5 months

today connor turned 5 months old. he is 12.5 pounds. this has been a great month for him. he has learned to roll over from his back to tummy and tummy to back. so good. he can also support his weight on his legs pretty good if we are holding him steady. he loves to try to stand. he gets the biggest grin on his face and makes the cute little "dolphin squeals." he is completely fascinated with his mobile and toys. i think he is starting to figure out how to play with them. i have been giving him all the toys he got for christmas and he just loves them.

he is a really good baby. he goes to bed promptly at 7:30 pm, and stays asleep until 4 am. what a great sleeper. i am so happy. i wish the other two were that easy. bedtime for mason and dahlia is always a challenge around here. it is so fun to watch connor grow and learn new things. i have also become much more comfortable taking all three kids with me to run errands and do fun stuff. yes, i have even taken all three to the grocery store and the mall. go me.

golf party

what a fun day we had. we took all the kids to a friend's birthday party at boomers in irvine. it is one of those family fun parks full of games, mini golf and rides. mason and dahlia loved the mini golf. we played a round with zena and bodhi. they were having so much fun. we gave up trying to keep score. there was a lot of picking up the ball and dropping it in the hole. those cheaters. after golf there was lots of skee-ball playing. the kids were getting pretty good at this. that was always my favorite when i was a kid. after loading up on sugar from cake we had a very long drive home. miles and i were going crazy from all the singing in the back seat. oh yes. road trips are getting fun now.

easter cupcakes

i have been reading a lot of baking blogs lately so i was super excited when mason wanted to make chocolate cupcakes today. i thought that sounded like a great idea. we used the devils food recipe from martha stewart's cupcake book. it is so good. i decided to make the cream cheese frosting from the book instead of the chocolate one. miles is not a huge chocolate fan and i thought the clean up from white frosting would be much easier. it always seems that most of the frosting ends up on dahlia's clothes.

we decided to be fancy and decorate them for easter. i even got out the frosting tips! the kids colored pictures of an easter bunny and then i scanned them and printed scaled down versions of them onto sticker paper. we used my new circle cutter and toothpicks to make cupcake toppers. i think they turned out so cute. this is definitely a technique i will be using all the time now. mason and dahlia got such a kick out of seeing their designs on the cupcakes. oh, and they were delicious.

the train party

bodhi had his big birthday party yesterday. we had so much fun. what a great celebration. jen and ray had the party at our house. everything was so nice. my sister has been planning this party for over a month. she had so many cool decorations and party details. it was so nice to see all our friends and family.

the party had a train theme of course. we finished building the large cardboard train on friday. i think it looked great. the kids had a blast playing in it. they also loved the coloring station where you could color pictures of trains and make cards.

jen and i made train stickers to match the invitations that were used for the cups and napkin rings. i sewed a birthday banner for bodhi which i forgot to photograph. it is very similar to the one i sewed for mason's party. jen also made train stamped popcorn bags and favor bags. all the kids got engineer hats that had their name ironed on the back. dahlia loves her hat. oh yes, i almost forgot the cake. she made this adorable cake that looks like a train is coming out of a tunnel. so cute. there were also custom sugar cookies that were just too precious to eat. christina and i made a fruit arrangement that i thought was a good copy of the edible arrangements. we were up super late the night before the party cutting fruit and drinking wine. it was so fun. i love parties. now that jen did such a great job planning this one the pressure is on for connor's first birthday party. i better get started planning it now.

after the party jen, ray, bodhi, christina, and zena all stayed the night. we had a fun evening complete with a viewing of the movie new moon. oh yes. it was a great weekend.

bodhi is two

today is bodhi's real birthday. of course we went to disneyland. yes, we are disneyland junkies. i was really brave (crazy) and brought all three kids with me. without miles. oh my. i really wanted connor to have his first visit to disneyland. i just couldn't wait any longer. i was lucky that jen and ray were there helping me. i don't think i could have done it without them. i had two in the double stroller and one in the baby bjorn. whew! they were pretty good though. connor loved being outside all day. i can't wait to have more outings with him. i think bodhi was happy to have us help him celebrate. happy birthday bodhi!

choo choo

jen and bodhi came over today to work on decorations for his birthday party this weekend. jen brought all this cardboard and paint and we helped her make a large steam engine for the kids to play in. it is still a work in progress. she is coming over again wednesday so we can finish it. we still need to add the wheels and make a box car to go with it. the kids loved this project. any day we get to paint is a good day. i just hope i can keep them from destroying the train before the party.

butterfly party

our friend maya turned one and had a super fun party this weekend. it was at an indoor play place called peekaboo playland. what a great space. i was expecting it to be filled with a bounce house and generic blow up slides, but this place has a wonderful design. they have a wooden playset with slide, play kitchen room, train table, reading room, a smaller slide for the little kids and of course a bounce house. there are also beautiful paintings in all the rooms that really help create a cheerful atmosphere. i loved the artwork.

dahlia was so adventurous. she tried everything. she did the face painting, played in the kitchen, rode little cars around, played on the little slide and everything else. mason was pretty much stuck at the train table the whole time. he did venture out to play in the ball pit, and go down the slide once or twice but that was about it. they were so sad when the party ended and we had to leave. we had a great time. happy birthday little maya.

roll over

he did it. ha ha. all he needed was a little floor time. connor surprised us all by rolling over today. i think he was trying to show of for his auntie jen and uncle (buncle) ray. jen was actually the first to see him do it. i always seem to miss these things. he did it again and again so i did get my chance to witness it firsthand. so far he is only rolling from him tummy to his back but i am sure in a few days he will have the back to tummy rolling mastered.