Today.

Today we celebrated Alaina's official birthday by spending a Day Out With Thomas! This year's visit was much different than last year's. I remembered having to get up super early to get to our train last year, so I bought the tickets for an hour later this year. Last night was one of my latest nights ever at the Cheese, so I was a little sluggish this morning, to say the least. We enjoyed a nice breakfast as a family, not really paying much attention to the clock in my half-asleep state, so we got on the road a little later than planned. To make a long story short, a panicked phone call to Mary Ann about road turns in Heber allowed us to make our train by about two minutes. Last year, we arrived at the crack of dawn, before the crowds, before the lines, before Sir Topham hat was on his lunch break, so we had our picture taken with Thomas without a wait and we had more time to soak it in. This year was a little less magical, so I tried to focus on pics of the kids instead of the kids with -- I'm trying to fight my propensity to avoid crowds, since I already have enough traits that make me an 80-year-old woman in a 25-year-old's body. I try to justify my dislike of them with the idea that I battle crowds at work every day and I just want some breathing room on my days off, but let's face it, I'm just a homebody. It's a good thing we have busy Connor to get us out of the house, or else Alaina, Anthony, and I would be hanging out all day in our pajamas.






I will be one upset Mama when Alaina stops asking me to hold her. I wanted a picture of the two of us again, a la last year's photo, but she is now refusing to look at the camera. Tickles fail to make her smile, either, she just goes limp. :)


After the train ride, we got balloon animals for the kids. Connor requested a blue doggy and Alaina wanted a pink butterfly. The balloon artist had me blow on the gray balloon while she inflated it, to make it appear like I was inflating it from the outside, and Alaina just couldn't figure out why it didn't work when she tried it.


After a James tattoo for Connor and a Percy tattoo for Alaina, we road the motorcart up and down the track, then Daddy mentioned getting some cotton candy. The kids thought he said, "hot candy", so hot candy was dually requested.




The stuff can be a bit pesky, though. :)


And a happy boy to round out this post. He's been so sweet lately, and I just love how his "picture smile" swallows up his eyes. Anthony and I spent time standing side by side at the mirror trying to mimic this face. In our family, the traits that we pass down seem to be pretty specific...Connor got X from me, Alaina got X from him, but this smile is a perfect blend of us.

On Wednesday, Marinda and I took advantage of the one sunny day of the week and took the kids to the zoo. In true Connor fashion, he insisted that we ride the train first.


After the ride, we went to look at some animals. I think everyone else in Utah had the same idea to go to the zoo on Wednesday, so we really didn't push to see everything. The monkeys are always a hit!




The zoo has really improved since we went as children! Instead of chain link fences for the big cats, there were huge walls of glass so you could be within inches of the animals. Pretty cool! This tiger was not very happy with our presence, however, and marked his territory right in Alton's face. One more reason to be grateful for the glass instead of a fence! :)






This year's zoo theme is "Zoorassic Park" and lifesize automated dinosaurs are placed throughout. Some of them spit, and this T-Rex (bigger in real life!) enthralled Connor and made Alton cry. They were pretty realistic!


After lunch, we rounded out our visit with a whirl on the carousel!










It was a fun day, and just looking at these pictures kind of makes me ache for sun. I have been complaining about weather since February, and I'm just going to stop. I have officially given up hope.

Alaina's new room!

Home decorating has been a slow-going, low priority project of mine since we moved in last September. I've been trying to tackle one room at a time and keep my budget under $150 total for each room. That budget has been a bit of a challenge since we didn't have a big girl bed for Alaina when we moved.

This is Alaina's room when we moved in. Don't judge. A changing table and a crib? All of that seems like so long ago already!


The first part of the room redo was obviously to get her a bed. After the drapes had been hung and the bed was in place, the huge expanse of wall above it bothered me. It was too big for anything framed (plus, I don't like the idea of frames above kids' beds) and all the ideas that popped in my head just didn't fit. I've seen variations of butterfly art and always loved it (Alaina loves "buh-flies"), but it goes for a pretty penny, even if it's just vinyl. Definitely not in the budget. While Anthony and the kids were away in March, I printed off these butterflies from the web in different sizes, colored as many as Alaina's magenta marker would allow, then put a tiny bead of hot glue on each corner to secure them to the wall. I was worried about the thin printer paper curling, and it has a little bit, but I like the shadows and dimension that it creates. Win!


Next came the tackling of Alaina's bows. She loves these things. As a matter of fact, she got out of bed last night at 10 for me to put a bow in her hair, then went back to sleep. They were always in her bed, in her purses, everywhere. I researched bow holders and frankly, thought that they were all hideous. I'll be the first to admit that this one is a little garish, but it goes. Frame from D.I. - $3 (spraypainted the same color as her bookshelf). Ribbon and fleece from Walmart - $6. Having Alaina's bows out of reach and off of the floor - priceless.


Alaina's other wall was offensively white, and I had visions of large, simple photos to counteract the "busyness" of the butterfly wall. I've been keeping my eyes peeled for deals on photo canvases. You can usually find great deals on 8x10s, but bigger ones are expensive and don't go on sale often! I found a groupon for a company out of California, and ordered these right away. You can imagine my disappointment when I opened the huge box to find someone else's family photos! We got all that sorted out, and I love them. The pink thing underneath is her bookshelf (it's actually the same one I had in my room as a child!).


And last, but not least, are the chinese lanterns. I've been eyeing these since she was a little baby, but I couldn't figure out how to make them work. As soon as I found her bedspread, the deal was sealed. Perhaps one day we'll buy the cords and lighting, but for now, we just enjoy the whimsical flavor they add to the room.


The final product. Not bad, if I do say so myself! :)

Birthday Party Time!

Connor and Alaina had their first real birthday party on Sunday, complete with guests, presents, cake, ice cream, balloons, and games. They loved every second of it. The theme was supposed to be round things...bubbles, balloons, water bombs, etc, but the wind had other plans for us.




Melon balls!

I had this idyllic vision of late afternoon sun, late spring warmth, kids chasing bubbles in the backyard. But alas, all bubble play was moved to the garage. The kids didn't seem to mind too much, though.






I learned through this experience that my party planning skills leave a little to be desired. I read online about how you can make your own bubble wands out of pipe cleaners, but it didn't even cross my mind to try it before the party! I think ours were a little too fuzzy and promptly collapsed at the weight of the bubble solution. Live and learn.






Connor soon tired of the faulty wands, and used his hands instead. I had shown him how to do this last year, but I can't believe he remembered without any prompting!








After the bubbles, it was time for cake and ice cream. Once again, I had dreamed up this creative idea (with the help of Mike!) of filling the centers of the kids' bundt cakes with ice cream balls rolled in colored sugar. Blue/yellow for Connor and pink/purple for Alaina.


Instead of a pyramid of perfectly formed colored balls, the ice cream wasn't hard enough (Mike also suggested liquid nitrogen, but I think that'd be a little overkill!), and resulted in a melty blob (and a candle with a bite taken out from a little sister). Oh well, I tried. I will, however, claim some good mom points for actually making the cakes, instead of buying them from the store like I did last year. :P






Alaina goes a little comatose when she knows lots of people are looking at her.



Sneak!

At the last minute, Anthony and I decided to take advantage of the wind and bought dollar kites for all the kites. Thank goodness that part went well! :)












After the wind (and house, and trees) had claimed a few of the kits, we came back inside for presents! Since Marshy Marshmallow can't fly a kite yet, he opted to play with the streamers.


PRESENTS!



The kids with their loot from the cousins. Through the chaos of organizing this picture, I am mad that I didn't push harder to have Wes and Chris in this photo. I am kicking myself! We love you guys!

And that's the end of it! I am scared at the prospect of having another party next year! Man, I am a wimp. With Alaina's real birthday still pending, look for a future Day Out With Thomas post! Or perhaps I should call it "Time Out For Thomas" to confuse the kids like Grandma did. :)