Birthdaysaurus

We threw BB a Birthdaysaurus party on Memorial Day at our neighborhood park to celebrate THREE! with family and friends. I had started daydreaming about BB's birthday party theme about two months before his actual birthday and, completely forgetting that two months in toddler time and two months in adult time are totally different things, I started talking to BB about his birthday in March. Which then meant that from that point in March, through April, and then May, BB would announce "My bir-day is coming" and "I'm gonna have a dinosaw bir-day" multiple times a week. By the time BB's dinosaur party finally did roll around, poor BB had months of built-up anticipation to contend with.

Luckily, his party lived up to the hype.

In BB's opinion, at least. 

We emailed this invitation out - saving a tree and some dolla-dolla-bills ya'll, one of my favorite combos.

Our birthday gifts to BB were a basketball hoop and a soccer goal , which we set up at the park for the party. (We also got him a U of A hat that we gave him on his actual birthday which we realized tonight is missing - super bummed about that. It was last seen on Friday afternoon, which means it didn't even last 48 hours.) We surprised BB with the hoop and goal when his auntie walked him over to the park for the party, and he immediately went for the basketball hoop and started playing.

Since the party, BB has bee-lined outside to play basketball in the backyard, and wants us to chant "U of A! U of A!" before he will shoot a basket. He actually has a pretty good shot already!

Family photo just before the party started, with the boys in their matching dinosaur t-shirts 

(I converted SS's to a jumper with snaps because they didn't have baby sizes)

I baked BB a yellow cake (I had him pick the flavor, even though I don't think he knew what it was) from scratch, and it came out moist and delicious. And then J and I decorated the cake together, turning it into a dinosaur.

BB loved his cake and just stared at it for a while with a little smile. 

 

Everyone singing BB Happy Birthday

We gave him the first piece, and Nacky said after a while he came back to the food table and was very upset that his cake had disappeared. He must not have realized that everyone else was going to eat it too.

Post-cake

(Although he actually didn't eat a ton of cake. He preferred Auntie Seen's Dinosaur (Jello) Eggs)

In addition to the soccer and basketball activities, we also set out sidewalk chalk and bubbles, and put blankets out with a couple of baby toys for the littlest party-goers. Unfortunately SS and I both came down with a cold over the weekend - I felt well enough by Monday morning to actually enjoy BB's party, but SS was still in the throes of the cold, so he did not get to play in the little baby area. Here are some of our littlest party guests who did:

Auntie Shawna was on SS-duty and just held him during the party, until Nacky took him back to our house to nap. We are so thankful to Auntie Shawna for helping watch our kiddos in the morning while we set up for the party, and for all of her help with SS during the party, and she even stayed and helped clean up afterwards. And Nacky also came early to help with set-up, and then took over with SS back at our home while we kept partying at the park, and she even surprised me by cleaning up my kitchen while she was here. It was amazing to walk into a spotless kitchen when I was expecting quite the opposite! Do we have the best family or what?

Auntie Seen surprised BB with this dinosaur sippy cup, and a whole bowl of Dinosaur Eggs (Jello eggs), which he had loved at Easter. Although, because Uncle Matt carried the bowl up to the party, BB kept correcting everyone, saying that Matt brought the eggs.

Our main party activity was a Dinosaur Excavation.

J had painstakingly buried plastic dinosaurs in layers of Jello the night before - here's an in-progress shot:

And then at the party we explained to the kids that they were going to excavate the dinosaurs.

The kiddos all gathered around as the birthday boy prepared for the first excavation.

E joined BB on his dig.

A dinosaur!!

The kids loved this activity even more than we expected, and eventually had to be torn away from the bins of Jello, much of which was strewn across the grass.

Before SS went back to our house to nap, my friend C made sure we snapped a picture of us mamas with our babies to update the picture from last May when we were all pregnant together.

We're missing Han and her little man from this photo, but they are in our hearts and thoughts.

I'm so glad C thought to get this photo - it's so fun to see how much has changed in one year, and to daydream about the lifelong friendships that can develop between these precious little ones.

We asked party-goers to bring a book for a book exchange in lieu of a gift, so each child went home with a new book, but BB did have a few gifts to open, which we saved until the very end of the party.

Here he is opening his Dinosaur Train train set from Auntie Seen and family (after opening sweet "gifts" that cousins B and Tada made, a paper hat and another paper "craft" and some itty bitty barbells made out of toothpicks and beads)

Sniffing his Scratch-and-Sniff book from cousin Sara

Opening his Boogie Dance kit from Auntie Shawna

Ready to boogie!

BB later said that he wanted his party again, so we interpreted that as a rave review.

Birthdaysaurus success!! 

Sprouts 2011

So we did do a garden again this year, despite the lack of blogging about it thus far. But posting it all now is more fun, because you can see the development over the months all at once, right? (Click here & here to see my gardening adventure last year.)

For me, gardening is an area of my life that is all freestyle - I am lucky to have my own personal gardening guru, my friend Jenny, who is in the midst of blogging her Bountiful and Bountifail gardening series right now, and who gives me detailed, well-researched responses and action plans to all my gardening questions, even though she knows I will only do about 1/4 of what she recommends. Emailing Jenny is generally the extent of my research. I bought my seeds from her seed lady at the Farmer's Market this year (Westwind Seeds - when you live in Southern Arizona, you have to make sure you have breeds that are designed for our climate) and then Jenny also gave me a bunch of seeds she had leftover from her garden. I tried to follow Jenny's instructions to sprout my seeds indoors in a warm, damp area, I really did - we had egg cartons on our master bathroom counter and a couple of pots in our stairwell for weeks (although later Jenny pointed out that I was supposed to do that for a couple months - I had totally missed that in the instructions, even though it was there in black and white when I went back and reread). Somehow I still found myself dumping the egg carton, sans any sprouts, into an empty area of the garden come late March and shrugging my shoulders. I'm still not sure exactly what's growing in that little plot (it's front and center) - I remember some eggplant, some sugar baby watermelons and maybe some squash in the mix I think. But I kind of like it this way. It's all a surprise!

Some things that I do know are growing are our mint and parsley plants that survived from last year. Other than those plants and one tomato plant, everything else in the main garden plot is grown from seed. We did a lot of tomato seeds, some persian melon seeds (recommended by the seed lady) and some basil seeds. We also got some parsley and cilantro transplants that we potted, but the cilantro didn't live very long, and when you see the latest parsley picture, well, it's not in the prime of life anymore either (although neither is the one from last year, so I'm hoping the parsley's sad appearance is weather/heat-related and not accidental plant-slaughter.) We did a bell pepper plant in a pot again this year, also from seeds (instead of a transplant like last year) and right now there are 9 or 10 bell peppers growing on it! Can't wait for them to get bigger so we can eat them.

BB loves to help us water in the mornings, and is getting better about not just pointing the spray at the empty soil but at the actual plants. He tells me "BB's turn, BB's turn." Yesterday he dropped the hose on the ground spraying straight up and I had set it to stay on so that he just has to point it, and we both got soaked by the spray. I was annoyed for a second and then I realized how perfect it was and I laughed (and peeled our soaked clothes off in the privacy of our kitchen). Usually BB just ends up a little damp because he loves to stick his hands in the spray when I'm watering. I tell him when we're eating tomatoes that we grew from seeds and watered in our own garden (we are finally starting to get a lot of tomatoes at once). I hope he keeps these memories.

April


This is after things had started sprouting a little bit - the front left is the parsley from last year, and the front right is the mint from last year. The back left big plant is our tomato transplant, and all the sprouts around it are tomato seed sprouts. I think the back right sprouts are what I thought were the persian melons...

The parsley and cilantro plants in their heyday

May


Tomatoes from our transplant, ready to go in our salad

June

Seeds sprouted, everything looking lush but not overgrown


The potted plant is the bell pepper plants that finally sprouted and grew (it took a while)

The flat-leaf parsley, still looking good

A basil plant I bought at Trader Joe's before my basil seeds sprouted, and then planted. It looked awesome for a while, but now it is getting really dried out. I think I wasn't supposed to let it flower like that.

July

Our garden, looking overgrown, but this is actually after we put up the trellis, weeded, and thinned out some mint

Our cherry tomato plants on the trellis

Our bell pepper plants, with tons of peppers - the red one was the first. Hoping a few other also turn red!

My sad parsley plant - I have vague memories of someone telling me not to let your herbs stalk, and I have to assume this is what they meant? Still hoping it's just too hot for parsley, not that I did something wrong.


What I thought was a persian melon until I saw this post - guess I will have to just cut it open and see!


Another squash I found growing the other day - the squash vine has spread out amongst the mint (which is almost weed-like!)

Cherry tomatoes ripening on the counter, yum.

Mint leaves drying in the oven - J requested some dried mint leaves to make tea, so today (spurred by a burst of manic energy - and yes, I am definitely wondering if this is an indication of impending labor?) I tried two different drying techniques, as well as read that we can just use the fresh mint directly for tea. I also started making some mint syrup that Jenny had mentioned, which I hope to put in lemonade, iced tea, or maybe even coffee. Jenny puts it in her water, which sounds so refreshing in this heat! I'm really hoping the syrup comes out because I've gotta find a use for all of this mint!

So that's the tour of this year's garden!

Aye-by

Ever since meeting Baby Lydi and being babysat with Baby Jack, BB stares at Lydi's birth announcement in the kitchen and points to pictures of babies in books, declaring, "Aye-by! Aye-by!"

Yes, BB, that's a baby! You're going to have a baby in a little while!

BB has also been carrying around an "Aye-by" doll in the nursery at church the last few weeks - I am amazed and relieved that he seems to be warming up to babies all on his own, and I know that Baby Lydi and Baby Jack have been big helpers with his newfound baby-love.


Meeting R's sweet baby Lydi

Here's a picture of the Aye-by Bump at 13 weeks:

I am hoping to take a photography class sometime during this pregnancy - J and I agreed it would be a good time since I am benched from soccer due to the people-growing. I don't know if you can tell or not, but this picture has been slightly edited - cropped, brightened. For Christmas my sweet husband bought me Photoshop so that I can edit my photos, and I am trying to learn how to use the program. Actually, our current computer wouldn't run Photoshop, so J found us a new laptop, and, to tailor it just for me, he found one that is made of bamboo and completely recyclable when, years down the road, we are done with it.

I think I'll keep him.