Birthday Week

We celebrated Ty's third birthday party this past week and it definitely was a week of festivities. The week started of with the arrival of Grandma.  Grandma and I immediately went out to purchase timbits for cheater cake pops.  Grandma also purchased Ty a donut while at Tim Horton's.  Grandma did not purchase Kylie donuts when Kylie was little.

Marc and I started work on the cake pops for the party.  I must admit I was a little skeptical of Marc's double dipped white chocolate and dark chocolate cake pops but they were delicious!

Ty had his church friends over to celebrate his birthday and they demolished the first round of cake pops.

On Saturday Ty had some other little friends over to celebrate again.  Marc and I did a monster truck cake this year.  I have kept the green theme going, since Ty's birthday is on St. Paddy's.  We will see how long this tradition lasts. :)

Starting out:

Marc is the cake assembler and I am the cake icer.  We work well as a team. 

2013 Cake:

2012 and 2011

What better way to wait for your guests to arrive than with a basket ride with Grandma.
The Spread:

Me and my boys.  I can't believe Ty is 3 and Zeke is almost 1!!!

For the record, 3 year old parties are a little crazy.  Especially the present opening.  Hands, tissue paper and chaos everywhere.  ;) Ty loved it all!  As soon as the party was over, he asked for his birthday party again. 

The two days after his party Ty opened more presents from family and friends each day.  We also ate birthday cake again and blew out the candles.  This is the first year that Ty is really cognizant of his birthday and he very much enjoyed all aspects of the celebration.  Each time we brought out the birthday cake we had to put the candles on and sing.  As you can see it was a big cake, so we did a lot of singing!

Grandma had a very fun week with her boys and was super helpful while I was getting stuff done!  See you soon!

last days of 2

this post records ty's final days as a 2 year old.  he has been a delight to have around recently, even including the incessant "why?"

nothing delights 2 year old boys like a helicopter flying in the living room.

zeke is ready for his brother to be 3.  if it means less abuse.  perhaps he is ready to be 2 himself so he can fight back.

ty has really taken to his bike this spring.  he is now confident with balance and steering.  his bike has no brakes, so it's flintstone style.  we're trying to work on steering out of the hill.  our own driveway is a decent hill training ground.

when ty gets to bike with daddy, he vibrates with excitement.  the farthest we've gone so far is down to the river and back.  the bike really extends his reach.

hide and seek has been a favourite as well.  often when i get home from work my first task is to find ty.  typically it's not very hard.

and of course hiking and picnicking is always a theme with us.  i looked down to text kylie and by the time i looked up ty was halfway up this hill.  i took this picture and it was only after that i thought it prudent to get underneath ty!

we've had some beautiful days here, but the last week has been dark and rainy.

luckily we were able to take advantage of the sunshine and warm weather with a few good picnics.  ty loves apple fritters... who would of thought??

while reading bedtime stories ty looked at me very seriously and said "today i see beaver water and his pile of sticks.  and i threw his sticks in the water!"  we didnt see the beaver, but we did see his pile of sticks... and some ducks.

now ty is 3!  yesterday we had his birthday party.  it was super fun, but there are enough pictures that it deserves a post of its own.  until next time.

Food centric

I had originally titled this post "Life Lately" . . . but looking at all these pictures they all focus on food except the kayaking pictures. I was making dinner while Marc was kayaking so those count too! Yes the river pictures do showcase the beautiful scenery but we did eat tasty chicken salad sandwiches with apples and cranberries whilst there.  So here you are - a food centric post.

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It is fitting that this picture of Zeke lead a post entitled food centric.  This kid LOVES to eat.  I know that Marc and I mention this often on this blog but both of us are a little taken aback by how much and how often Zeke wants to eat.  And he will eat ANYTHING! Cold black beans from the can, still frozen sweet potato, gruyere cheese.   The other day he finished off half a mini watermelon in one sitting.  (Okay Ty did have two pieces but they were small.)This may be more shocking to Marc and I because Ty is not that much of an eater.  Eating has never been high on his list of priorities.  As a 6 month old we were forever trying to get more food into him.  This is not the case with our second child!!!

Speaking of supplying our children with food, I took both boys to grocery store for a big shopping trip the other day.  I do not often take both boys together grocery shopping (I have a lovely husband who does not work regular business hours which is a huge blessing to me and my little family!) but embarked on a rather large shopping trip the other day.  I arrived at the store to realize that I could not sit Zeke in a regular cart because they didn't have straps.  Car cart it was!  Ty was not disappointed!

Here was the beginning of the trip . . . Happy kids.  Zeke practicing his shoulder checking skills. (I may have bribed Ty with an emergency ring pop as soon as I realized that both boys would be sitting right next to eachother.)

I do not have a picture of the end of this trip but it was not a pretty sight.  Zeke was covered in baby cookie (and I do mean covered, at one point I heard a lady next to me exclaim to the clerk about how dirty my baby was.  I was not offended, she was totally correct!) and Ty had a blue face and candy bits stuck to his coat and hair.  I took Ty out of the cart at the till so he would stop torturing his brother and I looked back and didn't see Zeke.  He had fallen over because of the loose belt and lack of brother.  No worries, he was hanging upside down but still eating his cookie!!

Ty has had some more successful solo trip to the grocery store:

Ty has discovered the exciting adventure of grocery shopping with a kid cart lately.  He is pretty good at maneuvering for the most part but he almost took out an elderly gentleman in the produce department last week.  He was on a cheese mission!  Look out Chilliwackeans.  Ty is on the loose!

Lastly, it was a beautiful day yesterday and we made the most of it!  Yes we ate lovely chicken salad sandwiches but we also reveled in the sun and the thought of spring coming!!

After we got home Marc took the kayak out for a spin.  His best day yet this year:

We finished off the day with dinner sans children.  French onion soup, fresh baked croissants, apple/date/goatcheese salad and chocolate cobbler.  Thanks pinterest!!!