Rock's Birthday

When we got back from vacation, we had no camera so I have no pictures from in between then and Rock's birthday on the 18th. My apologies. But I can assure you, nothing truly exciting happened.
So again, Rock's birthday began with the greatest thing. At least the greatest thing to him... a blueberry muffin. And candles. And singing Happy Birthday.

Then we came downstairs to where Fix and I had set up birthday banners the night before. Rock was fascinated.

Why? Because the banners were made up of little cards with various car symbols on them. Rock can identify most of the symbols so he sat there saying "Honda, Mercury, Ford, Chevy Corvette, Porsche..." until we reminded him about the whole muffin thing.

Oh so good. Now reader, see if you can identify the trend in the four opening-gifts-pictures that follow.

First Rock opened sheets (for his big boy bed whenever the carpenter finishes making it) from Juju. He didn't know what they were, but he liked that they had cars on them.

A cool card from Mommy and Daddy. It even had construction machine stickers!A superman shirt from Daddy (purchased on Fix's recent trip to Six Flags).

"New" puppets from Mommy and Daddy (thank you Cripe family!). Did you see the theme?

And a "new" puppet theater (again, thank you Cripe family!). After opening gifts, we got ready for the day, took a trip to Target (where the birthday boy got an Elmo coloring book and helped me pick out a shirt for his birthday party), and took a long afternoon nap.

That afternoon, Rock and Fix played a marathon game of "Trucks and Cars."

We ended the night at home where Rock got to watch a MOVIE. Okay so it wasn't really a movie, it was just the live performance of "Human" by the Killers (when they were on SNL). That is Rock's favorite song. The tongue is sticking out 'cause he's concentrating on his dance moves. Happy Birthday baby! We are so blessed to have you as our son!

More Beach Pics

This picture of Aunt Susi shows you three things 1) how cute she is 2) our awesome ocean front property view of the water and 3) a good example of the cloudy, windy weather we experienced for 6/8ths of the trip.

Even with the bad weather, we spent as much time as we could in the pool.

Three generations of Fix men.

The boys also took us outside to lead us around the neighborhood on a few walks. Rock helpfully pointed out the brand of each car we passed.

While Caleb found the other curbside attractions more interesting.

But again, we spent most of our time indoors and each of us spent it a little differently. Rock and Caleb gave us a few harmonica concerts (when they weren't fighting over cars).

Not only are they performers, they are also fans.

Papa John also spent his time performing. Puppets were his medium of choice.

While everyone else was performing, I spent most of my time sleeping and making a baby!

Heather listened in on a conference calls...

While Jason took self-portraits.

And then our camera lens broke AGAIN. Ugh. So you'll just have to guess how Kerry, Joseph and Elizabeth spent their time indoors.

Three Best Kids at the Beach

The weather on our beach trip was...a big bummer. That meant we spent a lot of time indoors. That meant all the kids spent a lot of time interacting and learning how to get along.

Caleb was... pretty good at sharing. But sometimes he was a little rough with Rock.

Rock was...a punk.

Baby Addy was by far the best behaved kid on our trip.

Happy 2nd Birthday Rock!

I'll pause in posting on our vacation to put up a quick HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY ROCK post. We started his big day (the 18th) with his favorite breakfast. Served to him in bed. With candles. And a parent-led rendition of the Happy Birthday song.

And if you think I'd actually let him eat that thing in bed, you are crazy. Can't believe my baby boy is TWO YEARS OLD! How the time flies!

Driving to the Beach

On our trip to the beach, Fix and I agreed that Rock is an excellent driving companion...

Armed with little more than his feet and a few cars, he kept himself entertained (or asleep) for most of the trip.

Linus Turns Two!

We were so excited to be invited to Linus's birthday party - even though Linus was a little apprehensive that Rock might try to steal his gifts. If you wanna see what I made him, click here.

After Linus opened gifts, we all gathered in the dining room, anxiously awaiting the cake.

It was worth the wait. Not only did Nancy make a cake with the birthday-boy-requested-blue-tractor -- it tasted yummy too!

She also made Lynn's favorite yummy dessert Lemon Ice Cream Pie for Lynn (who shares Linus's birthday) and all the other adults. Perhaps it is a good thing my camera is now broken as I seem to only take the worst shots with it -- Sorry that this is so blurry Lynn!

Although the day was all about Linus, my favorite moment is brought to you by Violet. She avoided the extra step of making individual 'bites' of cake to eat, stabbed her piece with her fork, and ate the thing icing end first. Good work girl.

Charging

I found Rock's phone in our phone holder/charger and thought that Fix had put him up to it. But apparently Rock did it all by himself. The batteries have been running low, but somehow I don't think this will provide the solution he's looking for.