Now we are 3!

Somebody had a birthday and we figured before somebody else had a birthday that we'd best post some photos of Wily's little party, complete with balloons!

Pop Quiz

For those of you not at Grandpa Art's 90th birthday party, can you guess what Jeneric has illustrated in the card on the left?

Happy Birthday!

Jeneric celebrates 4 years today.

From here...








To here.


Happy birthday, Jeneric!

And now we are two

Toddler Wily had a birthday and we celebrated with cupcakes and presents. See?


Cupcakes with mounds of chocolate frosting (and yes, she is wearing the crown Jeneric wore for her third birthday.)


Toddler Wily had help from Big Sister Jeneric with card reading and present opening. So many Elmo cards!


Look at Toddler Wily's right hand - yep, she's asking where her cup (of milk) is.


Reading some new Elmo stories with Grandma and Jeneric.

What a difference a year makes...
Or two!

Happy birthday! (part 2)

Jeneric's actual birthday fell on a Monday. We celebrated quietly with a trip to the park and a pancake dinner.

Swing, swang, swung.


Eine kleine mountain climbing!


Vroom, vroom! Three-year old at the wheel!


And a card that played music (she took the card to bed with her!).


A good birthday? Check!

Now we are three

Yes indeed, Toddler Jeneric, nay Jeneric has turned 3. On Sunday, we had a small party, complete with cake, balloons and friends.
The festivities began with our weekly trip to the supermarket. Jeneric has been begging for a ride in one of the 'movie carts' and we indulged on her birthday weekend. She and Toddler Wily were mesmerized!


On Saturday, the family was in full party-prep gear, with cake baking, vege chopping (yes, we had broccoli at a kid's birthday party!) and decorating. Here, Jenni is getting started on the cake - hmm, what's going on?


Our first game on Sunday was a cross between jumping in leaves and drawing on the sidewalk with chalk. Then we morphed into a rousing game of twister (right hand red!).


Neither the birthday girl nor the guests could wait until the cake to open presents, so we did things a little differently. Presents first, lunch and cake later.




Next up: the first craft of the day. Food coloring on paper towels.


Lunch degenerated into a toddler joke fest: You're a banana. Yeah? Well you're a grape. You're a rabbit ear. etc, etc, etc.


Then we sang while three candles flickered.


Jeneric was good at blowing the candles out.


And even better at eating her rainbow cake.

Celebration!

Toddler Wily celebrated her first birthday in traditional style, with presents, macaroni & cheese and cake.

I like macaroni & cheese (and peas). Aw, my favorite dinner!

Also? I am learning how to mug for the camera!

I also like to feed myself.


Whoops! Where did the food go?


After dinner, everyone sang to me and then there was cake!


I really liked the frosting...


And for those who couldn't be here to celebrate, whip up a batch of your favorite chocolate cupcakes, pull up a chair and sing along!

Happy birthday!

To who? Toddler Wily! A year ago today, Jenni unassumingly went to work... and then, just after lunch, Toddler Wily joined our family.

Happy birthday!

Although we love visiting Minnesota most every chance we get, the real reason for our visit this August was to celebrate the 80th birthdays of Eric's grandparents. That's a lot of grand slams.


To celebrate, we headed north, to Gull Lake, where we...

Ate.


Made a campfire (and ate s'mores).


Went boating.



Did a little fishing.


Ate some more.



Sang Happy Birthday... and ate some cake (and there was pie!).


Modeled some hand-knit hunting socks.


And played a mean game or two of cribbage.