don's bday climb

Bennett's Big Day

We were so fortunate to have great weather, awesome friends and a ton of help from our out-of-town family for the weekend.

Bennett was treated to a lavish backyard brunch. Ok, cake and cold cuts, the swingset and a ton of 1-4 year olds. How lucky can a man get?

Here he is enjoying his day with his guests.












and of course... the cake shots:













the last one seems to say- Mom, what were you thinking with this carrot cake thing? Why dont i get the yummy chocolate strawberry frosting thing everyone else is smiling about?

Thank you so much to everyone who made his first Birthday so special!

xoxo

Little Fundraiser

We did a bake sale fundraiser for Haiti with a friend.  She works with an organization called the Children's Nutrition Program of Haiti (http://cnphaiti.org/). It's a small non-profit (actually based in Tennessee but does work in Haiti) that works to improve the nutrition and health of people living in Leogane, Haiti and mostly with moms to help them take care of their children better.

I did facepainting and used madeline as my demo- and she wanted me to paint a picture of herself on her cheek.  nope, no butterflies or rainbows today. ugh

 

but isnt she such a good little advertisment?

xoxo

pizza party

We made pizzas and the kids went to town.
Bennett was particularly enjoying self-feeding tonight
(pay no attention to the sorta girly bib of course...)

And madeline knew that this was not going to end well...








then an after dinner siesta with uncle deedge.


being a goof!

Walker- and not Texas ranger

He is up to 10-12 steps at a time now. Here he is doing a 7 step stretch to uncle deedge!

walker

Bennett is in a rut. He takes 5-10 steps at a time but gets so excited by his progress he face plants!
it is sort of hysterical if i may say so without sounding just plain mean.

Here is a clip of him taking his first few steps . you can just about see him take one or two before he plops.
working on a clip of a longer stretch so you can see his proud face!

van gough

tasty..


and hanging out
practicing the squeal

You say its your birthday?!

For don's big day we had a climbing date, where we had them play the Beatles Happy Birthday for him and sue surprised us both with climbing date cupcakes.

Then i made a cake from scratch for don on tues night to devour for breakfast. Cin-walnut sour cream coffee cake with dark chocolate sour cream frosting.

madeline sang him happy birthday over cake and he got his gifts


then off to Les delices where we got a slice of chocolate hazelnut crunch cake and a fruit tarte for pre-dinner snack

and we had datenight at Addie's.
http://www.addiesrestaurant.com/review.html
They do locally sourced, sustainable food and it was impeccable.
Had planned on shooting some pool next door but we lingered over a 2.5 hr meal and that was enough

Happy birthday don.
we love you

Climb On

we have been so busy this year getting into our new rock climbing hobby that we havent taken the time to post any pics
Here we are on a climbing date for don's birthday, (tomorrow)this past saturday:

spring outside fun

we got to spend some family fun time outdoors this weekend!





It was sunny and breezy and we got a few gardening things done, hired someone to take down our zillion pine branches so we had some 'found' time for biking. this could become a habit!

Celebrating Dr Seuss

last week madeline and i celebrated dr seus' birthday by making her into a cat in the hat and we read a seus book a day. this one is her favorite.

food part two

America- are we killing our children with 'food'?

every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Too many people are being affected by what they eat. It's time for a national revolution. America needs to stand up for better food http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution