May Birthdays

My princess and my little... well, my silly little guy. Talia just turned 5 and BJ turned 3! Can't believe how big they are getting. This year was non-party year, which was sooooo much easier for me, and I think the kids still had great birthdays.

My dear Talia-- still loves her arts and crafts, and is about as physically uncoordinated as a 5 year old can be. Surprisingly though she has taken to roller blading and does a decent job at that. She also loves to ride her bike, spend time outside collecting random things, and play with pretend with Ammon when he's up to putting up with little Sister. She is a real cuddle bug, too, with a completely irresistable giggle.
Here is her birthday cake. She requested a round chocolate cake. Easy easy!

Our "party" started outside, but it was getting chilly so we moved it inside for the cake and presents, and to watch "The Princess and the Frog."

As one of her presents I recycled my old pink caboodle and made it into a craft box for her:

BJ, or Jarom. 3 years old and one husky little kid (40 lbs!) His mostly happy 2's have unfortunately turned into the I-will-find-something-to-cry-about-every-five-minute and I-will-not-take-a-nap 3's. But we sure love him, and are still certainly entertained by him. His speech has improved remarkably, although once in a while I still have trouble understanding him. His favorite thing is to SWING. He is a little helper a lot of the time too, but mostly just troublemaker.

Firetruck!

BJ had his cake picked out from one of our recipe books for quite a while. I thought he might change his mind, but he stuck to it!

And then he learned to NOT grab the candle directly after blowing it out. He burnt his hand, unfortunately where he had a healing burn from camping the previous week! It took him a loooooong time to finish that cupcake and ice cream.

Anyway, after the cake and presents, we took the kids down to Jungleland Ballocity in Vancouver. A huge playplace, with slides and balls and all kinds of fun stuff. I forgot my camera though, darn it! The kids LOVED it. And it turned out to be a good day to go, since it was pouring rain outside. We finished off the day with dinner out at Red Robin.

One more thing-- when I took him to his yearly check-up at the doctor, he acted like.... well, he acted like Ammon as a toddler. Anyone who knew us when Ammon was a toddler will know the significance of that! It was NOT fun. And he had to get a shot. A couple days later he was cuddling me and I said "I love you, do you love me?" (It's a little game we play all the time.) And he most emphatically says, "NO, I did NOT want to get a shot!" I think he's finally forgiven me now that it's been a couple of weeks.