Beach

This is Way Longer Than Anyone Wants to Read

Feel free to skim.

I'm not very good at the whole birthday party thing.

Maybe because we never really did that growing up.

(When I was turning 12 I asked my mom if I could have a party and she said, "Yes, but only if you do everything and I can lock myself in my bedroom and not come out until it's done.")

But Leo's been to some major birthday parties this year and he was a little disappointed by my efforts.

As soon as he woke up last Tuesday he said,

"Is it my birthday now?

When are we going to my birthday (party)?"

After I reminded him that we weren't having a party until later he went downstairs and we had this conversation:

L: Mom, where are the balloons?

M: I didn't get any balloons

L: But mom, there are supposed to be balloons. And decorations. You have to get balloons.

M: I don't have any balloons.

L: Then we have to go and get some. And prizes too. We have to have prizes.

So off we went to the store.

We got a big balloon:

And peanuts with shells

(which Leo randomly loves)

And donuts

(because he's not much of a homemade breakfast eater)

And prizes

And party hats

Which they wore for a combined total of 42.7 seconds.

And after all that was done we decided to make cupcakes that look like ice cream cones.*

About halfway through filling the cones I realized that Leo was dipping that fork in the batter over and over again. Good thing we were the only ones eating them.

Jay and Leo played with balloons for most of the afternoon.

And then we had cupcakes** and took a nap.

Aren't they cute?***

When Ty finally got home from school Leo got to open his presents.

He got two Lightning McQueen things

(because the Disney Store had a sale on Cars stuff a few months ago)

And he and Jay both got. . .

brand new bikes.

(Which they were not very excited about at first, but they now enjoy.)

And we went to dinner

and Jay was a stinker

and Leo got to eat tacos.

(which he loves.)

The End

*I could have done an entire post on the cupcakes alone. I would have called it "How to Ruin Cake." They were seriously awful. I was so mad! When Ty came home and tried one he said, "Do we not have a normal cake pan?" To which I responded, "Yes, we have a normal cake pan. It's right there, filled with cupcakes. I did this on purpose and it's horrible!"
**They each took 1 bite and then said, "I'm done."
***Even though they are adorable, it's not worth it. Unless you're using them for decoration and not for eating.

I'm a blog slacker.

I know.

And my only excuse is that I've been too busy having fun to write about it.

Here's a very small slice of what's been happening around here.

I introduced the boys to the table fort.

They loved it.

It kept them occupied for the better part of an hour.

(Which is really good for them.)

They've discovered hats.

These belonged to their Great-Grandpa Pace.

Jay hasn't quite figured out how to wear them.

Not only is he sporting two at a time, they're sideways.

 (And, are you kidding me with that face?)

The boys still think that my half of the bed is for them and I should sleep on a toddler bed.

(Sadly, I sometimes do just that.)

This is the first time that Jay actually ate enough spaghetti to realize he liked it.

He was in heaven.

Also, the boys figured out that toilet paper is better than any of their toys.

(If I didn't hate buying it so much I would let them play with it all the time.

They made towers for several days.)

And finally, we spent 3 weeks in AZ.

I didn't take pictures of even 1/10th of the stuff we did, 

but here's what I did photograph:

The boys slept with this monkey every single night.

This is Jay's attempt to comply with the "You have to sit on a towel to eat a Popsicle on the carpet" rule.

He would keep inching off and when you'd tell him to get back on he would put just his feet on.

We swam a ton.

And Leo miraculously remembered that he knew how to swim all by himself.

And he (Leo) got Sumo-bum.