The Perfect Birthday....

At least in the eyes of a two year old!

The formula includes: throw in some of my favorite foods (tacos and cupcakes), invite over some of my favorite people (g-parents & auntie), let me play in the pool and presents all for me! Perfect!

Ty's cupcake tree with all his favorite things...

Waiting to blow out the candles...
There they go!
Putting his new baby in his new bed...

"What is it Ty?" we asked. "I don't know!?!?" he replied in an excited and ready to explode voice.

A tent to hide in shaped like Thomas, YAY!

Amazing what a year will do.....

Happy Birthday on the 1st day of school!

Happy Birthday to the littlest one! We had a wonderful day, you got to go to preschool for the first time and g ma & pa D were here to watch.
You're funny, confident and have a very short fuse. The looks you give are to die for and that laugh will get anyone going.
Love you little bear!

The first day was great! He walked in like he owned the place, played and explored everything around. He was in love with all the cars outside, and the sand, and the water table. It's going to be a fun year!

Why worry?

Why do I always worry about things, they usually turn out fine. Today was Cody's first day at school, 1/2 the class was there so it's easier to get used to the schedule and new people. It was great, the moms working today were great, Teacher is awesome, and Cody made new friends. All is well and I'm sure the year will be fantastic!

Song time with new teacher and new buddy..

Back to work, digging a tunnel under the ground
(I think they added water later, too much fun!)

On the home front, here is the finished closet:




I may add a shelf in the gap from the first picture, but we'll see. I should probably move the shelves around a bit, but we'll see how it functions for now. It's just really nice to have the bags and suitcases unpacked, and to have my clothes hamper back (it was full of clean close as well!)



Yay, parents are coming today, should be here any time! So off to start our busy rest of the week/weekend!

Anxious

Anxious is about the only thing I can say about the upcoming preschool year with Cody. He'll be fine, way excited about getting started. I'm all a flutter about the whole deal. Thinking it mainly has to do with "proving" myself to the new teacher. It's like starting a new job, knowing that you have the experience, but making everyone around you see that it's there.

Although, so far it's been fine. She's a little short in the classroom, but she's also going 100 mph. It's been nice to send her an email question and have it answered within a few hours, instead of maybe a day or two.


On a sad note....
Poor Goldie kicked the bucket today. Apparently if you give the gold fish part of your taco, it doesn't agree so well. But we can't complain, he's lived almost 2 1/2 years in his bowl, pretty long life span for a goldfish living through 2 toddlers. So it looks like we'll be buying a new one this weekend!

The preparations begin....

My littlest one is turning 2 on Friday. (How did that happen?) So instead of working on the closet, or bathroom, or cleaning, or whatever, I started making things for his party. We are having a small celebration on Sat evening, just family, but all the grandparents will be here, so that will make it special. I've realized that his birthday falls at a hard time of year, right in the middle of back to school. So next year we'll plan ahead, either have a friends party at the beginning of Aug or more mid Sep.

Cupcake toppers, his favorite things:

Then there's this awesome paper that will become a key rack. I painted the board to mount it on this afternoon. Now I just have to figure out somewhere to hang it.
Keith was busy today, digging out a spot for the big shed to go. Then he cleaned off the patio so that it's usable for next weekend. Maybe soon I'll invite friends over to visit. Once the closet system is up, probably tomorrow's task, most of the majors are done for now. I'd like to have an open house party, so we'll see, it would be nice to have everyone over at once and get it done.

Mad Leveling Skillz.....

Busy, very busy today. Worked on the hall closets, loading up some new bins from Ikea, now I just have to tackle our master bath vanity. (YIKES!)

You can see the floor in the office, most things have a home (at least for now) and the bed is made with clean sheets....

The closet corner is also coming along, the cubes are full of office goods, soon I'll figure out what to put on the other shelves.
See mad leveling skillz, posters I picked up in Vegas in Jan...
Living room finally getting some personality...

The list of wants is getting longer by the day! I can envision pictures to put on the walls to really make the spaces shine, some are cheap from Ikea, other's more so from the online art store.

Adventure to the State Fair

Wed we took an adventure down to the state fair. We rode the light rail, then the bus and did a ton of walking once we arrived. The boys had a great time, as would be expected.

Waiting for our bus to arrive..

There is a monorail that goes over the entire fair grounds and is an awesome way to plan what you would like to see so we started there...

Then we found the live stock barns, a must for anyone with kids. Saw the new baby animals, laughed at the goats and watched a small exhibit of fish and crab. From there we made our way to the kids park to find a couple of ride that we could all go on, not so easy with an almost 2yo. But we were able to go on the giant slide, hot air balloons (up, down and spins) and the Dizzy Dragon (a small scale tilt-a-whirl). Tyler laughed the entire time, so it was a good time.
We were hot and tired, snow cones for all! (Or one big one to share 3 ways)

We were also able to catch the end of the motocross stunt show, end of the sea lion show, and the birds & bunnies exhibit. We were all exhausted and but had a great time.

Today we took Ty to his 2 yr check up. He's a small guy at 25 lbs, 6 oz putting him in the 20% for weight. Then he shot up to 36 inches, putting him at 90% for height (3 inches in growth since mid Dec!) He had one shot and is still bow legged, but everything else is great!

Progress, all in a day's work...

This is what the kitchen looked like most of the day yesterday....

Boxes on the floor, newspapers on the counters that held glass bowls and vases, step stool in various locations, and most the cupboard doors open at the same time. But the kitchen is unpacked and it all fit in there in some way. Not super sure about a couple of things, but not really sure of where else they could go. It will work, I'll get used to it and it will be fine!

Finally did something with the wall stickers for the boys' bathroom..

Decided that putting them on canvas was the way to go so that in a couple of years if we decide to change the decor' we won't be peeling wall paper off the walls. It turned out cute and I can finally mark it as done.

Then the office was next on the list. Organized things to go on the shelves, not really settled on this yet, but it's a start. I also took all my scrapbook paper out of my big tote bag and organized it in the shelf on the left. So I can see it now, my scrap paper is all in the top bins according to size and the full pieces are filed below by size. Some time I'll go back and do some color, design sorting as well, but at least for now it's more assessable.
Then we were able to move in the big wardrobe from our room. With the closet the way it is (no not up yet) we don't need anymore hanging space like at the hold house. So I'm going to use it in the office. I didn't realized it, but I can add shelves to this on the inside, so that' on the list list.
Very busy and productive day that included an hour trip back and forth to the school office to deliver the final paper work for Ty. We are all set with our admission passes for school! YAY!!

Weddings, swing sets, finishing, and sales!!!

We've had a busy weekend that started on Friday. We started the day by cleaning the garage, moving things around so we could find things that were lost, and so the boxes needing to be unpacked were close the to kitchen door.


SIL was married to new BIL from Australia Friday afternoon. It was a lovely little family ceremony then a bigger reception in the evening. Long story short, they were either to get married by Fri or he was out of the country for an unknown amount of time. So they shotgunned, we had a party, and everyone is on their way to legal!

Stu (BIL), Virginia (SIL), Eli (new BIL), & Keith

Grandpa and the boys...

The cake, before it completely melted (ice cream cakes)...
Getting worried about future college years,

the boy chugged it down!

Yes, it was only sparkling cider...

"What? Mom said it was cool!"

Sat and Sun we spent working around the house, cleaning up the side yard, making a dump run, and pawning more stuff off on the newlyweds.

The boys are happy to have their swing set back...

Shelves above my desk are up and ready

Office closet shelves are done...

Coat/bag check in the entry...
Kitchen cabinets complete....
Flag pole is up and set on back-to-school...
Even the duck got a bath and a new outfit.
And just because he wanted to see himself on the camera....
That was our weekend, in a nutshell. I was even able to squeak out a little time to hit up Michael's for their lame coupon sale! Hopefully we'll survive the week of errands, going to the fair, doctor check-ups, and starting back to school things. YIKES! Here we go!