Feliz Cumpleanos!

Here are some pictures from Rose's party this year. She wanted to have another owl party, but we kind of talked her out of it. Eventually she decided she wanted a fiesta. So we had all kinds of fun making maracas, hunting chili peppers, pinning the tail on the burro, and learning an extremely simplified version of the Mexican Hat Dance. We had a sombrero cake, and some maraca cupcakes. And of course, to finish up, we had a pinata. (Check out John cheering her on in the pinata picture. It's awesome.)

Tiny Dancer

Rose has been taking dance class at the Y. She doesn't like it. She LOOOOVES it. John is insanely jealous and keeps trying to lie his way into the class by telling me "I'm allowed to go in there. I'm three!" In December, Rose had her first recital. The day was nearly marred by tragedy when I (prepare to be shocked) forgot her tutu. I know! Horrible! She was getting ready to be scarred for life, when another mother saved the day by lending us an extra. So she was able to dance away, and I was saved some hefty therapy bills later on. She was adorable, and we even have video to prove it. Here is a snippet. (There's a word I don't get to use nearly enough. Snippet snippet snippet!)

Oh Hey! I Have a Blog!

So, I don't really know if anyone noticed, but it's been a while since I posted anything. It's a little late to do anything about it now, but I will add some older pictures, etc, so there isn't a huge, gaping hole in our little internet history. Besides, we did some fun stuff in the last 5 months or so. Man, I am a slacker. So anyway, stay tuned.

Amelia Jardine Brown!

We have a new niece/cousin in our family! We are happy to welcome Amelia (finally!). She really took her time getting here, but she was worth the wait. We will have to find an excuse to visit her and her brother Toby. And I guess their parents, Becca and Sean. But everyone knows that parents are just gravy to their kids' mashed potatoes. You love it, but it isn't the main event. So anyway, hooray for Amelia!

Funny Boy

Here are some great John quotes from the past couple of days.

Grandpa Jack: Do you call your sister Rosie, or do you call her Rose?
John: I call Rosie an orangutan!

Mommy is humming to help John go to sleep
John: Hey! There's no letters in that song!

Tonight he was trying to request some humming. He asked "Mommy, make some noisy sounds."

Rose is also funny. I will post some of her gems another time.

The Big 2

Happy Birthday to John! He knows he has passed one, but when you ask him how old he is, he says "not three." We are working on it. He is definitely feeling grown up, though. Rose called him the birthday boy, and he said "No, I'm the birthday MAN."

We had a dinosaur birthday party (see his pterodactyl shirt?). He ate dino-nuggets for dinner, then played a couple of dinosaur games. We opened his presents (Rose helped) and then dug into his dinosaur cake. He didn't really want to eat much, because he wanted to get back to his new toys. Later, though, he and Rose headed back over to the table and I heard Rose say "Don't tell Janet, we're going to lick up all the cake." I gave them some more, so they didn't have to be sneaky. It was a great birthday, and we are looking forward to spending some more time with all of his new toys tomorrow.

Amateur Photography

Rose has a new hobby. She loves to take "real" pictures. Here are a few of my favorites. I am sure there will be more to come.

A Day at the Beach

Here are some fun shots from our day at Coney Island. In honor of S week, we went down there with a friend (Stacey) and her Son, to see Sand, Shore, Sea, Sun, Shells, and to Swim. We also went to the aquarium and saw Seals, Sea Otters, Sharks, and the Sea lion Show. It was Super. Once we got home we learned all about Sunburn. Now the kids know that if you wear Sunblock, like they did, your Skin is fine. But if you forget, like mommy did, you get Scorched. Thank goodness it happened on a Friday, so that Stephen could Slather my back with aloe for two days before he has to go back to work. Hopefully I will be able to raise my arms over my head by then. Ouch.

Wall Art

So a while ago, I decided that Rose was being entirely too quiet, so I went to check on her. I did not find her in her room where I had left her reading books. She was in my room creating this masterpiece on the wall by my bed. Her medium was lipstick, and I think it is very expressive. When I interrupted her, she jumped about a foot in the air and then burst into tears. Don't worry, she wasn't afraid of getting in trouble, she was crying because the lipstick was all gone. Once she calmed down she helped me clean it up (or at least start cleaning it up!). We had a long talk about when and where she could indulge her artistic tendencies, and everything was fine.

Chicken Pops

Yet another witty Rose-ism describing, you guessed it, chicken pox. Did Rose have them? Maybe. The official diagnosis was "probably not, but maybe, so keep her home just in case." They didn't seem to bother her much, so we had a fun week of quarantine, and now she is double immune, since she had already had the vaccination.

Cabining!

Here are some pictures from our family camping trip in April. We went to upstate NY. It was supposed to rain all weekend, so we stayed in a cabin at a KOA campground. Rose knew it wasn't real camping if you weren't in a tent, so she said we were "cabining." It makes sense to me.

We really enjoyed the campground. They had two great playgrounds, a mini-golf course, a lake full of fish, and even paddle-boats. (Don't we look nice in our life-vests?) The nearest town (Canandaigua) was really quaint and fun. We also visited some church history sights (Palmyra and the Hill Cumorah were close by). We had a great time.

We fulfilled a long-time ambition by visiting the Jello Museum in LeRoy, NY on our way home. It was all that we hoped for and more. We highly recommend it for anyone who happens to be in the area, although not many people are crazy enough to take a trip just to see it like we did. Maybe next year we will make it to the Corning Glass Museum. There just wasn't enough time this trip.

Sorry so slow...

Hey all. Sorry for the ginormous wait between posts. Our computer is having issues with our camera, so I have to wait until Stephen's work laptop is at home and the kids will actually let me sit at it for an extended period of time. I will try to catch up as much as I can. Thanks for being patient. I know some of you are in withdrawal for pictures of our adorable kids. Be strong!

True Love

What is love? I would like to suggest that true love is doing the dishes EVERY night. At least, that is one really good way to show it. My amazing husband has taken over this job for me, and he is tireless! I can't thank him enough. Definitely true love.

I is for Inventive

At the end of quiet time today, I knew Rose must have fallen asleep, because she was actually...quiet. I went into the living room, and I couldn't find her! Finally I spied her asleep on the edge of the beanbag between the rocking chair and the wall. I guess she was too tired to reach for the blanket I had left her, because if you look closely, she is wrapped in one of our living room curtains. She just pulled down the closest fabric she could find. Genius!

Super Duper!

Couldn't let these adorable cape shots sit on my computer. Rose has been calling the little guy "Super John" since he was born, but now we have proof!