ABC, LUKE IS THREE

One week ago today, our little Luke turned 3...yes THREE!  Sadly he is growing up, Jack remarked to Doug yesterday... we don't have any more babies in our house... I think Doug is a little distraught at the thought. 

Let's pretend it's one week ago....Here's how we celebrated!



Of course we woke up and it was first things first... Presents!

Lightning McQueen lego...

 a sword from Max,

 A bike, a big bouncy ball, a  bat and ball...

And lots of cute new clothes...



including one from Aunt Liz that matches Max's

Of course the day was filled with playing, church (I had to give a talk that day), and more playing.  Luke chose his own dinner, Hot Dogs, Cheetos, and soda.

 He also chose his cake.  He wanted an "ABC cake with letters standing up and laying down all around."

 

It was yummy!!  I tried out a copycat Publix buttercream frosting (didn't add all the crisco though) It turned out delish!

 Happy Birthday Luke! We love you!!

Max's big weekend

Our life has been nonstop.  I know it's way past the weekend but Max had a few experiences this weekend that were especially noteworthy. First of all he participated in his first Pinewood Derby on Friday.


Here are the cars. Jack had to make one too, of course.  Max's is the one with the yellow sticker.

He won a few races, but mostly had a great time cheering on everyone else's cars. It was super exciting!

Saturday Max woke up bright and early to play his last Basketball game of the season.  He has been a bit of a slow starter in ball this year.  He never made a shot in a game all year but then Saturday, he sunk two of them.  It was such an exciting game.  They lost but only by two points and they really rallied together at the end to catch the other team. 

[The above description needs a little embellishment from a father's perspective.  Max had not scored all season long.  He has been working hard on his shot for the last month.  It was the 4th quarter of his last game.  Our team was down by 10 points with ~3 minutes left on the clock.  Max got the ball down low and put it up, it bounced around the rim and then dropped in.  Max ran back to play defense while trying to keep back his smile.  On one of the next few plays Max sunk his second shot.  By this time our team was closing the gap and the other team called time-out to put his first string players back in.  During the time-out I gave Max a high-five and then he requested to give me knuckles.  (That almost brought tears to my eyes.)  We lost the game but it was by far the most exciting game we played.]


Here he is getting his medal at the park afterward.

Probably the best part of the season was that he got to play on a team with his best friend Sam. 


And, that Doug and Sam's dad got to coach them.

So Basketball season is over and what did we do on Saturday night you may ask?  Why we went out and bought a basketball hoop for our driveway of course.  The taste of those two shots was so sweet, we have to start practicing for next year.

We're back!

Mer and I just got back from a quick trip to San Fransisco for a girls weekend with Aunt Lizzie.  We had so much fun. It was nice, happy, and relaxing.  Liz and John were wonderful hosts.  We dined, shopped at great stores, saw a few sites, and had a blast playing with George and Grace. 

This was the view in the back seat pretty much the whole weekend.

As tourists, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge...

...and ventured into Muir Woods to see the Redwoods. The largest ones are around 2000 years old

I've always wanted to see these big beauties in real life.

Next up, with no cupcake shop in our own home town we had to sample some cupcakes to see what we were missing.  First stop, Kara's Cupcakes ... the Coconut was my favorite... so creamy

And then for comparison sake (another day of course) we just had to try out the famous Sprinkles...Red Velvet won my vote as favorite... so dreamy.

 Next stop as a tourist was the Bell Tower on Stanford campus.  Stanford was beautiful.  It made me think a bit about my own college days.....

Love this picture!!!  These three are so cute.

Here they are dipping their toes in the nearby fountain.

For the Stanford trip Mer had the privilege of riding with John in his Convertible.  Seriously a dream come true for her...

 Here are a few other favorites...Liz and John live near a commuter train track and George covers his ears every train a train rumbles by.  So cute!

Mer enjoyed every minute playing with these two.

We arrived home about 11:30 last night and got up bright and early, business as usual this morning.  Mer had to go to school to turn in her science fair project, and it was Valentine's day... so much to do.

Tonight we Celebrated, exchanging cards and chocolates!!

A special THANKS!! to the Balena Family for our wonderful weekend, you made our dreams come true.   Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Good night!

Girl Milk!

 Luke was finishing off his cereal yesterday and exclaimed "I have girl milk!!!" 

I looked in his bowl to find his cereal had made is milk PINK!  Though he still struggles to name all his colors, he has learned that Pink is a girl color

Here's picture of Max receiving his yellow belt that didn't make it into my last entry. This was pretty exciting for him.

And here's the video of his kicks that he had to pass off that day too.





Some of you heard word that we were tiling our backsplash on saturday. After  MUCH deliberation, purchasing tile, returning tile, cruising magazines, etc....this is what we put up. It still needs grout, but that's still on order.

Much more to be done... but it will have to wait, cause Mer and I will be in San Fran this weekend.  We are so excited!!

Bye for now!!

Yellow Belt

Okay, since last time I posted, I got a sinus infection from my week of illness, which laid me out for another week. I'm not 100% but I did go running for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks so I'm feeling a ton better.

Max advanced to a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do this weekend.  He had to perform his pattern and kicks in front of a panel of Black Belts.


The gym was so packed that not all of us were able to stay for it so Doug videoed it so I could see too.  Do you want to see Max do Tae Kwon Do?

This is his Pattern: "Chong Gi"