Dad and the Boys

(By guest blogger Jonathon)

Sarah slept in yesterday, leaving the boys and me unsupervised. So, of course, we watched videos on YouTube. I was showing them some of the many Lego stop-motion videos when Christian wondered how they were made. I told Christian and Andrew about it, and they immediately wanted to make one. So we got to work.

However, it is much harder than I thought it would be. As it turns out, of the three of us, I have the least amount of patience for this kind of thing. Anyway, we took 40 pictures with my iSight camera (the webcam on my laptop) slowly moving each car forward a cm at a time. Then we loaded all of the pictures into iMovie and put them together at a rate of 10 pictures per second. After an hour, we finally got a pretty bad 4 second video done.

I thought our little educational experience was done and I could move on with my life, but the boys thought otherwise. After much persuasion, I finally agreed to try again this afternoon. It went faster this time and turned out much better. The video is only 18 seconds long, but it includes several camera angles and even has dubbed audio. It's nothing much, but the boys had a blast. We will see how long it takes them to convince me to do it again.

Here is our final product which the boys lovingly refer to as Cars 4:

Andrew's "Angry Bird" Birthday!

Our little Andrew is 3!

More than anything, Andrew wanted an Angry Bird party. The obsession with Angry Birds has to to end some time, but for now, the boys are still in love. It was actually the perfect theme for a party because there are so many ideas available on the Internet. We looked through tons and tons of cakes until he found one that he really wanted. Unfortunately, it looked really complex and included fondant cake toppers. I told him that I would do my best, but I was doubtful. He really wanted a chocolate cake with a red angry bird, a slingshot and a green pig on the top. That required me to learn how to create characters out of fondant... something that I have never done before. I decided to give it my best try, and then if all else failed, I could buy some little toys to stick on there instead. (Cake inspiration found here and here)

Luckily, it turned out beautiful! I amazed myself and was so happy with the results. Here are a few pictures of the process of creating the characters. They were made with a Rice Krispy treat center, and then I covered them in fondant. Then I created all of the different features and stuck them on until two characters emerged. I modeled them after our stuffed animal Angry Bird and Green Pig.

Then, I made a CHOCOLATE (his favorite!) cake, frosted it with white buttercream, covered the sides with crushed oreo cookies, tied a ribbon around the base, and put the figures on the top. Andrew was in LOVE! He sat and stared at the cake all morning waiting for his party. It sure made me feel good that he liked it so much. Here are some pictures of the finished product:  

 

When Andrew woke up this morning, we gave him his first present, some balloons that we decorated like Angry Birds. He thought they were so cool. It was a good start to his fun day... All Angry Birds, All the Time! (Balloon Inspiration and templates found here)

We had Jonathon's whole family down for Andrew's party and decided to have a themed lunch also. It was a lot of work, but turned out to be so much fun. Andrew was in heaven. We had salad, homemade breadsticks, and Angry Bird pizzas. We did mini Angry Bird pizzas, and a big one as well. Jonathon can take credit for the awesome pizza. It turned out amazing! (pepperoni bird, an olive outline and eyebrows, cheese beak, and chopped onion eyes; Pizza Inspiration found here)

After lunch, we hooked the computer up to the big screen TV so that we could all take turns playing Angry Birds. It was fun to see Andrew play followed by Grandpa and Grandma, followed by Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma. They all found it fun and addicting. Then we opened presents. He loved each one and wanted to play with it before moving on. We had to encourage him to speed it up a little.

 Then we had cake and ice cream. The candle proved difficult to blow out, so Christian helped. 

Andrew is such a sweet, cuddly little boy. We are so happy that he is part of our family. 

We love you, Andrew!

It's Hard Being Little

I mentioned in the last post that Andrew was having a hard time with Christian going to school. It has been 4 days, and I expected him to be over it by now. Unfortunately, the poor little boy wants so badly to be big like his brother. He insists that he take his little backpack and walk with the boys (Christian and Gavin) to their class line. Every time we leave the school, it is just heartbreaking (and oh so cute!) how he reacts to having to go home. I decided to try to catch it on video today.

He is slowly getting better. Yesterday I had to haul him to the car screaming. While you are watching, notice how he keeps looking over his shoulder to look back at the school and his big brother. Then the ultimate kicker is his pout at the very end of the video. Too cute! Hopefully, he will get over this soon.

Kids are always so anxious to grow up.

I just hope he stays little for a while longer.

Enjoy!

All about Andrew

What's Andrew up to lately? 

*Anything and everything Lightning McQueen! He has taken obsession to a new level. Here are a few examples:

-Every nap time and bed time, we have to play 3 of his favorite songs from the movie "Cars." 

-Whenever we get into the car, we have to play those same "Lightning McQueen" songs from a CD.

-We have four identical Lightning McQueen toy cars that we can never find because he hauls them around everywhere.

-He wants to watch the movie nearly every day. I am a mean mommy and only let him watch it about once a week.

-He randomly says "Lightning" in conversations. If you have ever seen "Up" and remember the dog saying "squirrel" randomly, that is what we compare it to.

-He has books, movies, puzzles, toys, a tent, a sleeping bag, a blanket, drinking cups, a training potty, and shirts with Lightning McQueen on them.

-When you ask him the colors, he says "Lightning" instead of red. He knows red, but he likes lightning better!

Lest you think that Lightning is all he thinks about, he is also loving puzzles right now. He is getting quite good and can do the easier ones by himself. He will sit for a long time to work on puzzles. He is also starting to talk a lot more. I had been worried about him for a while, but in the last 3 months, his language skills have improved drastically. He has hundreds of words now and can express what he wants. He still has some pronunciation issues, but life is so much better now that he doesn't just scream when he wants something. 

He is also sleeping a lot better. He naps well, and is sleeping through the night more consistently (I know he is already 2 years old, but this is big progress for him and us). Christian is still the center of his world, and he will follow him around (and annoy him!) all day long. He has really become a happy and fun boy. There were times when we never thought the day would come, but now we just can't get enough of our little Andrew.

Doing puzzles (of course, one is Lightning McQueen)

And for your viewing pleasure: 

Andrew singing "Life is a Highway" from Cars. He was a little camera shy and needed some encouragement, but Christian and Andrew can sing pretty much every word when they get going.

Our (almost) 2-year-old

Andrew's 2nd birthday is on Tuesday. He was our New York City baby, and it's crazy to look back on all the things that have happened during these last two years. We love our Andrew and are grateful to have him as part of our family. We had a little party for him last night to celebrate. He is completely obsessed with Lightning McQueen and the movie CARS, so we used that as a theme. He really didn't know what was going on, but he walked around the house all day saying "aye- aye- een" (Lightning McQueen). It turned out to be a fun night. We are so glad to have family around to help us celebrate because, really, how many friends does a two-year-old have? On to the pictures...

The Cake: 

Andrew's 2 favorite things-- Lightning McQueen and CHOCOLATE ("ock-ock")

 Blowing out the candles and sampling the McQueen cake

The Presents:

 Andrew was excited and cute after he got a little soccer ball from his aunts and uncles. This is his expression right after throwing it. 

His new Mack truck to carry all of his cars in.

He also got a new Cars DVD because he destroyed the first one carrying it around all day. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma :)

The Guests:

Thanks H. family for making Andrew's birthday wonderful!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Christian went on his first field trip last Thursday, and Andrew and I got to go too. We went to a cute little pumpkin patch near our house. It was raining and nasty beforehand, but when we got there, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful Fall day. We had a great time.

Andrew standing on the trailer getting ready for the hayride

 The boys choosing their own special pumpkins. Andrews was a bit too heavy for him (hence the face :)

 After we got done picking pumpkins, we headed back to the activity area. They had so many fun things to do all made with the farm theme.  Here are some examples:

giant "jump house" pumpkin; corn tunnel

 haybale slide; 4-wheeler cow train

Christian's Dino Dig

Christian turned 4 on July 21st. I really wanted to make this birthday special because we will be moving soon, and he will be leaving his little friends. I let him invite all of his friends (who were in town), so we had the party at the park so there would be enough space for everyone. We decided on a "Dino Dig" theme because Christian is obsessed with dinosaurs. We told the guests that they were going to attend Paleontology School and learn to be dinosaur scientists. Here are some of the activities and photos from the day:

The Decorations

We decorated the park by our house with the dinosaur theme. There were balloons, paleontologist hats, and streamers. We also made little gift bags with Christian's special Dino Dig sign.

We had some huge T-Rex footprints (made from 12x12 paper) leading up to the party area. The kids loved to jump from footprint to footprint, so it served as a game and a decoration.

Dinosaur Eggs

We made a bunch of dinosaur eggs using this recipe. We put a plastic dinosaur in the middle and then baked them until they were hard and looked and felt like rocks. Before the party, we put them in a little nest. Andrew really liked the eggs and kept sneaking over to play with them.

For the first "school" task, we told the kids that our park had fossilized dinosaur eggs and we needed to open them. They all ran over to the nest and were so excited to see the "eggs".

The paleontologists-in-training got to choose an egg and crack it open to find the dinosaur. They pounded them on the table to crack them and then dug at them with spoons (our substitute for chisels). Here they are hard at work. This is my favorite picture of the day... check out Christian's face!

Fossil Imprints

After the kids got their dinosaurs out of the eggs, we told them that next a paleontologist needed to make molds of the bones they found. We gave them a ball of playdough that they rolled out and pressed their dinosaurs into. This made little fossil impressions that they got to take home to dry.

Dinosaur Skeleton
The last part of our Paleontology School was putting together a dinosaur skeleton. We drew a huge dinosaur on a big piece of cardboard. Then we divided it up and traced each little piece on some white craft foam so that it made a bunch of bones. The kids got to take turns putting the bones on the board. It was a huge hit!

Below is the finished dinosaur and the kids admiring their work. Christian loved it so much that he wanted to keep it in his bedroom. Hopefully, he will get bored of it soon so we don't have to move it across the country.

The Food
After we finished the games, we had a light lunch. I tried to keep with the dinosaur theme, so I asked the kids what kind of foods dinosaurs ate. We talked about carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores. The kids kept saying, "I want to be an omnivore so I can eat everything!"

The "Jurassic Jelly Sandwiches" had cookie cutter dinosaur shapes cut in them, and we used jerky pieces for the "Carnivore Bites."

"Prehistoric Punch" and "Herbivore Munchies"

The Cake

This whole party idea started because Christian wanted a "long-neck (brachiosaurus) cake." That was his only request, so that is what he got. I was worried about making a dinosaur cake, but I LOVE how it turned out. The idea came from here. When I baked the cake in the round pans, Christian got very worried and asked if I remembered that he wanted it shaped like a dinosaur. I told him that it wasn't done yet. He looked at me and said, "Mom, I'm not worried anymore. You make the most beautiful cakes." Talk about pressure...

Happy 4th birthday to my sweet Christian!

Important Words

Andrew has been the opposite of Christian in just about every way. He is opinionated, fearless, high-intensity, clingy, and goofy. Parenting him has been a completely different experience than we were anticipating. We have learned that comparisons are futile, but sometimes I can't help but note the differences. Andrew is an extremely physical little boy. He walked really early and has been running amok ever since. His language skills, however, have been slow in coming. Christian knew the alphabet and was singing nursery rhymes by 18 months, so I was concerned that Andrew was behind. At his last check-up I mentioned this to the doctor. She laughed and said Andrew was perfectly average and not to worry. His language is starting to pick up a little bit in the last few weeks, so I wanted to post a few of his favorite words. It is hilarious to hear the things that he thinks are important enough to say.

Just for the record, he doesn't say mama, but he does say...

Dad (His favorite person in the whole world)
Grandpa/Grandma
Bob (Bob the Builder... we seriously have to read his "Bob" book before every nap)
Dora (Dora the Explorer)
Thomas (Thomas the Tank Engine... Can you tell that he loves Christian's cartoons?)
bath
apple
all done

Hi
Bye
ball

popcorn
book
block

stinky

Side note: While at his check-up, our doctor mentioned that we shouldn't be too surprised that he doesn't talk very much because his older brother doesn't ever stop talking. She is very perceptive :)

Will someone please call the ice cream man?

With temperatures in the 100's for several days in a row, this New York summer is making it very easy to say goodbye. The 3 H's (hot, humid, hazy) along with a really weak air conditioner make for a pretty miserable day. So while we are dreaming of the central air conditioning awaiting us in Utah, we are surviving by spending many hours at the park.

"The Ice Cream Man"

Christian loves to play at this little house in the park and pretend he is serving ice cream. I always order strawberry. I always get a lovely piece of bark to pretend eat. It is always good fun. Sometimes, I just wish it was real ice cream...

Playing Soccer (in the shade)

Christian earned a soccer ball for being good, and we took it out to the park early in the morning to avoid the heat. Jonathon taught Christian how to pass and do headers. It lasted for about 10 minutes before both boys were too distracted with other things, but those 10 minutes were fun.

Lots of time at the "Splashground"

One of the only things that keeps us going is running through the sprinklers at the park. The boys love it, so we go once or twice a day. Here's hoping for some cooler temperatures...