Happy 8th Birthday, Katie!

We kicked Katie's "Actual Birthday" day celebration off with a trip to Ooba Tooba's for some yummy Mexican food.

She decided on ice cream sundaes for her special treat.

Then, it was time for some present opening!!!!

"TOOTHLESS!!!!"

Katie shared the excitement with Mikey.

Here they are examining a Lego Movie set.

(Please disregard the xmas wrapping paper.  It was all I had!)

We also purchased a Harry Potter movie box set and let the kids watch the first one.

They stayed up pretty late.

The next day was Katie's birthday party.

We had it at a local toy store that offered a Harry Potter themed craft party.

First the kids were sorted into their Hogwarts Houses.

It was very interesting that our family were all sorted into Gryffindor.

I thought for sure Katie and I would be Hufflepuff.

The kids got to work on their wands and their golden Snitches.

After all the craftiness was done, it was time for treats!

"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!"

Cupcakes and Butterbeer were enjoyed by all.

Katie came up with two treat options.

Golden Snitch cupcakes.

It was sad.  The gold paint made the frosting melt off the cupcakes.

They still tasted good though.

The kids didn't care what they looked like.

Just me.

The other option were Owl cupcakes.

More presents!

It was a really fun party.  The kids, and especially Katie, had a great time.

When we got home, Katie sat right down and started playing with all her birthday presents.

Here are both "Happy Birthday" songs that we sang to Katie......

The next day we had to say goodbye to Granma and Granpa.

They had to begin their journey back across the country.

We hope they had a good time and appreciated the help they gave us while they were here.

Next time they visit, we'll have a nice new cooshy carpet downstairs and hopefully a dog that doesn't wake at 5:30am EVERY DAY.

And this, below, is the aftermath of a blocked off living room, two birthdays, two kids and a puppy that needs constant supervision.

No time to clean.

Sigh.

The Beginning of August

You wouldn't think a lot could happen between Mikey's Birthday and now.
It's only been a month.

Right?

But, oh-ho-ho, you would be SO wrong!

The first week of August brought theatre camp for both kids.
Granma and Granpa got to watch!

This was Mikey's second time on stage and would be Katie's first time learning the fine art of "stage combat."

Mikey was up first.

Psy the Archer is a pretty serious dude.

I bet he could give Binky Superhero a run for his money.

Up next was.....

"The Fluffy Kittens of Death Present:

The Fire Thieves vs. The Super Butt-Kickers and the Island of Infinite Possibilities"

(no really. that was the title).

Katie.....I mean Serena, the Shapeshifting Dragon Girl had to fight Elizabeth, the Demi-god Daughter of Athena.

Serena won.

And then there was an epic battle.

Serena took one to the gut.

"Oooof!"

See the action unfold here.....

After the crazy week at camp, it was time to sit back and enjoy some summer.

Doing artsty stuff with Granma...

...and building stuff with Granpa.

Granma and Granpa were extra brave and volunteered to watch Ralph while we took the kids to the amusement/water park for the day.

(Thank you!!!)

Katie, being a lot taller now, was able to hit all the water slides with Huzbend.

While they were busy, Mikey and I hung out at the wave pool and punched waves.

There's always time for the hot tub.

Katie is quite the daredevil.

Not only could she do all the slides, but she could do all the "water stunt" sections too.

Stuff like being shot out of a tunnel to land in water that was 9 feet below.

Slides like these....

And this.....

After the water park, we went on over to the amusement park section.

Katie, once again, was able to ride every ride they had there.

She rode the Timberhawk, a wooden roller coaster.

And even upside-down crazy rides like this.....

(These are not pictures of her on the ride.  I stole them from the parks website.  I couldn't watch.)

I was a little freaked out about that.

She loved every minute of it.  

She rode the Timberhawk twice (once with me and once with Huzbend) and then wanted to ride one more time by herself!  That last ride didn't happen. Still too young for that.

We did lots of other non-thrill rides too.

Sigh.  There's gonna come a time when they can't ride together anymore.

Ice cream!

Mikey enjoyed his rides.

And Katie enjoyed hers.

(That's Huzbend in the red shirt and Katie next to him)

The kids were a tad bit tired from their adventures.

Later in the week, Huzbend and Granpa worked to set up a fence to keep Ralph away from the rhodies in our backyard.

He likes to eat stuff.

A lot.

And rhodies are poisonous.

Ralph has learned that our shoes are off limits for eating.

So, he likes to use them as smelly pillows instead.

He has also found a new toy.....

He cracks the kids up when he hops up on the deck chairs to take a snooze.

Did someone say, "eat"?

The following week, Mikey had sports camp and Katie headed off to Girl Scout Day Camp.

It was a pretty rainy week.

We were able to catch some video of Mikey's last day at camp.

Granma, Granpa and Huzbend went to pick up Katie on her last day of camp.

Ralph had his last set of vaccines this day, as well.

It was a pretty busy day.

But it wasn't over yet!  It was also KATIE'S BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy 5th Birthday, Mikey!

When we got back from our trip, it was back to business as usual.

Box sledding.

Box sledding is much harder to accomplish with Ralph around.

Speaking of Ralph, he's doing good.

He's learning the house rules quickly.

He keeps himself busy exploring new things and creating chaos where ever he goes.

He's a great dog.

There's only one thing I can't stand.

He gets up at 5:30am no matter what day it is.

(That's the normal time we get up on a weekday)

Sometimes, he wants to get up earlier than that.

Like this morning for example.

He was quietly whining and grunting at 4am.

We just ignore him and make him wait till 5:30.

He won't bark, but he'll be just loud enough to keep me awake.

Sigh.

You're lucky you're cute, buddy.

Mikey's birthday was fast approaching.

This years theme - Transformers.

Mikey's favorite is Optimus Prime.

So, I made some Optimus chocolates for the goodie bags.

Yum.

Mikey chose to have his party at the same spray park that we hit up every year.

It was rainy all week, but then on Saturday the clouds parted to let the sun peek through.

It was a perfect day for playing in the water.

Just a slight breeze to make the kids shiver and turn blue.

No matter!

They have water guns!!

Katie got to hang with some of her preschool alumni friends.

She had a great time too.

SPRAY!

Here's Mikey's cake.

It's was big with a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of vanilla cake and chocolate frosting in between.  Per his request, blue colored vanilla frosting covered the outside.

It wasn't very themed.

There were supposed to be actual Transformers toys ON the cake.

But, they were too big and Mikey was worried they'd get frosting all over them.  So, we stuck with an Autobots symbol and some candles.

He was excited to dig into it.

"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!"

He loved the cake.

The sugar rush was almost immediate.

I swear the cake weighed about 5 pounds.  All of it in sugar.

Mikey loved the cake so much.

He didn't even wait for me to cut another piece for him.

He just stuck his head into it.

(Mom okayed this action after making sure all were done with cake, of course).

Oooops.  Bad idea.

Now he was ludicrous hyper.

After cake clean-up, it was present time.

Mikey's pal Sienna got him (amongst many other awesome things) a Spiderman water sprinkler where the water comes out like Spiderman's webs.

She was so excited to explain to him how it worked.

Too cute.

A few days later, Granma and Granpa came for a visit.

Here they are enjoying some video game time.

Mikey selected Papa Johns pizza as his "actual birthday" dinner.

And for his "actual birthday" special treat - brownie sundaes.

"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF"

(again)

And then, MORE PRESENTS!!!

(Thank you!!!)

"Ooooooooooooooooooooooo."

"Mikey's 5th Birthday!  Best Birthday There IS!"