Rainbow Rocket Party!

It took me a while to explain to Connor what a party "theme" was, but once he got it he immediately decided on a Rainbow Rocket party. What does that mean? Well, we kind of created it as we went along - rainbows and space and rockets essentially. The fact that he isn't fixated on commercial characters and chose his own unique idea is pretty awesome as far as this Mommy is concerned. And I must have managed to pull it off because he says he wants every party from now on to be Rainbow Rocket. Of course, we'll say what he says next year. I may even get a request for Diego or Thomas the Tank Engine or something. And as long as he's happy, that's fine with me.

In keeping with the theme, for a couple of months he asked to have rainbow hair for his party. I did eventually find temporary hair dye in several colors and it turned out pretty nice actually - just some subtle highlights of color.

Rainbow fruit kabobs!
The party team - Aunt Heather is responsible for the super cool rainbow rockets shirts.

The balloon banner makes an encore appearance! No, I didn't make another one. It amazingly (and thankfully) lasted until the following week.

And those things in the glasses are... cupcakes! Yes, rainbow cupcakes baked in glasses. Yes, they really were baked IN the glasses. And the glasses had a rocket etched on the side. This was the brainchild of Aunt Heather and I. And how we will ever outdo this I have no idea.

Bounce house party!

Aunt Heather and I were the only two adults fun enough to join in! Well, or maybe crazy enough, but the kids thought it was super cool.

Plenty of crazy preschool energy to go around
Happy Birthday dear Connor... Happy Birthday to You!
The man in charge of this rental space almost didn't let me bring in fruit because he said kids wouldn't eat it anyway. Ahem. Notice the fact that he HAS cake and is still eating his fruit first. That's my boy!
See, I told you they were cupcakes. And yes, we gave 20 3-5 year olds real glass to eat from. Just like we also give Connor a real knife. How else will they learn how to use them? And no, nobody broke a glass - whew!

Family Celebration

Here he is - our 4 year old!
And a pic of his brother who was happy to share the spotlight today.

Today we had family over to celebrate Connor's birthday. The gorgeous weather continued so we actually were able to have our first cookout of the year. And Connor had an absolute blast with his cousin Livvy and Uncle Beej. Actually, Uncle Beej is a hit with kids of all ages...

Happy Birthday to Connor... Happy Birthday to You!!!

Some cuddle time with Pap

And trying out his new guitar with Daddy. Doesn't he look like a natural?

He also got a new water table for his birthday, but I thought it would be too cold for water so I prepared another rainbow surprise for him - colored rice. Easy to make and so much fun to play with!

Remember that rainbow balloon banner? Well it kept falling on Pap's head, so it found a new home on the floor. And became a surprisingly fun hideout.

Lucky Birthday Boy

St. Patrick's Day is definitely a lucky one for us - it will always be the anniversary of the day we first became parents, and of course Connor's very special day. It started a whole week of festivities for him. I have no idea how we will keep this up year to year! But for now we're enjoying it and so did the birthday boy. He requested a "rainbow rocket" theme for his birthday party, which is actually being held next weekend, so I started out his day with a surprise rainbow balloon banner.

And then the traditional birthday breakfast of green eggs and ham

And a St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt to find some gold (well, chocolate filled gold coins and some gum). Connor has been asking to try gum and I told him that he could when he was 4, so I followed through with that promise! There were 10 clues in the hunt and he read them all himself - he needed help with just a very few words here and there.

King for a day
And we finally convinced him to open his presents. He is not a kid who loves ripping into gifts. Its not uncommon for them to sit around the house unopened for days, but we couldn't wait for him to see what we got him. He read his card himself (so proud of him!)...
And his favorite gift? Kidz Bop 21 (a music CD) which he's been wanting for months.
He was so excited!
Happy birthday to our precious little man!
He requested a "strawberry shortcake cake" for his birthday and this was what I came up with. He got to decorate it himself and I have to say he did a much better job than I could have. We'll be sharing this with the family at his "family party" tomorrow.

Mixing up Sand Play

Last year, well after "sand season", I spied Crayola colored sand at a store and made a mental note to get some for Connor. Amazingly my brain held onto that little tidbit and when the unusually warm weather got me thinking about filling up his sand table, I went on a little quest for it locally. Luckily I found 2 different colors, which have now become a very pretty purple, but it was a lot of fun getting it all mixed together!

Sunshine and Smiles

I got to share a most gorgeous day yesterday with my more gorgeous little Jackson. He had his 4 month shots that morning (boo!), but he bounced right back from them without any problem at all. He really is the most mellow kid - always happy as long as he has interesting things to see or people to talk to him. Unless you're trying to make him nap, and well... he doesn't care for that idea so much.

I decided to set up a blanket outside to enjoy the day, and you can see who got there first

My precious, smiley boy

Among the many faces of Jackson, most of them are smiles

New Heights

It may not seem like a big deal, but the most important things are often those that don't seem special to anyone else. This is the "spiderweb" as we call it at a local park. At our last visit (late last Fall), Connor was still scared to climb this and we had to stand with him the whole time and help him climb. He is a cautious kid and doesn't like to do anything until he's confident that he can do it well. Well, we visited this weekend and he scrambled right up to the platform and yelled "Mommy and Daddy I'm not scared anymore!!!" We were so proud of him, but more importantly, he was proud of himself.

Snuggly Brotherly Love

People often ask me what Connor thinks of his little brother, and the answer is... yep, he loves him a lot!

Unseasonable Weather

Like much of the country, we have had a most unusual start to March and we've been doing what we can to take advantage of it. Today we had plans to meet friends at a local park and since we were there early we went for a walk/bike ride through some local marshlands. Connor took his balance bike and I pushed Jackson in the stroller. In all, it was probably a 2 mile trip and Connor was such a trooper through all of it. I think we all have a bit of Spring Fever!

Here's my independent kiddo speeding onto the boardwalk with his bike
Taking a break to feel the wind
and look for fish... or anything else that might be in there
... and of course admire this tree which Connor called "the biggest tree EVER!"
Spending some quiet time just checking out the tree