Trevor's Birthday Cake Tribute

Since Trevor's first birthday, Steve has been hand making all of his cakes. Completely home making, all decorations and frosting etc. It's all him. Every party, all the mom's of the kids at the party "oooh" and "ahh" and turn to me, and say "How did you do it?", and every time I point to Steve.... it's all him.

It all started because Steve has great memories of his mom making him home made cakes in various shapes as a kid. All kinds of cakes for him (rocket ships).....and just once he would have liked a store bought cake. By the time Steve's brother Tim (kid #3) came around, all he got was store bought cakes....and just once he would have loved home-made cake!! See parents, you can never win!!

Anyway....Steve decided to try it out for Trevor's first birthday, and a tradition has been born. At first Steve picked the theme....

Year 1: A Lego Block. An easy way to start, and a toy that Trevor was already very into. He still loves them!



Year 2: A bulldozer cake for Trevor (oh and Kate and I got to share it with him!). T was big into trucks, so the bulldozer was chosen.
The blade of the 'dozer is a cookie, formed around a oatmeal container to give it that curl shape. It's held on with toothpicks and twisty licorice. The tracks were made with string licorice (finding black is hard!).


Year 3: Marty from Madagascar. By now, Trevor had a major opinion on what the cake and party theme woulD be. He loved the movie Madagascar, always wanted to visit Marty at the zoo (yes, all zebra's are named Marty, didn't you know?). So a Marty cake and Madagascar party it was!
Marty's teeth are made from mint life-savers cut into quarters, and his eyes are blue jelly beans with little dots drawn on. I was downright IMPRESSED with this cake.... I think it's Steve's best. He has other favorites.....one he made for Blake (so you'll have to wait until December!).

This year's cake, will not be made until Trevor's party which is next weekend (after our trip) so stay tuned for it. Can you guess what the theme will be??

Jenga

I never would have pegged it as a kids game....but they had a BLAST today. Ironically, they prefer losing, as that means the great big tower crashes down on them. They don't want to lose right away, but it's a lot better to lose at this game than to lose at Candy Land!!

4th of July

Whew! What a weekend.... 2 parades, 2 sets of fireworks, 2 VERY tired little boys! We had a good time.

Trevor started off the festivities at camp making a hat and flag, and having his face painted.

Friday we went to the parade right here in our own town. Grandma and Aunt Kate joined us, but I forgot the camera. I'll add some of Grandma's photos later....she always has a camera on her, hence why she's called "the Paparazzi" by Trevor! The kids had a blast, filling their bags with candy, seeing all the fire trucks complete with sirens, and all the old tractors-very cool.

Later that night, Grandma and Aunt Kate joined us in the backyard for the local fireworks. Also quite exciting. While waiting for them to start, the boys played with glow sticks (a great cheap toy!), and caught lightening bugs in jars....reminding me fondly of my own childhood. The village fireworks were great, but 2 of the neighbors had their own to set off and they added a great second finale. After company went home and the kids to bed, Steve and I sat around the fire pit enjoying that and the neighbor's hard work!


Saturday we decided to head to the next town over's parade to watch with friends. Same firetrucks, tow trucks, and crazy cars made an appearance, but the boys were just as enthralled as the first time around. Not as much candy to be had, but that's fine...we've got more than enough to last us until Halloween!! Again, no photos!!

Saturday night we drove down to a work colleague of Steve's in the south suburbs (like 1.5 hours from here....still in Chicago-land!). Nice backyard barbecue, some sparklers, and more fireworks!!


Today....just a lazy Sunday at home... I watched the Cubs win (2 out of 3 baby...take that Cards fans!!), and I caught the end of Wimbeldon and saw Nadal beat Federer (finally!), and I saw some Olympic trials....geez I'm a couch potato!!! No pictures of that necessary!!

Hope you had a fun and happy 4th!!!

Random Photos

As I sit here downloading photos from the camera, I realize I have TONS of photos on there, never downloaded and posted as intended... OOPS!! Photos like:

Trevor on the SkyRide at Summer Fest last Monday.

The boys wearing their (FREE) race car helmets, also at Summer Fest. Once they put them on, I pushed the double jogger like a crazy lady (oh wait, I usually do that anyway....whew, now they're safe!)


Playing in Grandma's hammock (5/19)


Talking to Mam-gu (my mom) on the phone. (the goggles were a recent acquisition, and he wore them constantly for about 3 days!). (6/2)


Fishing in the flood in Grandma's backyard. Trevor later caught a tree! (6/20)


Strawberry picking (6/24)

I think that covers most of the oldies but goodies.... enjoy!

Parades

Conversation on the way home from our 2nd night of fireworks, after our 2nd day of parades.

Trevor(in a very authoritative tone): If they don't throw candy it's not a parade; if they do throw candy it's a parade.
Daddy: So what is it if it's not a parade?
Trevor (kinda sadly): It's just driving plain.

Ahhhh.... almost 4 year old genius at work. It's been a busy weekend, more tomorrow on all our holiday happenings! Happy 4th!

Bye Bye

We're changing into swim trunks to go out into the kiddie pool in the backyard. Blake is stepping into his trunks, and says, "Bye Bye Pe.n!s." (sorry for the code...gotta keep weirdos away!) Then looks at me, and says "It's hiding Mommy!". He runs down the stairs and out to the pool, yelling "bye bye.... it's hiding".

Just too funny not to post!

Camping

Another great camping trip! Yay! We headed up to Big Foot Beach State Park in Lake Geneva. Not far from home, but somewhere we've never been (it's so close, we'll go one day!), and somewhere not flooded!!

We got there Friday after work and dinner, and set up camp. The boys were thrilled. They had their own little tent (to play in, not sleep) and their little chairs, and had their own camp almost! Steve and I joked that they were like 2 little old men sitting by the barber shop watching the world go by. Ironically, they were watching the campsite of 7 college girls..... oh it starts already!?!?


Saturday we went 'hiking'. I use the quotes as it wasn't rough, tough, long, or anything. But it was fun and pretty. Usually I carry the backpack with Blake in it, when he doesn't want to walk, but apparently, Trevor is going to take over this job!!

Our park stop along the 'hike'.
Steve's turn carrying B.
One of my 'favorite' Midwest things. Live Bait in a vending machine!! I saw one of these outside the grocery store not long after moving in with Steve and wondered how much of a hill-billy I had become!
We spent forever reading this sign. The top says you must have a WI fishing license, or be under 16 or lived in WI since 1927. But the bottom says you can only fish if you are under 16, or disabled, between the second Saturday in March thru (but not including) the last Saturday in April! Geez....who can fish when?? It's way to confusing. I need a Venn diagram or an Excel spreadsheet to tell me for sure!!!
My 'artsy' photo moment
Blake enjoying his first S'more. After this, he preferred just straight marshmallows, nothing else!
Trevor having his first S'more. I'm not sure I can say enjoying, as he ate 1/3 of it and then gave it to me!
Trevor helping Daddy cooke apple pies with the new pie irons (thanks Kate!)
1 sleeping child....1 to go!
Blake decided to sleep in the backpack on Sunday's walk, rather than in the tent Saturday night! Ah, children!!!
A good trip, we all are home safe, clean, and tick-free (I knew you were worried!). Another trip to come soon, hopefully!!

Time to go Camping

4 hours until we leave..... yay! We're off to Lake Geneva (only 30 min away) to go camping. It's not far, but it's the first trip of the year - a late start due to all the rain - so we're just happy to be going. Lots of dirt and fun! And lots of photo's on Sunday! And a chance to get away from it all, should mean a much happier Tegan!

To Do List

Monday sucked, as it became obvious that day, that Project Baby would not succeed this month and needs to go on the 'to-do' list for July, which makes it 12 months that this project has been on the 'to-do' list. And yes, at this point, it feels like a 'to-do' and not a fun little enjoyable moment with my dh!

I thought I'd dealt somewhat with my crabby feelings that arose in response to this on Monday. In fact, I started contemplating the idea that I really only wanted two children. That I was happy with my two little boys (I am), and that our family was complete. I started thinking of the upsides.... almost done with diapers; don't need to get a bigger car that takes more gas (in fact could possibly get a smaller hybrid in fact!); we can go lots of fun places without a stroller; and I can sell all that baby stuff at a huge garage sale and buy something cool and turn the nursery into a playroom. Oh yeah, all my great plans, as a mom of 2 who is done having kids.

Except, apparently, that's not me.....

Today, as I sat at "Open Gym" (free play time in a gymnasium for kids under 5) - watching Blake not play, because Trevor was at camp - I counted. 8 women in the room, not counting me. 2 with newborns in Snugli's strapped to their chests, and 5 at some obvious stage of pregnancy. That left one woman and me... And all of a sudden, sitting there in a gymnasium full of people I didn't know, tears were running down my cheeks.

Tears mostly for the fact that, on top of all the things listed above, that I would have been 5 months pregnant right now, if not for a crappy miscarriage in March. The part of me that believes in fate, figures this happened for a good reason. But a lot of me, can't fathom what that 'good' reason might be.

So, the people in the gym looked away, not knowing what to say. And I wiped my tears, and went on with my day in a blur.... But I'm sad....

And I really don't know if I want to put Project Baby back on my 'to-do' list, because I hate all the stress that it creates. But I know I want to have 1 more, and I don't know what else to do.

Go! Cubs! Go!

I LOVE the Cubs! I'm really enjoying their current 14-game home win streak, their 32-8 home record, and their best-in-baseball 48-28!!! I know that the boys great-grandpa Jackpot is probably pretty excited too!!! We'd love to see this continue!

In honor of the CUBS fabulous record so far, and since we watch all the games we can, Trevor has learned the infamous (at least in Chicago) "Go Cubs Go" song, and loves to sing it with me, after the games. So here he is....of course, a little camera shy!!