Naomi's 2nd B-day--Part 1

For Naomi's 2nd birthday, Grandma and Grandpa Walker made their way to our house for the weekend to celebrate. Grandma brought this cute little birthday outfit for her to wear and the birthday sunglasses also.

When she first tried on the pretty tu-tu, she kept playing with it and also picking at the cupcake on her shirt. It took her a while to warm up to her new duds, but eventually she did and was strutting around like a princess in them.

Her presents were a sea of pink as you can see and she had a blast with her new toys. She got an Angelina Ballerina doll and for the doll she got a stroller, high chair, and a little play pen. She put Angelina to bed at least 20 times in the first 10 minutes of having her new toys.

Grandma is enjoying her time with her grandkids here. It was fun to have both Grandma and Grandpa here to join in the birthday celebration! You can also see Naomi's pretty new shoes here as well.

Caleb was not intimidated by the sea of pink one bit and had to try on everything (including the baby front back) and play with all the toys as well.

Daniel, not to be outdone, also had to try on the sunglasses and play with all the toys too. However, he was also very preoccupied with the new Leapster game that Grandma and Grandpa brought for him!

Naomi had to be prompted to blow out the candle and the twins had to be restrained from blowing it out, but she did get to blow her own candle thankfully! More about the cake on the next post!

Naomi's 2nd B-day-Part 2

We got the cake at Rosaurs and when I went to order it with Josiah he tried to convince me that Naomi would like a Thomas the train cake. Ummmm...NO?! He also informed me that pink frosting tastes horrible and he wasn't going to like it. I tried to explain that all frosting tastes the same, but he wasn't buying it. Needless to say, she got a pink ballerina cake!

Note the sullen expression here as Josiah is eating pink cake. I would like to point out though that he didn't refuse it as it turned out! We also had chocolate chip ice cream too as you can see Grandpa dishing it up here.

Grandpa had a good time with the grandkids too. Caleb is doing his headstand move here to be silly and Daniel is giving me a "I want that camera" smile as he is coming towards me to look at the pictures I just took.

Grandpa is getting some Daniel love!

After Naomi got dressed in her new duds, we had to go show Daddy. She was pretending to be shy with him at first, but Daddy knows how to bring a princess out of her shell!

It was only a matter of time before Naomi realized SHE could be like the doll and get in the play pen as well. As you can see though, it is pretty cramped for a princess! Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet little Naomi girl! We are SO glad you are part of our family sweetheart!

Fun Times With Daddy

David has found some really neat hiking spots around the area here and he and Josiah have been exploring them when the weather has been cooperative. They have gone out in rain and snow though thus far, so not much will stop them really! Josiah loves hiking with Daddy though and on this trip, he got a new hiking vest, a backpack, and some hiking boots as well!

Naomi was wearing this tu-tu and Daddy came up to her and said, "Can I have your tu-tu?" She said, "No, NO, Daddy....MY tu-tu!" It was too cute and as David said later, "I guess you can't mess with a girl's accessories!"

And though this is a "Fun with Daddy" post, I include this picture because it was the last time I saw the kids for a whole weekend when I went to Yakima for the Washington Music Educator's Association conference. I am working to keep my teaching certificate current, and so went to the conference to earn 30 clock hours towards my 150 clock hours that I have to get before June of 2013. Daddy also took a video of me reading to the children. You can click on this link to watch it.
While I was gone, the kids had a great time with Daddy. One night, he made them all hot chocolate and Caleb is reaching in his cup to scrape out the very last drops of chocolate it seems. Here is a link to them drinking their hot chocolate. Caleb had to blow on his very profusely to cool it down.

According to Daniel, Daddy makes "the best snacks ever!" And he also enjoyed his hot chocolate! And here is a link to a video of more of the Daddy fun that occurred while I was gone!

This picture was taken this last Sunday when Naomi wanted to read with Daddy in the chair before church. For some reason, she has taken to liking this big book from the library called "Computer," which is a non-fiction book with lots of words and some technical looking pictures. I find it ironic that she likes this book, since Daddy is such a computer geek himself (a term he uses of himself I would like to add). At one point, she was sitting on her tummy with the book on the arm of the chair and her feet on Daddy's lap, but I wasn't quick enough to catch that cuteness!

Naomi likes to "help" me in the kitchen and David caught her standing on the dishwasher attempting to unload the glasses and cups on the top shelf.

On the Sunday while I was gone, Daddy had to do Naomi's hair, and this is how nice it looked when he was done. Naomi loves it when Daddy brushes her hair and will sit there for long periods of time to let him. This picture also shows how blue her eyes are as well.

This last picture is of Josiah on another hiking trip with his new walking stick. He had been bugging Daddy to get a walking stick and this one has a little compass built into the top of it also. This day we had a surprise snow storm where the wind was blowing so hard that it was blowing the snow in sideways! I was at yet another music clock hour workshop that day nearby at a local elementary school and got to watch the snow blow in. The power even went down in the school and the generator kicked on during the workshop! Daddy and Josiah didn't hike for too long, but long enough to make some tracks in the snow and make it back before they were too snowed in!

Mobius Children's Museum

We finally took a trip to the Mobius Children's Museum in downtown Spokane. My friend Kim and her kiddos (Colton & Kylie) joined us there also and kindly let us have a few of their free passes as well! Thanks Kim! The kids had a glorious time and hit the ground running the minute we arrived! This is a picture of Colton and Josiah's "campsite" that they made outside the hut. They gathered lots of supplies for camping as you can see, so they are ready!

Naomi had a blast climbing up the ladders and going down the slides. I had to monitor her as she did so though because they really were not designed for little ones like her, but she had the tenacity to climb them and slide down many times anyway!

This stationary bike had a video screen in front that made it appear that you were riding the bike on a street. As you can see, Daniel is mesmerized by it and is apparently trying to beat the boy on the bike next to him!

Kim and I posed for a "yes we were there too" portrait as well. We had a good time chasing the kiddos around the museum and miraculously we didn't lose one of them!

Naomi was just crazy about the water table and we had to pry her away from it a few times, so she didn't completely soak herself. The tongue hanging out is a clue that she is very occupied and happy there.

There were so many pictures of Caleb that were cue that it was really hard to choose just a few. He was in heaven with all the costumes to wear and things to do at the museum. Here he is giving his classic Caleb-ee smile that we have all grown to love.

We went to Red Robin for lunch and the kids promptly discovered that there was a TV in the floor that was playing Scooby Doo, and they all gathered around to watch while we waited for our table. At first, Naomi was strapped in her stroller, but she was just dying to get down there too, so I let her out to join the crowd.

Caleb had me in stitches at one point, when at the water table, he decided to test out the safety goggles as swim goggles and put his face down into the water. I did get a picture of his head down, but this one was just as funny with all the water running down his face. Daniel of course had to try this too at one point and I just laughed and laughed at them.

I also discovered later that Daniel left the house wearing my socks when he wanted to put on this cow costume! He was wearing my socks and shoes earlier in the morning to pretend to be "Mommy," but then did not change socks when he got ready to go. It cracked me up that he was wearing my socks and he sure makes a cute cow as well!

Caleb tried on most every costume they had there. I have great pictures of him as a puppy dog, turtle, fireman, construction worker, doctor, etc. However, this one takes the cake of him as an elephant. I asked him to make an elephant face and this is what he did! Can't you just hear an elephant trumpet right now? He is such a ham and loves to dress up.

Josiah is kayaking away here looking very handsome as usual! He had a great time exploring and playing with Colton at the museum. It was a very fun filled day and we were very thankful that Kim let us have her free passes to enjoy the museum with them. We will plan to go back there soon I am sure!

Awana Cars 2 Party

After the fun day at the museum, Colton got to stay the night and go to Josiah's Awana party with him on Friday night. It was a drive-in movie night and the kids got to decorate cardboard boxes and sit in them to watch the movie "Cars 2." There was lots of food and Josiah also got to use some of his Sparky points to buy toys as well. I found it pretty funny that the few token boys that came (not many boys in the Sparks group at this church) had the best cars there minus one girl who came with a pretty fancy car. Josiah had his Lightning McQueen pillow and blanket also and another boy that came brought his Mater pillow. The boys had a good time and at home, I bought "Cars 2" also and the twins got to watch at home.