's a great opportunity to expose them to nature. We have fun photographing the flowers, watching out for snakes, and running around (if you're Galen at least). Poor Liam got freaked out by a bug that flew past him and so he wanted to go home, but we convinced him that it wasn't going to hurt him and he calmed down and we continued on our adventure. Unfortunately there were many bugs that decided the boys were interesting, which caused many a squeal!

After the hike we stopped at the college because the Galen wanted to play on the rocks, meaning he wanted to jump on the rocks! Thane told me that when Galen and I went one direction to head towards the college sign, Liam said to him, "Galen and Mamma went that way, but we have to stay here, and you have to stay here with me." He's such a character. He is so opinionated, definitely not one that changes his mind easily when it is set. The boys had fun climbing on the rocks, and as you can see, doing some rather good jumping feats. All in all, it was a good afternoon hike and adventure.

January Snow Trip

Back in January we took the boys up to Walker's Pass to play in the snow after we had a good snow storm come through the Sierra's. It was great! The snow was between 10-12" deep. This was the deepest the snow has been, or at least that we've seen, in a long while. The only snow the kids have seen has been at most a few inches thick, so this was great! We played for almost an hour.

We asked Galen if he wanted to make a snowman, but he said no, he wanted to make a jet. We tried, and got the semblance of it, but he was so distracted having fun rolling around in the snow and making snowballs, that he didn't really notice that it was mostly a fuselage. Liam wasn't as thrilled as Galen, but that was because he had a hard time getting around I think. Being much shorter, and the snow going up to his knees in some places, or higher, made it hard for him to walk. We finally got him smiling though when Thane decided to make Liam headprints in the snow.

The only bad thing was that we forgot about how short the kids are in relation to the depth of the snow and the fact that their pants were going to get soaked - poor Galen's pants were completely soaked through, his socks were completely wet, and we had to strip him down to his underpants for the trip home (to be wrapped up in mom's coat and uncomfortably strapped into his carseat in just his undies). Thankfully we just happened to find an extra set of clothes in the diaper bag that Liam could use (dumb luck). Both the boys were toddler popsicles by the time we were done, and Galen in particular was having so much fun he didn't have any clue how cold he was.

Little Liam insists he didn't have fun and didn't like the snow, even though we know he had some fun. Galen enjoyed it, and we definitely learned that we need to bring an extra set of clothes for the trip home! Hopefully next year there will be more snow and we can get some sleds and go sledding! Here are some happy faces, having fun in the snow:

First Ocean Visit

During our Legoland trip we had an opportunity to take the boys to the ocean, not just see the ocean from the car, but actually take them to the beach and let them walk up and see the vastness of the Pacific up close. Since Legoland didn't open until 10am, it was a great way to spend some the morning.

It was fantastic, and an opportunity we couldn't pass up - especially when our hotel was only a mile from the beach! Both the boys were a little freaked out by the waves that were "trying to get them" and poor little Liam really got thrown for a moment or two, but for Galen, who loves to dig in the dirt and sand, well, as you can imagine, he was in sandbox heaven! We showed them seashells, seaweed, seabirds, seafoam, squirrels and surfers. The boys had fun climbing on the rocks, and as you can see, Liam had another one of his more, serious moments as he contemplated the ocean before him.

At a little inlet where the water formed a tiny pool, Thane showed them how he could dig a hole and it would immediately fill with water - seemingly out of nowhere! When it was time to go we were getting the sand out of the boys shoes and socks up at some benches overlooking the beach up the cliff and there were a bunch of squirrels looking for handouts. It was a fun way for the boys to get a close up look at some wildlife (that wasn't quite so wild unfortunately). All in all it was a great little visit, to a wonderful little spot in Carslbad.