::karat-ay part-ay::

We had a party at the dojo on saturday for Max's birthday. Just in case I haven't mentioned it laetly, he's still very much into karate. We take him about three times a week and he absolutely loves it.
So he was so excited when we told him his party could be a karate party. And I was delighted because it meant no clean up or hosting for me at home, yay!
And Kris did a filling for the sensai, so it was a pure old fashioned barter.

We had a bunch of kids from church and a few from school. They all seemed to have a blast. The sensai sets up a bunch of cardboard forts and walls and shows the kids different games to play within them while chucking rolled up socks at each other. And the socks are grey and gross. Just so you know.


Sensai had them captivated with his instructions.

I love how Griffin's mouth is wide open in astonishment or concentration.

Ok, so they're not TOO well behaved (if you see Eva in the background.)

The only one who didn't really have a blast was Sandy. It was prettymuch his bedtime and he wanted to be out and running around with the kids--desperately. So we had to hold him and/or keep him captive the entire time.


The poor guy was MAD to be blocked in with a chair.


The games were pretty awesome, especially the last one which was just an all out knock down drag out sock battle.




It was great. All the kids left sweaty and exhausted with pink cheeks and messy cupcake mouths. We helped the sensai clean up and then went on home ourselves. Bedtime is always the best.

::a leftover extra::

I just found this video I forgot to stick in one of the Disney World posts. (Hah, "stick"! You'll get that joke later.)
It's too good to leave out, so enjoy all 23 seconds please.
Kris is quite the long suffering dad.

::eight::

Honestly I can't believe I'm saying this, but my old Max turned EIGHT this week!! YIKES!!

This is his first birthday where we haven't been traveling or visiting somebody for years. Last year we were in AZ for a work trip, and both years before that we were visiting family in Utah. So we were home, and we had a pretty fun day I think.

Max got to have a pretty lazy day. There was no school for him that day and he got to open a pretty awesome present in the morning--old school hot wheels tracks.

He played with them all morning. Then he got to watch some Sponge Bob, which hasn't happened in a while since he was mimicking the super annoying voices ALL the time. He was banned for weeks. He got a chance to try again since it was his birthday. (So far so good on the annoyingness.)

Later in the day Max got to go to his karate class. Then we all went and had a delicious dinner which included chocolate malts. Mmmm.

After that we finally made it home for cake and presents. HOMEMADE cake for the first time in a while.
It was tasty.

And the candles and singing are 100% up Max's alley.

I think he had a great day. And his actual friend party was the following day. I'll report on that later.
But for now, here's my favorite birthday picture of all for you.

Good night!

::::

One of the little boy's favorite spots is at the table. Well, until he's DONE with it that is. Then he pushes himself away and pulls at his straps, hoping somebody will just get him out already!

But this point of this post is actually to show you his cute little fuzzy ducktail.

I'm going to have to cut it off this week because it keeps getting sticky and tangled and disgusting. But it's just so cute. Just like the little guy himself.

::florida part 2::

Too bad about the nude sunbathing--but I sure do love the beach, so I guess it's ok. Here are a few views of our first hotel area from out on the beach. It was very picturesque.

Old people everywhere of course, even in bikinis. Yikes.

The next one shows you the big main building of the hotel--it looks kind of like some sort of polynesian lounge.

We were up high in a room in the tower on the left. We had an awesome view from our little balcony!

Can you believe how many huge high rise hotels there were along the beach?

The shells were so fun--I've never seen a place with so many shells. From something we read it looks like the shells are on the beach in piles during certain times in winter. By summer the tides have washed them all away. How crazy is that?
I picked up some awesome ones and brought them home to share with Max. He could hear the ocean in most of them.


After the conference was over we headed up the coast about a hour or so to another little island. This one was much quieter and less fancy. There were also more old people there somehow. The beach was not as fun there--tiny teeny waves--but the most fun part about it was that Kris and I had a couple of days with no work, no conference, nothing. We just got to hand out and have fun.
We rode beach cruisers to lunch (and ate with droves of old people dressed in the colors of sherbet).

We took walks. We chatted. We sat in the sun. We played tennis.

(We play tennis badly, but it's fun.)
It was just so nice. We were glad to go home to our boys, but so sad that our couple of fun days were over.
Thanks SO much to Kathy for coming and taking care of our guys. I didn't have to worry about them being safe and happy. I knew they were in the best hands they could be. We LOVE you Kathy!!!

And really, who can complain about coming home to this:



What a great week. And I got to come home on my birthday to a party. Awesome.

::florida part 1::

So there was a great looking conference for pedodontists and orthodontists in Florida. We got a flyer for it a good while back and Kris thought it looked amazing--and that the location looked hard to beat. He enlisted his ever willing mom to come and watch the boys and we got to head out together for a long weekend of work and fun.
It was so nice. We've hardly been out since the baby was born, and haven't been off together overnight for years. After I got through the initial confusion of why flying was so darn easy, and figured out what I was supposed to do with myself without somebody to spank or kiss every two seconds it was great and very refreshing.
And Kathy kept me posted with pictures like this:

and this:

So I didn't feel TOO far away.

We were in Marco Island, FL. Not really so much an isolated island, but just one of the many many little pockets of land right off the west coast of Florida. The hotel was beautiful. It was right on the beach and though these weren't the kind of big waves you might be used to from CA beaches, they were nice. The air was fresh and there were shells everywhere.


The beach--a view from one of the patios of the tall (8 story I think) hotel.

Yes, the pool was amazing. I did keep wishing the kids were there to swim in it. It was the perfect toddler and kid pool. It had a hugely long set of steps that a kid could play on without blocking everybody's entry & exit from the pool. Perfect. We might just have to go back!

This is a face somebody made and left in the sand. I captured it for Max.

The following is one of my favorite sights--wish I would've had my nice camera instead of my phone at that moment.

These guys just look so serious. It makes you wonder what very important and life changing event is happening in seagull world.

And finally (for part 1) a Florida beach sunset. You know how it is when you're at the beach and the sun is setting? For a while it seems like everything is the same light blue/yellow bright blazing color. That's when the sun is almost to the horizon, but not quite. But when it finally reaches the edge of the world, that's when you start to realize again that there's a difference in color between sea and sand. And that's when the sky puts on it's show.

It's when the orange goes away that you see all the other amazing colors--waiting their turn.


(It looks like we're in jail because we're at the hotel restaurant and they have some sort of seagull deterring netting up over us.)
I can't say that this particular sunset had anything on some of the amazing ones we get out in NM, but it was pretty nice. And being at the beach makes everything smell, taste and look just a little better anyway.

::climber::

My little guy could turn into a bit of a scary climber.

He's always trying to climb up on the couch, and anything else that seems accessible.

I'm probably exaggerating a bit though. He's not like some kids, truly climbing on everything. Sandy's so easy going you really don't have to worry too much about him. He's mellow and measured. So the climbing is happening, but not at too extreme of a level.

But when he gets up on something he's SUPER psyched. Like the couch. He bounces and chortles and looks like he's going to pitch off straight backwards.

And yes, he got too enraptured by Sesame Street and fell off the box at some point. Before that though, when I tried to push him bottom onto the box more he looked at me like I was SO RUDE.

Babies are ridiculous.

::my birthday 2::

So on my birthday Kris and I were flying back from Florida. We went for a big pediatric dental/orthodontic conference and Kris mom was sweet enough to come and watch our boys. We had a great trip together, first time in forever we were all alone. I barely knew what to do with myself the first few days!

Anyway, we flew home the morning of my birthday. It was a long flight, but kidless it was so easy! We watched a grown up movie, we read books, I took a nap. It was amazing. It made me remember that flying isn't ALL that bad after all.

We got home after lunch and came home to a very festive lovely house.



It was so cute. And we found out that Sandy LOVES love LOVES balloons. He sat and played with the balloon that was tied to his chair for ever. When he got done it was all covered with peanut butter and jelly smears, ewww.



And we had to wake poor Sandy up from his nap. He was sleeping so solid that it took me a few tries to wake him (unusual for our little light sleeper!) and when he woke he was so cranky that he wasn't even excited to see me! But he warmed up after a while.

Grandma helped Max pick out a gift for me--he got me a heart shaped pillow (cute!) and a little countertop fountain. He was so excited and proud of it--what a darling.

Look at Sandy's face! What is Kris doing there in the background?



It was a great birthday. Kris had some lovely gifts that he had bought for me early and they were waiting, and Kathy did so much to make me feel special. What a lovely day, after a nice and relaxing week. I'm pretty lucky I have to say!