birthday bash

Last night we celebrated the boys - ice cream style. My big plan was to have an "easy" year, and that became the joke as the party got bigger and more complicated. We normally just do a family birthday with both sides of our family and do a bbq and dessert, but that seemed like a lot for me this year so we decided to just do ice cream sundaes instead. But then I thought it might be fun to have a few of their friends, mostly from our small group, as Luke especially has made some good friendships that are becoming more significant for him and I wanted to have those people too. But when I told Luke that we were just going to have ice cream sundaes for dessert he said, "and cake too, right?!" uhhhh...but of course! And not to be left out, I thought I should also make gluten-free cake for myself and the couple of others who are gluten intolerant. So our small, easy party with one dessert turned out to be a party with about forty people, ice cream, tons of toppings, cake and cupcakes. And guess what? It was pretty easy :). Thankfully the weather was good, people brought their own lawn chairs, the kids were great, and the boys had a blast. And by 8:30pm everyone was gone. I think it was my favorite birthday party yet.

Now the boys have some new toys, some of which were even handmade, Luke got his painting easel which he was asking about for a long time, a cool desk that matches their room and a few other things. Now comes the task of purging some old toys...I have been trying to convey to them that we don't NEED so much stuff and that it's good to give things away too, so we'll see how that process goes.

Birthday boys, excited about gifts.

An amazing hand-made barn, made by the oh-so-talented Michelle.

Rainbow cake! I got this idea from this site. It was a hit, and really quite easy to do. Basically just a cake mix with a bit of extra stirring.Gluten-free cupcakes - I can't be left out :).After eating so much icing in the afternoon, Luke actually decided that he didn't want cake right away, just ice cream, and didn't even finish all his ice cream and in the end didn't try any of his cake! But seeing as he ate his weight in icing in the afternoon I don't feel so badly. He usually just eats the icing off of cakes and cupcakes anyway.

And now it's 10am and I'm still in my pyjamas as the boys have been content to play with new things. Birthdays are the best.

2 and 4, time to reflect

Tomorrow our little Sam turns 2. I have just spent the last month working on his one-year album and going through pictures from the last two years, from pregnancy, to newborn, to baby, to walking, to talking, to climbing, to potty mouthing, current day Sam. I love that kid. He is such a party and makes our lives just an amazing amount more fun because of his love for life and mischief. The latest funny Sam moment happened in the van on the way home from the lake. Luke and Samuel both love to sing in the van and were both singing off and on for a long time, when suddenly Sammy started singing, "Twinkle twinkle little butt!". Not even two and he is into butt humour, that kid cracks me up. Julio and I just burst out laughing, which of course just made him realize it was funny and he kept going. My current parenting challenge is disciplining with a straight face. And curbing my own "potty mouth", which really just consists of calling him a silly goose, or a monkey, or a turkey or whatever, but he will latch onto anything and take it to the nth degree. His favorite "insults" all end in "butt" or "head", usually "stinky butt" and "coocoo head" and often just "stinka" which he finds terribly amusing. Luke has never had to have the soap treatment done but Sammy has twice now, and when he says "bad" things right afterwards he usually says, "soap in mine mouth?" I've been trying to get him to say nice things after his apology, like "you're a nice brother" or "I love you" or something along those lines after insulting his brother, and today, on his own, after a stinky butt moment, he looked at me and said, "say good things?" For all his mischief he is also very lovable. We get lots of hugs and one day he just came up to me and say, "I hold your cheeks" and held my cheeks and gave me a big kiss on the lips. We often ask him now to "hold our cheeks" which he nearly always does, complete with sloppy kiss. It's awesome.

Luke is 4 on Wednesday and has really grown up this past year in so many ways. I feel like it is a rare day that I have truly tough times with him, mostly he is very willing to help and very eager to do "big boy things". The other day we were at the cottage and he was outside, helping my dad and Julio do work outside, wearing big work gloves and Sammy decided he wanted to go in for lunch so I asked Luke if he wanted to come in too, and he said, about an octave lower than usual, "no that's okay, I'll stay out here with the mans". That is him to a tee! He is always into being grown-up. On another occasion this summer I asked him if he wanted to pull weeds with me or play in his pool, and he got all excited and said, "Let's pull weeds!" I am also very impressed with how patient he is with Sammy - he is by no means perfect, but it takes many times of being pestered before Luke loses his cool with Sammy and he almost never retaliates physically which I find amazing. Sammy will sometimes get frustrated with him and start hitting him, or just gets excited and starts pounding him on the back for no reason, and often Luke will say, "That's okay mom, he can hit me".
I'd love to say more, but it's late and I need to get going, so stay tuned for a birthday post, coming soon!