Eli's Second Birthday Party

GUESS WHO TURNED TWO???

Happy Birthday to our sweet Eli! I love how head strong and determined this little guy is. He is SO loving at times, but wow is he strong willed. I love it! Just like his Momma! He turned two on the 30th, but we had his party the 24th. We did a bubbles theme with bubble machines and lots of bubble toys. It was a hit! It rained the night before, and finally cleared a little about 1 hour before the party was to start. I was sweating it! We kept it small and simple this year, because I honestly didn't have time to plan anything elaborate after we got through Tessa's surgery. I'll make it up to him next year.

Here he is evaluating the bubble machine:

Mrs. Gen and Hank
Best buddy Aidan. (Our neighbor)
Best buddy Marley. (This is the kids babysitter Mar-Mar)...She is part of the family that's our fabulous Charlotte family! (AKA neighbors across the street).
Eric's sister Lindsay, her husband Brian, and their two girls Lacey and Nora, were able to come to the party! We were so excited!!! They live in NY, and had been in Atlanta the week before. They changed their plans a little to come party with Eli, and meet Miss Tessa.

And this is why cousin Lacey had to change clothes before getting in the car to drive to Buffalo:-) The bubble machine was a hit.

Grandpa with Mrs. Anna and Mr. Bob. They are the kid's third set of grandparents, who live across the street. They are our Charlotte family!
Why does it appear Eli is eating the bubbles, and Drake is laughing?
Reese came to play!
Eric and Aunt Lindsay. (Yes, they look like twins; they're not. Eric is around 7 years older.)
Nora had to show her Daddy some of the bubble toys.

Sweet Anna came to play.

Who knows what Eli wanted here...
Our beautiful niece Nora.

Daddy to the rescue...the sandbox needed a refill.

Tessa has the cutest birthday party bow EVER!
Uncle Brian was giving Nora some smooches.
He wanted to get to those cupcakes!
Daddy lit the candles for us.

Blowing out his two candles. (There were three, until we remembered he was in fact, only turning two!)
Our sweet boy's cake!
These two were pretty pumped about the cupcakes, cake, and ice-cream.

Drake loves to walk the dogs.
Love my girl in her shirt, eating a pop-pop!
Happy kiddos!
A little bit of blue sky peeked out at us.
It started to rain as soon as we got to the park. There is a big umbrella we sat under, and I got this cool shot of the rain coming down.

Eli's First Haircut

This beautiful boy just had his first haircut about a month ago. He has since had it cut shorter so it stands up a little better. You'll see what I mean if I ever get to blogging Charleston.

Pre-cut:

The back pre-cut:
Big sister supervised.
And big brother refused to get his cut.
Eli wasn't too happy about it at first.
But then, they busted out the lollipops.
He had a taste...
And all was well!

Cell Phone Photo Dump

Here a wide variety of photos from the last 3-4 months.

Out with friends in March. I survived 27 months of grad school with these girls!

These two (Eli and Tessa) are finally getting along better. They were fighting a LOT! They had ice cream sandwiches a few weeks ago, and when I peaked down below the deck, they were sitting together like this. Too sweet!!!
One day when I was picking up the kids from preschool, this is what I found in Drake's room. It's so cute to see him being such a big boy in circle time. Makes me realize how fast he's growing!

Tessa being her sassy self.
Our sweet little Eli. His eyes and smile light up my heart.
Here is one of Drake's Valentine's crafts from school. The idea was to glue the candy hearts on the paper. My future engineer/architect built parallel towers instead. Little genius!
Three amigos watching funny youtube videos together.
It isn't often Eli still seems like a baby. I love this picture, because all you can see are sweet chubby cheeks as he rubs his tired eyes. LOVE!
Big girl likes to help wash dishes.

Between us going to China, and not seeing him for five days after Tessa's surgery, Drake is crazy attached to me. We went to a monster truck show for some Mommy & Drake time. He loved it, I hated it. But I'm sure we'll go back.

We had our first trip to the pediatric urgent care center, but didn't need stitches.
Even though it looked bad!
Drake's three year well check.
"The princess and the power tool".
That's it! I still need to blog Eli's first haircut, his birthday, and our Spring Break fun!