Some Cinco De Mayo Fun

Well, we figured we needed to celebrate that famous battle at Puebla.  Or at least it made for another good reason to go to Nico's, where we pretty much spend every Friday or Saturday afternoon/night with our good friends and their kiddos (they have a fenced-in playground out back within a huge patio...what more could a parent ask for?!)  :)  At least this time we brought along a burro filled with candy and goodies for the kiddos to take some whacks at with a stick.

When E first saw the pinata at the store, he excitedly proclaimed "Giraffey!!"

Everett's attempt at getting to that "nandy" inside.

...and then we lost him to the salt & pepper, which were much more interesting until it started raining candy.

SWING!  We figure the more pinatas the better ~ it's great practice for t-ball.  ;)

Brody & Anderson looking for that Super Moon that made it's appearance tonight.

The Mommas  :)  We all met in a new moms' group when our oldest kiddos were born, so it's been 4 years now. We got some good chatting in tonight, thanks to the Dads' help on supervision duty. 

Look at all of these cute boys!!  3 sets of brothers

 

This is what happens when the 4-year-olds are hot, exhausted from playing for hours on the playground (not to mention the day of t-ball, swimming, etc.), and just want to chill out.  They all flock to the Iphones and play together.  It was hilarious to watch them as they would help each other and just randomly switch phones with each other, even though they were all playing the same game: Space Angry Birds.

What a FUN night we had with wonderful friends.  We say this every weekend that we go to Nico's:  the most awesome thing we've ever found is a restaurant that has a fenced-in playground on their back patio.  Smartest. Thing. EVER.

Everett's 2nd Birthday Interview

A Masterpiece by 2-year-old Everett himself:

An Ode to Everett and his love for climbing, which he acquired over the past year:

This little guy is Trouble. :)

But, OH SO CUTE!!!

 For fun, here's a comparison of my two favorite boys at 24 months old!  

Everett on top, Anderson on bottom

Everett's 2nd Birthday Day

Everett turned 2 on April 26th!  He spent some of the day with his best friends at school.  His sweet teachers made the day extra special for him including singing and, of course, a birthday hat.  After school, I took the boys to the park for a little while since that's one of E's favorite places to go.  Then, we had an early dinner at one of Everett's favorite places: the Smiling Moose Deli.  They have a giant stuffed moose in the entryway and Everett loves giving it hugs and kisses.  They also have a fun mini-arcade and kids' room in the back corner of the restaraunt, so it's a super family-friendly place, which sends it to the top of our list.  After a fun dinner, we headed to Anderson's t-ball practice, which Everett was excited about because he loves being outside and playing with his friend Matthew while Brother practices.  After practice, Everett opened a few presents from Mommy, Daddy, Anderson and Riley.  We then presented him with his very own birthday cake, which was actually a cookie cake because at this point, we're all a little tired of cake.  Everett was thrilled with the cookie cake, though! He received many well-wishes and phone calls from family and friends throughout the day and loved the special attention.  He can happily tell us that he's two and can even show us 2 fingers, one from each hand put together.  ;)   Happy official 2nd Birthday, Everett!

Everett's 2nd Birthday Song & Candles
take 1

Everett's 2nd Birthday Song & Candles
take 2

That pesky Big Brother!  ;)

Come One Come All! Neumann Bros. Carnival! Part 2

  

Everett James ~ age 2

Anderson Luke ~ age 4

Friends having SO much fun!

Cupcakes and Candles!  

(Everett tried to eat his candle- hee hee!)

Some of our wonderful family!

Thanks to the awesome Etsy seller Frosting & Ink for all of the custom 

game signs, invitations, and many many more paper-related decorations at the party!

Come One Come All! Neumann Bros. Carnival! Part 1

What a FUN time we had celebrating Anderson & Everett's April birthdays with all of their family and friends! 

Thank goodness the facility where we planned to have the party was kind enough to allow us to use their indoor party room as a last-minute change of venue since the 40mph winds outside that day were not going to work with my plans for an outdoor party under their 'Big Top' pavilion.  I was a little bummed since I had planned everything for an outdoor party and some things didn't quite translate indoors how I wanted, but I am SO thankful and appreciative to the wonderful staff at The Fields At Carrollton Parkway.   

I had a fantastically fun time planning, organizing, and crafting things for the carnival!  Reese did a great job  making the two bigger games: the "plinko"/Disk Drop game and the Penny Pitch game.  Before the pictures of the fun, here are some decoration and game pictures.

Carnival Games included: Ring Toss, Disk Drop, Bean Bag Toss, Penny Pitch, & Crazy Cans.  Not pictured, but also included as activity stations were Temporary Tattoos and Balloon Twists.

We also had a Photo Booth with fun props and a carnival tent Pinata.

Centerpieces, the ticket cake, a silly sign, and some festive bunting!

Carnival Sweets Table

Cake Pops, Candy, Circus Peanuts, Cupcakes and more Candy!

Carnival Food Table

Popcorn, Animal Crackers, Chicken Nuggets, Soft Pretzels, Caramel Apples, Potato Chips, Goldfish, Cotton Candy, Peanuts

Prizes and Souvenirs for all!

Everett and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad NIGHT

Poor guy.  I think the past 18 hours most certainly qualify as the worst of Everett's short little 2-year-old life.  He picked up a nasty stomach bug from church, one of the birthday parties we went to this weekend, or from who knows where.  But, it made it's entrance at about 2AM and didn't let up until about 8AM this morning.  The really odd thing is, Reese and I have ~ 6 years of cumulative parenting and this was our first experience with any vomiting.  Can you believe it we've made it this long with no vomit episodes in our house?  Anderson still doesn't even "know" what it means when I would tell him today that Everett was "getting sick" and "throwing up" all night.  He's never even seen it happen.

Anyway, poor Everett.  It was heartbreaking as anyone who has ever had any sort of stomach virus can imagine once you put that on a helpless toddler.  :(  And, of course, he just hasn't been the spunky, mischievous little bro we know around here.  He's basically looked like this all day long, if he hasn't been sleeping.

(Pardon the circa-1990 sheet draped over the reclining chair that Everett chose to perch in for the day.)

Belated Bunny Fun!

Happy Easter a little late.  ;)

Here are some of the pictures! (be ready for picture overload!)

Big Bro helping Little Bro across the street at church

 Flowering the cross

 One of Anderson's sweet little girl friends.  ;)

 Such an awesome picture of Daddy & Everett!

 Anderson &his buddy Nicholas

 The Family at our church's family Easter celebration

 Everett gives the bunny a high-five!

This the THE classic face of Everett.  I'm SO glad we caught on on camera!  He's such a little ham that when he gets something that makes him excited, he makes this face that looks like he's got something that he shouldn't have.  It's super adorable and super Everett.

 Jelly beans are the BEST!

 Whew! I need a break!

 Anderson at home looking for the Easter Bunny.

 Here's that face again!

 Anderson SOOOO excited because he found a Lightning McQueen egg!

 The boys checking out their haul from the bunny.

 E & his basket from the bunny

 A & his basket from the bunny

 Only my sweet buddy, Anderson, would come take a picture with me.  ;)  He's such a Mommy's sweetheart right now and I'm just eating it up as long as it lasts!!  Little Everett is very much Daddy's boy right now so he was not interested in coming to sit!! for a picture.