Happy 4th!!!!

Happy fourth of JU-ly says Jack!



He is a VERY enthusiastic flag waver ..



We stayed in last night as Jack's bedtime comes quite some time before fireworks begin. Who needs to go downtown when you've got HDTV anyway? It's just like being there but with cheaper beer and WAY cleaner bathrooms.

Fiyahhh!!!

This morning Jack, Mima and I went on a tour of the Clifton Fire Station!


Jack made sure to dress for the occasion ..

That is the best picture I could get of the tshirt. Well I could probabally get a WAY better picture of the shirt if the shirt wasn't on a 2 year old at the time the picture was taken. The fire engine on the shirt actually lights up. Granny gives the best presents :)

Is this not the cutest fire station ever??



We all met up at the community center located next to the fire station. First we
had some free play time with blocks and balls...


Next it was story time. Apparently Jack was not quite ready to abandon free time ..


Then it was time for some songs! Jack decided to grace the group with his presence ..


Then it was time for the walk over to the fire station ...


Jack got to sit in a fire truck!


And on a fire truck ...



We got to see fireman Wes with his mask on ...



We also got a brief tour of the sleeping bunks .. kitchen .. office .... and then all the kids got fireperson hats! I asked Jack to put his on but he said "NO! Mima wear it!!!"



Then I asked him to put it on again and he said "NO! Mommy wear it!!!"

I actually drove with that thing on for a couple miles before realizing I still had it on.

Hugging the fire truck goodbye ...



And that wraps up our day at the fire station. Mr. Cool says "Buh bye!"

YEY Mama Mike!!!!

So this past weekend Jack's Uncle Mike competed in AND finished his first ever TRIATHLON!!!!!

The event included a .9K swim, followed by a 24K bike course, and topped off by a 5K run! He pulled out with an impressive overall rank of 250 of 708. Quite a finish!!! We could not be more proud of him. The only way I could come close to finishing with a rank of 250 out of 708 people would be if the 3 events I was competing in consisted of appetizers, a main course and dessert.

The race was Saturday morning. Friday night we decided that we were going to go to Philly to cheer Mama Mike on and surprise him at the finish line. We figured that to make sure we saw MM finish we'd want to be AT the finish line by 9:00/9:30 latest. That would mean leaving our house at 6:00 a.m. latest. I made brownies as a congrtulatory treat ... we made a special shirt for Jack to wear ... and we got to bed early in anticipation of our oh-so-early morning wake up call. Unfortuntely sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men and Jack's mama go astray ...

For the first time in forever Jack was up a few times in the middle of the night. I went in the last time he woke.. calmed him .. got him to settle .. then went back to bed. And tossed. And turned. And tossed. Etc. etc. An hour or so later - at about 4:00 a.m. - Mike (who was up still as well) and I decided it might not be a good idea to attempt to jump on the road to Philly in a couple hours with a baby AND a driver who both had sleepless nights. So we sadly scrapped the Philly plan. The only bonus - more brownies for us!!!

Sorry, no "before" pics ...


Jack in his special shirt ...
Front:

Back:

Arms:


CONGRATS again Mama Mike! We were swimming/biking/running with you in spirit whilst eating your deeeee-licious brownies. You are truly an inspiration :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!!!! part 5

May I present the 5th and final chapter in the birthday chronicals....
(It's almost time to start on posts for next year's birthday ferchrissakes.)

So seeing as how Jack is obsessed with all things construction we went with a construction theme for the party.

You've seen plenty of Jack birthday pictures so I thought I'd start off this post with what you REALLY want to see .. my decorations!

I don't think anyone got a good picture of my food table - but luckily I snapped this one by mistake when the camera was at my side. In the front shovel part of the truck you can see is where I put salsa. The chips were in the matching dump truck sitting right next to it (but out of the picture!). Seriously, how cute am I?:



The construction cone cups. Yes they are CUPS! I think these were my favorite part of the whole party. The birthday boy was a close second of course.


The cake I made. Yes that's right - made. Quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself. And it only took me 2 practice cakes to get there. That would sound like a lot of work - but factor in that you also get to eat practice cakes and it all pays off.


Mama Mike and Evan in their par-TAY hats:

I just realized you can see the dump truck filled with chips in this one!

Jack put the entire stack of par-TAY hats on this little guy when he walked in the door:



Where we sent the kids for "time out":


After blowing out his candles with Granny:


Some of the late night party people still at it:

Ain't no party like a Vint Hill party 'cause a Vint Hill party don't stop!

And that brings Jack's Second Birthday EXTRAVAGANNZA to a close. Off to start planning next year's theme ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!!!! part 4

The weekend before Jack's birthday party we had his friend Alley (and her parent's - our friends - Melissa and Andreas, and our friend Sean) over for dinner. It wasn't technically so much a birthday thing as it was an us getting together with friends thing .. but they did come bearing gifts which makes it worthy of being a chapter in Jack's birthday posts!

These two are seriously the two most beautiful children in the history of EVER. See for yourself.







Touchdown!


Everyone loves Uncle Dre**


Doing a little gardening. He likes to slam flowers with the shovel making the top half pop right off. Then he'll bend down to inspect and say "Uh oh! It bwoke! So-wee flowers. I so-wee!". How can you get mad? I think I'm going to plant even more flowers for him to "bweak" simply b/c it's so damn cute when he apologizes to them.




ENOUGH says Jack.


The shirt (how true!) and great big drump truck are some of the gifts that Alley brought for Jack. At least one day a week he insists on taking that truck to his mima's house with him. You should see me scurrying around trying to get out of the house on time in the morning carrying both Jack AND that big 'ol thing. He just LOVES it.




**What is setting for the picture with Uncle Dre, you ask? Why it's Jack's very own MOON BOUNCE that he got for his birthday. Yeah - we pretty much rock in the gift department.