Little Croc-Hunter

Ethan has energy and enthusiasm. He also has a crazy obsession with creepy-crawly-things like worms, snails, frogs, lizards, and snakes.
I've decided I have a budding Steve Irwin on my hands. Look out world!

Post Holiday Plague

And then everyone got the got the yucks.

Yuck!

Easter madness

And then it was Easter.

"Phew! That was a lot of work!"

Sam's First Birthday Party

Saturday, April 3rd we had a very special party for our new one year old.
We invited all of Sam's (and Ethan and Elisia's) friends. George and Lisa brought baby Mason. Joey and Rachel brought Dylan and Caitlyn. Erik and Heather brought Aiden and Hailey. Our house was hopping with kids.

We had homemade chocolate cupcakes with creamy whipped topping and mini-lemon cupcakes with sweet lemon glaze.

Sam was excited for cupcakes.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy!

Sam was ready to eat his cupcake.

"Hmmm...which part to eat first?"

"The topping I think."

And the cupcake party commenced.

Hailey liked cupcakes.

Caitlyn liked cupcakes.

Sam thought the dog should have some cupcake too.

Then it was present time.

"Isn't this the princess party?"

Mason helped his buddy with that mountain of presents.

"Open!"

"Dude. Could you give me a hand here?"

It was a great party!

Isabelle could have lived without this.

Sam's First Birthday

Sam's first birthday was April 2nd, 2010. My little bitty guy is already one!
We had "special noodle soup" for dinner, old family recipe. Sam loved it.

And he wanted more.

In fact, that soup seems to be his favorite food.

We had lemon cupcakes and sang happy birthday.

Sam liked the cupcake but preferred to suck his thumb with it.

And then it was time for bed for the sleepy birthday boy.

Good night my sweet big boy.

Getting all domestic

I've had a little domestic inspiration lately.

Elisia and I made Fairy cupcakes together.

Lemon cake with sweet lemon glaze.

Elisia thought they were very tasty.

This weekend we had homemade foccacia for dinner.

And then I thought I would make some Pottery Barn inspired "cookies" with "sprinkles" out of felt for Elisia to play with.

Now I must return to normal life, sweeping, ordering pizza, and chugging coffee.

Frogs at school

Ethan wanted to bring the frogs to school to show to his class. Mrs Johnson enthusiastically said it was okay to bring them. I knew it would be difficult to keep them alive between the handling from Ethan and Elisia and the lack of appropriate frog food.

Well the day we were scheduled to bring them in, I went to check on the frogs. There they were, two little frogs with bright eyes. Elisia wanted to play with them and out of fear that she might let them free, I moved the frog box to the deck. I noticed the wind was picking up, which isn't unusual for windy North Bend.

They just needed to stay alive for one more hour. It was 30 minutes to show time at Ethan's class. I went to pack everything we needed into the car. Then I went to get the frog box. The hatch had been blown open. The frogs were gone.  I was so disappointed.

Mrs. Johnson said that when Ethan caught more we could bring them to class. So Ethan caught three more frogs.

And they were still alive to take to class the next day. And they never got out.

Ethan was so proud to show the frogs to the class. And the kids were very attentive.

Mrs. Johnson even let Ethan take a frog out to show to the kids up-close. They loved it. Ethan was so proud.

Thank you Mrs. Johnson.