Beach afternoon

Now that spring weather is finally here, we decided to take a spontaneous trip to the beach this afternoon! I was anxious to see how Elliot would do now that he is more than the little blob we carted to the beach all last summer. Henry at this age wasn't a huge fan of sand, but luckily Elliot seemed to LOVE the sand (and the water, and the gulls, and the shells!)

Little Gymnast

Birthday season continues - today it was time to celebrate Liam's 4th birthday!He had his party at a neat local gym that we had bever been to before. Henry was a little apprehensive on the way there since he didn't know many of the other kids and parents couldn't go in with them, but he ended up loving all the activities and had a great time!

The birthday boy!



Swinging around:





Happy birthday Liam!

Henry is SIX!!!!

On Tuesday our crazy, sweet, funny, energetic, Lego-creating, Star Wars obsessed big kid turned SIX. I am in a bit of denial over this. SIX. It seems so BIG KID.

Henry's request for his birthday gift from us was merely to go to our local Lego store and get to fill a "big bucket" of various Lego pieces. Mike took him over the weekend for that treat (while Elliot and I were holed up with his vaccine reacxtion). The day of his actual birthday started, as always, with balloons and family presents on the table. Henry had a blast trying out his new scooter, and of course went a little crazy over the Lego set Elliot got him (how many Legos can one child own? The answer is, apparently, millions)





He had a busy day of school, swim class, a birthday dinner and cupcakes with his friend Jake, then of course endless Lego creating:



Then, today we had his birthday party! Henry was very insistent that he wanted his first "boys only" party, and we had it at Jump On In.

There was a whole lot of craziness going on:









Elliot was very perplexed by the whole thing:



He kept thinking he wanted to be in the bounce houses, but then vehemently changing his mind as soon as he was placed in one. At one point, a woman who worked there kind of stole him and took him down the big slide:



I wasn't quite able to capture the look of terrified confusion on his face.





After an hour and a half of jumping, it was time for pizza and cupcakes.















Happy, happy birthday to our first baby!

Show me your belly!

Elliot's new trick is "Show me your belly"! He loooves to show it off whenever you ask:





Some daddy adoration:





And brotherly love on the playground:

Pirate Treasure Hunt

Henry went to a great birthday party yesterday for his friend Babette. It was an hour and a half long pirate themed scavenger hunt at his school playground, complete with riddles, swords, games, and obstacles (Note: these parents have way more energy for their child's birthday party than I do. I admire them.

The kids listening to clues:



Passing the clues on "Telephone" style...but with a jumbo marhsmallow in their mouth:





Answering pirate riddles:



Pirate swords!



Running for the next clue:



Pirate chalk drawings:



Obstacle Course:











Tug of War:





"Try to knock the pirate down" (she is a brave, brave woman):







Pinata!



And more. I'm exhausted just remembering it all!