Birthday Boy

We've had 2 birthdays within 3 days here. Followed closely by Father's day. We keep it low key but still try to make the day special. Who wouldn't want to open presents shortly after waking up? It's become tradition in our house.

A very intensive game of soccer with the baby as goalie. Check out that save. Soggy diaper and all.

The smile on his face is cute. My kids don't ask for birthday parties or dream about them or spend time planning for them. But they spend lots of time considering what type of cake they want. Russell has given me a list for the next 3 years. Thankfully he was forgiving of my interpretation of "race car" cake because I'm not really a cake maker. I'm not sure how I've pulled these off thus far. My philosophy: cover them with candy and they pretty much won't care what it looks like. Of course, then cross your fingers.

Have I mentioned we don't have birthday parties? Well, we don't. But this year we lucked out in getting to have our kids friends over for the morning. It was heaven for everyone. It was simplicity at it's best. The kids just played with no expectations of a party and we had people to eat the cake with us. Or at least help add more cake crumbs to the floor.

Forgive my sentimentality. This is Russell at 1 year old. Where has the time gone?

Being Fun

Sometimes I can be a fun mom. I've probably written about this before but I'm too lazy to go back and look for any posts. (Most likely it has the exact same title!) Periodically the bug hits me and I'm willing to let the kids get things a little messy. You know, like let them get the play-doh out. I can get real crazy.


Anyway, we have this really cool education supply store here. And wow, do those ladies know how to sucker me into buying anything they show me. Really cool stuff. My latest purchase was these Do-a-Dot applicators. Very cool. The kids loved it. So we had some fun in the process made some personalized wrapping paper for Clark's very exciting birthday presents (A&W rootbeer and twizzlers).

And least you think the whole party wasn't there here's a shot to prove that Afton joined in the fun. She kept the floor clean and tidy of scraps. It's a real talent of hers.

Dishwashing

A whole army of ants took over my dishwasher this week. Maybe I should be ashamed to share this, but well, it's a fact of life. Ants come in people's homes. So in a vain attempt to exterminate the ants our dishwasher has been on lock down. We've resorted to doing dishes the old fashioned way.

The amazing thing, being the nightly kitchen helper has suddenly become a hot commodity. Who knew dishes could be so fun?

(Russell and me, sporting my newly clipped hair. I chopped off 6-8 inches, people! I think barely anyone has noticed.)

The past two nights have resulted in near knock-down drag-out fights to be a dish scrubber. Sadly no, Clark and I were not the participants in either of these fights. I'm also sure the novelty of this will wear off in a night or two. Though I'm sure the ants will be around all summer.