Last Friday was Aiden's actual birthday. After the whole party the week before, I didn't want to do too much, but still wanted to give him a special day. I took the boys to Chuck E Cheese for some games and pizza that morning/afternoon. We all had a great time!

Here, we're sitting right by the prize counter so that's what Aiden is looking at. Brady.....is hungry I guess :)
YEAH!

This is the greatest game for a baby! 1. It's the perfect height 2. All you have to do is hit one of two big buttons to make balls pop up and fly into a bunch of holes. Brady was cracking up! Whenever I lost track of him, I would go straight to the ski-ball machines...he would be there, trying to reach his hands inside the empty ball ramps saying "ball ball!!"

That night, after Brian got home, we let Aiden open his gifts from us. We got him more magnetic tiles which are his FAVORITE (and so now he can build even bigger stuff), a set of balloon powered race cars and helicopters which are super fun and....

....and a big bag of nonsense! This was my favorite gift! I took the boys to Michael's craft store (where there are tons of $1 toys). EVERY time we go to Michael's, Aiden shows me things he wants "for his birthday". So...I just followed behind him grabbing stuff (some of the stuff anyway) that he was pointing out. This bag chock full of toys that last a day and make Aiden one HAPPY kid.

Some of the items included: "magic beans" (the capsules that you put in water to create sponge animals or whatever), a basketball decal that I'll put on his wall, a wooden painted fish, a wooden painted rainbow, Swedish fish and a balloon animal set....funny!

Happy Birthday baby boy!!!!

Saturday morning, the 4th, we woke up and started getting ready for our subdivision's annual bike parade. Sadly, it was raining while we were putting streamers and other decorations on our bikes so we made a group decision to postpone the 2 and 4-wheeled adventure through neighborhood and do breakfast instead.

Here we are at Benedict's. "Smile and say 'bike parade!'"
The kids were sad that the parade was off, but what's better than noshing on pancakes with your buds?

All American Boys

When we got back from breakfast, the rain had subsided so we headed out on our very own bike parade. Logan on his bike, Bear in his car.

Mackenzie & Ella are ready to roll!

Aiden got a brand new bike for his birthday from Memaw and Grandpa (Bumblebee Transformers - awwwwwsome!) Here, I think he's concerned about being left behind! He did such a great job riding his own big boy bike...he was in the front the pack during our roll around the hood.

Rendezvous on South Litchy

Brady gave Ashley's scooter a spin. Have we mentioned how he thinks he's a big boy?? The only snafu during our parade was that Logan lost one of his training wheels about 100 yards into the ride. He did a great job riding without it for a little bit, but got a bit freaked when he toppled to the side so Brian carried the bike most of the way, Logan walked :( and I pushed Bray in his little car.

On Sunday, we tried to head to the neighborhood pool, but it was inexplicably closed (no sign...no notice...we're thinking the life guards just didn't show until later in the day). Sooooo....daddy decided to create a bunch of water fun in the backyard. Step one: the world's biggest slip 'n slide. He took the tarps off of the fence from the get messy party, layered them on the lawn, hosed them down and...it actually wasn't as dangerous as I pictured in my head!

Daddy took the first slide down...I even went a few times myself!

Brady busied himself filling the water table.

We ended up in an awesome water fight! Logan and Aiden were on my team! At one point, I had the backyard hose and Brian pulled around the one from the side of the house in a battle of spray!

Brian took the kid wash down from the fort and used it on the slip 'n slide.

Mackenzie and Ryan made their way down to our house. Brian got the idea to fill up a punching balloon with water.

He took it up to the "fort" and splashed it down on the kids (then we hunted through the house to find another punchy balloon and did it again).

The town fireworks were cancelled on the 4th due to rain so we planned to go on the 5th instead. Here are the boys in their Sunday "red, white and blue"

We got to the fireworks area with some time to spare so the kids played with a variety of "toys" provided by all the moms and dads. Here's Logan throwing some poppers

Susan hands out some ammo :)

Aiden tries a popper too

Bad picture, but here is Logan with a sparkler

Aiden and his sparkler (we even let Bray have a couple!)

The fireworks were really good. Brady was a riot with his oooohs and ahhhhhs. I'm just happy we got to see fireworks at all...I was worried there for a while :)

I still haven't found the time to put together our 4th of July weekend post, but I took some great pictures today that I have to share.

Monday, during neighborhood playgroup, Bray got a little boo-boo. One of the neighborhood girls was playing with a bat and Brady just walked right into her swing. Owch!! I took him to the pediatrician's office the next day and everything seems just fine. Our very first shiner! Poor little man!

Yesterday, Memaw and Grandpa brought over a GREAT new hand-me-down for the boys...courtesy of Aunt Diana, Uncle David and cousins Max, Zach and Jack. AWESOME!
Of course the boys had to take it for a spin this morning as soon as humanly possible.

Luckily, our neighbors don't seem to mind a few track marks in their yards...yikes!

Our favorite babysitter brought over her brand new, beautiful baby girl this afternoon for lunch. The boys were totally ga-ga for Lyla! Logan perched himself on the couch and asked if he could please hold her. He's been through this whole "gentle with the baby thing" before!

This is Brady after lunch (shirt removed for peanut butter filled celery). He was SO distraught that he couldn't hold the baby (wrapped in the pink blanket taking a nap on the couch). When he first saw her, he tried his hardest to push me out of the way so he could grab her like a little baby doll (something we didn't let him do) and kiss her (something we did let him do!)

After the boys were in bed tonight, I was straightening up and went to close the curtains to the back window. While I was pulling them shut, I saw a beautiful, BIG rainbow outside! I said to Brian, "go get Aiden quick!!" We knew he was still awake because we could hear him knocking around in his room. Of course you've got to get the rainbow-lovin' kid up for a peek at this beaut! The picture doesn't do it justice...but Aiden appreciated it!

So I pick up where my last post left off: after breakfast, post surprise fish and a few gifts on the day of Aiden's 3rd birthday party. We're all still in jammies, but we went outside to get some stuff set up.

Here, the boys help me fill up 18 squirt bottles with water. After they were all full, I opened, organized and labeled our liquid water color for the party and then added color to the bottles for round 1 of get messy.
Brian called me Thursday night asking if we had any super glue. He wanted to make this amazing invention - the kid wash! He drilled holes in PVC pipe, glued on a hose attachment, took down the swings on the fort and hung it up where the swings attach. It's like a vertical sprinkler....genius!! (my husband rocks!)
Here's the party in full swing!

Every year, we take Aiden's picture with his party balloons. I was dying laughing because he was MUCH more of a ham this year. Here is "the good picture"

And here is Aiden's "evil face" (yes....he does this ALL the time). Pete told me after the party that he had some bad news for me. He started talking about Aiden's evil face. I said "right....it's kind of scary!?" Then he broke it to me.....he saw the evil face on BRADY! OH man...I'm in SO much trouble!!!

And finally, a goofy face. Aiden is sporting the necklace that we made last week. The kids at the party made those and the sand-art people (see projects page). The necklaces were a bit labor intensive and we got them out late because both ovens were too hot for shrinky dinks by the time they were ready to go in (we needed both to cook the kid food). BUT....I think they were a big hit overall so...totally worth it.
Before we go on, here are the past Birthday Balloon pics: 2nd birthday (2008)

First birthday party (2007):

Kid wash time!!!!

The smart kids climbed up and shot down from the top of the fort!

I don't think Brady got messy enough!!

Aiden's most favorite thing: the balloon candles for his.....

...AWESOME rainbow cake! This is the cake he really really wanted and I actually think it's one of the coolest cakes I've ever seen! We saw a rainbow cake like this in the fridge at the grocery store one day...he fell in love. We asked for darker colors, blue instead of white boarders and sprinkles. The best part, and something that didn't occur to me until we started cutting, was that every kid could request the color they wanted....and we were able to accomodate everyone! Totally cool!! Not to be too TMI, but we had some interestingly colored diapers the next day (ever seen bright blue poo??? hysterical!!!)

The night before Aiden's birthday party (which we had this past Friday, the 3rd), Brian and I bought each boy a fish as a special surprise. Logan has wanted a fish since his 3rd birthday (which was fish-themed!) and Aiden has been talking about having one lately as well. I bought three "bowls" and rocks at the craft store then met Brian at PetSmart to pick out three Betta fish. We picked out a green one, a blue one and a red one. (well....the truth is that the green one actually used to live at Memaw and Grandpa's house....but they were sort of tired of taking care of him...so...um....don't tell Logan...)

The really pretty Betta fish are the males of the species and you can't put more than one of them in a bowl or they'll duke it out and fight (or so I've been told). So....we have three new boys for the house: Jaws (Logan's...name influenced by daddy!), Balloonie (Aiden's) and Bish (the way that Brady said "fish" when he first saw his bowl!)

"The boys," as Logan and I have been calling them, were waiting for THE boys on the kitchen table Friday morning. I can safely say that they were a hit all around!!


Brady was SO excited about his fish. He wanted the bowl right next to him during breakfast and kept kissing it. He was good about not putting his fingers in the water too; he would just wave and say, "hi," over and over again. When I took the bowl away, he pitched a fit, pointed at it and yelled "wa-wa wa-wa!!"
After the fish, we let Aiden open a few family presents. Logan gave him a new Wii game, Mommy & Daddy gave him hungry-hungry hippos and he got a really cool magnegtic dress-up guy (sort of like a paper doll concept, but made of wood and for a boy!) from GG and GG-pa.
Here, Logan plays with GG and GGpa's gift, Joey.
Of course I took a TON of pictures this past weekend with Aiden's birthday party and the Fourth of July. More posts to follow soon!