Max's 2nd Birthday Party

For Max's 2nd birthday party I wanted another party outside of the home (no clean up before or after!). I also wanted a place where little Max could have fun and instead of only fun for Jalen and our friends' older kids. We had Dizzy's Tumble Bus over to our house for Jalen's 3rd birthday and they did a great job. I found out that they have a permanent location as well and it turned out to be a great choice. The place was fairly small so for the party we had the whole place to ourselves with 17 kids along with their parents. It felt really nice and intimate. We had 2 instructors there and they were really great at leading the kids at games and helping them tumble and bounce. They even tried to remember each child's name! Since Max's birthday is just a few weeks apart from Rylan's, we had a joint party since we also share many of the same friends. The adults had a good time catching up while the kids had a lot of fun as well!

Snowpocalypse 2012

This past week, the weather forecast predicted a record setting snow storm heading our way. On Sunday, Jan. 15, we got a few inches of snow with more promised on Monday. The kids' daycare closed early on Monday and I worked from home to be on the safe side. On Tuesday, there was still some snow on the ground but I made it into work via public transit no problem. Wednesday was supposed to be the big snow day and we got about 6 inches in Bellevue. It really wasn't that much snow but after that we got an ice storm on Thursday. Daycare was closed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! I worked from home all 3 days with both kids at home. We were pretty tired of being stuck at home for that long. Finally on Friday, we made it out of the house and went out for dinner. Yay!

Here are the boys all bundled up in their snow pants.

Max was not impressed with the snow. He was paralysed when we got outside.

Jalen was very enthusiastic. He jumped right in and made a snow angel.

Look at those real tears from Max from us making him sit on the snow.

Christmas 2011

Jalen and I spent many hours covering this entire gingerbread house with icing and candy. I had an ulterior motive, to get rid of all of the candy that has been sitting around since Valentine's Day (hence the candy hearts). It was so much fun spending time with Jalen this way. He even came up with the idea of using the white M&M's as gloves.

Here is Christmas morning and it was hard to get both kids look at the camera at the same time and smile. This is one of those moments where I wish I had the Microsoft "to the cloud" thing where you can swap out faces of the picture.


Jalen and Max playing with their new Christmas presents.

Sometimes Jalen pushes Max around in a laundry basket and plays choo choo. Max loves it and giggles while I brace for a bad crash.

The Darn Things Kids Say

I don't know when it happened but all of a sudden, Jalen is starting to say grown up sounding things:

• [after I made him waffle for breakfast] "Thank you for making me waffles mommy, they are the best waffles I've ever tasted!"
• [after I put on makeup to go out, he looks at me] "Your eyes look beautiful!"
• [on Christmas] Gracie says "I got the Cars 2 DVD from grandma!", Jalen says "yeah, we have the BLU-RAY!"
• [after I took a picture of the "birthday cake" he made me] "Thank you mommy for taking a picture of the cake so I can remember to make it for you every year".
  

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year with Jalen as a fireman and Max as an adorable monkey. Jalen was nice and warm in his fireman gear and went out into the neighborhood with his cousins.

October Pictures

One day, I went to pick up Max at daycare and found him wearing this tutu. His teacher said that the kids love the texture and they usually try to take them off the boys before the parents pick up. I just had to snap some photos -- for future black mail purposes.

Here is Max striking a pose when I whipped out my phone. He is with his best bud Cordell. Cordell doesn't look amused however.

September Pictures

Here is Jalen at American Eagle Outfitters. He styled himself by picking out this tie, glasses and both watches.

Jalen and Grace spent all afternoon on the beach at Newcastle Beach Park playing with sand. I think if we let them, they could have played there all day.


Here we are at the Olive Garden to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. It was the never-ending pasta and salad bowls special!