Netta's Birthday

So next in line for birthdays is Netta. She turned 4 on May 9th. Here party was later in the month, but of course we still wanted to do something for her on her birthday. Sarah came over and we started out with dinner at McDonald's. Obviously, that was Netta's choice. Once again I tackled a homemade dessert. My friend Abby had these frog cupcakes at her son's party and Netta loved them, so we decided to have them again. Of course, Netta quickly pointed out that Abby's were better because they had mini chocolate chips as part of the eyes and red licorice for the mouths, but hey they look like frogs and that was all I cared about. 

Here is King helping Netta open presents?

I love this picture because the story behind it is so Netta. Sarah called and said she was picking up Netta a present, but that she would also grab some candy, because every time Netta sees her she asks if Sarah has a treat for her. So Netta opens the Dora dress Sarah got her and is excited, but then she discovers the bag of gummy bears and just goes crazy. Here she is jumping for joy holding the candy bag. 

Here are the frogs again looking goofy with candles sticking out of their noses. 

I wanted a pic of Netta blowing out the candles and of course EZ decided to clap for her right as I was taking it. 

Happy Birthday Netta!

King's Birthday

I am not one for making cakes for my kids. In fact I have not attempted any kind of cake/cupcakes in 3 years. However, this year I decided I would give it a go again. One: to save money since all these May birthdays are bankrupting us and two: to try and see if I could really do it and be happy with the end result. King is obsessed with the show Team Umizoomi and when I saw a tutorial on how to do a pretty easy looking Bot cake I had to give it a try. Amazingly, it was relatively easy and I am was impressed with myself and how it turned out. I know others could do better, but trust me this is amazing coming from me. 

Since King was turning 2 we decided to keep the celebration pretty simple. We had just my sister Sarah and her husband Casey and 2 other friends over for dinner. Of course we had King's favorite pizza. I need to get a picture next time, but he insists on holding his pizza upside down now matter how you hand it to him. 

I am glad we kept it simple, because King didn't really understand what was going on and at first we couldn't get him to sit down and open his presents. He just wanted to run around and play. So here is Netta opening his first present. 

Finally, we were able to get him to sit down and focus and he went nuts when he saw this Dinosaur Train toy from Sarah. He looks angry because he was really mad that he couldn't get it out of the package. (I also really like the Christmas bag we used to wrap one of the gifts. We are really classy at the Brown house).

Here he is showing off his new dinosaur. He was obsessed with it, but unfortunately he managed to hide it someone that night and we have still yet to find it. 

I wanted to cute picture of him with his cake, but that just didn't happen. Of course I made the mistake again of telling him to look at my nose and he shoved his finger up his. 

Happy Birthday King!

Easter Festivities

As with just about every other holiday, Easter meant lots of different activities. We got to go to 2 egg hunts and of course we hid baskets at home. The first hunt was put on by Netta's preschool. There were a frickin ton of eggs and the kids made out like bandits. Here is Netta with her stash. 

 Here is EZ with his stash doing his goofy smile that he for some reason insists on doing in front of the camera even though he never actually looks like that. 

You may have to click on the picture to see it, but I love this one, because King has clearly already been inhaling his chocolate. 

 I couldn't help but include this one. Between Netta's tongue, King's face and EZ looking like he has to pee, it was just too good not to share. 

 Here is an attempt at a family shot. We really need some professional help. 

The next hunt was put on by our Church, but alas those pictures are on my phone and I am so behind on blogging that I don't have time to mess around with them. So suffice it to say that the kids had a lot of fun. We also dyed eggs, but I don't even know if we took pictures. They are either on John's phone or we didn't get any because we spent the whole time trying to keep King from dumping dye all over. Anyway, on Easter we of course hid baskets for the kids. Growing up we didn't get toys in our basket and I never thought I would give them to my kids, but I keep finding these awesome bargains and I don't want to just give my kids toys all the time so I have to save them for holidays. That being said, they each only get one so I haven't gone too crazy. 

Of course Easter Sunday means wearing your Easter best, which is not super fancy at our house, especially since King had a fever and spent all day in his jammies. But, I think everyone looked cute anyway. 

 So this might not be the greatest group shot of the kids, but at least they look like they really like each other. 

Finally, we have a new Easter tradition that does not exist where I grew up. They sell these confetti filled eggs here that you can supposedly hit each other with and they crack. Unfortunately, I slammed Netta in the head with one that did not crack and kind of hurt her, but once we got past that everyone had a lot of fun. 

EZ's First Basketball Season

Full disclosure: this picture was actually taken over a month after basketball ended. We got video of one of his games, but somehow we kind of flaked out on getting pictures. Also the season ended before my sister had her baby, which was the last post. Oops.

Anyway, after soccer EZ wanted to give basketball a try. John was particularly excited, because he is more into basketball and could help kind of coach EZ at home and give him some tips. Well, the season was a bit rocky. It started out looking good and then kind of just went up and down throughout the season. One game he would be really focused and the next he would be in la la land the whole time. Poor John, I think it drove him a bit crazy, but EZ still talks about how much he loves basketball and how we he wants to keep practicing to get better. Of course again, like in soccer, this was EZ's first season, but a lot of the other kids had clearly played before and that didn't make EZ look any better. And of course he was one of the biggest kids, which makes him look like he should be better. Someday his height will be an advantage, but right now I think it was working against him a bit. Luckily, his coach did a good job of making sure every kid got to have the ball and finally during the 7th game EZ scored a basket!! It took some time to get there, but it was so exciting when he finally did that I nearly fell out of the bleachers. EZ may not be the best, but he definitely enjoys basketball and I see more of it in his future. 

Meeting Lincoln

On March 8th my sister Sarah gave birth to their first baby, a boy named Lincoln. I have been so so so excited to meet this baby, especially since the gender was a surprise. I was also excited to be living close to her when she had him. Sarah's water broke while she was at work and she had to go straight to the hospital. They only have one car so I got to pick up Casey and take him over. It was exciting to be a little part of the action. I also love getting to spend so much time with a newborn and then pass it off to it's mommy for feeding! The kids were of course super stoked. They love the fact that they now have 2 cousins named Lincoln. Now EZ keeps insisting that we name our baby after one of the cousins, but that's not going to happen. Of course we had to visit Sarah at the hospital. I love this pic of Netta and Lincoln.



This picture kind of freaks me out. A preview of things to come in August.

These last 2 pictures I love, because EZ is so focused on the baby and pretty much refuses to take his eyes off of him.

Lincoln is so cute I can hardly stand it. Casey graduates from UT in May and all I can say is they better stay in Texas, because they can not take this baby away from me!