some play!

we took a little family trip out to seaside tonite to see charlotte's web, the play. brian's mom has been wanting to take the kids all summer, and we thought we'd tag along! we got there early enough to do a few things before the show started. first things first: sno-cones. i canNOT go to seaside without partaking in a frost bite's key lime pie snocone. mmmm.... now, i think this one was a little too light on the lime and cream-- a few bites actually tasted like ice and not key lime pie... but usually, this beauty tastes as good as a piece of key lime pie.


the kids had been talking about this sno cone alllll day long.... as you can see, caroline wasted no time in emptying her bowl! (she and ethan shared one.)


and amelia was enjoying every bite that daddy shared with her!


we also had time to take a quick picture in front of this beachy diner. our five in a row book for this week, night of the moonjellies, is about a little boy who helps at his gram's seaside diner, and on our way out to seaside, i realized that we'd get to see one tonite! i really wanted to point out all the similarities between the restaurant in the book and seaside's little diner, but we were too busy dodging ice that was being thrown by a group of kids!


after coming away ice-injury-free, we headed back to the amphitheater. brian and the kids kicked the ball around until the show started while kristie, nana, and i watched them all sweat profusely.


well, after all those bites of sno cone, i was not surprised when amelia got squirmy about 5 minutes after the show began.


i let her loose on the edge of the amphitheater, and she was a little energizer bunny... she loved running up and down the sloped grass, and falling down over and over didn't make her miss a beat.


i was glad to still be able to watch the show from the side. it was really a funny show, and it didn't hurt that this is was one of my favorite movies stories as a child (the book is in our "chapter books" pile, just waiting to be read!). here is wilbur with fern. the guy who played wilbur did a great job. really, they all did. but he was especially funny. i guess you'd have to be to play a talking pig. :)


ethan is at the point where he really gets a lot of humor, and it's so fun to watch him enjoy himself. he laughed and laughed tonite...


at least i got this picture of amelia while she roamed and roamed... what a stinker!


amelia saw my lens cap lying on the grass (sorry, honey!), hurried right over to it, and brought it to me. i laughed that she knew it belonged to me. my child would recognize a lens cap!


ethan is SO SURPRISED that you have not heard about the plays at seaside this summer!


they have three different ones going on during the week until august 9. we may just head back out there one more time before the summer is over. i want another sno-cone! the other plays look great, too!

makin' a splash for ethan's birthday!

ethan's pool party a couple of weeks ago was a fun one! i was so so thrilled to wake up the morning of july 3 to a beautiful blue sky. we'd had a pretty rainy week, and i was not looking forward to plan b for ethan's birthday party.... i mean, what fun is a swimming pool cake at your kitchen table?! so a clear, breezy, not-quite-so-sweltering day was a blessing. we were so thankful to use our good friends' pool while they were out of town (the same location of ethan's swim lessons last summer... thank you, leigh and deb!!!! welcome home! there's leftover popsicles in your freezer if you want them!)

this party marks the beginning of a new era for our kids' birthday parties: SIMPLE. if you have followed my blog for long, you know how much fun i have celebrating my kiddos' birthdays. i love the planning. i love the decorations. i love the games. but i don't love the aftermath. at all. and multiply that times 3. whew! so after amelia's winter "one"derland, i determined to go easy on the birthday extravaganzas. i suggested the pool party to ethan, and he loved the idea. i'm pretty sure he thinks he thought of it. :) the beauty of a pool party is three fold: no games needed. very few decorations needed. very little clean up. but the limitation of a pool party is that a pool is nuts with lots of kids. to invite the usual gang that shares in our birthday celebrations would have been crazy. so this year, we kept ethan's party small. just family (and very close friends that are technically family by marriage!). it was the perfect kid-per-cubic-ft-of-water ratio. alright, on with the party. here we go: simple birthday bash, version 1.0.

here's the invitation our family received in the mail (identifying information fuzzed out for my blog, of course.)


and heeeere's the decorations for the party! tablecloths and balloons! simple, simple!


i took ethan with me to pick out party plates, etc. my plan was to let him pick whatever he wanted... but mom had to step in with some veto power a couple of times. (if the tacky plates were the cheap ones, maybe i'd have let it slide... but i was not paying $4 for 8 tacky plates.) he ended up loving the classic "happy birthday" ones from dollar tree, thanks to mom's compelling enthusiasm toward the pack of 18 plates for $1. (they really were the cutest ones.) i forgot to get a good picture of the design, but you can get the general idea from caroline's party hat... bright colors, happy birthday, they were perfect.


it's not a birthday party without an aunt-kristie-original-birthday-sign! everybody loves it!


i was so glad we (brian) set up the soccer tent for a little shade. the grandparents were really glad.


ethan took his time writing everyone's names on the party favor bags.


what was inside!? some loot for water fun... the girls even had pink and purple water guns!


and for the next two hours, everybody pretty much played in the pool....



well, except caroline. she camped out at the chip bowl for the majority of the party.


here's our party guests... all the grandparents pictured above plus...
uncle jeff, aunt kristie, and karina


jon and his girls, indi and sensi


and ethan's buddy joseph. the rest of his family was pretty busy this weekend with a new (precious!) baby and campaign commitments, so joseph represented the fam.


joseph sure did love brian's ethan's water rockets.


the big kids played a little too...



when the kiddos got the pool back, they enjoyed the "wave pool" that jon and kristie created.


before long, it was time for cake! this may be my favorite birthday cake by gram yet. simple yet adorable. and i was so excited that the blue jello really looked like water! here's the birthday boy blowing out his candle.


i could not stop taking pictures of this cake (shocker.) look at all the cute little bears in their swimsuits and on floats!



we quickly took a family picture before the jello started to liquify!


yes it was incredibly bright for this picture of the birthday kids!


the kids actually ate italian ice cups before their cake... a great alternative to soupy melted ice cream!



they all loved the italian ice so much that they did not eat much cake. (so darn, we had to take a lot of cake home...)


fear not... the big kids enjoyed some cake!


everybody hopped back in the pool to cool off a little... we got a kick out of sweet sensi leaving her party hat on while she floated.


and then it was present time!


i love this one of joseph checking out the toy story legos that jeff, kristie, and karina gave ethan. (the hat's a nice touch, don't you think?!)


he was totally surprised to get this huge lego set from my grandma! :)


this big gift from nana and pappy was a perplexing mystery to ethan all morning long.


and there it is! a rebounder for practicing soccer! i'm not sure who was more excited about this... ethan or brian. :)


ethan was also surprised to get an ant farm from my dad and joy. it has been really cool to watch those ants dig, dig, dig. and now they are dead, dead, dead. apparently i'm not just a plant killer.


my dad also couldn't resist to get ethan a cardinals hat and ball. he wore the hat when he went out with papa the next week for his birthday lunch. it was really cute. :)


while we were all caught up in the present opening, barbie finally had the pool to herself for a few minutes.


and amelia stole the hat from joseph. i think it's much more her style.


the boys got a little water gun crazy before it was time to go. these pictures crack me up.


look at those faces!


uhoh- ethan got a little trigger happy...


and ethan's got the first shot.


but joseph is quick to retaliate! oh, i love seeing these boys' smiles as they play together. it's been a fun five years.



and that was his pool party! we dried off, cleaned up a little, and that was the end of it. i'm definitely loving simple. so our birthday boy is five years old. it's hard to believe that before too long, he will be reading and adding and all that kindergarten-y jazz. sometimes he just seems so grown up, and later that night while he's sleeping, i'll catch a glimpse of him as a snuggly newborn. he can do so much on his own, but he still needs that time with his mommy. i know that as ethan grows, the balance will gradually tip more and more toward the side of independence. but for now, we have lots of years of teaching and discipling ahead, Lord-willing, and i look forward to the journey. we're praising God for ethan and the last 5 years. happy birthday, son!