Owen's 3!!!!

How can it be that Owen is already 3?! I have no more babies, which is sad to me in many ways. We even threw away his poppies (pacifiers), that were completely shredded by the way, but he still loved them. I was very reluctant to do it because I think that was my last little piece of babyness left. Well I guess we do still have diapers, but we're working on that. Those, I will not be sad to give up, and if we don't get him potty trained by September, he may not be going to preschool. Mommy is ready for him to go to school for a few hours a couple days a week.

To celebrate Owen's birthday, we just had a bbq with family and a few friends. Grandpa Robert and Grandma Pom also came down and spent the weekend here and spoiled Owen, as well as Hannah and Justin rotten like they always do. The kids love it.

The Friday before Owen's party, I had no clue what kind of cake I was going to make, and I always make my kids' cakes in some theme except for Owen's first birthday where we just had store bought cupcakes and a store bought cake (Gasp!). Of course Owen doesn't know any better or care, but I didn't want to do that to him again. He loves animals, and I had animal plates and party bags that I bought many months ago at the Target $1 spot (a risky thing to do for a kids' b-day party because more than likely, the kid will not be into that theme at all by the time the party rolls around). Thankfully, Owen does still like animals and after searching on the internet for animal cakes and seeing many that I just did not have the time or talent to tackle, I found an elephant and slightly altered it and came up with Owen's elephant cake. He loved it and thought his elephant cake was so cool.

Unlike last year, Owen was very interested in the presents this year. If there is any kid that loves his toys and plays with them all the time, it is Owen, and he was very excited about what he would get for his birthday. Our family and friends did not dissapoint. With just about everything he opened, he gave a gasp of excitement, and his phrase for the day was "That's amazing!" He got lots of cars, a remote control truck, Star Wars figures, a tranformer, walking gorilla, some horses, bubble blower, a Batman helicopter, and he loved them all, but the thing that yet again stole his heart, was a hippo that Grandma Judi gave him. The kid has so many of these hard plastic animals, and I always think something else will take over, and he won't like them anymore, but he always goes back to those animals.

Owen and Evie--they are always glued to one another and up to no good. :)

Of course there was lots of playing in the water again this year. The only difference from last year was that Owen actually did the cake and the presents first (last year he had no interest in either) and got out of his clothes and into his swimming trunks BEFORE diving into the pool. It was a fun birthday party. Owen really had a great day. We look forward to another year with our funny little guy.

Summer Fun

Sheesh, I can't believe that it is July 7th already. The summer is flying by. The kids will be back in school before we know it, which I often think throughout the day as Hannah and Justin are having one of their numerous arguments, wouldn't be such a bad thing. But I really am not ready for summer to be over. We don't have any big summer plans--no epic road trips or trips to far off destinations planned--but we have had lots of summer fun. The weather has been quite warm lately, although we have cooled off the past few days to a very pleasant upper 60's/lower 70's. We did buy a new slightly larger kiddie pool. On one 90 degree day last week, we filled it up and without even giving it a chance to warm up at all, the kids dove in. Owen, especially, was ready to go, but after being in there awhile, he would get so cold that his lips were blue, but he would not want to get out. As soon as he did get out and get dry and warmed up, he would jump right back in.

After hearing that my dear friend, Annaliese, does a Camp Fun for a week with her kids, Hannah and Justin were insistent that we had our own Camp Fun, which included family movie nights and a backyard campout. Dale set up the big tent and Hannah and Justin moved a great deal of their bedrooms out there and slept out there all on their own for 2 nights. Either Dale or I slept on the couch just in case there were any middle of the night emergencies like large bugs. I can't believe they stayed out there on their own. I don't even think I ever managed to stay the whole night out in a tent with my siblings. There was usually a spider or something that would force me inside. Camp Fun the way Annaliese did it would also include crafts and things, but this mom was not that organized. Hannah and Justin seemed satisfied with the movie nights and campouts. Maybe next year, I'll actually try to put together something a little more organized and maybe even invite the cousins over. Maybe I can arrange something with my sisters where we trade off days. Are you reading this, Marcie and Sara?

We also have made a trip to the zoo, which made Owen very happy. He asks almost every day if we are going to the zoo. At the end of summer, the new lion exhibit will be open, so that will be very exciting to see.

Of course, the highlight of summer so far has been the 4th of July. During the day, we all went to see the new Pixar movie, "Up." I highly recommend it. It even kept Owen sitting pretty still in his seat the whole time. Later on, we went to Grandma Judi's like we have for quite a few years now. There weren't as many of us. Only Aunt Sara, Uncle Gary and Katelyn and Ashley were there for a while. The kids all went in Grandma's hot tub, which she had turned down so the kids could use it as a pool. I don't know what they like better on the 4th--the fireworks or Grandma's hot tub. Even better is watching all the fireworks from the hot tub like Hannah and Justin did. They can hardly stand to wait until it is dark enough to light fireworks. We did quite a few of them before it was dark like smoke bombs. The kids loved those things this year. Owen, however, was not excited in the least about the fireworks. He could not stand anything with even a slightly loud pop. He just freaked out and insisted we go home. He also was not happy that the helicopter fireworks that he so proudly chose at the fireworks stand were going to be blown up. He was very angry when we brought them home from the stand, and he could not bring them inside to play with them like all his other toys. We did manage to get him calmed down inside, and he would watch the pretties from the window. Grandma Judi stayed with him most of the night watching from inside. We quickly blew up our $75 worth of fireworks and then moved to the back deck to watch everyone else blow up way more than we spent. We also saw the show that Washougal put on and Corbett across the river. It really is the ideal location.

This is what happens when you light 3 smoke bombs at once.

Frightened on the Fourth!

My standard sparkler photos

Next up for the summer is a 2 night trip to the Oregon Coast to Newport this weekend. We are going to stay in our favorite place there, the Hallmark Inn, which is right on the water and go to the aquarium.