Birthday Party #2

Our friend Kole turned 3 on Friday of last week.
And he had Capri Suns so Henry thought games + loud music + singing rat + Capri Sun = HEAVEN.

Here's his first, that was immediately followed by a second:



Kole liked to dance on the stage with Chuck, so Henry thought he'd join him. Except every time he almost got up there, he got scared. This halfway-up-there shot was the best I could do:



This one is the best, most realistic shot of the morning. That's Warren in the orange, Henry in the stripes and Kole in the back. They danced and wrestled and punched each other until we had to separate them. Many times. Boys...



The wrestling:



I dropped Svea at a friend's house so I just had one to chase. It's way easier to do The Cheese with just one toddler. Henry had marks on his face from his pals' punches and cried the whole way home - because we left, NOT because of the punches.
He's still asking to go back.

pump it UP

Starting in February, Henry and Svea's friends start having birthdays. Then for about 5 months, everyone is celebrating with sugar and balloons, and now, inflatables.

Brian and I were always scared of these places (due to hysterical kids running maniacally in circles, headaches from all of the static electricity, it's too early in the morning to be jumping around, etc.) but we actually had FUN. It was snowing like crazy, but we had the Cream Puff so we made it safely.

At Pump It Up, here is Svea and me going down one of the 20-foot-high slides:



And then she only wanted to ride in the car. Daddy's girl:



And here is Svea with Daddy going down the big slide:



Henry running about the moon walk thingie:



Until he discovered air hockey and played that with Kole forever:



Notice there aren't many pictures of Henry going down the slide? He was scared to death of them and since we are good parents, we dragged him up the ladders and MADE him have fun until he was laughing with all of the other kids.
He'll thank us later.

Learning to Use Markers...

...starting with the color BLUE.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Getting Ready for Up-Dog in the Morning

The New Chair!

Svea, in her post-nap stunned phase, relaxes in the chair that Brian BUILT. So beautiful.



The cushions we had done by an upholsterer, but Brian even upholstered the ottoman on his own.
The back has a bar that offers three different angles to recline. And there are no nails in the thing. Notta one.

Tennis Tourney

Mimi and Papa came this weekend!

And when Papa arrives, Henry immediately starts talking about tennis. And Svea, "Nennis."

It's so cold that "Tennis Ports" were out of the question, so we moved some furniture and had a tournament between the living room and dining room:





What is not captured in the photo:

That mirror you see? We had to take that down after it got hit with a few balls.

After Henry hit the ball? He would run the bases and fall down.
And his sister? She did that falling-down-bit too.

Papa? That's him counting 1-2-3 before throwing it to Henry. Svea started waving her finger in time with "one...two...three" and then throwing something. She's a genius, I tell ya.

Great visit with them. I think we all cried when they left. I don't know when our next scheduled visitors are...

And He Totally Did This on His Own, Too.

Bedhead? Check.

Peanut Butter toast? Check.

Sports section with big pictures of basketball players? Check.

Sippy cup, toy ambulance, and wallet on my personal breakfast table? Check.

Marker on my chin? Check.

Now we can all start the day.

She Totally Did This on Her Own.

Fun Coloring with Aunt Beth

To fill 10minutes one afternoon, Aunt Beth and I taped some paper to the floor so we could draw roads and "race" cars.
However, it ended up being a bossy art session for Henry telling Aunt Beth to DRAW SOME GRAPES and DRAW MY PEE PEE SOCKS and NOW MY POO POO SOCKS and on and on.



I almost had to leave the room.





Svea worked on perfecting her marker-top-removal skills.

Go Colts!

Svea decided to get ready for the Super Bowl a little early, wearing the Alabama football helmet:



Then we had a Super Bowl "party" with Aunt Beth, but all Svea and Henry cared about was choosing one Frito and dipping it in the French Onion Dip repeatedly until it was too soggy to hold a pound of dip.



Go Colts!



Aunt Beth and Brian gorged on nasty hot wings until they felt sick, the Colts won, the kids went to bed and we played Oh Snap with our Seinfeld cards. Brad joined us for that via speaker cell phone, then helped us look up words on Urban Dictionary.
Hmm. We are SO fun.