The Big 4-0!

It's hard to believe, but Eli's daddy turned the Big 4-0 this Saturday! No matter his age, Eric will always be young at heart & that's all Eli needs! I had been asking Eric for months prior what he wanted to do for this birthday. Being that it is a birthday that some choose to ignore while others want to party it up, I wasn't sure where he fell in that spectrum. I asked if he wanted to go out with friends, have a party at the house, just hang with family, go to a Royals game, etc., etc. He finally decided that a Royals game would be fun, but then changed his mind last minute. So, we had a low key day on his birthday and just had cinnamon rolls, Starbucks, & opened cards. Eli bought daddy a card that showed a monkey picking his nose & then on the inside said "I couldn't have picked a more perfect daddy than you!". Since Eli has become quite the nose picker, it was perfect:

Then Eric's parents brought over a cookie bouquet that looked like this to razz him a little:

On Sunday, Eric's parents took us out to dinner at Outback and afterwards we came back to our house for chocolate cake & ice cream that Grandma Clarkson made:


Eli LOVED eating the cake, as you can see below. Ever since having his birthday, it's hard for Eli to understand that OTHER people have birthdays, too. Eli liked to say "Happy Birthday, Eli!" all weekend and asked for cupcakes.

Earlier in the week, I threw two of my good mama friends from play group a baby shower. I hosted and decorated while other mamas brought the food, drinks & games. I should have taken a close up (if you click on the picture you can see them better) but Tiffany made these adorable sweet pea cupcakes (the theme was sweet pea):

I also made each mama a diaper cake (it was a diaper shower) which was a lot of fun!!:

Here's a picture of the "chaos" of putting so many toddlers & their mamas in a small space! Still fun, though!:

Now random news/pictures....

Eli likes to hide behind the door when it is open & I asked him to smile for the camera. Here is what I got. He is becoming quite the ham these days!:

One of our playdate friends told us about this program that is free to download on your computer called Babysmash. Once downloaded and opened, your little one can pound on the keyboard without fear of erasing a program, rearranging your desktop, etc. as every key they push either a letter/number shows up & the letter/number is spoken, or other buttons are random shapes. It's really cute & Eli really likes it. It's great because I think all kids love to play on the computer & this is a safe way to allow them to be curious & learn at the same time! Check it out!:

We got out another one of our play doh activities. This one is from Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris & it is a monkey that grows play doh hair, tongue & claps his hands together to make shapes. Here is Eli acting like the monkey & sticking out his tongue:

Eli is very into boy things like dirt, mud, & bugs. We have plenty of spiders around the perimeter of our house for him to watch along with cicadas, bees, ants, butterflies, ladybugs & grasshoppers. Saturday we came out on the deck and there were not one, not two but THREE grasshoppers to watch. We made 2 jump away and the last one was quite the patient little guy. We sat and watched him for a long time & Eli loved getting really close to him to check him out:

Eli asks on a daily basis to watch fireworks on the computer. We have become avid watcher of Youtube as whatever he happens to be interested in that week, there is bound to be a video of it. It's amazing how many videos there are of fireworks! I have to end up saying "Okay, last fireworks video!" or we would be watching them all day! Here's a link to Eli's current favorite which is quite appropriate with the upcoming fall holiday!

This week my new position starts so I'll finally be getting more consistent hours. While I have enjoyed being home majority of the time this summer, our finances have not!! The hours will be different each week but I will be planning my hours so that will be nice and they'll remain around 20 like they were last year. I continue to enjoy the cooler weather although this week will be a little warmer (80's). This week we will enjoy music class, our visit from our parent educator for the school year, and a playdate at the park! I also will be attending a "Mom's Day Out" lunch with playdate mamas on Saturday. Yay! Have a great week everyone!