I have to start with Ethan's 4th Birthday. We had a birthday party for him the day after his birthday and it went pretty well. It was his and our first friend party and so it was a little stressful, but everything worked out...as it always does. We had a construction themed party. We built vehicles with Legos, had an obstacle course race with a power wheel dump truck, ate chocolate cupcakes, made fruit loop necklaces, opened presents, and played with toys. It was pretty low key for the most part. Lydia slept through the whole thing and our guests were very well behaved. :) Home Depot also donated aprons and toolbox kits to send home with the kids. We had Andrew, GV, Haven, Saylor, and Claire...a great group of children.
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| Happy Birthday to Ethan! |
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| Party Invite |
On Ethan's actual birthday we went to the Children's Museum and played for several hours. Ethan hadn't been for a long time and really loved it!
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| Playing in the water area. Both kids loved it! |
After playing at the museum we stopped by and said hi to Dad at work.
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| Dad's cubicle space at Burke |
After dinner we had cupcakes and opened family presents.
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| Ethan looked forward to opening presents all day! |
He got a new bike with helmet and training wheels from Mom and Dad. It will probably take awhile to learn how to balance though.
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| Ethan's new bike and of course he wanted to ride it around the basement a few times |
Now jumping back to the rest of July. It took us several weeks to recover from our incredibly fun yet exhausting trip to Utah. The kids weren't quite themselves and went through some separation anxiety. A month later, we've finally got most of those kinks worked out. One toy that Ethan has had a renewed love for since vacation is building with Legos. He has gotten really creative and spends time every day building new creations. When's he's done, we always put them on the mantel so that Lydia doesn't break them before Daddy gets home to see them.
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| Just one of his many creations |
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| Ice cream and a show....a perfect combination |
On a rare great weather day in July, we all took Dad to the Zoo with us. We loved watching the bird show and we even got a couple of ice cream cones as an extra treat.
The next picture also shows flowers Jason gave me for our 9th anniversary. We went out on a date that weekend to a games place for a Burke family night. We had a taco dinner and played laser tag, rode go-karts, played mini-golf, and a few other arcade type games. It was a fun night!
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| Ethan also got into a puzzle kick when we bought several of them at a community yard sale. He actually did all the puzzles on the box that day. |
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| Another yard sale find was this dump truck power wheel. It didn't cost much, but apparently we paid for way too many spiders that came with it. Ewwww! |
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| Just wanted to capture this cute Sunday outfit handed down to us by our neighbors. |
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| Ethan and Lydia love being outside and love eating lunch outside when I let them. |
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| We had a fun day playing in the sand at South Fork park. It was also the first time I put Lydia's hair in pigtails. |
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| Swimming kiddie pool part of our community pool. Ethan loves to be in the big pool now too with his Puddle Jumper. |
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| Livin' the life sunbathing and sipping her applesauce! :) |
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| A proud Ethan with more Lego creations |
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| Ethan at a friend's swimming birthday party |
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| They are super cute riding together |
This picture also reminded me that we just got new neighbors next door. They seem like a really nice couple and they have a 5 year old daughter named Karli. Karli is very friendly and gets along well with Ethan and Lydia.
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| Picture of Lydia in our front yard |
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| Ethan 4 years old at the Children's Garden |
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| Exploring the daisies |
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| These two are so cute together and playing together more and more. |
