2 Year Birthday Celebration(S)!

So many birthday celebrations!

We had a BUSY few weeks surrounding EJ's bday this year.  What a fun age to get to watch as a parent!  We had fun celebrating with all kinds of different people in all kinds of different places.  See below!

Birthday Celebration #1: Chuck E. Cheese

We went with our friends Mary, CJ and "N" after N's bday (she's a couple of weeks older than EJ) and before EJ's bday.  We went super early on a Sat morning to avoid the crowds and before naps were needed.  I think my lil' girl had fun!

"Grrr!  Why won't this thing MOVE?"

"Hello?"

The girls had fun "riding" this game...it shook and jostled and bopped them around, and they were glued to it." 

OK, so here's the story on this.  When Mary, CJ and I were talking about what we should do, and then we decided on Chuck E. Cheese at 9-something a.m., one of us said, "But then we can't have a beer with the pizza!"  And we all decided, "Why not?!"  So, just for the SAKE of having a beer way too early in the morning, as well as pizza (I think by the time we sat down it was somewhere around 10:30am), CJ and I toasted to our drinks of choice.

Cute family #1....

Cute family #2...at least Mommy thinks so! :)

Birthday kisses for my sweet girl!

Chuck E. was coming by!  I wondered if EJ would be afraid of him...

Nope...still my fearless kiddo.  She got such a kick out of him! :)

Vrrroom...EJ always loves steering things...she always migrates to steering wheels.

Look at the intensity on her face in these next 2 pictures!  She was going to WIN this game!

This Mommy often appreciates when our male friends "share" their time with their kid(s) as well as EJ.  Mommy can only be Mommy in so many ways, and there's something little girls love about sitting in the lap of or being played with by a fun-loving guy, especially one who is a daddy, too!

LOVE this picture...and the overalls!

Pals with Chuck E. again....

Birthday Celebration #2: Monkey Joe's and Dinner
EJ and I headed out with her daddy to Monkey Joe's, a building where kids can play around on inflatable jumping/bouncy things..., and then we stopped for a quick bite to eat.  

They had a couple smaller bouncy inflatables, designed for toddlers, but EJ didn't last too long in those...she had fun on the big kids stuff, too...

Again...the whole driving and steering thing...

Mommy jumped in and played like a big kid for a few minutes!  It was fun!

With Mommy, EJ can do BIGGER jumps!!

Self-portrait...cheese!

Off to dinner...

"Surprise, EJ," said her new friends, popping right out the box!

Big squeezes for Big Bird!

Hugs for them all!

Birthday Celebrations #3: We went to the Sparks Family house to play with all the kids, have lots of friends to sing, and blow out candles (which she did like a champ!)

Cake #1 baked and decorated...

Mommy loves pictures with her big kid!

Birthday Celebration #4: We had our neighbor friends over for a FUN evening.  Our neighbor's boy, "D" and EJ had such a blast tearing apart presents and running around shrieking together!

Us girls realized that we were all wearing striped socks!

Let the fun begin!

I LOVE this picture of EJ and Dave!

Our funny friend, Laurie, gave EJ a funny face!

"D" liked it, too!

"D" got a hold of EJ's girlie dress up clothes (OK, and maybe some of the adults added to the outfit!)

Cake #2 - ELMO!!

All the kids sitting at the table with the adults standing around - JUST LIKE OUR BABY BOOK PICTURES WE HAD, right!?

Look at that precious smile and pose!

Kisses for Elmo before we EAT him!  Ha!

All the kids playing together...even little "B" crawling over to be with his big brother "D."

Look at my sweet, beautiful girls in their cute brown vests!
Thanks for visiting with us, Laurie!!

Coming soon!

Lots and LOTS of updates coming very soon!  EJ got to do tons of things for her bday and I was reminded of just how many people love us (thank you all!!)...I have lots of pictures to go through and whittle down for what will still be long posts.  Perhaps I will get to all of it this week!

Merry Christmas....

More to come, 
Mama Beck  :)

Catching Up on Some Photos

A few of these are from over a month ago, but I realized I forgot to post 'em.

(To those of you who already peaked at this posting, there is one more under the "highchair section" that I just found...I KNEW there were more!)

Newer ones towards the bottom....

Adorably looking through her square to watch the little horse...

Having fun sharing a carnival ride with our little friend, "T."

Our first ferris wheel ride together!

EJ's into the highchair these days, and she's kind enough to be sharing it.  :)

First Clifford....

Then the bear in the toy highchair...

Then Elmo....

I missed grabbing my camera quickly enough to capture all the other friends who got the royal highchair treatment: Junior Asparagus, Larry the Cucumber, a teddy bear,...

One more little dude in a BIG chair!  :)

She's actually fairly good at using utensils, but she does get a little crazy with one of her favorite foods: yogurt!

She was a good sport as Mommy tried on a little sheep hat when we were at the store.  I figured she could go around and "baaa" AND keep her ears warm.  :)  No, I didn't buy it!

New headbands to keep all the hair back...only, she likes to wear them all at once.  Check out that big smile!  (too bad my phone can't take a better picture :/  )

"Must wear headbands while eating!"

Seriously, all she needs are legwarmers (and maybe to peg her pants, too) now!
Maybe I'll see if I can find her a Jazzercise video!  Ha! 

We all loved this little adorable face in her adorable outfit, with adorable pigtails, so our friend got his camera out while we played with EJ.  Love these!

Concentrating on playing hard....

Sorry for the view, but she was ramping up to do a somersault!  

And ALL BY HERSELF.  Such a big girl.

Um.  Precious.

If you look closely, you'll see there's some hang time there...EJ's jumping a lot lately and she's got a couple of inches under her!  She's practicing for her future sports career.  :)

Love the sheer joy in her face.  We love hangin' with our friends Dave & Ann Louise!

This could almost be a picture on a Hallmark card, eh?

Made Me Laugh :)

So, I came across the below cartoon, and it made me laugh!  Look at her overwhelmed, exhausted expression.  My bedroom is the place these days where I am usually frantically taking off clothes and throwing on other ones to run off to the next activity...and then to crash, so exhausted from (seemingly) everyday's chaos. And, with a kiddo who gets into everything in just moments, I don't have the luxury to calmly put things (that I've only worn to, say, run to the store or something) away, fold them up all nice and tidy, as I'd like.  So, it always starts with throwing the sweatshirt off, or changing from jeans to workout clothes "for just an hour," and thinking, "I'll just put these away once EJ is down and before I get ready for bed."  Alas, it never happens, and I SOO understand (and appreciate!) this girl's look on her face!  ...and then, I appreciate her resolution...my exact one!  


Just climb underneath and go to sleep.

So, I decided to be an ULTRA nerd (and play around with some of the tools on Word for what was supposed to be 5 minutes) and decided to draw you an aerial view of my bed.  Keep in mind, I have a Cal-King bed, rotated 90 degrees, so I technically sleep on it the "skinny" way and it's an ultra "wide" bed because it was meant to be an ultra long bed.  That means there is just more width to stash stuff I can't get to.  So, I literally sleep on the 1/3 (or on the CRAZY weeks: 1/4) of the bed that's left after the ever-growing pile of clothes, EJ's books, sometimes her blanket (for snuggle time!) and stuffed animals occasionally, and then sometimes my laptop/papers when I just can't handle sitting at my desk for another minute.  Here's my depiction of my bed, inspired by the overwhelmed but practical girl above!!  :)

And, yes, to those who have asked: EJ picture updates to come soon...well, once I find my camera under the pile of clothes on my bed!  :)

Another Fun Weekend - Boo!

We had another busy, but FUN weekend!  We spent our morning with our fun friends, CJ, Mary, and "N," going to Boo at the Zoo!  They passed out candy to our little kiddos and we walked around and saw some great other costumes.

Then, EJ and I baked a cake in the afternoon, and I tried to carve the second pumpkin of the season (story/pics below), and then we headed out to a carnival for the evening with our neighbors.  Didn't get pictures of all of that, but clearly, it was a jam-packed day!  

On Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed ourselves at Heidi's house at their "harvest party," full of kids rolling down hills and playing with each other, and yummy food.  

In her kitty costume that she got to borrow from her cousins.  

Of course, the hood was NOT going to remain on, but the pigtails were in place for a little while. :)

N was NOT having her tiger / Tigger outfit, so as you'll see below, it took 2 of us to strip my kiddo of her kitty outfit and force it onto N! 

N is clearly NOT happy.  Her mommy and I can't help but laugh.  

The "new" little tiger (EJ!) is off and running!

Mommy caught herself a tiger!

"Come on, little kitty!  This is fun!  Here, I'll give you a hug," says EJ.

A prowling tiger looking at the "sebras" (translation: zebras)

Lil' tiger, Big bear!

CJ with two wild kitties!  :)
We were watching the sea lion show.  It was fun!

Bye, bye, little tiger...

One word: precious.

"Ahhhhh!!!  I'm sitting on a giant pumpkin!"

Later that afternoon....

Mommy let her stir the cake batter.  :)
If I get the short video uploaded, it's pretty cute!

"Duh, Mommy, I'm all over this!  This was easy!  I'm a big girl!  What's next?!"


A cute 30 seconds: click here
  

SO, the stencil LOOKS like Elmo...and it's rated EASY.  Clearly, I'm not that skilled on carving "easy" pumpkin cutouts.  :(

"What's the blue thing inside the pumpkin," you may ask?  Ahh...that was a plastic kid spoon holding Elmo's face together after his nose and mouth broke off from his eyes.  (And then, I tried to hot glue gun it back together!  Yup...I still chuckle at myself for all of it.  I think it's pretty funny...so is the amount of time I spent trying to cut the dang thing out!)

I should have just PAINTED his face on the pumpkin and called it a day.   :(
I tried EJ, I tried.