Oh, by the way...

ETHAN TURNED 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 7th was Ethan's 3rd birthday. Our Georgia-born son has given us 3 blessed, full, exciting, exhausting, hysterical, baffling, exhausting, wonderful years. We love that boy and can't help to mimic his huge grin at just the sound of his name.

Here's a re-cap of his day's events:
The night before, we got Marmie and Pop on Skype and let Ethan open his present from them...a new (big boy) bike!!!!! He loves it but has another inch to grow before it's not so troubling to pedal those pedals!
The morning of his birthday, we went to a park nearby where a few friends met us for some play time.

We played, but stopped for a little lunch, before some more play time :)

Our love:

Ethan was happy that his friends, Riley and Kyle, enjoy playing with mulch as much as he does!

Home for nap, but as soon as he was up and Daddy was home from work, it was time to open a few presents from us:

Madeline got him a Superhero Seek and Find Book that she picked out and we got him a Lego set. Oh, and very importantly...a superhero is not a superhero without superhero gum!!

Daddy helped put the new Toy Story Lego set together:

We had a couple of our closest friends over for play and dinner. We kept it smaller this year, but it was still important for us to have some sort of celebartion which included our "extended family" :)

Thanks Janette for taking a family picture:

Our boy's THREE!!!

Ethan's really into Superheroes right now, and although I enjoy making our kids birthday cakes with them, when we saw this one at Kroger a few weeks prior...it was settled...this was the cake!

Another year older:

That day a packge was delivered from some friends. Right before bed, Ethan opened it and got some quick play time with sister before heading to bed :) Thanks Emily and Grace! Mommy even enjoys playing this one!!

The next day Ethan recieved not just one, but TWO boxes in the mail!! He got a Ravens hat from Marmie and Pop...

And some cool new trains from MomMom and Poppy!!! WOOHOO!! We had to build a special "bridge" and "tunnel" just for those trains!

He is such a loved little boy! His birthday celebration seemed to continue for a week!! I have some pictures on the itouch I grabbed from it and home to have uploaded on here soon :)

Love you Ethan Selby!!!!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

August 25, 2011

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Doug's birthday was Friday, so while he was at work...we prepared:

The kids were so excited for him to get home to see:

They each picked out a super cool balloon from the Dollar Store and Madeline made him a cake out of Play Doh:

Ethan tasting Daddy's "cake"

Ethan couldn't wait for Daddy to see the balloon he picked:

We celebrated his birthday all weekend with lots of yard work, a few trips to the parks and dinner out (at a sit down restaurant for the first time since Christmas!). We love you Daddy!

The Rest of my B-day

The evening of my b-day, Doug and I went out to dinner...by ourselves:
Our friend Janette arranged to have our kids come over that night. She had even called Doug to make sure it was planned because she felt like would not take advantage of the offer since she had already watched our kids twice, earlier in the week during our parenting class and my DAR meeting. But that's Janette for you... such a big heart and always wanting to do things for others. Believe it or not, we actually planned on our kids having their first slumber party over their house!! So Madeline had to get herself ready to go:

...and it didn't even phase her:

The kids did awesome over there. Madeline got a little upset and nervous before we left to go to dinner, but we told her if she still felt uneasy after dinner, Mrs. Janette would let us know and we'd come back...it wasn't a big deal. But she had a blast!!! Originally, it was Ethan that we were most nervous about, but apparently he was the first asleep, and the last awake! Yay for a successful sleepover!! Woohoo!! And with such an amazing family...couldn't ask for more :)

Ok, except for Sugarland tickets (thanks Mom!!!!) and an Edible Arrangement to enjoy on the couch past my bedtime:

Thanks everyone for making this birthday so special.

I Guess I Kinda Threw Myself a Party..

Friday was my birthday and we didn't really have anything planned until the evening after Doug got home. Originally we were going to try to make a trip to the zoo or something, but things came up at Dougy's work, so we just postponed it until Monday. However, earlier in the week a few friends had mentioned to me that they wanted to learn how to make a pillowcase dress. So I invited them over on Friday morning for a play date/sewing lesson. After everyone had arrived, we had one more surprise guest. An Edible Arrangements delivery from my mother-in-law, father-in-law and sister-in-law!!! A W E S O M E !!!!!!

My friend, Sarah, saw my camera on the counter and grabbed it when she saw who was at the door....Thanks Sarah! I like how little E is in the picture!

Most of my friends that came over were aware it was my birthday and surprised me with a few goodies. The little cake on the left is an ice cream cake that my friend, YenWen and her little girl, Macy had "Happy Birthday Megan" written on and the big sheet cake was brought by Janette and her girls :) Oh, and don't forget the yummy brownies from Jolene :)

Lighting all 29 candles:

They crack me up:

Singing to me:

Good thing I had some helpers!!!

It was a VERY special b-day morning! We've been so very blessed with wonderful friends here :)

BDay Recovery and The Fair

After Madeline's friends left her party, we spent some time in her room playing with her doll house. But first Daddy crashed and Madeline took care of him:
After we helped Daddy up, we set the timer up for a picture of us with Madeline's b-day present (Ethan was having a well-needed nap):

Even Daddy had a blast playing!

...and he was so proud of his work:

Once Ethan woke up , we headed over to catch the last day of the Columbia County Fair. After an already busy day, it didn't take Madeline long to crash!

The first thing Madeline wanted to do when we got to the fair was ride the carousal. But apparently she didn't want to ride the horse:

...she wanted to ride on the sleigh with all of us:

Ethan was very overwhelmed by all the stimuli...he clung on to Doug or I the entire time:

They had a petting farm that we walked in to look at. We didn't buy any food to feed the animals, but the family ahead of us kept giving Madeline food to feed them...so it worked out great for us!

Madeline tried to fish bowl game once...and didn't get a single ball in...

...but we still ended up with two fish!! (we later realized, after she played one other game, lost and still got two prizes, that the best time to go to a fair is on the last day they are there!)

They each got to choose 3 rides to ride on...and boy were they excited!!

Doug and I couldn't believe that Ethan actually went on some rides by himself!!! He LOVES these rides, although he may not look like it in the pictures. As soon as one ended, he was running to another saying, "peas! peas!"

The boys at Ethan's first Fair experience:

Cuteness:

As her last ride, Madeline desperately wanted to ride the teacup with Mommy (the fish came too):

As we were leaving, Doug ran into a guy he works with, so he snapped a picture for us:

We had such a great evening!