Dinosaur Birthday Party

This weekend we had a birthday party for Holly's 5th Birthday, a dinosaur themed birthday party! We invited all of her friends over for some dino fun, play and food. Holly had a blast and really enjoyed herself for sure. I'd say the party was a success!

The dinosaur play table loaded with dinos!

Mini dinosaur cakes the kids decorated.

Dinosaur Egg Hunt... not your average egg hunt though!

The kids all starting to work on their eggs like a paleontologist would. Cracking, splitting, scraping, breaking.... dusting off the find!

Holly about to open presents.

All the kids about to decorate their dinosaur cakes!

Fun Find

Yesterday afternoon after all the excitement from Holly's birthday party wore off she was out enjoying her garden with a friend and her cousin, Sarah. Sarah stumbled upon a very fun find in the garden - one that caused a lot of excitement last night.

If you look really closely, you will see tadpoles in this small pottery bird bath along with a frog!

What is really amazing is that earlier in the day there were 15 kiddos running all over, exploring, rolling rocks and logs, scooping out the water and digging for critters... and they completely missed this little treasure! Which might have been a good thing as I imagine they would have just gone crazy over this little bit of nature.

We are very excited to enjoy the future of watching our new friends grow and change in the garden!

Sesame Street Live

Yesterday I took Holly to her second Sesame Street Live show and it was wonderful! Last year we had such an amazing time that we did it again this year with friends. The fun part about this year's experience though is that our group won a meet and greet with some of the characters - very exciting stuff for a preschooler! The kids all got to meet Abby Cadabby and Cookie Monster which means great photo opportunity for mom. Waiting for the Meet & Greet -- she is wondering what characters will be coming out?

Yay, we were lucky enough to meet Abby Cadabby & Cookie Monster!

Dinosaur Eggs

For Holly's birthday party we are doing a dinosaur egg hunt. The eggs are actually made from a salt dough with sand around small plastic dinosaurs, you form them and bake them until hardened. The kids will then hunt for them in our yard and break them open to find out what dinosaurs they found... kind of like a paleontologist. She is so excited to do this!

Changing Daily

Hudson will be three months this weekend and he is changing daily. He really has become the sweetest little boy, very happy and full of smiles! Make my heart melt! Hudson is in love with his big sister -- follows her with his eyes, smiles so big, laughs with her and studies her every move.

He is also a lot more interested in his toys now which has been very fun for us all! He loves his play mat and goes bananas with it while he is kicking his legs and arms while laughing. Very cute to watch! We also put him in his excessive, just tucked in with blankets for sturdiness. His head and neck control and perfect and he loves this toy - his body is just too small, so we tuck. He starts this marching pattern and gets going loudly while he talks and the toys are shaking, rattling and singing.... and then he starts laughing. It is cute!

Of course when ever I get the camera out for photos he stops or I miss the good laughing shots. He usually becomes obsessed with following the camera around. I'll move it, he'll start smiling so I'll bring it back to take a photo and he stops to study the camera. Not sure how to get around that, except for taking a ton of photos.... then maybe he'll get used to it.

Early Birthday Present

Holly will be five in a couple of weeks... I am still not sure where the time has gone! Her party theme is Dinosaurs as she has a love for all things dino. So, for her birthday we chose to finally get her the Playmobil dinosaur set she had been asking for for the past year as well as some other fun dinosaur stuff. However, this weekend we gave her the Playmobil set early along with a really nice play table that Bryan and Grandpa Hawk built for her.

We surprised her after her nap, she woke up and when she came out the living room was set up with the table and her packages. She was a bit confused wondering if we had tricked her and it was really her birthday, but then we explained and she was very excited!

She had a great time opening up a present at a time and then spending time with me helping to build all the landscaping parts. Playing a bit with each set before she opened another package. We spent a couple of hours just opening and playing as we built - a nice way to enjoy the afternoon for sure!

The reason we gave it to her early is because she will be sharing this big play table and play set with her friends at her birthday party. We figured it might be a good idea to have some time before hand to let her play with it before being required to share it all. She is so excited to share it with her friends! And, she has already spent hours playing with it all!