Lunch Date

We had a lunch date with Aunt Beth.

Corinne was LOVING her aunt...

...and her toes, which she recently discovered fit in her mouth.

Getting Ready For Her First Playdate

How'd That Baby Get Stuck In There?

She found the mirror:

Mohawk

This little angel in her Pooh dress has a mohawk...

...as does the Future Artist:

She looks way too concerned in the above photo. This one's better:

Heroes in a Halfshell, Happy Birthday!

As any seven-year-old birthday during Spring Break should, Henry's birthday lasted all week.

We started last weekend with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-themed family lunch (because we are stuck in the '90's) eating pizza (because that's what Ninja Turtles eat) and a cake (designed and decorated by the birthday boy himself).

The cake is supposed to be a NYC street with Turtles fighting for justice all around. Thank you, Aunt Beth, for that New York City bus you gave us years ago. It made the cake legit.

I wrapped the gifts, then Brian helped decorate, matching each Turtle with the appropriate weapon, a detail that is very important to Henry.

Having family around was the best part, of course. Even Henry would agree.

Thank you, everybody, for helping us celebrate Henry!

Dear Dad, Love Henry

Not Really Sure...

I'm not really sure what is happening in these photos...but that pretty much sums up my experience with Svea. This precious child has so many ideas and rarely has the time in the day to complete them all.

So one day she asked if she could take her Numbers poster off her wall, put it up in the hallway and tape her clothes to it.

Then she needed a picture of Corinne.

Then we hear her laughing in the hallway.

I think the proportions part threw her.

Later we remembered that at church, in the nursery hallway, there are pictures of the preschool kids on the wall with their bodies traced out on paper, decorated and taped under their face shot. This was Svea's version of Corinne attending her old preschool, I guess.

I had a coupon for Dora band-aids, which Svea suspiciously wanted to keep in her room. After Rest Time one day, I came across this injured doll:

Poor thing. At least she has a good "mommy" to tend to her boo-boos.

Happy Birthday Aunt Brooke!

Aunt Brooke's birthday is today!

She came over for dinner last night for an eclectic, weird, full-of-fun birthday dinner.

Svea picked out some polka dot knee socks for her.

(You may be able to see the black marker on Svea's chin and cheek where she drew on a smiley face...with a Sharpie marker. She'll have that smile for awhile.)

And Henry picked out gray polka dot ankle socks for her and was reluctant to pose for a picture.

Here they are singing, "Happy Birthday to You, CHA CHA CHA!"

"Twenty-five years Y'ALL!"

Svea was really getting into it.

Here's the card Henry made for her:

"Go Cam Nooten" of course.

On the back it said "I ate too much!"

Not sure what that's about.

Here's the front of Svea's card:

And the back:

"Even though it's not Christmas" she got a snowman and a colored-in Christmas tree for her 25th birthday card. Makes sense to Svea.

KB got to come later and join in the fun. I think everyone got to see at least one kid run naked through the hallway, hear at least one kid cry, at least all the kids laugh, and enjoy delicious brownies.

The best was at the end of the night, Svea was singing herself to sleep in her room:

"Ooooooh Colin...I can't stop dreaming about Colin...Oh, Colin, you are stuck in my heart..."

KB, Brooke and I tried hard to not laugh so she could hear us. Then we all agreed that Brian and I are SO in trouble in the years to come.