Emmy Lou, Jack-a-Roo and Charlie Too...

Monday, July 9, 2012

Dinosaur Party...

We celebrated Charlie's 2nd birthday a little early this year since we had vacations planned ALL of July. Originally we planned a party on a Saturday but since none of the Joneses could come and Grandpa Jim and Grandma Patti were going to be out of town we switched things up at the last minute and celebrated a little earlier in the week with some of our favorite friends...

Grandpa Jim arrived a little early and helped preoccupy Charlie while I set everything up at Grandma Emily's house. Bryan and I had spent the prior three days away together in Spokane so Charlie was in need of some extra lovin'...

The kids all wore their new DINOSAUR shirts for the party...

Then we all said, "CHEEEEEESE!"....

It was ALL about dinosaurs this year. I used to cringe at the idea of themed birthdays but as the kids have gotten older I have learned to love them, knowing how much joy it brings them to see their most favorite thing magnified...

I hid little dinosaurs in eat jello cup...

...and the kids helped me make dozens of dinosaur color crayons to put inside their gift bags along with an assortment of dinosaur tattoos...

The only thing I had to buy were the cupcakes (thank you Haggens!)...

We kept the food pretty simple, a little for the carnivores and the herbivores...

The kids snacked on watermelon and veggies while we waited for the rest of our guests to arrive...

Shortly after there was a whirl wind of kiddoes...The Pearsons and The Loves. It didn't take long for all of the kids to pile inside the sand box and begin digging for dinosaurs...

Then they began searching for the dinosaur eggs...

Jack LOVED the baby dinosaurs that were inside the eggs...

Jello is always a hit but the kids especially loved digging around for the dinosaur inside their cup...

We sang Happy Birthday...

Then ended our sugar frenzy with some yummy cupcakes...

Olivia did a little posing for me with her dinosaur shirt...

PINATA time...

Olivia L (we had to use a lot of initials since there were 2 Olivias, 2 Charlies and 2 Jacks) had an AMAZING swing...

Charlie got a lot of support from his friends but he wasn't too sure about hitting the dinosaur. He kept looking at me like, "Really? You want me to hit this thing and you are not going to give me a time out?"...

A few final swings...

...and the candy fell...

After jello, cookies and cupcakes we had many sticky mouths coated with sand from the sandbox...

Big Charlie helped Little Charlie open his presents...

Then we headed back to the yard to PLAY...

Big Charlie and Jack P. LOVED Olivia's car...

It was a very special day, for a very special boy, spent with some very special people. We are so incredibly blessed with the friends in our lives and a family that loves us so much.

Surprises...

The Thursday after Father's Day Auntie Jenny and Olivia came up for a week long visit. We started out their visit with a Father's Day lunch for Grandpa Jim. Emily painted him a "cat fish" card and then brought him his gifts...

He got some fancy new mugs with pictures of the kids on them to drink from each morning on his deck...

The kids also painted some bird houses for him to hang in his backyard...

On Saturday morning the kids stayed and "helped" with Auntie Jenny's garage sale while Bryan and I picked up our new travel trailer. After FIVE long years of researching we finally found the perfect on for our family...

When we pulled up to Grandma Emily's house the kids were ecstatic! They helped us pick out this particular model and since they were all convinced that we could ONLY buy a COUGAR we were happy to get their approval...