Birthday Party!!

Henrik's birthday party rained in last weekend, so we had to reschedule it. Today was the day, and while it was nice and warm (in the sun), it was windy. Not only that, but it turns out that the pavilion we had booked at the park was in a spot that had no protection at all from the wind. Still, we think most had a pretty good time!

I was running around like crazy getting balloons and ice and this and that (and Henrik was with me, trying to get a little nap in the car seat). I got there just in time for them to go on the train ride! :)

Here's the train rolling into the station. Henrik is sitting with Hadley and Mar in the first row!


Second car of the train full of friends :-)


Jack always knows how to have a good time.


Heading back towards the party, Henrik holding hands with Anabel


Of course, when you are 2 years old, there is no such thing as "quickest way from point A to B". :-)


"Look mom, I'm sitting down. Can I have my cupcake now?"


Light the candle, already! (It was very windy indeed)


Haaappy Biiirthday dear Henrik, Happy birthday to you!


The cupcake passed the Henrik quality control.


Wyatt and Mason were there too


Cupcake and bubbles. Can it get much better than this for a 2-year-old Henrik?


A view of the pavilion and the crowd :-)


Dennis and Kenzie


Travis and Alex


Isabella running on the field


Rhett on the soccer field next to the pavilion


Brandy was trying to hand out balloons to the departing guests. She did a handful until at one of them, the whole bunch slipped her grip and went bye bye in that cruel way that only balloons can. Luckily, no children were traumatized by it this time. :-)


A few of us (Me and Henrik, Monte and Rhett, Abby and Kim with Wyatt and Mason) took a last trip on the train before we finished packing up and headed home!

The hunt is on!

The easter egg hunt, that is.

Today was the easter egg hunt at Emma's house, and we had a lot of fun. He got to see the usual crowd there (besides Mya, who couldn't be there). There was also a new member of the gang there. :-)

Here's the whole group on the back porch



Kenzie and Annie hanging out



Shelby and Madison



Henrik having a blast, like always. :-)



Kenzie and Kristen



More Henrik



Emma and Kristen



And one last Henrik to finish off the set with. :-)

Austin Zoo

As mentioned earlier, we went to the Zoo this afternoon. It was the last day that they were showing their new lion cubs! It was crazy busy when we got there around 3.30 but people had already started leaving. The cubs were only out until 4, but we got a look at them. Then we wandered around and looked at the large cats, some of the petting zoo and took a ride on their train.

All in all, a great visit even though it was a bit on the crowded side. :)

Plenty of pictures below...



Looking at the lion cubs :)

Here they are (it was hard to get a good photo)

Hanging out in the stroller heading to the next part. He's almost too big for this one by now...

More big cats, hanging out

This one is the father of the cubs. The mom and him weren't very happy to not have their little ones around. He was roaring some, and she was pacing nonstop...

Another one of the cat two pictures above..

Walking around a bit, near the deer

Food! Anyone hungry? Henrik was all about feeding the animals. Kept asking for more until we were all out (well, he poured out some on the ground at the end). He even tried to feed it to some of the chickens. :-)

Given the amount of visitors today, I'm surprised any of the animals still wanted food. I'm sure they're rarely as overfed as they got today. :-)

Henrik doing the things Henrik does best... Being a 2-year old. :)

More walking around :)

Final one, this one is on the train :-)

Look who's two!!

Wow. Only two years ago...

And one year ago...

And this morning...

Henrik got his big birthday present from us when he woke up. He did NOT want to get out of it to go get some breakfast.

More photos through the weekend. We're going to the zoo this afternoon, that should be fun! :)

What a week and it's only halfway through!

So, last week we started getting serious about finding a preschool/MDO for Henrik for the fall. MDO is a part-time daycare, it's two days a week (usually Tuesday and Thursday), and it's only half the day.

There is one that we found that we liked, and we made the application for the fall. Our neighbor works there, and her youngest goes there. Henrik has another friend who's been there all year and her parents like it.

But, there's also another preschool/daycare that has opened up in the neighborhood next to ours. It's brand new, and when Brandy went there to take a tour, she also ended up filling in the application paperwork.

They had immediate openings! Whoa. So, we chose to let Henrik start MDO right away.

Tuesday was his first day. He LOVED it. He didn't actually want to come home. Brandy had a harder time dealing with it than he had. :) But they say that the second week is tougher, the novelty of going a new place wears off for the child and all that.

The class is so far quite small (only two other children on Tuesday). One of the others was having a harder time though, she was crying at their nap time when we were there to pick him up. Henrik was so sweet though, he was trying to comfort her, walking over to her cot and petting her head.

So, anyway. That's what's going on. :)

Here are a few photos from Tuesday morning.

Henrik getting ready (watching a few minutes of TV, Brandy was OBVIOUSLY blocking the view for him).

Styling his hair!




Time to go! (Cutest backpack ever!)


In class! The calendar was taken off the wall by him before we left. I guess they will glue it in place next. :-)

Weekend report

Figured I would post a weekend update since we got a bunch of pictures to share.

I was out in California last week, and came back late on Friday night due to flight delays. At least we got to see the Canada/Slovakia game on the plane (JetBlue has TVs in each seatback. Love it).

Saturday I got to sleep in while Brandy and Henrik went to swim class. They also signed up for the next class since the current is about to run out. Henrik is doing so well in the water!

Afternoon was a first birthday party, and at night we had a dinner/party at some friends. We all went for the dinner, then I drove the others home and went back for a couple of more hours. Brandy went to bed early, she's had a long week.

Sunday morning Henrik slept in late. Brandy had a photo shoot (see her blog for a sneak peak of that later tonight). Henrik and I hung out at home for a while, then we got the stroller our and went for a long walk to a playground with a large sandpit a few miles down the back trail. Brandy met up with us there when she was done.

The afternoon was spent at home. Henrik napped, we watched the hockey game and played around a bit. He was getting bored and needed to get some energy out of him before dinner, so we all went out back and played for a while.

Henrik LOVES books these days. He will go pick one up, then come over to you, back up against you and sit down in your lap (if you're on the floor). He even had one with him on the walk today, just sitting there holding on to it.

A more and more common sight at our house.


Playing at the dino sandbox.


Sand lollipop? No? Ok, well he had to try...


Nellie hanging out in the back yard tonight


Brandy (it was windy and a bit chilly)












It was getting dark quickly at the end. These last ones got a bit grainy but in black and white they turned out OK.

(Photo geeks: All the night play pictures were taken at ISO 6400, the last ones were grainy mostly because they got underexposed by mistake. I'm still blown away by the high-ISO performance of the D700.)