Birthday Boy

{Warning} This post is picture heavy.

Ike turned two last week and we had a lot of fun celebrating. We started the fun the day before by going to the park. Ike is currently in love with playing at the park and so we knew he would have a blast being a little monkey and running over the open fields.

That evening, once the kiddos were in bed, I worked on finishing the birthday preparations. Streamers wear hung in front of his door (a birthday tradition from my childhood), the birthday banner was strung over the window, presents were wrapped, and the finishing touches were made to the chocolate cake.  Just as I was getting ready for bed I remembered that I had not built Isaac' s present from Grandma & Granddad  Brewer. So I woke Scott up to help build the Ikea child's chair. I always seem to have such trouble getting Ikea furniture together.

Once Ike woke up in the morning and ate breakfast,  we opened gifts.  This year Ike knew what to do with the tissue paper and didn't need much help.  Once he opened his helicopter, all he wanted to do was play with it, so we had to convince him to set it down and finish opening gifts.  His favorite gifts turned out to be the hammer from his tool set and his helicopter. They are constantly being played with.

Cake was next on the agenda. We figured that having cake as a mid-morning snack would cause the sugar buzz to be over by nap time and allow us to have cake on Ike' s actual birthday before Scott had to go to work.

When lunch rolled around I expressed by love for Ike by frying up homemade chicken nuggets. I hate frying food but Ike loves nuggets.  I figured it would be healthier to make my own rather than have McDonalds make them. Ike LOVES dip so the meal was based around the concept of dipping. Chicken nuggets, baked sweet potato fries, and green beans. At the beginning of the meal Ike used the food to get the dips into his mouth but by the end of lunch he had abandoned the food and went straight to sucking the dip off his fingers. This tendency to just eat dip is why we almost never offer the option of dip to him , but since it was his special birthday meal we let him eat a lunch almost exclusively comprised of ranch, ketchup, mustard, and bbq sauce.

Once the morning festivities were over Ike went down for a nap, Scott went to work, and the day returned to normal.

{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by Soule Mamma.

In her words: "A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember." If you're inspired to do the same, head over to her blog and leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Sunshine

The sun has been peeking out of the clouds the past few days allowing me to once again line dry diapers.  It is wonderful to see the sun bleaching the stains out of the fabric.

Small clumps of flowers have been blooming around the yard, and it has been quite fun finding the colorful surprises.  I need to mark the flowers so I can replant them this fall in the beds I hope to clear this year.

This year's garden is partially planted.  My seedlings are growing strong and healthy indoors and my cold hardy seeds were planted in the ground yesterday.  We should see some sprouts by the end of this week.  Today is rainy and the rest of the week is predicted to be in the 70s and dry - perfect growing weather.  Every year when I plant my garden, I am filled with excitement and trepidation. I can't wait to see everything growing and thriving, but what if this year is hot and dry like last year or what if it is cold and damp? What if that stupid ground hog circumvents the fence and eats every last tomato and cucumber again? What if the deer decide to munch on my beans? Whew, I can only imagine how much more intensely my ancestors felt these feelings each spring as they planted their food supply for the next year.  If our garden doesn't produce well, we will still be able to eat in the winter - our ancestors didn't have that luxury.  What a blessing to have a much more secure food source, and what a reminder to not take things for granted!

The kids enjoyed the fresh air while we planted the garden.  Ike enjoyed it a bit more than Norah since he can run around, climb all over the park's play equipment, and ride his mini four-wheeler.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by Soule Mamma.

In her words: "A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember." If you're inspired to do the same, head over to her blog and leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Spring Fever

Spring is finally starting to show up; although, winter is not leaving without a fight as evidenced by the light dusting of wet snow a few days ago.  Last week was rainy, gray, and cool - not very pleasant weather. I am hopeful that the moisture will prove to be beneficial this summer, since last year was incredibly dry and the water table was lowered by farmers trying to keep their crops alive.  When the sun peeks from behind the clouds, our entire family is hit with an intense desire to run outside and bask in its rays; or in the case of the adults in the group, we desire to start working on the horrible lawn and overgrown flower beds.  I have most of my veggies started in pots and am looking forward to May when I can transplant them.  This year, we're focusing on fixing the outside of the house since we focused on the interior last year.  It is hard to look at the whole picture and not get caught up in wanting all your grand plans completed at once; landscaping takes time, plants have to grow, and materials aren't free.  The joy is really in the journey, isn't it? Right now we're enjoying the sun, the grass that gets greener by the day, and the surprise bulb flowers that are popping up around the yard.  Spring is always so full of possibility.

Spur of the Moment Trip to IA

Hanging out at Tia Leecie's apartment Saturday morning

A fun evening with the Gogerty clan

Kieren came over to say hi to Norah

Ike inspecting Uncle Jordan's fine workmanship on the concrete table top.

Boys are rough and tumble from the get go.  We had to extract Norah from the swing for her own safety.

Tia Leecie eats eggs for breakfast.  Ike eats cat.

A rare picture of me and my girl

Snuggles with Grandma Linda

Uncle Jared ensuring that he remains at 'favorite uncle' status

Barney on the Kindle is a sanity saver during a middle of night drive (note the plexiglass between Ike and Norah.  This prevents any sharing of feet, hands, or tractors).

Me and Elice

Last weekend we decided to take a spur of the moment trip back to IA to visit friends.  Scott was desiring a vacation so we packed up and took off for IA to visit friends.  Usually when we are in IA most of our time is spent at family functions and so it was a fun treat to get to see old friends and visit our college church the majority of the short trip.  Of course we did stop in to see the grandparents since we were in town but we actually spent most of our time in Ames.  My dear friend Elice opened her home to us and it was such a treat to stay with her.  It has been years since I have gotten to hang out till 1am with her.  I think the last time we did that was before I got married.

The trip to IA was unfortunately very eventful.  About 100 miles from home (right before entering Chicago) our tire went flat.  Turns out there was a hole in the side wall.  It took almost an hour to remove the tire because it was rusted in place.  I was a bit nervous as we worked on the side of the interstate at 9pm with all our luggage strewn across the side of the road (the spare was under the trunk floor of course).  However, we were kept safe and the children didn't even wake up till we were almost finished changing the tire. We were unable to get a new tire due because everything was closed so we decided to trudge on with the spare tire at a max speed of 50 mph.  In hind sight this was probably not the world's best decision (the driving through Gary Indiana was a bit scary).  Needless to say it was a very long trip that ended up taking 12hrs rather than the regular 7hrs due to slow speeds and the need to take back roads to avoid the interstate. In addition to driving on a spare our check engine light came on and we were driving with greatly reduced power.  We hoped it wasn't anything major since we couldn't really do anything about it at the moment and so we kept on moving.  Once in IA we were able to get a new tire for free due to an accidental purchase of road hazard insurance on our tires 2 years ago. What a blessing! We got the engine code read and discovered that a piston was misfiring.  Scott promptly took the car over to an auto parts store, purchased new spark plugs, popped them into the car in the parking and the ol Subaru was running as good as new.  Turns out 2 of our 4 spark plugs were bad so we were running on half of our pistons. No wonder we had such limited power!

We thoroughly enjoyed checking out our old college stomping grounds and seeing all the changes and it was so wonderful to see friends and visit our old church. Friday we saw Scott's family and his mom watched the kids while we got the car fixed.  It was weird and amazing to be kidless for a few hours.  Waiting at the mall for the tire to be replaced was like a mini vacation. We got to see the Gogerty family Saturday for homemade pizza which was a lot of fun.  Their son Kieren is now mobile enough that he and Ike were having some fun together as well as learning how to share their toys.  Later that evening we got to meet my little brother's new girlfriend which was very nice.  We didn't seem to scare her too badly so she might be sticking around :)  After they left Scott and I talked with Elice into the wee hours of the morning and it was so wonderful! It was such a blessing to reconnect with her just as if we were once again in college.  Good friends are hard to come by in life and it is such a blessing to have both the Gogertys and Elice in that category   How blessed I am. We went to our old church on Sunday, ate lunch at Elice's while the kiddos napped and then went to see my parents for the night before heading back to Michigan.  Thankfully the trip back home was not near as eventful as the journey out to IA.  We made it home safely and even though we loved our trip there is nothing quite so nice as sleeping in your own bed.

17 Weeks