Mya's First Birthday Party

It's hard to believe, but our little girl is 1 already!  We had Mya's first birthday party this weekend, though as Nana put it quite correctly, "First birthday party's are really for moms."  So true!  I spent way too much time prepping and making things just so, but in the end it came out just as I wanted it to.  Mya seemed to enjoy it all, especially playing with her cousin Julia.  She definitely didn't get as messy with the cake as Mason did on his first birthday, but then again he got to each a 6" cake on his own while she only got a cupcake.  A few of the pictures are below.

 

Summer Fun

 We are a summer family to be sure.  Nothing starts the summer off right like a trip to the lake - which we were lucky to be able to do over Memorial Day weekend.  Mason spent much of the time fishing, or pretending to fish.  He didn't catch anything of course, but I bet the first thing he'll want to do next time we go is get out his fishing pole.

Mya got to go swimming in the lake for the first time, and really took to the water.  She started off in a little float, but soon she was happy just standing near me.  Her cutest pictures from the weekend were in her little flamingo dress.  Flamingos are certainly the theme at the lake, so our sweet girl fit right in.

The next weekend the kids and I met my parents in Lansing for some fun around the capitol.  We headed first to Potter Park Zoo.  (Our third zoo this year already!)  Mason still doesn't care so much about the animals, but he had fun riding the giraffe statue. 

Mya rode patiently through the zoo in her stroller, but really had a blast at the playground in Potter Park.  She'd just started toddling around - so what do we do?  Put her on the collapsing bridge of course.  It sure doesn't look like she minded!

We definitely consider ourselves lucky to be able to spend time with Nana & Papa and Grandma & Grandpa.  The kids love them so much!

Fireworks & Father's Day

Back in May we took our 2nd annual pilgrimage to Fort Wayne to buy fireworks and spend the afternoon at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.  Our annual tradition will probably end this year with the new fireworks laws in Michigan, but the memories from the last two years have made the trip worth it.  The zoo is actually pretty spectacular, but Mason is only interested in the trains.  There's a stationary train that kids can climb on and ring the bell in.  Somehow, Mason remembered this train before we were even in sight of it.  "I want to ring the bell, " he said.  We were pretty amazed that he remembered it from last year.  The humorous moment of our time at the zoo was when Mason was playing on the train.  In all the excitement, he had an accident right there on the train.  The expression on his face was priceless, and thankfully we had his swim trunks packed for the zoo's water feature in another area.  (Someday he's going to hate that I posted this story for the world to see!)

Well we can't talk about fireworks without talking about Adam, so I'm going to do double-duty on this post and cover Father's Day.  I should start by first explaining the dynamic of our house.  Adam is, in a very real sense, Mr. Mom.  He pulls daycare duty every day, takes the kids to their doctors appointments, does the laundry, and does all the cooking.  He does more than his fair share for our family, and all so I can stay at a job I love.  He is an amazing dad and husband, and we're so lucky to have him.

For Father's Day, most dad's are perfectly happy grilling out, drinking beers and watching sports.  Since Adam does all the cooking anyway, Father's Day is his chance to be treated to dinner.  I would try to cook for him, but that would be no treat.  So we headed out to Kalamazoo and Buffalo Wild Wings, so we ended up covering eating, drinking and sports anyway!

Mason Update - Mother's Day & Staples

 This year may not have been my first Mother's Day, but it was the first time I've been invited to a Mother's Day program.  Mason's class at daycare hosted moms and grandmom's for Muffins with Mom.  Of course there were muffins and juice, but the kids treated us to a performance of their favorite songs.  Mason got pretty animated during the zoophonics - it cracked me up and made me cry at the same time.  I can't believe how much my little guy has grown.

He's grown so much that he's had his first major injury that resulted in a trip to the emergency room.  We'd just gotten home from dinner and were trying to get everything around for the next day.  Poor Mason was bored and messing around with a bucket used to hold his trains.  Instead of putting trains in it, he decided it would be fun to stand on it.  The bucket slid out from under him and back he went into the corner of his train table. 

Thankfully Adam didn't have to work that night, so he took ER duties while I stayed home with Mya.  (I am super squeamish around these types of things.)  As it turned out, Mason needed two staples and took it like a champ.  The whole situation was easier as his attending was a friend of ours.  A month later and the staples are long gone, but he'll always have a scar to remind him of his trains.  :)