Um.....

Um....yeah.  Wow.  I couldn't make this stuff up.  My friend took this picture on the causeway to Bahrain. 

Told ya' they don't wear seat belts. 

Daddy's In the Kitchen Making Soup

Whew!  Somebody turned on the oven this week.  Our thermometer registered 107 on Monday, 108 on Tuesday, and 112 on Wednesday.  I think today was back down to 108.  At 9 pm tonight, we had cooled off to 97.  Let the searing heat begin. 

In other news, Everett has learned to tie his own shoes, including double knots to keep them tied!  He can also untie them (even the double knots), so he is TOTALLY 100% INDEPENDENT about getting any kind of shoes on and off.  HOORAY! 

 

Sky is blue, wha' cha gonna do?  Take a little time to tie your shoe, and tie it, tie it, keep on tying your shoe.

TA DA!!

And Catherine has figured out that I put bows in her hair.  Apparently, she does not like wearing bows, because she has also figured out how to pull them out.  Boo!  Especially since they go straight to her mouth.  Double Boo!

 "Were you the one who put this in my hair?"

 "Is it gone?"

"Bwa ha ha, I have foiled your diabolical plan to put bows in my hair!  Bwa ha ha ha!"

I am trying to keep a running list of her words.  So far we have, in no particular order, mama, dada, cat, duck, bird, see, (sometimes together as 'see bird'), that, more, milk, up, Buppy, Everett (sounds like "eh-weh"), uh-oh, doll, jojo (our family word for Cheerio), book, eye, nose, and I swear at dinner tonight she said 'chicken'.  Not bad for 13 1/2 months!  Perhaps it explains the not walking...she is too concentrated on verbal right now.  She loves to walk with her walking toy (above) and she did take two consecutive steps on May 9, and two non-consecutive steps on May 11, but otherwise no walking yet.  She does stand alone.  It won't be long now.

Catherine and Her Dolly: A Study

 "My Dolly"

 "Peekaboo Dolly"

 "Sing-You-To-Sleep Dolly"

 "Delicious Dolly"

 "Poke-Your-Eyes Dolly: I"

 "Poke-Your-Eyes Dolly: II"

"Don't-Even-Think-About-Taking-My-Dolly Dolly"

Lawrence's Actual Birthday

 On Lawrence's actual birthday (the day after his party), he got to wear his new "3" shirt!

 He got cupcakes at preschool and everyone sang Happy Birthday!  The cupcakes had yellow and green 3s on them.  (Thank you, leftover icing from the caterpillar cake!)

And then he got to open his presents.  He got TWO new Hot Wheels race tracks with 19 (yes, 19!) new cars.  He was SO EXCITED. 

 

  He also got a great book about the planets, and when he opened this one, everything else came to a grinding halt as he turned every page and pored over the book all by himself.  Thank you, A, W, and L!  It was perfect!

One of Gramama's presents was a new truck.  This one is a garbage truck.  He got the dump truck for Christmas.  He also got a camera and a bedside clock from Mommy and Daddy, and some books from Grandma. 

But nothing says "I'm cool" like a new Cars watch! 

Oh yeah. 

So now we're 1, 3, and 4 for a while!  I guess that sounds better than 0, 2, and 4.  After June, it will be evenly spaced again, 1, 3, and 5. 

Lawrence's Birthday Party

Here are some pictures of Lawrence's third birthday party.  We held the big event at our house.  It was a Bug Party, and Lawrence's friends from preschool and playgroups were invited.  About six friends came, which was perfect.  

Here are the kids in the last hour before the guests arrived:

 Lawrence has on his new third birthday shortall.  

 I made these caterpillar cakes for the occasion (there are two here).   I hope everybody is impressed with my obvious cake-making skills!  Ha ha, actually, it's really easy - just take a bunt cake, cut it in half and put the ends together to make an S.  I do think I did a really mean job on the icing, though. 

When the guests arrived, we had lots of activities planned.  First, we made bugs out of styrofoam balls, colored toothpicks, paint, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. 

Then we played Pin The Bug On The Spiderweb. 

 (Apparently I did not get the memo that the Mom dresscode for the day was jeans and a black top.)

During the games, we had some sharing issues.  Catherine was not being good about sharing her dolly stroller.  

Then we had cake!

 It was good!

 Even the Catherines had some.  

Then the kids played with toys, and we got some chairs together to play musical chairs.  

 (Still eating cake.)

Turns out three years old is still too little to play musical chairs the right way.  So we added an extra chair so that everyone could have a place to sit down and no one got "out."  Amazingly, just walking around to the music and sitting down when it stopped (with no pressure to get a chair) was exceedingly entertaining! 

 Still sulking. 

Better now!

The party was a big hit and everyone had a good time. 

After the party, we went to the Hobby Farm for dinner.  There were a couple of horses out in the paddock, and a nice lady let the boys pet them and feed them grass.  Lawrence was much braver than Everett. 

So that was a nice way to cap off the day.  Happy Birthday, Buppy!