Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

On Sunday we hosted a birthday party for a few of our family and friends to celebrate Ryan's 4th birthday!  If you ask Ryan, it wasn't a "birthday party," it was a "celebration!"  And he still wants to know when we are having a "party!"  HAHA!!

My awesome Office Manager made this adorable cake for Ryan!

I made the cake stand, cupcake stand and the cupcakes. 

Ryan and his friend, Preston!

A few of the kiddos (Natalie, Kinedy, Preston and Ryan).

Kaylyn.

Family sitting under the tree watching the kids play.

Our family!

Ryan opening his gifts.  He was totally spoiled and got some really nice things!

I'd say Ryan had an amazing 4th birthday party celebration!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RYAN!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday Dear Ryan,
Happy Birthday to you!!

Ryan is 4 years old today!  I have no idea where the last 4 years have gone...Ryan keeps us entertained and on our toes all the time.  He's loving playing baseball (in the house) almost daily and playing the drums that go to the PS3 Guitar Hero game.  He's not sleeping in his own bed much these days, but it's all right.  I don't mind!  He's learning how to write his name and besides occasionally mixing up the order of the "Y" and the "A", he's got it down great!  He can recognize the letters of the alphabet out of order, writes a lot of letters on his own now and sings the ABC song almost perfectly (gets a little tongue-tied around "L, M, N, O, P").  Ryan loves to draw and color and tell stories.  He still has his imaginary friends, Guy and Rita, around the house and in the car with us.  When he does something he knows he's not supposed to, he now blames Guy for influencing him to do whatever it is!  Ryan brings us more joy and more laughter than we ever imagined!  Ryan, we love you to the moon and back!! xoxo

We had a little birthday party yesterday at a local park with some friends and family.  I'll post pictures soon.

We leave for Disneyland next week!

Lots going on in our little corner of the world.  I'll have a more detailed post up soon with pictures of Ryan at his birthday party.

Elbow on a Stick and Mold!

Ryan has been saying THE FUNNIEST things lately! Before I forget these latest two stories, I need to blog about them!

On Friday I was driving Ryan over to Grammy & Papa's house for a sleepover. We were almost to their house when this conversation took place:

Ryan: Momma, I wish I had a elbow arm.
Me: An elbow arm? Well, you have an elbow ON your arm!
Ryan: No, I wish I had a elbow on a stick!
Me: (Laughing!) What!? An elbow on a stick? What is that?
Ryan: It's just imaginary!

Whoa - it's just "imaginary!" Quite the little thinker, huh? :)

-------------------------------------------------------

Last night we had tickets to go see a Grizzlies baseball game in Fresno (free from work, thank you boss!). We rode to Fresno with our friend, Jeri and her kids Jacey and Brody. In the truck, Ryan and I were sitting in the back seat with Jacey and this conversation took place:

Brody: I'm going to marry Brooklyn!
Jacey: Brody! That makes me feel old!
Jeri: Imagine how that makes me feel!
Ryan: You're MOLD!

Ahahaha!! I don't know if he meant to say "mold" or "old" but we laughed until our cheeks hurt!

Such a funny kid!

Sunshine, Softball & Smiles (Part 2)!

On Sunday Jake's co-ed softball team had to be at the softball fields in Morro Bay at 8:00 a.m. We loaded up early from Pismo and headed to Morro Bay. It was a long day at the fields! Jake's first game was at 9:00 a.m. and they were guaranteed a second game at 2:00 p.m.



In between that time, David & Michelle came out to watch a game and hang out with us some more.

Ryan mostly played in the dirt.



He recruited Uncle David and Natalie to play some baseball with him too.



Beautiful baby girl!




We had a beautiful view of Morro Rock while Jake played ball.



We had a really long day! Jake played at 9, 2, 6 and 8. Their team won their bracket and played in the semi-final game. Unfortunately, they lost the semi-final game and were eliminated from the tournament. However, this wasn't such a bad thing for me because if they had won, they would have played at 9 p.m.! We finally got on the road and headed home around 9:15 and crawled into bed at 11:45 p.m.! All in all it was a wonderful weekend, we're all rested (and sunburned) this evening. :)

Sunshine, Softball & Smiles (Part 1)!

This weekend was a last-minute, quick-planned, short coast trip for us! Jake's co-ed softball team signed up to play in a tournament on Sunday in Morro Bay so we decided to make a short getaway of it and headed over to the ocean air on Saturday morning!
First stop: Avila Beach!

When we got there the fog was still in, but you wouldn't have known it by the number of people crowding the beach. By Noon the sun was shining and we were enjoying watching the kiddos play in the sand. David & Michelle brought the girls out to meet us (and thank you David for setting up the EZ-Up to give us a little break from the sun).

Ryan and Natalie played in the sand. Uncle David graciously carried buckets of water from the ocean to their little play spot several times (no pictures of that but it was nice to not have to be right down in the water the entire time - it was COLD!).



Rhys hung out with her momma and Auntie in the shade, while Ryan had some fun on the swings!





We cleaned up at the beach and headed back to relax at the hotel for a bit. Later we met David, Michelle & the girls for dinner at, where else, Quarterdeck! Michelle told us about a place in town called "Yogurt Creations" that she suggested we try. Um, yes please!


You get to choose your flavor of frozen yogurt and then top with whatever toppings you want! Can you guess which one was Ryan's? Ha!

Natalie was loving the frozen yogurt - look at that messy face!


Just for fun - Ryan loves taking pictures now so he took over the camera duties for a minute.
Here's Jake!

Uncle David!


This was just day 1 of the fun-filled, busy weekend! Part 2 to follow.... :)

Our Camping Trip

I mentioned that we went camping a few weekends ago but am just now getting around to posting the pictures from our weekend. We had so much fun!

Ryan and Jake got to Riverland while I was still working that day, and got camp set up.

We met some really nice people camped next to us, but sadly didn't get any photos of them or with them.

We spent some time at the lake fishing and enjoying the sunset.

It was a wonderfully relaxing (although HOT) weekend! We will definitely go back for more camping there.