After party bath

What does every little boy need following an incredibly fun time playing with good friends and cousins, eating hot dogs and cupcakes, and opening gifts?

A bath with his best friend, of course! While I was cleaning up the after party disaster, my friend Steph took care of the kiddos and gave the their baths. So much fun when you put the two together!

BUBBLES!!!!!
mmmm. . . . sipping bubble bath water (Ethan does this too) . . . must be hard work to take a bubble bath!
This reminds me of the crazy faces Jon likes to make! I am so glad Steph was able to capture it on camera!
My little cutie!
Bath time with the bestie = new birthday tradition (for now at least!).

Thanks Steph for giving my kiddo a bath and capturing these great photos on your camera! You're the best!

Ethan turned 2!

Ethan turned while were in Cayucus and then a week later, we had a big party for him. It was so much fun to hang out with family and friends and watch Ethan just run around like crazy. . . he had so much fun! Ethan is really into trains right now, so we had a train party.

We took advantage of the great weather we've been having and held the party outside in our backyard (I even got to plant some new flowers for the occasion!). We had bubbles, chalk, and Dingle Balls (ladder golf) out to play with, along with a train craft for the kids to make.

He had fun opening presents, but easily got distracted. He also loved blowing out candles and having people sing to him. He had fun!

Thanks so much to everyone who came. . . we had a blast (and missed those who couldn't make it).

There are some fun birthday bath pictures that I will post soon (thanks to Steph, who took care of bath time while I cleaned up!)

Pudding paint

Last week, I started incorporating some art into Ethan's day. The weather was great and our little blow up wading pool and sprinklers were on, so a messy project was perfect fit for a morning in the water. I made some vanilla pudding and put a little bit in small bowl and stired a few drops of food coloring in. Then, I took it outside and gave Ethan some painting paper and let him go crazy. He had so much fun! This is definately something we will be doing often this summer.

baking time

Ethan loves to help me in the kitchen, so when we were making cupcakes at my mom's house (our oven still out of service), he climbed up onto the nearest stool and helped mix the batter. He had so much fun! We even gave him a beater to lick at the end, and got mad when there was non left. He's a pretty good cook. . . they came out delicious!

Blueberry Pancake Time. . .

Last week, I made this new recipe, Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes (so very good, by the way!) for dinner. I don't really ever make pancakes for breakfast - because it's just more fun to eat it for dinner (plus, I am not a morning person and none of us here are huge breakfast eaters). Costco has the most amazing blueberries (they are the freshest and the cheapest!) and Ethan could probably eat blueberries all day, everyday. He also LOVES maple syrup. In fact, I am sure that he could probably just eat the syrup for breakfast and he'd be content. . . my mom might just agree! So, needless to say, pancakes + fresh blueberries + toddler = a beautiful mess! I will also confess that we just took him straight to the bathtub after this meal!

summer = popsicles

The weather here has been perfect! Since we have had a longer spring than normal, the warm afternoons have been really nice. In fact, the weather this week is quite warm and we have already been swimming several times! Last week, Ethan had a popsicle for dessert while we were playing outside.

He did so well! When he was tired of it, he just set it gently on the ground and then rinsed it off in the water while we were watering the garden.
Yummm!
mmmmm. . . good!
tasty!

weekend fun

It seems that we rarely have a quiet weekend around here, but 2 weeks ago, we did. It was so nice. . . I wish we had more of them! We spent a lot of time outside teaching Ethan how to play golf and working in the yard. Ethan LOVES to help his daddy mow the lawn and help fix the fence.

Oh yes, here is an update on our house for mid-May:

:: our oven broke - still waiting on a part or a new oven. . . I am praying for the new oven.

:: The kitchen and Ethan's room are painted. This weekend we hope to get some of the front room painted. It is so nice to see our house taking shape.

Bye, for now.

Bath Time

We've been having a lot of fun in the bath lately. Last month, we introduced Ethan to bubbles. . . so much fun!!! I am so glad he loves baths and would probably jump in with his clothes on if we let him. This is such a good thing because he is ALWAYS getting dirty (I shouldn't expect otherwise, right?). Here are some pictures of some recent bubble baths!

Post bath towel fun!

(the blue around the mirror is paint tape. . . soon it will be painted)

Blowing bubbles. . .

These bubbles are pretty cool!

Way too much fun!!!!

It's freezing. . .

Okay, so it is cold out there! I know that this is nothing for some people who have snow on the ground, but we had frost. . . and that's just about as close as we get most of the time. This morning was such a beautiful morning. We woke up to the sun shining and ice and frost on the ground. I decided to take Ethan out to explore the frost and frozen leaves before they melted. He had so much fun that he got so mad when we had to go in. It is supposed to continue to be cold and rainy later this week, so maybe. . . just maybe there will be snow on the ground?

A quick trip

My friend Stephanie and I were able to join our women's ministry director on a quick trip to scope out Sugar Pine Christian Camps for an upcoming women's retreat. We enjoyed the much cooler temperatures and the opportunity for Ethan to wear his new winter hat! It gave me a chance to get some more cute fall pictures. I have to say (and not just because I'm his mom), but Ethan is a prize! Jon and I feel so blessed to have him as our son. He is all smiles and giggles, despite the fact that on this trip his teeth were bothering him and he had cought a cold and was suffering from a stuffy, runny nose. (poor guy!).

Pumpkin Patch Fun. . .

Wow! What a difference a year makes! Last year Ethan slept through the whole thing and this year, he couldn't stop playing with the straw! He was so very proud of his tiger pumpkin that he picked out with daddy's help. We went to the Pumpkin Patch last weekend and just had a great time watching Ethan try to roll pumpkins over and cover them with pieces of hay. In fact, we had a hard time getting him to leave. . . but it was so warm that day. . . we were ready to go home to our cool apartment!

A quick post

Just a quick post. . . . because i thought this was cute! Enjoy!

This picture of Ethan was taken at Abi's first birthday. I think Stephanie's mom, Debi, took the picture because I don't remember Stephanie walking around with her camera (she was a bit busy!). Thanks to Steph for sending me the pic!

Ethan's Birthday Party

Saturday afternoon, we gathered our friends and family and celebrated Ethan's first year of life. It was so much fun watching Ethan play, eat cake, open presents, and just basically look cute (which isn't very hard for our little cutie. . . and I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom, either!). We celebrated at Jon's parent's house, since we are still in our apartment and there is just now way we could fit everyone comfortably there! (Thank you Thank You Thank you to Rich and Carolyn for that!!!!)

We had so much fun hanging out with everyone! Before the party, Ethan got to play some Ladder golf with Grandpa Rich and daddy (it was a beautiful morning!). Ethan loved to look at his scrapbook (or just flip the pages. We even fit in time to get a 5 generation pic with all the Klassen men! Such an awesome opportunity!

There were many gifts for Ethan to open. . . all of which are proving a lot of fun at home! He loved the gifts, but I am sure that the paper was his absolute favorite item of all!

Ahhh. . . what birthday isn't complete without cake? We really weren't sure how he was going to like cake, since he hasn't ever had cake and frosting before, but after he had a taste, he dug right in and ate almost all of it (all he left were some crumbs!). I think he is going to be a cake boy!

We had a blast with everyone celebrating Ethan! Thanks to everyone who made Ethan's day so very special!