Thursday, March 28, 2013

Happy Birthday to my Dylan...in 3 days!!!

Let me start by saying that when I went to load pictures this week, I didn't think I had very many.  Turns out I have 42...I might have a problem people!

In case you missed the post title, D's birthday is in 3 days (yes, we have already been celebrating for a month!)  When I was growing up, my parents always sang us a song when it was getting close to our birthdays:

"Happy birthday to my love, to my love, to my love!  Happy birthday to my love in 3 days!"

I've been singing it to Dylan for the past week and he LOVES it!!!  We sing it every morning, when I pick him up from school, when he goes to bed...basically constantly (must be genetic, Zach used to make me start singing it to him a month in advance!)

Taking a page from Andrea's book, we've been doing a week of D's favorite foods (not that much different from what we usually eat)...it's been so much fun having him get SO excited for his birthday!  And he is SO excited that the Easter bunny comes on his special day :) 





On Saturday, we went to the indoor pool...we are MORE than ready for summer around here!


Playing one of the many "games" he and my dad invent!  One point for landing the foam golf ball in the basket, two points for keeping it in the red bucket.

Saturday night, Mother Nature did her best to remind us that she will decide when it's time for summer by dumping another 8 inches of snow on us!!  Luckily, Sunday wasn't too cold so we had a great time playing outside!







post snow hot chocolate :)


D built Aunt NiNi and Chris' apartment...and then proceeded to knock it down!



More snow fun after naps...and probably the best snowman I have ever built (I was WAY more excited about it than D!)



More hot chocolate and a chocolate cookie?!?

Ella, Maggie and Dylan crack me up when they are together!!  They have so much fun playing!!







D's Birthday Week Menu:

Monday: Train Restaurant (cheeseburger and chocolate milk)







Hard to yell at D for playing with his food, when Papa builds french fry castles :)



Tuesday: hot dogs and beans




And a toffee cookie for dessert :)

Wednesday: pizza with his best buddies...followed by dying Easter eggs! (a huge thanks to Kris for hosting/supplying everything!)











Ice cream and brownies for dessert!  No wonder D asked while we were leaving when we could go back to Grant's house!

The birthday week fun continues!!  And lasts until his KC party on April 7th!  Many (and I'm sure that's an understatement) more pics to come!!


Thursday, March 21, 2013

Happy 4th Birthday...Chicago Style!!

We headed to Chicago two weeks ago for Dylan's 4th birthday party...Spiderman style :)  D is really beginning to embrace this month long birthday celebration as well as celebrating in multiple states.  His birthday falls on Easter this year, so he's also convinced the bunny is coming for him!  So many friends and family came to celebrate the little man, and I can't say thank you to everybody enough!  We had a GREAT time and it was so nice to get to see everybody! 

Picnic at the airport :)

On Saturday morning, NiNi, Dylan and I headed to Grandpa Richard's house for breakfast.  It was nice getting to see everybody and Dylan loved getting to see Vito (me too...it's so nice that Vito is in such loving hands!)











After breakfast, we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some party planning and a nap :)



Banana pudding with NiNi :)


Playing balloons with Uncle Chris...the Spiderman balloon (his favorite) popped which induced real tears...sweetly, Uncle Chris went and bought him a new one while he was napping!









D and Conall had so much fun playing together!!



Whose excited Erin is here?!?

Ever since Ella got a piñata for her birthday, D has talked of little else!  We got him a piñata for his party, and he LOVED it!!  People were worried it would take him a long time (they suggested I pre-cut it to make it go faster), but D didn't have too many problems!!  My biggest concern was one of us getting whacked with the baseball bat!













Success!!













Chris got Dylan some silly string which Dylan called his Spiderman webs!  He loved it!!



Boys will be boys...making sure the piñata was completely destroyed!



Dinner time!


Now, that's a cake!!  And it was delicious!!




Eating up the singing attention...and giving his fake "I'm shy" face :)













In his awesome sleeping bag from Kate and Steve!



Carrie Mac even stopped by!!  It was awesome to see her!!





What party is complete without Erin throwing D in the air...although, he's getting so big, it's getting harder and harder!




Erin and I went out to celebrate her birthday a week late after the party (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for watching D)...we had a great time...maybe too good!  And my favorite new Erin quote in response to my text on Sunday that shots are never a good idea..."And they (shots) are always a fabulously terrible idea!"




Enjoying Garret's popcorn (Aunt NiNi's favorite) in the airport :)

Once again, a huge thank you to Aunt NiNi and Grandma for planning D's birthday party!  It makes both of us feel so special that so many want to come and help the little man celebrate his 4th birthday!  And a huge thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for always being such amazing hosts!  We feel 100% at home in Chicago and we appreciate everything they do for us!!

Here are a few more pics from the past week (and believe it or not, I'm caught up!)








Last weekend, I headed down to the Big 12 basketball tourney (note I'm sporting my Hawkeye pride, even though I was smack dab in Big 12 country!)...the weather was GORGEOUS (80+) and we had a great time!  Unfortunately, the snow has since returned :(  We are all ready for spring here!




Breakfast at Uncle Billy's :)



More golf store action :)  They love Dylan there!  Especially, because this week when they asked him who his favorite golfer was he responded, "Phil".  It was adorable!



Paper airplanes with Papa...and then taking it up a level and adding in shooting at the paper airplanes :)

On Monday we headed to Dave and Buster's...D absolutely loved it!!  I see many future trips there!!