Moments of July and Beginning of August

Backwards Racing Up the Stairs

Lesson on how to get messy and be okay with it. (It's washable paint, no biggie, right?)

D loved it.

Mason could only handle paint on his hands. He freaked out when it went anywhere else.

I took them to the pet store instead of the zoo one day. I was too tired for the zoo. They didn't mind the difference.

This was Ds birthday. We went to the zoo with our neighbors.

The peacock at the zoo gave us a show.

Happy Birthday!

Playing together at the playground. I can't even describe the happiness and gratitude in me in these moments.

Playing with Daddy.

He loves seeing his face in the camera.

Neighborhood Pool Slide. They make these faces every single time they go down.

Mason is concerned the whole time he slides down that we won't catch him at the bottom.

And Mason has learned to somersault. His daddy taught him, and he loves it.

Donovan Turned TWO YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where has the time gone?!
We celebrated D's birthday on two separate days. Once as a family on his real birthday, and once with friends at a bbq a week later. He didn't get a real cake on either day, but he didn't seem to mind. I keep thinking about the Mater cake I made Mason on his 2nd birthday... but who's comparing anyway? For the family party I made monkey bread cupkcakes, and at the bbq I made rice crispies, and every piece was eaten. That doesn't happen when I make those fancy schmancy fondant cakes. And it's a lot cheaper.
We invited friends from church who live nearby. Great people! And their kids are adorable. We had a few games for the kids to play so we could enjoy adult conversation. Consequently, we didn't get many pictures of the games. But we got some. It was a great afternoon. We didn't even have our nightly thunderstorm that we usually get in July. 
So D is in love with outer space: astronauts, planets, space ships, stars, the moon, aliens, etc. So we decorated his room with space stuff. I only took video of the planets we hung, I haven't gotten a finished room picture yet.


 I'll do a post of all our house. We've been working on decorating the house and it's slowly approaching the presentable side of finished. You can see his final product then. And a note about the whole "die die die" thing the boys do-- that is thanks to Despicable Me. A girls says something like "it's so fluffy, I'm going to die!" and Mason of course has the whole thing memorized, and brings that line up every once in a while. Sorry if it's disturbing.

Monkey Bread

Opening Family Presents

One of the games we played at  the bbq was a moon rock hunt. I spray painted some rocks neon green and hid them all over the yard. The kids loved it! Easter in July.

The big momma. Not sure why I was wearing horizontal stripes.

The Rocket Krispies

D got a hold of this plate without anyone noticing.

 Here's a video of the party. I still don't know how to focus. Better than nothing. For some reason after it plays the birthday video, it keeps going through my youtube videos, playing them, too. Must be a new feature, but I'm too tired to figure it out tonight. Enjoy all the videos, if you like. :)

We may have chosen presents Mason would love to make sure they play together more often.

These were favorites from Grandma and Grandpa. Astronauts and a rocket. D loves them. Here they are driving to church.

I also set up a game for the bbq where the kids shoot "aliens" with water guns. The cups are still up in our yard.

We are so lucky to have this funny, happy, confident, loving, cuddly little boy in our lives. Happy Birthday, Donovan!