May!

Being a house of educators we are predestined for crazy May days, but it seems like we really decided to take it up a notch around here this year. First we had Will's birthday, then we headed to Nebraska for a quick weekend, took in a little Houston art car parade, and all of the sudden -- it's Memorial weekend! All while Todd and I are trying to wrap up the end of the school year, and oh, did we mention we had a baby coming in about 35 days??

We've already given the scoop on the big guy's birthday, so here's the other stuff we've been up to around here. We decided to take one last trip to Nebraska before Bob gets here since we won't be able to travel this summer. It was so fun to see everyone, but it was cold! There were record low temps while we were there (I mean, seriously, 45 in May??) But we threw on some jackets and had a ton of fun anyway.

We were lucky to have Jess take the day off on Friday and spend the day playing with us. We took Will to the Children's Museum for the afternoon and he had a blast. Of course there was one particular exhibit that we had a hard time pulling him away from...

Yep, the farm.



You have to pick corn to feed all your animals, of course!



The next day even though it wasn't the warmest, we decided to stick with our plans and take Will to the Omaha zoo. He LOVES animals and the Houston zoo so I have been wanting to take him in Omaha because they have such a great zoo. And as an added bonus, our friends the Sears joined us! Luke and Will are only a couple of weeks apart and it is always fun to get them together when we are in town. Now we just need to convince them to come our way for a trip...:)

Will having a little chat with a friend...



Crossing the bridge -- and thinking he's pretty hot stuff, I might add.



We've certainly come a long way, haven't we? :)



Remember that baby we have coming?? Well some of my wonderful co-workers decided we needed to celebrate the upcoming arrival and threw us a pretty incredible diaper day. Todd's school also threw us a shower this month and we are definitely "pampered" in this house right now! We are very fortunate to work with such generous people -- they are really amazing.





Houston has an incredible art car parade every year. This year the weather was great and we thought Will would love seeing all the cars decorated so we packed up some snacks, drinks, and chairs and headed downtown to check things out. Will was fascinated -- and I don't think his dad was far behind...I think it brought back some art memories for him too. :)

Will's favorite car of the day -- I said it was a chicken, he informed me it was a rooster. Whichever, it was huge!



Yay! Given credit where credit is due...:)



Kicking back and enjoying the show -- they both look so serious!



And I think that pretty much sums up our May...at least so far! Time to wrap up the school year and bring on the summer fun!

Will's 3!

First of all, let me just say how excited I am that I am sitting on the couch updating the blog this Mother's Day as opposed to sitting in a hospital room with a very hurt little boy. A huge improvement from last year!

Friday was Will's big 3rd birthday! As some friends were talking about remembering the moment they found out Will was here 3 years ago, I was struck -- how can a moment seem like yesterday, but yet it seem like we've never known life without the little guy around? And holy cow -- we're about to experience this all over again -- in less than 2 months when "Bob" joins our little family!

Friday we did our now birthday tradition of celebrating with the culinary delight of hot dogs, mac and cheese, and cupcakes with Will's godparents. It's always so fun to have a small kick off to the bigger party to come during the weekend and it gives Will a chance to open a few presents and have a special night before the big day of the party.

This year's theme was made very clear by Will -- we were on a farm! He asked for a tractor cake well over a month ago and hasn't strayed from that plan. So I decided I was going to give a 3D cake a shot -- I've always wanted to try and I watch about a million hours of food network, so why not? Here's the final product -- probably not getting me a job on any cake shows, but not too shabby for my first try if I do say so myself! Of course Will had seen a picture of some tractor cakes when I was picking out what to do and so when he saw it for the first time he's reaction was something like this -- "My tractor cake!! Yay! Where's the wagon?" Really? Thanks bud.



Then I had to add some little farm animal friend cupcakes to go along with it, right? I knew I was successful when Will and Elyse were picking out which animal they wanted to eat without having to be told what they were! :)




The rest of the food was all farm themed too -- we had a pig pen (pigs in a blanket), veggie patch, fruit orchard, chicken feed (snack mix), and hay stacks (pretzel sticks). Quite the tasty farm...



Will loves to plant pretty much anything, so we made sure to let everyone have their own pot, trowel, and a plant to take home. Here they all are in full planting mode!



Will kept asking me when we were going to put fire on his cake and let him blow it out -- we've apparently seen enough birthday cakes to know what's up around here. He was so excited when it was finally time for singing and candle blowing!




And here is the best family pic we managed to get this year -- by the time all the cameras started going Will had decided he had had enough of the paparazzi and became very shy. But here we are nonetheless.



This collage pretty much sums up the day -- and is also a chance to say a huge thank you to our good friend Becky for being willing to be the resident photographer of the day. We love you Becky!