The Cake

So here it is...my birthday cake and my friends. A rocket cake with a sparkler in the shape of a number three - Cheryl brought that...so cool (a tiny bit scary, but mostly cool)!

Here is my rocket cake before all the sprinkles, my name, the sparkler, etc.

Birthday Traditions

Woo hoo! Mama introduced me to a most fabulous birthday tradition:
Licking the Beaters!!!

Mama made me a special chocolate cake from a recipe that Mama got from her mama, GranSmoky, who got it from her mama, my great Grandma Frances...chocolate waldorf cake!!! And I got to lick the beaters, the spatula/scraper, and even the bowl a little bit...YUM!!!

Check me out and laugh, laugh, laugh!

Mayo from Scratch

Here I am helping Mama to make some mayonaise from scratch. She was making a special dip for Thanksgiving dinner and ran out of mayo and didn't have time to go to the store, so we did it the old fashioned way...sort of...with the help of an electric mixer and some "backup" singers!

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Papa!

This goes out to you Papa!

Prepare Yourselves People!!!!

Mama says you should all sit down and prepare yourselves for complete and utter cuteness. All I was doing was singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" but I guess I never did the whole thing from beginning to end with all the hand movements, etc, before. I must've done it 5 times before Mama was even able to get out of her chair and get her camera...she was being very silly. And then, she finally got the camera out and still was all crying and laughing and stuff...she said I turned into a real 3 year old tonight (Thursday night 11/11) even though my birthday isn't until the 29th. She's such a silly Mama. She still just says, "Wow, wow, wow..." every time she watches the video. I like to watch it too...I like the way I do the song...I'm pretty entertaining to myself.

Happy Halloween!

So here I am in my Halloween Costume for 2010! I picked it out myself! Thanks to Grandma Shirley for helping me get it! Today and tonight is the big day! Trick or Treating! Last year all I could say was "Halloween!" This year, I've got it down! "Trick or Treat! and Happy Halloween!" Woo hoo!

(PS Check out Bongo in the background being our "chicken dog" and me crossing my eyes to see the rain on my fire helmet!)

Farm Life

Mama and I and a bunch of other mamas and their kids all got together a couple weeks ago to go to a local farm. We fed the animals, played on the hay bales, took a tractor ride and in general had a really good time! Papa was able to take the video and make it into this really nice presentation. Hope you all enjoy it!

First Day of Preschool

FINALLY!
Mama finally got around to posting this video from last Friday, my first day of Preschool at Northwest Center Kids. My teachers' names are Juliana and Shalla. Juliana is the one you will see in this video with me. She is very soft-spoken and gentle. Shalla is more spunky, Mama says. She likes the idea of these two women being my teachers. She thinks it's a really good mix.

Some of the kids in my class are named, Marin and Dylan and Ada and Henry. I'm at my 4th day of school today. (Monday there was an in-service day so I couldn't go that day.) Yesterday when Mama came to pick me up at school she said I was just radiating happiness and skipping and jumping down the hallway after a magnificent day at school. This morning I had a little bit of a hard time saying good bye. I really wanted Mama to sit down with me and the other kids and eat bran muffins and applesauce for breakfast. But Mama says that mommies and daddies really aren't allowed to stay and play all day with us. We said goodbye and Mama told me she loved me and promised to come back soon to get me after I had an awesome day playing and doing all kinds of really fun things.

Some of the fun things I've done so far, besides playing with all the fun toys you see in the video are:

• painting sea stars and adding sand and pine needles for texture
• going outside and riding bikes and finding worms and mud puddles in the garden
• singing songs and reading books together in circle
• playing with playdough and "sensory tubs" that have all sorts of fun things in them like sand and little construction trucks and stuff
• we looked at and then cooked pumpkins another day
• there also is a school fish tank that I like to sit and look at every day before we leave to go home
  

Mama says she can't wait to see me every day to hear what I've done and give me a big, gigantic hug and kiss...I'm usually too busy when she arrives to let her do any of those things right away, but eventually I get around to it.

Here I am discovering the kid-size pitcher of water and pouring a glass for Mama to drink.

Mama got a lot of pictures of my back because I kept running from activity to activity to see what else was in the classroom! I was very excited!

Here I am checking out one of the trains in the classroom. That's one of my new friends Dylan in the background.

My teacher Juliana is really nice and she pulled out this big box of train tracks for us to play with.

And then there were the trucks...

Soup or Sauce?

This is me just a couple days ago helping in the kitchen. I'm getting to be such a big boy these days. Mama and Papa tell me so all the time. I was making soup, but Mama kept trying to tell me it was something called Alfredo Sauce...oh well, she'll learn.

Very serious cook's assistant.

Wanna taste, Mama?

The head tilt and smirk...

...let's try again - head tilt and SMILE!

Mowing the Lawn...or not...

Mama took these photos back around the 1st of July...but she wanted to make sure you saw them. We got all ready to mow the lawn - mama made me put on long pants and then to be extra safe these swimming goggles, because we didn't have any other protective eye guards for me.
So I was all excited and ready to help Mama with the yard...and then we couldn't get the mower to start!

It was very frustrating...

I was so sad and disappointed...

...but then Mama thought of something else fun to do, while we waited for the lawn mower to "cooperate"...eventually it did, you'll be happy to know.

New Boat!

Hey check this out! This was this afternoon!

Back to the Present - Bongo the Seafarin' Dog

Mama and I took these photos just 5 or so minutes ago. She got us this cool inflatable boat with oars and everything (but we have no pump to fill it up yet) and also a super awesome orange life vest that just looks FABulous on Bongo...check it out!

Next Morning - Making Hot Chocolate

After a really fun first night, we got up the next morning and made hot CHOCOLATE...in the MORNING!

The chef bundled up and slavin' (haha) away at the camp stove.

The sous-chef giving cooking advice and trying to sample the recipe.

The camp cantina...me waiting patiently.

Woo hoo for HOT CHOCOLATE!

Camping Back in May - Moran State Park

This set is from our first day camping at Moran State Park on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands, just north and west of Seattle.

The park entrance on a beautiful Pacific Northwest Day!

Sitting down for "hamburgies" and avocado...YUM!

Sporting cousin Ezzie's hat and savoring delicious meat!

After dinner we went for a walk down by the lake.

There's water under my feet!!!

Picture of the "boat dock" where you can rent canoes, rowboats, and paddle boats (taken from the "fishing dock" that you'll see on the next picture).

This is the fishing dock where later in the week some nice dad let me borrow his daughter's little fishing rod and give fishing a try for the first time...liked it for a very short time...then got distracted

Packing to Camp - Back in May

So Mama & I have just realized that we have a LOT of pictures that you haven't seen from most of our summer. So we'll give you a few pics a day from different stuff we've done and maybe throw in a movie or two.

This is a movie day and the title says it all. Enjoy!
PS "Vacker" means vacuum.

My new buddy Graham

This is Graham...he's one of my best buddies. When we see each other it's like seeing the sun for the first time after a very long winter...it's amazing...Mama says so. She also says to ignore her commentary in the video and watch us boys...because we're really cute and she's just talking and talking and talking. There's more of me and Graham to come!

Photos By Kieran

So this probably isn't what everybody really wants to see, but I thought the series was pretty cute. Kieran took these of me at a little neighborhood street fair at the beginning of the month.





More amazing photos and video to come...promise they'll be of Kieran next time.

Pedaling My Bike

So this video is from yesterday, Friday, July 2. It was my 2nd day of REALLY riding my tricycle and pedaling all by myself! I was having a blast, but MAMA was going crazy she was so excited about it! She took a bunch of video and we hope you enjoy it.

Making Faces

We had the hand mirror out on the table the other morning during breakfast and I was checking out what I looked like when I chewed. I discovered it was fun to make a lot of other faces too. And then I was inspired to just be silly with Mama. Enjoy!

Ravioli and Motorcycles

So, I graduated from my "hanging high chair" to a booster chair tonight. I can get up into it and clip all the clips by my "self". Here I am eating ravioli for dinner tonight....you'll see what Mama means by "and Motorcycles".

First Picnic Table

On our way to a playdate at Greenlake yesterday we spotted this great kid's picnic table on the side of the road for FREE! Mama struggled a bit to get it into the car but I could hear her chanting, "if there's a will there's a way, if there's a will there's a way..."

And now we have it at home. Mama and I scrubbed it with sponges and soapy water and this morning we had our first breakfast "a la fresca"...it was really fun.

Mama was playing mamarazzi as usual and I was trying to tell her "no pictures, no pictures" but she did get this really short video and some photos. Hope you enjoy them!

Sneak Peak from our Camping Trip

Just got back from our camping trip a few hours ago, but we've got a crazy few weeks ahead of us. Wanted to post a few of the awesome pics of me at the playground on Orcas Island. Mama took these and said that I had to post them immediately, as they were so beautiful! We had an awesome time. Now we're doing laundry, taking showers, and lovin' on our pets whom we missed very much! Love to you all!