Aiden is SIX!

It seems impossible that this little guy:


Is now this big kid:


Aiden turned SIX yesterday and has been anticipating his birthday for months. We had a small barbecue on Sunday with G&G Zafft, the neighbors, and our home teacher to celebrate.

And then for his actual birthday, Ian brought home a favorite "treat" from work: dry ice!




After the smoke show, we took him out to Smokey Bones--his favorite restaurant--where we let him open his last present (he opened his presents from both sets of grandparents and our lovely neighbors on Sunday evening). When he first pulled the MP3 player from the bag, he said, "My own phone?!?" Poor kid. He's got at least 8 more years to go before we would consider giving him a cell phone. But, when we explained it was for playing music, looking at pictures, and watching videos, he was just as excited.



He also got some new headphones that are specially designed to keep kids from blowing out their eardrums.


Then the cake came. I think that speaks for itself!




One of Aiden's favorite gifts this year was a Dream Lites penguin from G&G Zafft. It lights up and shines on the ceiling at night. It took a LOT of effort to track down and was a combined effort (with many thanks to Gramma Wrz) but he was thrilled! (He looks a little serious here because he's explaining to me how the lights work.)


But since coming home with his MP3 player, he's been listening to the soundtrack from Pete's Dragon (his gift from G&G Wrz) nonstop.

I think birthday #6 has been a hit! Stayed tuned for continuation of the celebration when we take the crew back to Six Flags next week!

Ian's Birthday Weekend

Ian's birthday was last weekend I asked his mother to make arrangements for us to stay at the Falmouth house that belongs to Ian's uncle's family (we were down there for Ian's father's birthday in July). Ian's parents and grandmother joined us and we had a lot of fun despite the cool weather. I forgot my camera so Cindy took some pictures and sent them my way.

Aiden helping his dad blow out the candles on his cake


Devin loved getting into new things at the Falmouth house but enjoyed many of his old activities from home. He's been enamored with towels and blankets for most of his life and likes to take hand towels off the oven door and drop them all over the house. Recently, he's been throwing the towels over his head and roaming all over until he either (A) runs into something or (B) the towels fall off his head. It's pretty funny to watch and Cindy managed to get a couple of shots.

Devin showing off some of his newest tricks...

Why? Where do you keep your trains?

Last night was a regular weekday night at our house. Ian was cleaning up in the kitchen. I was "working" on the computer. And Aiden was playing with his trains. Then Ian called me in to the kitchen to show me this:


(For those of you not up to date with your Thomas train names, in this picture are James, Skarloey, and Percy)

We have been slowly adding to Aiden's Thomas collection so he now has NINE trains (and some coal tenders) including two coaches. After he put a few of the engines in the cupboard, he pulled them all out for a little train parade.

(He has Spencer, too, but apparently he didn't make the cut for this picture)

Having fun on the floor...


And once Aiden noticed I was taking pictures, he wanted individual shots of each train. He takes pictures of them with his "toy" camera, too. Kind of strange but cute, too!

Here are just two of the train shots he wanted.



We've decided a trip to Edaville Railroad to see Thomas in person is definitely required this summer!

Party time!

October is a big month of birthdays on my side of the family and it's also a big month for our friends' birthdays as well. So we have been partying quite a bit recently.

Ian's 34th birthday was on the 3rd and we celebrated in a very reserved way by going to TGIFriday's for dinner and then going to bed by 10PM. We're total party animals. But the next morning I did get up and make Ian his favorite desert/breakfast food: Monkey Bread!



For those of you unfamiliar with Monkey Bread, it's a very complicated recipe that takes hours to prepare and bake. Here's the secret recipe:

• 2 cans refrigerator biscuits
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 tbsps cinnamon

Cut the biscuits into fourths, roll in the white sugar and cinnamon, put in a pan and drizzle the melted butter combined with brown sugar over the entire thing and bake until done.

See... Challenging!

We also celebrated the birthdays of our friends Bos, Roe and Logan all in one weekend. I forgot my camera at the joint party for Bos and Roe but made up for it by taking tons of pictures at Logan's party.

Aiden was very good at standing back during the unwrapping of presents at Logan's party on Sunday but couldn't resist "helping" Logan with a toy Aiden already owns.


He also had a great time with the balloons...


And continued to "help" Logan play with his new toys.


Thank goodness Logan seemed overwhelmed and wasn't bothered by all the assistance! We had fun but it was a party-heavy weekend!

Happy Birthday Aiden!

Our darling little baby turned TWO today so we celebrated with a cake and candles! G&G Zafft came over Sunday to bring Aiden a new tricycle he's in love with (see pictures here) and G&G Wrz sent a new animal sounds book and some new DVDs! Mom and Dad only got him a magnetic animals set for his church bag. Not as fun but isn't that the role of parents (not as fun as the grandparents)?

It's hard to believe that just two years ago he looked like this:

Today we went to the park and now our little baby looks like this:

We managed to get pictures of Aiden blowing out his candles as well as some video. He's actually very good at blowing out little flames and he knew exactly what to do as soon as he saw them. He was so good, in fact, that we had to re-light them to be able to document it!

Aiden blowing out his candles

Happy Birthday Ian

We love you!!!