Rainy Days

I love rainy days, especially summer rainy days. However, I barely remember what they are like since we NEVER get rain. All this 100 degree heat (in June, already) has made me look back fondly on a rainy day we had a while back. Ethan and I decided to put on his rain boots and go searching for puddles.


Nana bought him these adorable rain boots, and I wish we got to use them more. Ethan was confused at first, but I convinced him to go for a walk with me. Our neighborhood is a little hilly, so we had to search awhile before we found the perfect puddles.

I showed him how to stomp and splash, and he got the hang of it pretty quickly. He did get freaked out a few times when debris got his boots. He would stop and say. "Ew, Mommy, ew!" He got over it though, and went on his merry splashing way.

I eventually had to convince him to head back home, and all the way back he spotted little puddles and would say "More, Mommy!" even though most of them were smaller than his foot. We connected the puddles all the way back home, and now he's addicted to his boots. They're currently hidden because otherwise he'd insist on wearing them everywhere.

Wow, I'm behind...Easter

I never blogged about this, but I most definitely want it in the next blog book, so we're going to go with the "better late than never" excuse for this one.

On Good Friday, we went to the park for an egg hunt with some of my mom friends and their kiddos. I had pulled our eggs out of the closet a few days earlier so that I could fill them for the hunt, so Ethan was already excited about finding eggs.

waiting to start the hunt

all the goodies


and then he was off

He did a great job hunting and filling his bucket. We had to remind him to keep going though, because he wanted to sit down and open up all the eggs right then and there.

ooh, another one!

It was a lot of fun, and E found lots of stickers and snacks in his eggs.

On Easter Sunday, we hid his basket (something my mom used to do), and we helped him find it. He plopped right down and started opening everything. He was a very lucky boy, he got nummy-nums (M&Ms) in a few of his eggs this year.


We headed out to spend the rest of the day in Bastrop where we had a a nice lunch and E learned all about confetti eggs. He wouldn't smash them directly on our heads, he just crushed them a little and sprinkled the contents over our head.

His favorite target was Daddy.

So that was Easter. I'll have to check the camera and see what other pictures I need to post.

Beach Trip

After all the birthday hoopla, we were so glad to get in a little vacation. My family decided that we should head down to the beach in honor of Papa, who passed away last year on April 16th. We arrived there on Wednesday, and shortly after my grandma and Paula joined us. The rest of the clan filtered in on Thursday and Friday.

My mom, Cory, Ethan, and I all stayed in our new super awesome tent, but we had Gramma and Paula's Airstream close by so we could have all the modern conveniences. They also have wi-fi and a lovely bath house at the park, so it really isn't "camping" at all.

Our luxurious tent.

Super comfy bed as far as camping goes.

After getting all the setting up done, we headed down to the water, which is right over the dunes from the campsite. Ethan really liked the beach last year, so I knew he'd dig it this year especially since he couldn't even walk last year. I was most definitely right.

Checking out the water for the first time.

When we went down to the water the first day, he got out of the car and said, "Wow!" He really liked playing in the waves that first day, but after that, he wasn't really into it. I blame the temperature of the water, but who knows.

Walking in the water with Daddy.

Watching him play that first day.

His favorite beach activities were digging in the sand and chasing the birds. He pretty much just loved to run around in all that open space, and he had a really goofy chasing-birds-dance where he'd flap his arms around and run. I wish I would have gotten that on video.

Heading to do some digging.

Checking out a hole with Paula.

Building a castle with Mama.

The weekend we were there also happened to be Sand Fest, and if you're like we were and had no idea what that meant, it means ~100,000 extra people on the island and a huge sand castle building contest. It also means fair food, artsy vendors, and drunk people. We stayed quite a ways down the beach from everything, but we decided to check it out. The first time we walked down the beach, pushing my grandma in this super cool beach wheelchair borrowed from the park office. Oh, and it was waaaaayyyy longer than a mile away (as we were first told).

Ethan fell asleep about half-way there.

E, Me, Gramma, Mark, and Cory made it before everyone else.

I wish we had gotten a better pic of the wheelchair, my gramma was the hit of the festival in that thing. People were stopping to take pictures of her, it was hilarious.


Ethan and I stayed Wednesday to Wednesday, while Cory left on Sunday (with a bunch of other family members who couldn't get time off), and my mom, Gramma, and aunts Karen & Paula stayed too. We enjoyed meals out, lots of hammock time, evenings by the fire, and lots of lounging on the beach. It was perfection.

Checking out the rooftop view from the park office.

Feeding the birds, one of my favorite childhood past times. E seemed to like it too.

We also went back to the Sand Fest on the last day to check out some of the finished castles. It was quite impressive.

Here's a couple from the amatuer category:



And some of the pros.:

This one won overall.

Super talented, all done by one person.

So that's it, our trip. I'm already trying to plan another trip soon.

Bounce House Party

Thought it was about time I share a few pictures from Ethan's party with his friends. Unfortunately, it being at a bounce house and all, a lot of my pictures came out like this:

It was a fun party though, even if I don't have much proof. Ethan would have been hard to catch anyway, he was running around everywhere. He tried out all the bounce houses, including the ones for big kids that had mommy-heart-attack-high slides. It was a good day, and we enjoyed celebrating with E's friends and their families.

Setting up

The birthday boy

singing "Happy Birthday"

with Nana

Blurry pic of the three of us

The Hat

We came across a hat at Old Navy the other day. I put it on E's head just to see, thinking he would immediately throw it off as he usually does. See, the only hat he's really ever kept on his head is a winter hat, and that's probably only because it was 20 degrees in NYC and he's no dummy. Much to my surprise, he happily put the hat on, nodded in approval, and started to walk around the store. I asked him if he wanted the hat, and he nodded and smiled, so to the checkout counter we went.

I mean, really, how could you not buy him the hat after seeing this?

So the hat has come with us to dinner, to the park, and to the store. If he sees it lying around the house, on his head it goes. I'm thinking the obsession might be short-lived, so I thought it'd be a good idea to document it.



I'm really hoping he'll at least like it long enough so it can work as a sun hat of sorts for the beach in a couple of weeks and maybe even for summer, but we'll see. For now, he's all about his hat.

It's Bluebonnet Time Again

I love bluebonnets, always have. I used to make huge bouquets of them and other wildflowers from my grandparents yard. Taking E to take pictures in the flowers is a Texas tradition that I will definitely take part in as long as he'll let me, as corny as it may be.

This year, he wasn't really into it. He loved running around the field, but sitting and smiling for the camera was not interesting to him.

"you want me to do what now?"


"alright fine, but this seems weird to me."


He liked picking the flowers too...don't tell.


Nana and Daddy managed to get some smiles out of him.

And then he was off. I must have looked like a fool chasing him around with the camera trying to get a good picture.

This one looks to me like he's saying, "yo, Ma, I told you I'm done with pictures!"

He then proceeded to crawl around the field, so we called it a day.

Perhaps we'll get another chance for more pictures if we visit Gramma, but I'm pretty happy with these.

Par-tay!

On Saturday, my baby turned two, can you believe it? (this is what he does when you ask him how old he is, we've been practicing).

We've spent quite a bit of time preparing for his birthday parties (that right, plural, parties), and this weekend was our "family" party at our house. Next weekend, we'll have a "friends" party and a bounce house place because there was NO way I was having two parties at the house.

I have to say, I think the party went well. Some of our family couldn't make it, so it was a little smaller than last year. E has had a wicked case of diaper rash, which he never gets, so we were a little sad for him, but it didn't seem to bother him too much. We spent the morning having a little naked time, and Ethan thought it'd be fun to have some pants-less backpack time.

He ran around the house like this for quite a while, and it was one of the cutest things ever.

He also did a little naked decorating.

After naked time, he took his nap right on schedule, which gave me, Cory, and Nana time to do some last minute things before the guests showed up. Luckily, I learned my lesson last year and did a lot of prepping in the weeks before. However, there are always things that never seem to get done on time... no one noticed I'm sure.

The banner.

Snacks and dips.

garland.

"Cake" table. The cake pops are in the blue box in the back.

Grilling the kabobs.

The cooks.

The party.

The spread. There's fruit, chicken, steak, and veggie kabobs. Can you guess my "theme" for the party?

Ethan appreciated the theme.

Cake pop time.

He blew out his candle like a pro. (I told him it was hot, so he blew on it).

Unwrapping presents. It went really slowly at first, you know why? My little OCD boy would pull off a piece of paper and walk it to the trash. We had to put a stop to that if we were going to get everything opened by time he was 3.

Then it slowed down again because he found something he liked, a whistle. He got some great things though: tons of clothes (yay!), trains, a trike, a remote control car, a rocket, books...

Playing in his new sand box from Mama and Dada.

Having a blast in the bounce house from Nana. Bonus, it holds Mama too, so we can have all kinds of fun. We're looking to have more playdates at the house too....any takers?

Lastly, there was pinata time. E was of course excited about the stick, and got the hang of it pretty quickly. He did recruit help to finally get the candy out though.

That was the first of his parties. He goes for his well check on Tuesday, so I'll probably post his stats along with a lot of gushy stuff about him being two and all the things he's up to these days, so get ready. Then next weekend we'll have more party time with his buddies, can't wait!