Birthday at Simon Speedway

Two weekends ago, we had Simon's birthday party. How can he be two already??? Moreover, how did we already have a three month old when Isaac turned 2?!?!?! Now that's crazy. 

Here's the invite I made for him. I used Jill as major motivation here. It's actually her invite that I copied! The "Simon Speedway" part was totally Luke's idea. I love how creative he can be.

 

For party favors, I decided to make playdough. My mother-in-law was a huge help here. These baggies looked so so great and colorful!

And here's the mini-cake I made for little simon. It's so cute!!! I made the road with crushed up oreos.

For the party, I used a black plastic table cloth and used masking tape to make a little road. I also underestimated how many to cars we had!

I was excoted to have little car food ideas also. Like little apple cars.

And mac-n-cheesy tires! I used a pasta called dantolini, or something. They were just little circles. cute cute!!

And probably my favorite, Fruity traffic lights. Can you see it!! I had the idea, but my mother-in-law aslo executed this one!!

All the kiddos eating. Something I got really excited about, though i didn't get a picture, is that 4 neighorhood kids came!!! Praise God!

Grace and Simon are only 8 days apart so we also sang for her! It'll be a wedding cake one day :)

Sweet Simon was so good at blowing out his candles.

Happy Birthday Simon! We are so thankful that God chose us to be our parents!!!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame....One Last Time

I promise this is the last baseball game post you'll see until next summer! 

On the last day of August, we decided to end our summer with one more trip to a ball game. This game included fireworks and friends. The Mudcats lost (again) but it was still a really fun night. The only thing missing was a nice cool breeze.

 Our dear friend JJ. He was Luke's college roomie one year and we've all been friends through thick and thin for many years now. That's his daughter Sadie. (Mom Shelley and littlest one Chloe stayed at home)

 We splurged this time and bought a raspa! (Spanish for snow cone). That little boy in blue is his son Dakota. These kids were like bees swarming wherever the raspa went :)

 It was a humid night which means the boys, and all of us, were really sweaty.

 Then they started making silly faces.

 Simon's the little copycat.

 This was Dakota's silly face. But I think it's sweet.

 Watching the fireworks.

Oh how we love being a baseball family. Can't wait until next summer!!! I hope there are a lot of good groupon deals like there were this summer.

At the Ballpark Again!!

We were at the Mudcats on Sunday afternoon. 

It was a beautiful day for a ball game.

 We even had this awesome Mudcats helmet that we got for free!!!

 Had to sneak one in of my handsome husband

 Me and my youngest. We don't have many pictures together.

 He made such sad face pictures each time. But he really was having a great time. Even jumping up and down and cheering "GO MUDCATS" with both fists in the air. A big difference from the two fingers in his ears the whole time at the last game.

 This one is so funny. It's so editorial.

 Guess what?!? I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

  

Here's one of all the silly faces of Simon. Sweet boy!

                                       

After the game, all the kids got to run the bases. These are a little hard to see but you can click on it to see the bigger picture. Isaac, again, had a serious face, but he really was having a good time. 

 

Even Simon ran. He was HILARIOUS!! He would run, trot, then walk, all the while looking up at the other kids around him to know where he needed to go next. We got many comments on how cute he looked. He was probably the smallest one out there. 

 Simon likes to be the catcher.

 We even got to visit the dugout!

 Simon, of course, has to show his belly to the world! Notice Isaac looking at him....

 ...and decided he'd do it also.

 Then we got to meet Muddy the Mudcat!

 We were very pooped, but as usual, we had a really great time!!!

Friday is our last game of the summer. We're going with some great friends and enjoying some fireworks at the end of the game. Awesome!!

Pool Love

 I think next summer I'll take a picture of the boys every time we go to the pool. I love their little Mexi-skin that gets so dark and lovely and their confidence in the water is night and day from the start to the end of the summer. 

We have also been so extremely blessed this summer, not only to have punch passes to the city pool but also to have many friends invite us to their neighborhood pools.

Today it was my dear friend and mentor Susan that invited us to her pool. The boys just love that 2 1/2 ft deep because they can swim and float along, but not drown.

 

During one of the pool breaks, Susan busted out some Dominoes for Isaac. He hasn't played before but learned quickly. 

 

Meanwhile, Simon was completely entertained by these little wind-up tinker toys. 

 Then we were back in the pool again!

 Isaac has seriously gotten so brave and jumps in all on his own.

 And here Susan. She is an amazing godly woman and has taught me so much in the short year that I've known her. What a blessing she has been to my family.

They say the way to a mom's heart is through her children and Susan's deep love for my boys has brought her straight into my heart.

What a great summer it has been!