Turning 2

From this...

to this...

and now this. How did my little one become 2 years old. This time has flown by and it seems like he is such a rush to grow up and be like his older brother and sisters. He is a firecracker. He constantly keeps us laughing because with the amount of energy this one has if he wasn't so darn cute I am not sure he would have made it :) He has started to have a vocabulary explosion. Right now as I type this he is in the background screaming, "My turn." He is trying to get someone to give him some fruit so he can practice juggling. See what I mean about keeping up with the older ones. I took my little guy for a walk today and he walked for 1 mile by himself, and yet he still wouldn't nap. 

He is a little sweetheart. He loves to climb into our bed in the morning and snuggle with us. In fact he gets angry if this ritual is skipped in the morning. He also loves to come up and give you these tight squeeze hugs. He also insists on getting a kiss from each family member before bed time at night.

He has a crazy humor and loves attention and to get people to laugh. When we go out in public he has to say hi to everyone he passes and he won't stop until they notice him and smile. He is totally curious about everything and loves to explore his world. He isn't timid and will go after things with tenacity until he has gotten what he wants. We can also tell that he is already really athletic. He has got amazing balance, is really fast and has amazing aim (as the people who sit behind us in church can attest to). 

Happy Birthday Little Guy

A fun tradition is starting where the older kids want to help me make the birthday cakes. This time Leo was the one who stepped forward and helped me make Huck's birthday race car track cake.

 Huck loves cars, so it was easy to carry the theme throughout his party.

 We had a kid's cake and adult cupcakes that were peanut butter and chocolate. 

 My parents were able to come down for the party. My mom recently had neck surgery so she had to wear her brace and we warned the kids about being gentle around her. Little Miss was very concerned that Huck would bite her since he has been doing that lately. Little Miss cornered Mimi from the beginning and told her to watch out because sometimes he bites. Mom thought she was talking about a neighborhood dog and asked her where he lived. Little Miss looked at her in surprise and pointed to Huck and says, "He lives right here."

 Papa made Huck his very own handmade truck. He loves it and calls it Papa's truck. 

 Huck was terrified of the candles on his cake. We are always telling him fire is hot so he wouldn't go anywhere near them to blow them out. 

A Crazy Snow Day

Last week we had another unexpected dusting of snow. This time it was on a school day so there was a 2 hour delay. To be honest the snow was pretty pathetic. It was cold and very wet, but the kids insisted in going out in it. 

 Before you freak out I swear this girl does have a hat. In fact she has multiple ones but she often refuses to wear them. I finally had to throw her in the house and insist that she change into dry clothing and wear her snow clothes or she couldn't go back out. 

 After playing in the snow we raced back in. It was Dr. Seuss's birthday week and the school was doing a special event for each day of the week. On this particular week it was crazy hair day. I think Leo looks like he could be in one of Dr. Seuss's books. 

Asian Celebration

I absolutely love Asian culture. Maybe it is because of their food, which I love. Perhaps it is because I had a Japanese pen pal for over a decade. Maybe it is because I really loved learning their history in school and once performed a kabuki play in school which I designed the entire set for. Regardless I love going to our annual Asian Celebration. Ken tolerates it and I made him help me drag the kids out.

My kids are fairly adventurous with their eating, although I would love to see them try even crazier things. Huck was hilarious how he would steal food off of his siblings plates. During dinner martial artists were performing on the stage. 

I love the Lion Dancers. Huck had a mixture of terror and fascination with them. 

The amazing part this time is the Lion Dancers showed the kids how they do their actions and tricks. 

A friend gave us this leash for Huck. This was our first time trying it and it worked great. 

In the crowds he couldn't run away from us and Ken thought it was funny to keep telling 

him he had a monkey on his back. 

Here is my "Yes I was there photograph". Ken didn't get a picture because every time

 I looked at him he looked bored out of his mind. If there isn't a fish nearby that needs to 

be caught Ken is usually bored. 

They asked for volunteers from the kids to try on the costumes and of course Little Miss ran up. 

All you can see of Little Miss is her pink glitter shoes she was the back end of the lion.

Once she had broken the ice her older sister and brother had their turns. 

She was even more delighted when they let her play the drums. 

Midge tried to coax up Huck, but all he wanted were the sticks to the drums.

Valentine's Party

I know I have been a horrible blogger this month, but things have been crazy. There have been many times that I have wanted the world to slow down so I can catch my breath for a minute, or hour, or maybe a few days. 

So here is my attempt at catching you up on a few things. First of all Midge said she wanted to have a Valentine's party she said this 6 weeks before Valentine's Day. At least it wasn't the day before right. I told her that was fine is she didn't go overboard. She told me if I supplied the sugar cookies she would take care of the rest. 

And she was exactly right. She took care of the guest list (a kid for every one of our kids, invitations, decorations, and recreation for the party goers). It was a really fun party and we managed to squeeze it all in before one of Leo's basketball games. 

Here we are making sugar cookies. Did you know that baking is much more successful when you don't wear pants. Apparently Huck thinks so, actually he thinks a lot of things are more fun without clothing, and thank goodness he has figured out how to undress himself so we can experience this more frequently. 

 What is it about kids always putting the cookie cutters in the middle of the dough? No matter how many times you tell them to go for the edges they have to place that first one right in the middle. 

 Eating our treasures. I had to freeze the rest so they didn't wipe me out before the big day. 

 Midge had a whole skit she had prepared for the event. 

 The happy decorators. 

 The kids played around with drizzling the frosting and got these pretty amazing cookies. 

 Midge had the whole house decorated. She free handed the cupid in the background and 

colored in the entire thing with black markers. 

On the big day I made heart shaped cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The kids were thrilled. 

 I swear Midge was there, but she didn't make it into the pictures. Probably because it was early morning and she didn't want to be in the pictures. It was a school morning so taking pictures wasn't my priority. The cards on the table were all homemade by Midge. 

Yes that is my 1 year old on the table. You say you don't allow your 1 year on the dinner table. Well in our house our  1 year old regularly gets on the table and does a little dance. We figure he will stop before he hits adolescence. Otherwise his dad will be having a little talk with him. As for now I try not to stress about these little things. Frankly if I tried to catch him and pull him down none of these photographs would have been taken, those rolls wouldn't have been made, and my dear sweet kiddos and my number 1 sweetie wouldn't know how much I care about all of them.