TRUCKS birthday party

Jack had his 2nd birthday party on Saturday and it was a truck theme. He wore a tee-shirt with a picture of a dump truck that said "I Dig Being 2," which of course I did not get a photo of. In fact, I got very few photos in total, and will be depending on friends and relatives to get copies. We had about 45 guests, 12 of them under the age of 5, so Mike and I spent most our time rushing around, making sure people had food and cake and things were well organized. It was a good time, and the kids had tons of fun in the kiddie pool, sandbox, and jungle gym. He of course got far more gifts than any child actually needs (many, many trucks of all kinds) so I think next year we may say "no gifts please" to keep the focus off that portion of the party. Here are the photos I was able to get and glean from friends so far:

Most of the balloons got ripped off the tables and sent outside to float about the yard with all the kids, but the other decorations managed to stay up for a bit. Here is the food room in a rare moment of calm. We grilled Haub beef burgers and hot dogs, and had many side salads. Your basic BBQ food.


The half sheet cake from Hy-Vee actually fed everyone at the party, but I made a smaller excavator cake for the kids:





The pool was a hit

Jack and his BFF, Jaxson:


Half the guests left before the gift opening, which turned out to be a good thing considering how crowded the seating was

Two grandmas and one great-grandma...and one little brother. Had someone else taken the photo, you would've seen me sitting next to my mom and it would've been a nice generation photo...

All the kids got to help open the gifts

Sure looks like he actually read the cards, huh?


Good times had by all!

Visits

These are Jack's great-great Aunt and Uncle (my great uncle) Kay and Jack, his partial family namesake. They stopped by to see Jack this past week on their way to Colorado, since they would have to miss his birthday party. They brought him some fabulous truck books, which he loves. New books are always a welcome thing at our house--variety is good! I hope some day when I retire I live as well as my great aunt and uncle. They truly embrace the idea of living life to its fullest, and retirement has not slowed them down at ALL. They go to Colorado at least once or twice a year to ski. They travel all over, on biking trips through Russia and China, organizing family reunions on Alaskan cruises, taking every opportunity to make it to family events even if they have to travel a long way, driving all over the country in their camper with the cat, Cricket. They keep up with current events and are always looking to learn new things--the last time they passed through my uncle asked to borrow several of my introductory anthropology texts so he could learn more about what I do. Not what I expect from your typical 70-yr-old :) Cheers to them!

Just a random pic here, recently we tried out the Bumbo seat for Benj and it was a hit. He's growing so fast! Rolling over now and everything.

Shawn's quest for gold

As most of you know from previous posts, we live across the street from sweet 16-yr-old Shawn Johnson, US Olympic gymnist. Most of us in the culdesac know one another and enjoy annual block parties and the like. In honor of Shawn's quest for the gold in Beijing, another neighbor rented a humungo television and set it up in his garage so the whole neighborhood could be together on the nights Shawn competes. We've been enjoying the frequent parties and the excitement of watching Shawn on t.v. as she performs in Beijing. It's been especially great that we can put Jack to bed, a sleeping Benj in the wrap, and hang out with adults (and a baby monitor) until late in the evening without worry about kids staying up late. Here we were during the night of the gymnastics all around:




This was a special guest, Sen-Pei (?) who has known Shawn's coach, Liang Chow, since he came to the US from China years ago.

We were all a bit melancholy when the US team got silver, and when Shawn got the silver in the all around since it was so dang close on both accounts. But a silver in the Olympics is a SILVER IN THE OLYMPICS and is amazing. I am so proud of her! Tonight is her last performance, in the balance beam individuals; her last go for gold. Please help us cheer her on to bring home a gold from Beijing!

Ohhhhhhh, so far behind on the posts

Hello readers. If you still exist. I am so, so, so far behind on posting about life lately. Which is good since it means we've been having fun and staying busy, but it also means I have a zillion photos I've been wanting to share and that this will be a long catch-up session. Thus the subtitle for this post is "the longest post. ever." First, we went to a wedding in Brainerd, MN, saw some friends in Minneapolis, were visted by my great aunt and uncle, went to several neighborhood parties in support of Shawn Johnson's Olympic journey, and finally, hosted Jack's 2nd birthday bash on Saturday. Okee dokee, here come the photos...

WEDDING. The gist is that we took an 8-hour trip up to MN for the wedding of a buddy of mine from jr.high and high school. Alicia and I have been bestfriends forever and ever and it was so wonderful to be a part of this very special 3-day event. We all stayed at Cragun's Resort on Gull Lake, where my friend and her now husband CATERED for all 100some guests the whole weeked. Ambitious AND crazy, I think you'll agree. But the food was amazing, as were the views, the friends and fun, and the sunshine. We had weather in the 70s to boot so it was just a gorgeous weekend all around. Jack stayed at home with both sets of grandparents and had a blast, which gave us time to give Benj the experience of being an only child for a few days, and me a chance to ride in the backseat with him and keep him happy(er) for most of the drive.

We tried and tried the pacifier as a way to get him to sleep without being held or nursing so he could stay in the carseat more happily. It worked a couple times, but for the most part, not a taker.



The wedding couple rented a pontoon boat, which we had tons of fun with both Friday and Saturday. We watched an aquatic plane land on the water not too far from us.



Party cove?



Bridget, Alicia and I have been friends since the akward jr. high days (the 'rebels' crowd, to refer to a previous posting). I know they are both occassional readers of this blog but are not commenters, so some of you may not know of them. But they are two of my closest friends and have been for the past 17 years. Friends like that are hard to come by and I really miss living in the same state as each of them! For that reason, this wedding weekend was especially great to just hang out and catch up.


The wedding ceremony itself was on site at the resort, in a grassy area overlooking the lake. It was a gorgeous area, a beautiful night, and a wonderful dinner, ceremony, and after party/bonfire. I loved the ceremony because it was non-traditional. We all had a long and leisurely dinner. They started the ceremony with their first dance. Then their friend and officiant (dressed in Olympic garb as it was 080808) told some funny stats on the significance of 8s in various cultures. They did a presentation to the groom's 13-year-old daughter, which was beautiful. They read fun vows to each other that rhymed and made us laugh, then had serious and loving words for each other after. It was short, non-predictable, and not boring at any point. It put Mike and my (somewhat) non-traditional ceremony to shame! Loved it.




Benjamin's best friend for the whole weekend was 13-yr-old Asia, the groom's daughter. She is the most adorable, sweetest, selfless, good natured and confident 13-yr-old I've ever met. And she loves babies. Mike and I got a lot of breaks from baby-holding and were able to eat meals with 2 hands because she wanted to hold him every chance she got. She lives with her mom and doesn't get to see Scott and Alicia much, so they asked her what she wanted to do on her last day at the wedding extravaganza so she could spend it how she wanted, and she said "Play with Ben." I wanted to take her home.



Saturday was spent relaxing on the beach and pontoon. The resort had free carriage rides pulled by Clydesdales and I was so pumped for that, but it interfered with the wedded couple's dinner and slideshow, so this is as close as I got:



After a wonderful 3 days, we cut our drive home in half by stopping in Minneapolis to visit friends Sage and Brennan and their 2 daughters, Hailey and Dana. It was a nice relaxing day and evening of catching up and watching the Olympics.

Nearly 4 yr-old Hailey tried out her photography skills:

(Isn't Dana a little doll? She just got off her half-body cast from hip dysplacia surgery 2 weeks before and was already up and walking again! Quite the go-getter.)

Okay, I lied. I have no energy left in me to sit and write and upload photos on Blogger's painfully slow uploading tool. I'll have to leave the rest till later and go watch the Olympics now. To be continued...

Happy 2nd Birthday Baby Jack

For so long that's what we called him--Baby Jack. Two years ago I experienced the happiest moments of my life when Jack arrived into our lives, and also the scariest when he stayed in the NICU for his first 3 weeks of life. So much has changed since then, as he went from 4+ lbs to 30+ lbs. He counts to 10, he tries to sing along with the alphabet song, he jumps and laughs and makes us both crazy and happy. The land of the Twos is sure to be quite the ride. Happy Birthday sweet boy.










Two years of growing makes one really, really tired.

Balloons

We finally made it down to Indianola last night to watch the hot air balloon races. It was hot, so we sat back pretty far on the field so we could stay in the shade. It was the first year we actually went out to the take off field, which means you pay to get in and be closer. Unfortunately the wind was in the direction *away* from the seating, so once they went up, they went away. Not a great view. But still fun for the 15 min. it took for most to get off the ground. We'll have to go next year toward the beginning of the week, as someone just told me more balloons go up at that time (around 100). We took some photos, ate some carnival food, and Jack played in some inflatables. All in all a good evening.





The Purple People Eater blowing up

Full sized PPE

Some of the other shaped balloons: an enchanted tree (the penguin balloon is hiding behind it), and a space shuttle)


Jack had a good time in the inflatables. He ran through an inflated train obstacle course:



Benj had fun sitting with daddy

Jack REALLY loves lemons, and sucked on this all night (and all the way home)