just because

Just because this is the CUTEST picture, but I couldn't quite fit it into the last post about Hayden's birthday.

B is for Baby Birthday Cupcakes

As I have a little bit of downtime while the girls nap (or sit quietly in their rooms chatting to themselves...) , I will write about Hayden's birthday. She turned THREE years old last month! I can't believe it's been so long from this...

to this...

We had a few friends over to help us celebrate her birthday. I think she had a great time being the center of attention. She was very into opening her gifts - reading the cards, finding out who they were from, and giving hugs to say thank you. She was especially excited about Candyland (which she had only recently learned how to play).
The highlight of her "party" was her selected dessert. Baby cupcakes. I had received this book for Christmas, and Hayden had enjoyed looking at all the different decorated cupcakes. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said baby cupcakes. No amount of encouragement would change her mind, and she stuck with that decision over several weeks. So I decided to try it. Brittany was kind enough to come over and help me with the decorating - Hayden helped too a little bit. And I think they turned out pretty cute! I give you

BABY CUPCAKES!

Hayden thought they were fantastic and couldn't wait to eat the. She did pretty well blowing out her candles and then dug right in. I think you can tell what her favorite part of the cupcake was.
The day after the party was her REAL birthday, and we celebrated it as a family. She got to open a big pile of presents. So big, it was climbable! Even Eliza tried to climb Mt. Present. She even tried to help with the unwrapping, but Hayden didn't need much help.
The reason the pile was so big was because from us, Hayden got a...... TRICYCLE!! She was thrilled since that was one of the few things she asked for consistently for her birthday (that and a baby crib (thanks Grammy!) and a doctor kit (thanks Aunt Lacey!). After nap time, she was ready to hop right on to test it out. She liked it a lot. Though I will admit, it has since been returned, because it wouldn't let her put on the breaks. (We're in the market for a balance bike or scoot bike. Any suggestions?!!!)

For her birthday dinner, Hayden had selected salmon and french fries. We were busy doing something (not sure what but probably related to the upcoming move), and didn't get around to heading out to get the salmon till just before dinner time. Alas, when we went to leave (Jason was already out dropping stuff off at our storage place), the car had a big ol' flat tire. Hayden was fascinated by this (ask her about it, she will still tell you the story), and a little bit bummed about not going to the store. But the Birthday Fairy waved her magic wand, and what should appear but the....

ICE CREAM TRUCK! We had yet to actually purchase anything from the truck, though it comes thru our neighborhood about once a week in the summer. We seized the opportunity since it was her birthday. So instead of salmon, Hayden had a sandwich for her birthday dinner - an ICE CREAM sandwich!

For the record, we did do her birthday dinner later on in the week. When I told her we were doing her birthday dinner, she said we couldn't "because my birthday was last week!" And then she promptly decided to eat NO salmon, despite having purchased it specially for her! :)

We also got to celebrate her birthday again a little bit when my parents came up to visit a week or so later. Hayden got a "band in a box" which she was very excited to open. She jumped up immediately to start dancing while playing the instruments. Eliza liked them too.

So there's the tale of Hayden's birthday. A little bit late, but still a lot of fun to tell. She is a darling, happy three year old these days who likes to "have a conversation", dance, sing, play with her babies and just generally enjoy life. She's still not quite big enough to fill our shoes, but she certainly keeps us entertained.

Happy Birthday Hayden!

Fireworks and Marshmallows

In trying to "catch up" on blogs, the next big thing after the beach trip was the fourth of July. It is one of my favorite holidays. Good food, fireworks, outdoors, summer time, no pressure to travel or give gifts, what could be better?! We celebrated pretty low key this time around, inviting over our Aussie friends, Ali, Matt and Lachlan, to celebrate the fourth with grilling, s'mores, and then fireworks.

our Aussie friends! :)

As we have demonstrated in past posts, we like to dress by "themes", so we were all in red, white or blue. Here's my attempt at a cute 4th picture for the girls. As you can see, it didn't go so well. Too much wiggling and squirming. And despite her expression, Hayden did not get to try her first beer on the fourth.

Since we were going to spend a lot of time outside, we thought that getting out the pack-n-play would be a good idea to corral the babies and give them a safe, soft place to play. Even Hayden wanted to get in and play. Of course, we didn't really think about the threat of another monster-Eliza...


We had a yummy dinner and then we moved on to dessert. Hayden and I had succumbed to marketing at our favorite grocery store and bought GIANT marshmallows. Here Hayden demonstrates the size - a regular large marshmallow and a GIANT marshmallow.
They came in regular and strawberry in one bag. Hayden and Jason liked the pink ones. I thought they were gross. :) Here are a couple more demonstrations of size...


And then we used them for s'mores. Perhaps a bit too much inner marshmallow that was hard to get toasted, but still...YUM!!!


After stuffing ourselves with GIANT marshmallows, we headed into campus to go to our favorite spot for the fireworks. We made sure to bring Hayden's blanket for comfort measures. It was a good thing we did, because she was not interested in watching the fireworks. She spent the whole time under the blanket, with maybe one peek outside. She didn't cry or ask to leave, she just didn't want to watch. She even got under the blanket before we sat down.

Eliza started off in the wrap, and I was hoping she would go to sleep. That's what Hayden had done when she was a baby, and it was pretty late. And she was content to watch the fireworks for a little bit.
Even Lachlan was nice and comfy with Ali, watching the show.

But then Eliza decided that she was not Hayden, and she had no interest in going to sleep. Nor did she care much about the fireworks. I let her out of the wrap and she spent the rest of the show (it goes on for about 40 min or so!), cruising around our camp chairs, dancing to the music and having a great old time.

We have loved Fourth of July in State College, they have the best fireworks. 45 min, set to music. Amazing! Click here to see a video.
Happy Fourth of July!

Vacation II

Our beach vacation was not just a nuclear family vacation - it involved the whole DeRousie side of the family. In addition to the four of us, there was Grammy and Granddad, and Uncle Aaron, Aunt Jen, and cousins Lucy, Will and Liesl. It was great to be able to spend such extended time with our extended family! Hayden in particular had a blast with her cousins. She loved playing in the sand and water with them (though admittedly, they aren't actually in the picture here).

Liesl

Hayden got introduced to new games - like drawing on the iPad and playing pile-on (can you see Hayden's hair in the middle of the pile?!).

Eliza was a big hit too. Will came to see her every five minutes or so to say hello. And Lucy and Liesl checked her out regularly - even on the beach. Eliza tried to join in the play whenever possible.

With 5 kids to entertain, but wanting to avoid sunburns, we found fun things to do that weren't outside - like the aquarium.
And the mall with the carousel, food court and play area. Hayden loved the carousel. When it stopped the first time, she started crying because she didn't want to get off.

Sailing away with Will.

Happy Meals all around. I think this was Hayden's first Happy Meal ever.

The kids get treated to ice cream. Cheers!

Eliza tries her first teething biscuit. She REALLY liked it.

The other big fun thing we did at the beach was celebrate Aunt Jen's birthday. Inspired by Cake Boss, I decided that the kids and I should make an ocean cake in honor of the occasion. Somehow it's not quite up to professional standards, but it was fun to do and tasty to eat.

the ocean cake, close up. Notice the sand and the water sections with appropriate candy decorations!

Afterwards, Hayden had a great fun playing, but didn't want to leave. She thought maybe she could just sleep in the table. We didn't think that was a great idea.

Almost the whole crew, ocean side. It was hard to get a picture of everyone in one place! We were all too busy having fun.