Project 52 {27}

My favorite thing about you is:

Your thankful heart.

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I'm thankful for lots of things.  Top of my list is my family.  One of the smaller things?  That Kale can write his name.  I believe that when kids have birthdays they write thank you notes... it's not some new parenting theory, in fact, I'd wager that most of my friends have their kids do the same thing.  I believe that if they're loved enough to receive a present, then they should have some part in the thank you.  We have a thank you note progression around these parts:  Birthdays one through three, I'll write the note, they must provide some kind of artwork.  On their fourth birthday they need to sign their name.  Five, it's time to write the note yourself - I'll write it first, they copy the letters (very simple: Dear Blah Blah, Thank you for the Blah, I love it.  Love, Haley), this stage was pulling teeth; we did only about three at a time - makes me wish we'd only had 6 people to the party.  We're still working the system out, but the first five years I've got down.  Year six I'm hoping that I can give her a list of adjectives and she can just figure it out.  Another thing I'm thankful for?  They don't whine about this process (dude, knock on some wood for me).  They seem to enjoy writing the notes.  With Kale, I started with just five of them.  Usually getting this kid to sit down with a writing utensil for any period of time can get a little painful on my part - can't he just knock them off the table onto a pile of markers and hope something rubs off? Then for the next few I asked if he wanted to do this one for a specific friend - he was so excited that we got through all 15 of them in one sitting.  Thank goodness.  Now it's up to me to address them and (ugh!) hunt down some stamps.  Remember the days when your mom had a whole book of them in her purse all the time because that's how you paid bills?  Barely.  I do remember that one of my bridesmaid's parents gave us a roll of stamps as a wedding present - awesome!  I didn't have to hunt any down for thank you cards.

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful .  

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.

Birthday Party and Easter Day

So it was a busy weekend for us at the Roberson Homestead. Saturday was Hailey Madison's birthday. Hailey is Haley's same name friend from way back when Crystal and I were pregnant. They're BFF's whether they like each other or not, the or not doesn't seem to be a problem. Anyway, Hailey Madison turned three this week and we got to go celebrate. Crystal planned a bunch of really fun games for the kids to play and they all had a ball (then went down stairs in a sugar rush and tore up the playroom in the basement... good times).

This is Kale with our friend Owen. Poor Owen drew the short straw and got Kale for his partner, and he was such a good sport about the whole thing, just put his arm around him and was so patient and helpful. They didn't really move very far from this spot for the race, but everyone got a prize.

Haley and Hailey waiting for the go sign... I think Hailey is talking some trash here and our Haley is backing her up. They did pretty well, but it's hard to beat a couple of 5 year old boys.

Speaking of trash talking, Kale may not have enough words to tell Haley to "Bring It!" but I think his expression says it all.

The party was a blast and my kids came home and crashed for bed. Crystal was a fantastic hostess (as always) and it was great to see everyone.

So on my way to bed Saturday night I realized that I had forgotten my camera at Crystal's so I sent her a text at 11:30 and was on my way to her house at about 7:00 in the morning to pick it up before the kids went downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny had brought.

Kale was super excited about his truck load of Easter stuff. That scratch on his face? Yeah he wouldn't share one Mega Block with his sister (we have about 500 of them), so she took four fingers and scratched him right down his cheek, that's the one that really stuck. I think we mentioned this in the post before this and the phone call to the Easter Bunny that ensued.

As you can see, we really followed through with that whole "just bring a basket for Kale" thing. She was excited about the stuff in her basket too, but when she saw the pretty dress that he brought her, she about lost it, jumping up and down and couldn't wait to put it on (Mean Mom made her wait till after she ate her breakfast).

After Easter baskets, we all got dressed up in our Sunday best and headed off for Easter Sunday services at church. It was a nice service and a great reminder of the reason for the special day. After that we ran home and got some things and headed off to our friends Ashley, Tim and Addison's house. Now here's an Easter rabbit trail for you: Ashley and Jeff went to school at The Academy and had a bunch of classes together, then were both stationed out at Vandenberg after school, and then went our separate paths. Fast forward a few years and I'm out at the pool at our gym and this girl asks me if I'm Jeff Roberson's wife, "why yes, I am... why?" Ashley re-introduces herself to me and we end up being workout buddies training for the triathlon together and now we spend pretty much 5 days a week at the gym accountable to each other. We're currently training for our half marathons together. She's a great motivator and most of all a great friend. But I digress, Ashley and Tim had us and some other friends over for a delicious Easter Brunch, and Easter Egg Hunt in their back yard. There were some rumors about them hiding champagne in the bushes for the adults (me) to find, but it turned out to be just talk. Boo.

Haley and Addison hanging out on the couch talking (like their mom's do) and reading books. They were such girls and so adorable.

Hey look! A family picture!! We're all dressed up and it's actually documented... a regular Easter Miracle!

Haley outside in her Easter dress. She also had little white gloves that matched, but they made it kind of hard to play. She's also wearing the necklace that she got from her God Parents at her baptism for the first time. She loved having her diamond necklace on (like Mommy)!

The Dude-A-Man modeling his Easter clothes for us. He kept looking at me and saying cheese, but I wasn't fast enough on the trigger.

Dad and Dude playing in a backyard with grass... they do exist! Hopefully we'll have ours by the end of next month!

Haley doing her best at the Easter Egg Hunt. She picked up a ton of eggs, including the ones that "fell" out of Kale's dump truck.

Kale pretty much just enjoyed following the other kids around and watching them pick up eggs, but he finally got the hang of it, then he would "dump" his truck when it got full (because that's what you do when a truck gets full... duh)!

Showing me his egg that he picked up, he really did have a fun time.

Haley, looking around suspiciously at the other kids while she loads up her basket. When the hunt was over she was only a couple of moments away from being that kid that takes eggs out of other kids baskets. We stopped in the nick of time.

So that was our weekend, busy but so great and full of nice family time. I think Easter is officially my favorite holiday, I went to bed Sunday night and could only think that it had been such a fun day.

Kale's 1st Birthday!

This year we were on the road home to Seattle for Kale's actual first birthday so we celebrated it a day later up at Grandma Linda's house on the Party Deck! It was a great day, except for the weather and everyone had a really fun time watching Kale attack his cake.

We ordered one of these for Haley's first birthday so it was only natural that we'd get one for Kale. The lady on the phone was all "WHAT is his name? How do you spell that?" and I'm all "Kale, K-A-L-E, like the lettuce"

The birthday man rockin' the hat like it's his job, but on your first birthday, it pretty much is.

The Party Deck, mind you this is only about a quarter of it. You really can't grasp how big this thing is through pictures. It was perfect! Grandma Linda really should rent this thing out and hold events at her house.

The 1st Birthday Throne. Clean, waiting and ready to be destroyed by cake!

The Dude-a-Man and his real cake. The Albertson's in Auburn totally jacked this thing up - they did it up to match his napkin, then found my totally awesome picture in the envelope. Rather than scraping the frosting up the just laid the picture over the bright green frosting. By the time I went to pick it up the frosting had bled through the picture. They had to re-print and re-lay the picture so there ended up being 2 layers of that nasty edible picture stuff there - oh well, we just scraped it off ourselves and you'd never know to look at the pictures.

His first handfuls into the cake. We thought this is what we would get with Haley (I don't know why, she's such a bird when it comes to eating - maybe we were hoping).

This kid dove in by the fistfuls! He loved it (although it's not like he's ever met a food he didn't like)! I think his first experience with birthday cake is exactly what every kid should do and look like. Perfection!

You'll notice in the top left side of this picture, there is just one small piece of cake - he wasn't about to let anything his the floor! It was just that spotless when we finished. I think he may have dropped that for my benefit - I had just got the camera to take a picture of the spotless mat.

It wasn't long after the cake infused eye rubbing that we decided to cut him off. Something about having cake in your eye makes you cranky I guess. Either that or the sugar shock had finally set in. He might be my son, but he's got some tolerance building to do when it comes to sugar (or more importantly chocolate).

The official video of Kale's first dive into cake. Beware, it's a 10 minute flick. I don't really know why I included this - all of our family (the only people that I believe would actually want to see a 10 minute video of my kid eating cake) were there. However near the beginning there is a description/discussion of the most delicious bacon I've ever made or ate (it's like bacon flavored candy).

The aftermath - good thing Grandma Linda has a bathroom at her party site - we needed it big time. This kid was a MESS!

The handsomest guy to ever rock a Mohawk (don't know what his face is about, but I love it).

Now it's on to present opening! We had so many people show up to celebrate with us (especially considering we did this on Father's Day) that we were just in awe. Oh, and we opened presents for like 45 minutes - Good Lord!

I think this is the coolest backpack! It has a dinosaur face on the back and he looks so stinkin' cute carrying it around! It's become his new diaper bag for now and as much as I want him to stay my little boy - I can't wait for him to wear it off to preschool!

Grandma and Papa got him this sweet ride, so now he can quit hanging out on his sisters pink and purple one!

And this is the ride home. We didn't make it down Grandma Linda's driveway before he was OUT cold. Can't say I blame the guy, we were all pretty tired. Oh, and we went to the doc the next day only to find out the poor little man had an ear infection the whole time (you'd never have known by his behavior though, such a trooper). Thank you so much to everyone who came, it really was a special day.

My baby is 2! My how time flies!

Yup, it's official, we've had all the parties required for Haley to be called a 2 year old! It's amazing to me how far she's come in these two years. I remember back to when she was so tiny and brand new; when we had to use our own brand new parental intuition to find out what she needed and now only two short years later she walks, talks (a lot) and has so much individuality and personality. She's such a neat little person in the making.

Here are some pictures from her 2nd birthday. We took a walk through Party City and she decided she wanted an "Abby Dabby!" (or Abby Cadabby as most people know her) birthday.

Presents were definitely a highlight for her, but can you blame her, between Christmas and her birthday she really only gets one time a year to open presents.

Books, one of her most favorite things in the world.

Dress up clothes, another one of her most favorite things in the world. I don't know who liked it more in this picture - Haley or Daddy!

We sang her Happy Birthday on her actual birthday and when we lit the candles she freaked out. On her first birthday we lit the cupcake and put it down in front of her and she reached for the flame, burning her hand so it's no wonder she was afraid of it. Never the less here we are a year later. So we practiced for a week and when we lit the candles, we made it to "Happy birthday to you" before she blew them out. We lit them again while we all kept singing and she blew them out again. I guess that since it was her 2nd birthday, she figured she got to blow them out twice. She had a ball!

Playing with her most favorite toy from the party - her baby tubby. She carries that around with all of her supplies and her baby dolls and gives them baths.

Her birthday present from Daddy and Mommy - a roller coaster in her living room (can't wait for summertime when we have a back yard to put it in).

Here are some other highlights from the past week of my growing 2 year old.

Her chocolate face from the chocolate covered Leibniz cracker that she got as a snack the other day.

Dressed up in her dress up clothes from Uncle Sonny and Auntie Krystal. I think the look on her face is part of "Cheese" for the camera. Hindsight 20/20, I wish I'd never taught her to say that - we never get a natural smile out of her anymore. We're on our way to Sears tonight for their pictures and we've been working on "Show me a pretty smile" in the mirror.

Her play date with Hailey Madison - her partner in dress-up crime. They're sitting down to snack at her new table from Grandma.