The Schooling Adventures

This was a post I started over a month ago and never got any further than uploading a few pictures. As I'm working on Madeline's 5th Birthday post, I just realized this pos was waiting on me to finish...well I'm not going to finish it :) I debated just deleting, but I figured I'd go ahead and throw the pictures out there without any story :) Maybe another day I'll provide more....

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!!!!

A is for Apples

A girl I know here teaches a Kindermusic class. Although we'd love to be part of the regular classes, we are not currently enrolled (maybe after the new year...or after Disney...we'll see). However, she was sweet enough to invite us to a special class/play date she was holding at the park on Wednesday. The theme was apples and we began by gathering together on the grass to play instruments, sing songs and dance (wiggle, jiggle, whatever). The kids then went to run around on the playground for a bit while a craft was set up. Madeline and Ethan then got to decorate their own apples (including the use of glitter!!! anyone who knows me knows I looooove to do arts and crafts with the kids every day, but glitter is NOT something we have in this house!!... so it was extra exciting for them!). After the craft, a nice snack was provided. Madeline LOVED that she got to use was of those cool apple slicer gadgets. I think we may have one somewhere...I need to start digging. Ethan ate up much of the apple strudel and apple bread (the boy loved it and not many others were touching it) as well as a little apple. Oh, and of course, we had apple juice. It was a wonderful morning at the park, finished my Ethan in just his undies and Madeline in her clothes, running through the splash pad. Ethan has never enjoyed the splash pad during the millions of visits we've had to this park previously, but of course, now as we soon enter October....he loves it.

3 Cheers for Storytime!!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

August 25, 2011

Just Playing in the Rain...

Saturday, August 2, 2011

Easter 2011

Mom-Mom and Poppy came to visit again for Easter!! (They came for Easter 2 years prior, too) We really enjoyed having family around to spend the holiday with... It also meant someone else could do the egg decorating with the kids!! Yay!!
We took a walk down the street to the "little playground" and I attempted a nice picture of the four:

The Easter bunny came!!! Madeline had a nasty stomach bug last Easter so really didn't get to enjoy any of it. It was nice to see her so happy Easter morning :)

Ethan was pretty thrilled too:

Madeline LOVED her new Rapunzel doll!!!

Ethan loved his candy!

Madeline and Ethan, Easter morning:

The kids saw a bunny shaped pancake mold one day when we were at Jo Anns...couldn't resist:

We got ready for Church and headed over. Afterwards, they held an Easter Egg Hunt. WOW were there a lot of people!! Can you spot anyone from our family?? They're there!

Although the hunt wasn't challenging, the kids still loved it. When leaving Madeline said, "that was the best Easter Egg Hunt ever!"

Ethan usually is uncomfortable around large crowds of people, but the egg hunt was too much for him to resist:

...but every time he'd find an egg, he would turn to find Poppy and grab hold of him:

Madeline couldn't have been more comfortable (Doug went ahead and snuck her into the 5-7 yr old group since there were much less kids there, heehee):

Liz took a family shot of us inside our Church:

After Church, we went back home to play outside and have another Easter Egg Hunt. First we had to set up the new grill Marmie and Pop sent for the kids:

Then Poppy hid a bunch of eggs for the kids. Not sure who had more fun...Poppy hiding the eggs, or the kids finding them!

Found one!!