Kitchen helpers

After we made cookies one day, I asked "Ok who's gonna help me do the dishes?"  They both wanted to help! So I let them wash some dishes.  They had great team work.  Rhylan washed and Gracin... rinsed:)  He basically liked pouring water from one container to another.

We love our backyard

The weather is unbelievably nice here, between 55-70 day or night!!  That said, its perfect for playing at the park, the beach, blowing bubbles in our backyard, going on hikes, etc.  But it isn't the best for swimming.  This day it got up to 83* so we headed to the backyard pool for some fun!

 Yummy hose water from the squirt gun.  I hate to think what they are actually drinking!  I know I survived drinking hose water growing up.  But... a hose is a dark, warm, damp place where I am sure all sorts of bacteria is growing!!!

 She wasn't peacful for long...

Quick family pictures

I was hanging pictures in my house but I couldn't hang a family picture that didn't include Hazel!!!  So we went out to the park one night and I got a great family shot with my timer. Yes we are wearing the same outfits from our last family pictures because I still loved all the small group shots, like Rhylan and I, Riley and I etc.  So, I wanted them to all match on my wall:)

I also got this picture of my three beautiful children!!! Pretty excited about that!--hard to do, Gracin only sat there for 4 consecutive shots... this was the only one where he was looking!

After the shoot, I wanted to get some of just Rhylan for her update 5 year old picture.  Here are 2 of my favorites so far!  I still need to get Gracin out there with me.

Rhylan sword fights on the Wii

Watch "Rhylan sword fighting" on YouTube

Hazel talks!!

I've been trying to get this in video.  She started making these funny sounds this week. It takes her a min to get started on the video.
Watch "Hazel talking and playing" on YouTube

I walked in the room and found Gracin reading to himself. Pretty cute.

Plane Party

Gracin absolutely loves planes.  So with a few ideas from pinterest, I created this plane party.  This is my first fondant cake.  It turned out pretty cute.  Gracin really wanted chocolate cake, so that is what he got!

First activity at the party was to make a paper airplane.  I printed out several different folding instructions.  Then they had to fly the plane into some laundry baskets labeled with 10, 20, and 30 points.

I loves these shots with the plan in mid air as they throw them.

At one point Gracin was hiding out around the corner with all his balloons. 

Eventually the Dads were trying to beat Rhylan and Ethan's airplane score.  The kids were winning.

Here is the airplane pinata I made.  It was my first time with this too.  I may have to do it every time.  It was easy and all the kids loved it.

Eventually he went around to all the deserted plates an stole the frosting.  He even walked up to my friend and took the frosting right off her plate in her hands.. what can I say he likes sweets... and it's his party!

Gracin turns 3!

Gracin's birthday fell on a Sunday this year.  Sometimes that is hard I think.  You can't have a party, or go out for a fun desert or dinner.  Riley and I blew up a bunch of balloons and put them in the living room so that when Gracin woke up on his birthday, it would seem special.  He loved running through them kicking as he went, it took us a while to get him to focus and open his presents. (Later that night we had friends over for dinner and ice cream cones.)

Gracin enjoyed opening presents.  But, he was so excited to get each new toy, that he didn't want to open the next one. He couldn't imagine how he could love the next present more than the one he just opened:)

He got a dart gun... that didn't work.

I made him a Super Why mask and cape (he LOVES that show)

We also got him this racing toy... it seemed awesome but the cars didn't even make it to the bottom, they stop mid way.  Oh and you can only use the 2 cars it came with, matchbox size cars are too big.  We are returning it and getting him a Hot Wheeles Wall Track! 

He got the game Hungry Hungry Hippos.  Finally something that he liked and it worked!!

Hazel was intrigued.

Grammy Sue came through with his FAVORITE present!  This green plane.  It flies, the wings flap if you push a button, it shoots darts, and there is a removable guy that flies it.  He plays with it every day.  It came to church with us that day and breakfast for a couple days after that.

Gracin is getting much better at talking.  On his last birthday he only had about 5 words he could say!!! Yeah I was worried, then about a month or so later he just started spitting words out!  He knew almost all the letters already-total surprise! He is now doing better at speaking in small sentences-sometimes.  Knows the alphabet (uppercase and lower case) better than Rhylan, can count to 14, can sing some songs-but would rather not. So much improvement for 1 year. 

Some of my favorite things he say:  He say "too heavy"  if any thing is too hard for him to do.  If something is too heavy-"too heavy,"  If he can't reach something on the counter "too heavy!" If he is about to fall off the couch but is holding on for dear life "too heavy!"  If he can't put on his socks "too heavy!"  He say "help you" instead of help me.  He says "mama Waaa-diss" (watch this)  over and over and over again until I say "ok I watching."  He says  "count with me" -like Alpha Pig from Super Why- all the time.  I have to count his jumps, I have to count his candy, I have to count his toys, his cards, his books, his food... EVERYTHING!  He is always the first one to say "bless you" for a sneeze or a cough.  He pronounces Rhylan like "Ry-Yan" and Hazel like "Hay-sol"  He announces "Daddy home!" for us every evening.  He taps his finger on his chin and says "umm umm" when he is thinking.  He loves to jump, he calls it "super jump" or "brinka" that is sort of Spanish. He always asks "where Rhylan" when she goes to the bathroom.

 He loves to "read" books.  He will sit and read books for a while.  He does this with movie cases too. He knows that the triangle button plays movies, the square button stops them, the orange button turns on the TV, the green button turns off the Wii, and the A button turns on Netflix. He calls all the buttons those names and enjoys pushing them at the right time.  He love pancakes and waffles- he will usually eat more than me.  He NEVER  eats vegetables, never ever.  He also loves chips, cookies, crackers and candy.

I had a little interview with him and asked him some questions... there aren't many.  He didn't to do it any more.
What was your favorite part of your birthdya party? "BOOOOM a plane!!"- (he had a plane pinata)
Favorite color: "red"
Favorite animal: "elephant"
Favorite TV show: "Super Why"
Favorite food: "waffles"
Favorite drink: "milk" --not true he loves ice water or juice.

Kite Festival

A couple weeks ago, there was a free kite festival in town.  There were kite flying experts who "danced" their huge kites to music!  We didn't watch much of the show, but we did head to the kids tent where they got to make free kites!  

We meet up with our neighbors there.

After making the kites we got some corn dogs, Gracin had ketchup all over his face but he was happy.

Then we headed to the beach right there and tried out the kites.

We thought it was pretty funny.  There was this couple by us on the beach, who apparently bought a really fancy kite at the festival.  They tried forever over and over again trying to get it to fly without any luck.  And here were our kids, flying their homemade kites.... by them selves!

Rhylan's kite was flying so well, she actually got board of it, so she put the string under a rock.  Her kite continued to fly the whole afternoon while she dug and made sand castles near by.

Hazel hung back and watched.

When you already have ketchup on your face... sand sticks very well.