EZ's Kickin Kung Fu Panda Party

So today was the much anticipated Kung Fu Panda birthday party. We decided to have a pool party since it's so frickin hot here and our friends the Krizins graciously let us have it at their pool. Their apartment has a sweet pool with a beach entry and some little fountains. It's perfect for kids. This was my first time planning a party and of course I wanted it to be all awesome and everyone to be so wowed by how cool my cake was and all that jazz and while it was awesome, I think I was aiming a little high there thinking I could wow people with my baking skills. I knew I wanted to do cupcakes in ice cream cones, because EZ has become obsessed with ice cream cones lately and it would mean less utensils and stuff to deal with at the party. So I searched online till I found some really cute panda cupcakes made using mini oreos for the ears and the black part of the eyes. So I bought all the stuff and decided to wait till this morning to make them. That was my first mistake, because of course I ended up running late and then the cupcakes took longer to bake then I expected and the batter kind of exploded all over the place while they were cooking, so I had quite a mess on my hands and no time to deal with it. Also I guess my kitchen got a little too hot with the oven on, because when I opened the icing it was like water. So we slapped icing on real quick and headed to the pool to finish decorating there. Well of course all the cupcakes fell over and then when I got there I realized I had no time to be fancy and that there was no way I was going to be able to fit 4 mini oreos on these little cupcakes. So I did the best I could and here is what we got:

Not exactly what I had in mind, but good enough. Also when we got there EZ was being his 3 year old self and refused to get in the pool with his friends and instead wanted to eat the cupcakes and all the chips. Which he did.

Finally, things calmed down and we had a really good time eating pizza and swimming. Here is a pic of some beach babes.

The Birthday Boy

EZ'z Buddies. It only took 3 attempts to get them all kind of looking at the camera.

EZ blowing out the candle. And yes we are that ghetto that I just held it for lack of a better place to put it.

Netta especially enjoyed the cupcakes. EZ left one sitting on a ledge, which she found and destroyed before anyone could stop her.

In the end, despite the hectic start, it was an awesome party and I think EZ and everyone had a blast. Thanks to the Krizins and everyone who came!

Happy Birthday EZ

EZ turned the big 0-3 today and I can hardly believe it. It's freaky to think about how much our lives have changed since he was born. When he was born John hadn't even started grad school yet and now here we are coming up on our year mark of living in Texas and John working for Dell. We had a coupon for Buca Di Beppo so we went there for lunch and then I remembered,
"hey it's EZ's birthday, maybe they will give him some cake" and sure enough they brought him out a humongous piece of cake and he got to blow out three large candles on a fancy candelabra. I wish I had had my camera. He was so excited. This weekend he will be having his much anticipated Kung Fu Panda pool party and he has already been enjoying his basketball hoop from Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Steve and his new play kitchen from his Grandpa Bob. The basketball hoop arrived while he was napping and when he came downstairs and saw it he just went crazy. Unfortunately I didn't capture that on film either, but here are some pics from the last three years to help us reminisce.

EZ at just 2 days old

His first birthday. Like Netta a little shy about diving into the cake.

At 2 years old playing at my elementary school when we lived in Pittsburgh for about a month before officially moving from Michigan to Texas.

Finally, about to turn 3 and sporting the sweet smurf mustache while visiting John's family in Utah.

Netta's Weight Loss Plan

Netta recently had her 12 month check up and she has only gained 2 oz from 9 months and she is still 6 oz lighter than she was at 6 months. She has also grown about 2 inches since last time and I had to wonder can she really have gotten taller and not gained any weight since 6 months? Then I started looking through old pictures and I realized yes, she was quite the fatty and has definitely thinned out.

Netta at 6 months

Netta with my sister Sarah at a year

So what is her weight loss secret you ask? Well the thinning out really started as we introduced more and more solid foods and less and less breast milk. Apparently my milk is really cream and obviously anyone can lose weight when switching from a cream only diet to a diet of whole grains, fruits and veggies.

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Casey

My sister Sarah and her husband Casey came to visit. They are both looking at graduate programs at University of Texas. Unfortunately, things didn't work for my sister Meghan, who was also looking UT for grad school, so let's pray things work out this time. I want some family down here. They got to spend two days meeting with professors and checking out campus, but then they also got the special treat of getting violently ill. We think EZ got Sarah sick, but then we have no idea what Casey got. Sorry about that guys. Once their stomachs had settled down a bit they also got to check out the awesome Deutschen Pfest in Pflugerville. I really wanted to check it out because there were pony rides and a petting zoo. Despite the look on his face in the following picture, EZ actually did enjoy riding the pony.

I love this next pic despite it's bad quality, because it highlights just how pasty white EZ is.

And finally, Netta and EZ both got to enjoy the petting zoo. Netta loves animals so much she later tried to squeeze the heck out of the bunny rabbit.

Chillin with the Brown Fam

My extended family stayed in Utah for about 5 days and then John and I decided that since we were already in Utah it only made since to extend the vacation and hang out with John's family. John is from a family of 11 kids and right now there are 34 grand kids and more on the way, so EZ was in heaven playing with his cousins. I felt guilty making him leave. We absolutely love living in Texas, but it is hard being so far from both sides of the family. I kind of forgot to get pictures of EZ with his cousins, but I did get some of EZ and Netta. It turns out John's dad has an aquarium literally right down the road from him. It was small, but it was cheap and the kids loved it. Here is a pic of EZ not quite understanding how to use a magnifying glass.

I didn't know if Netta would like the aquarium as much as EZ, but she was getting crazy excited about all the fish and the bright colors.

John's sister Misha had a birthday/cinco de mayo party at her Church and it was awesome. The kids got to play some of the traditional Brown family games, like frisbee dodge ball and EZ got to look like Hitler Smurf after enjoying some cupcakes with blue icing.

EZ was sad to leave and to top it off he got sick and had a fever for the flight home. Luck for John and I, the fever actually made him really lethargic and it didn't come with any vomiting or anything, so EZ was the best behaved he has ever been while traveling!

Netta's Early Birthday

We decided to celebrate Netta's birthday a little early since all the family was together. In fact today is actually Netta's birthday. I know the blog says this was posted on the 5th, but that is just when I uploaded the pictures and then I got lazy and viola today is the 9th and I am just finishing the post. We bought her cake in Utah and it had a little trouble making the drive so by the time we got to the cabin the princess had fallen over a bit. I like to think it looks like she is dancing.

One princess attacking another.

Being a princess Netta didn't want to get all dirty and cover herself in icing. That and I had kept the cake in the fridge for a couple of days and forgot to let it sit out before she ate it so the icing was pretty hard. Oops.

Here is Netta with my sister Rachel's daughter Elly and my Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy.

No birthday post would be complete with out a flashback shot, so here is a picture of Netta the day we brought her home from the hospital. What a cutie.

More Fun at the Cabin

The cabin we stayed at was pretty close to Jackson Hole so we went to check out all the touristy stuff. In the center of town there are there hug elk horn arches. Some people were pretty much making out underneath it and getting their picture taken so I guess that's the thing to do. We opted to take some pictures minus the making out. Here is a shot of the ladies.

Here is a closer shot of the guys.

When we got back we sang Happy Birthday to my mom and chowed down on some delicious cupcakes. They are from a place called The Sweet Tooth Fairy in Provo, and while they are to die for, don't ever do a big order there, because they messed up our order multiple times and never offered any kind of compensation. Not the smartest thing to do when someone is dropping $100 bucks on your cupcakes.

Four Wheelin' Fun

So I have kind of been on blog hiatus for over 2 weeks now. That's because we took a nice week and a half vacation to Utah to visit fam and then it took me about a week after getting back to be fully functioning. I had to be careful not to blog about the trip before hand because the main reason we went for was a surprise 50th birthday party for my mom. My sister Meghan was graduating from BYU and half the kids live there right now, so my dad flew everyone in for the shindig. We were able to use my brother-in-law Brad's family cabin in Wyoming for a little family reunion. The biggest surprise was that my dad flew my mom's dad and her brother and his wife in as well. They had never been to Utah and my mom had absolutely no idea they were coming so it was quite the surprise! One of the coolest things we got to do at the cabin was go four wheeling. Even my grandpa took one for a ride. What a stud.

I was a bit nervous so I made John drive me around for a bit.

Then I finally got up the nerve to drive by myself, but I made my brother Ben ride with me just in case. It's silly but, I blame my fear on the go cart accident I got in when I was like 12. For some reason driving a regular car doesn't bother me but this kind of stuff does. It was really fun though and I think I am over it now. It's about time.

EZ was not so thrilled about the idea of riding with John but we finally got him on and he kind of liked it, but really it was more for the picture than for his enjoyment.