Little lady

Greer had her one year photos taken by Cristi at Lemon Tree Photography. She did a fantastic job as always!

Today is the day!

We celebrated on Saturday, but Miss G's actual first birthday is today!

She's in full-on toddler mode, walking around, talking, laughing, playing with a big smile and infectious laugh.

What a wonderful, fun year it has been! She brings us so much joy everyday!

Happy Birthday, Greer!

Yo shorty, it's your birthday!

We celebrated G's birthday yesterday with a small party. Because it will most likely be the only time I get to decide the theme, I went with a preppy, pink and green feel. I had lots of fun planning it, and everyone had a good time!







Yikes...still can't believe she's a year old!







Food...







Plates...







Cake!







Closer view of cake! A preppy party needs a certain logoed alligator on it!







Drinks!







Pink lemonade for the kids...







...Lime margaritas for the big kids!







Trying out her new playhouse











It seems to taste good...let's take a closer look







Digging in...







Oh yeah!







Loving it!







More presents and playtime...











What's that you say? I have black frosting snot dripping from my nose?







Proud big brother (he enjoyed the playhouse too!)

Somebunnies

Happy Easter!

Like a boss...

Carrying large objects...


Playing with balloons...


Sleeping in her highchair...


Playing in the yard!

Foam Carpentry

I can't believe I'm typing this, but my son and I did a CRAFT project this afternoon! We put together this little "fun foam" house for Easter.



Working hard...



Check it out!




Oh, and this one is starting to take after Mom and her purses...

Alexanderland

Every kid should have his own little place, a kid castle, if you will. This past weekend, Alex and Dad got his treehouse spruced up for the spring.



First we got the swings and bars set up...



Then Dad rigged up a rain gauge so I could see how much rain we get...



We put up my Jolly Roger flag...but there is more inside!



I can check the temperature on a hot day...



Flip on my lights when it starts to get dark and I still want to play for a little longer...



Keep an eye out for Chip in his yard with my telescope...



Check out what's going on in our yard with my periscope



And have storage for my swords and spears...

Eleven Months

Sigh...can't believe it, but this little lady turned 11 months old yesterday! We are rapidly coming up on a year! In the last week, she has made the transition to walking, leaving crawling behind.

She is a happy, healthy baby, who loves to watch her big brother, yet isn't afraid to verbalize when he gets a little too grabby with her. She wakes up every morning with a big smile on her face and is ready to go!

She brings us so much joy, our cheery little Greery!

Parent Traps and St. Paddy's Day

This is a three-part post, because I have a lot of photos from yesterday. This is from the parade, which I'll talk about later.

Do you know what this is? It's a leprechaun trap. It's meant to lure one of the wee folk to catch him (or her, but I think leprechauns are exclusively male?), so you can find out where his pot of gold is. I got the idea from Not Martha's blog, she has a beautiful example, and while I didn't follow her directions exactly, I still ended up with a pretty cool cake.  I think it should more accurately be called a "parent trap", because the beauty of it lures parents into creating a fun project for the kids. You get sucked in and look up and it's two hours later!
Here is the cake trap without any stuff on it. An angel food cake pan is used, because the hole will trap the leprechaun.

I placed a graham cracker across the top, to hold up the lure, which was the shiny necklace Alex wanted to use. We then placed another graham cracker to act as a ramp for the imp to climb up and get the loot. We went to bed that evening convinced that we would find a grumpy little leprechaun the next morning.

Alas, this was what we found when we woke up and came downstairs...

Apparently, leprechauns love cake almost as much as gold, because the little bugger ate his way right out of the cake. But on the plus side, in his rush to escape, he left Alex's necklace. And a taunting little note....but again, Lucky liked the cake, so I'm not too offended.

He left us a wonderful surprise when we cut the cake - a rainbow!



Rainbow cake for breakfast! Who needs a leprechaun?
Oh yeah, and he left one other surprise for us on his way out...

Later that day...
Sunny skies and beautiful weather meant a great day for a parade! We went downtown to see the Des Moines St. Patrick's Day Parade. We got a perfect spot near the beginning, and ran into my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Gary. My sister and her family joined us, and we had a blast! Alex loved it and Greer just took it all in.

Excited for the parade to start...

Picture-perfect day for a parade...
Got my green on...
Greer is not impressed...

Getting some goodies...

Kids waiting behind the line for candy...

Part of the town of Melrose's entry. This southeastern Iowa town calls itself the "Little Ireland" of Iowa and they had quite a display. They had a guy in a retro ice cream cart chucking freezer pops at the crowd, fire trucks, a group playing Irish folk music, and just tons of energetic people bringing lots of Irish cheer! I don't know who won for the best entry, but I hope it was them!
One more shot of the parade in full force...

Even later that day...
A post-parade feast of corned beef and cabbage was in order at Grandma's house, some drinking of the Coors Light and Guiness Black Lager, a quick nap (for the baby, of course), and then it was time for the big kids to have a little fun...

A Green Russian - very, very tasty.

It's not St. Paddy's Day unless you do an Irish car bomb....BOOM!

Old people can still show the young'uns how it's done...OK, not really, but we like to think we can?
Happy St. Patrick's Day!