Max’s Happy Birthday

We celebrated Max’s birthday on a Sunday afternoon, two days before his actual birthday. 

I’ll start with the fun pictures – the smash cake! 

Like most babies, Max started out unsure of what to do with this thing on his tray.

His first reaction to the sugary frosting was pretty funny – clenched fists and a funny face.

After a while, he got it all figured out…and he liked it!

I’m all done, Mom!

Grandma P made the cake, and Jessica made the smash cake.  They put a LOT of work into making these adorable zoo-themed cakes!  When I learned how complicated the stripes were, I was amazed they didn’t throw that cake right out the window before completing it!  THANK YOU for making such adorable cakes!

Now that we’ve had the fun pictures, here are some random pictures taken throughout the day.  THANK YOU to everyone who picked up my camera and took pictures when you had the chance. I  really appreciate it!

My mom & sisters helped with food – potato salad, veggies & dip, jello, beef, pickled cucumbers.  All we had to do was buy a watermelon, buns for the beef, potato chips, chips & salsa, and drinks. Thank you!

               

Jessica used extra cake to make Alex his own little smash cake.

Our boys enjoyed lots of snuggles and playtime with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Aunt Annie got this cute little jeep for Max, but Alex claims that it’s his.  Max is clueless at this point, so Alex gets his way on this one…

  

Max got spoiled with some great presents…

 

…which he didn’t help to open.  I’d hoped Alex would be my helper, but neither boy helped a bit once there were open toys to play with!

In addition to Annie’s jeep, Max got…

2 kid songs DVDs and a CD
a learning walker (which is fought over daily in our house)
a little football
Critter Clinic
Zany Zoo busy box (MUCH loved by all of us!)
Whacky Ball
Frog Pod tub toy holder (I’m *LOVING* this!)
a praise songs DVD
a bounce & spin turtle
lots of money for his savings account

So, little boy, you’re ONE!  And you have a big family who loves you very much!  Happy Birthday, Max!  We hope to enjoy many more happy birthday celebrations with you!

A Little Bit of Cute

If kids didn’t have “cute” as one of their ingredients, I don’t think parents would survive.  Alex has been very “terrible two” around the house lately.  Our super-obedient boy is taking a little vacation, and he’s been replaced with a different child – one who is talking back a lot and testing me often to see what he can get away with doing.

Thankfully, he’s also cute and fun…and Max is, too! That’s all that saves them from the wrath of Mama at times, I do believe.  :)

“Wook, Mom!  See what I did to my cup?”

The boys play with Alex’s train table just about every morning.  Grandma & Papa Purdy brought back this engineer cap from Alaska…it’s perfect for playing trains! :)

 

Max is starting to really enjoy pushing the trains around…until he gets bored and throws them, that is!

 

Boys in a basket:
fun for about 24 seconds, until they realize they’re squished ;)

Somebody Had A Birthday…

…and one of these days, I’ll have enough time to post about it!  It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but I hope to find time soon to post about our little boy turning ONE.

Happy Birthday, Max!

Camping Again!

After spending one evening and one morning getting ready to go, and then setting up a camper on a humid 90 degree day, we started to question if this whole camping thing is really worth it.  We weren’t seriously questioning it, but it sure is a lot of work to prepare for camping and get set up, especially with two very little ones underfoot!

Watching how much fun Alex had, and having lots of fun ourselves, we’ve decided it’s worth it…but it’s NOT a relaxing vacation with little ones!

This past weekend, we went with a group from our church to Indiana Dunes State Park.  It’s less than an hour from home, and it’s a pretty nice campground.  We had some rain, but not enough to spoil our fun.

Max wasn’t thrilled about sleeping in the pack n play, but he sure had fun playing in it!  (And after crying himself to sleep for each nap and bedtime, he did okay…but he still woke oncee during each night and got up for the day around 6 AM…ugh!) It’s really a lot of fun to camp with a big group.  Alex had a BLAST playing with all of his church friends – blowing bubbles, playing games, digging in dirt, riding his Buck, running around, playing at the beach…he was one very happy little boy!

I picked up a new bubble toy on clearance before we left.  It was fun for 5 minutes…until it got bubbles in the motor and stopped working.  Oops.Alex dug in the dirt.  A lot.  He didn’t care if he was alone or with other kids, as long as he could dig.  His bucket and shovels were a big hit with the little boys.

See the bike?  Alex was loving his friends’ bikes.  Oh, how he wishes he could ride a bike like a big boy!  Thanks, Jackson and AJ, for sharing your bikes with Alex!

When I asked Alex about his favorite part of camping, he said “playing John Deere Buck with Zach”.  They sure were cute together!

Miss Angie brought some fun games, and she taught Alex how to play Cariboo with AJ & Jackson.  (By the way, this game is out of production.  If you have this game & your kids have outgrown it, I’d *LOVE* to buy it off of you!)

I’m pretty sure Alex is happiest when he’s COVERED with dirt.  This is just his face.  You really should have seen the rest of him.  We learned that he hates showers, and had to resort to a sponge bath on the second night.  It takes a LONG time to sponge off all that dirt!

There was lots of chatting, eating, playing, and swimming…and some swatting at biting flies and mosquitoes, too.  Really, though, we had a lot of fun and we’re SO glad we were able to go! 

   Lest you think this is a nice massage line, look closely.  Jessi (in the front) was a good sport about getting coated in wet sand!

Max absolutely adored playing in the sand and shallow water.  He was so active that this is the best picture I could get.  In the rest of the pictures, he’s crawling too fast!  He got a few mouthfuls of sand, and he ate a few pebbles…but hey, it’s all part of learning what the beach is all about, right? ;)

We barely made use of the firewood we brought.  This was the only fire on our own campsite.  The rest of the time, Jack & Angie’s fire was shared by several families.  I offered to share some of our firewood, but Jack pointed out that our firewood is from HIS tree, so it wouldn’t really matter! ;)    After the campground church service, we had a great big, really yummy group breakfast.  Everyone pitched in, and it was delicious!  I think Mark’s sausage and potatoes was some of the best camp food I’ve ever eaten.  YUM!

Max hung out in the pack n play while we took down the camper.

 

Alex alternated between playing and helping Daddy.

  And here’s Max at dinner.  He fell asleep mid-reach for a bite of pizza.  I guess we wore him out! ;)

One more camping trip to go this year…Oak Lake again, with my brother’s family and some of my cousins…on Labor Day weekend.  We’re looking forward to it!