Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Ceili has been VERY interested in St. Patrick's Day this year! She even painted this picture of a rainbow with a pot of gold...her attempt at catching the leprechaun!! We set it out on the kitchen table to see if he would come so we could catch him the other night. The next morning she was soooo excited to go downstairs to see if we caught him...he wasn't there, but he must have been there because he did leave behind some of his gold coins!! Ceili was so excited that the leprechaun had been there and left gold coins that she didn't even care that we hadn't actually caught him. Here are some pictures of her with her picture and coins!
This morning, I thought she would think it was fun to have a special breakfast for St. Patrick's Day. I made green eggs and pancakes for breakfast with green milk to drink! Ceili thought it was the greatest!! It's amazing how easy they are to please at her "almost FOUR" age!!

Keaton, on the other hand, would not even touch his breakfast! He is my child who eats ANYTHING, but would not even think about trying his green eggs and pancakes! However, he had no problem drinking his green milk - I did sneak that past him!!

Day at the Children's Museum

Since Keaton's actual birthday was on a Wednesday, I thought it would be fun for us to take a trip to the Children's Museum to celebrate. And who better to join us than his favorite cousins?! My sister Shawna and her two little ones (Keira and Kalen) were in town, so they were able to join us...as well as my sister Jamie and her son Carter and my mom (Ceili and Keaton's Nana)! This was actually Keaton's first trip to the museum...but definitely not the last! The kids had such a good time - it is always fun to watch the cousins play together!

Keaton LOVED watching the Choo-Choo trains go by...he found the perfect spot to just sit and watch!! (click on the storyboard below to view larger)

Ceili thought it was a lot of fun to walk through an actual train car...and thought it was hilarious to look at us through the window!

Lego Land was the PERFECT place for Keaton!! He had so much fun playing with the HUGE Legos...I think he would have stayed for hours if it was up to him!!

Ceili might have thought she was a bit too big to play with the big foam Legos, but you're never too big to go down the slides!!

A trip to the museum just would not be complete without some time spent in the PlayScape area! I wasn't too sure there would be much for Keaton to do in there, but he proved me wrong. He absolutely LOVED the water...splashing and splashing until he was soaked! I should have known he would love that part - he soaks me every night at bathtime because he splashes so much!!

And just look at my bald baby - have you ever seen a more handsome bald baby boy?! I just love his little bald head - at least he knows he's got a nice-shaped head for when he goes bald someday...if he ever grows hair to begin with!!

Of course, Ceili, Keira and Carter had fun in the water too...

And Baby Kalen...he may be too little to play at the museum right now, but just give him time and he'll be joining the "big" kids too!

One of our favorite parts of the museum is the carousel...Ceili HAS to be on one that goes up and down! This was Keaton's first carousel ride - he wasn't too crazy about it to begin with, but as soon as we started moving he thought it was the best thing ever!!

Keaton did not know what to think about this silly mirror...even distorted a bit, those have got to be the two best-looking guys around though!

We could NOT leave the museum without visiting the Dinosaur exhibit! It just so happened that the week before, Ceili had learned all about dinosaurs at preschool. She has gained a huge interest in them lately, wanting to read books about them all the time!! She was more than excited to tell Mrs. Rippy (her teacher, whom she just adores!) all about them...she even got to try on a dinosaur costume! She thought Mrs. Rippy would think it was really cool to see a picture of Ceili dressed up like a dinosaur. And, of course, Mrs. Rippy LOVED to hear about Ceili's trip to see the dinosaurs!!

And here is Ceili and Nana, as Ceili rubs in the disinfectant before going home...we want to take home the memories from the museum, but not the germies!! We had so much fun at the museum, and now that we have a membership I am sure we will be going a lot more often!

We went Bananas

...as our little Monkey turned ONE!! Below are the 3 pictures I used for Keaton's birthday invitations...thought I would do something different for his Monkey-themed party! He is such a good sport...good thing he likes bananas!!
I am not the most experienced when it comes to decorating cakes. However, I was soooo excited to make Keaton's monkey cake for his birthday - my mom always made ours growing up and I have the best memories of that! It is something that I want to continue and do with my children...so I think we're off to a good start! The cake was actually a lot of fun to make...even if it did take 2 days to bake all of the cakes I had to use to make it! I have to give credit to Justin for the fondant work he did on Keaton's smash cake - it turned out just perfect!! We were pretty proud of how the cakes turned out...and of course, they were banana-flavored!! I am already looking forward to making Ceili's cake for her 4th birthday in June...can never plan too early!!

Above is the food we served at the party. When I decided to do a monkey-themed party for Keaton, I was so excited to think of the things we could do that were monkey-related! I thought it would be fun to only serve food that went along with the party - I was happy with how it all turned out!

Above, the Birthday boy in his Monkey sweater with his cake!

Below, Keaton didn't really know what to do with his cake at first. After a minute or so, he realized it was fun to play in...and EAT!!

Keaton received this sock monkey from his Nana and Papaw for his birthday, and I just had to get his picture with it! How handsome is my big boy?!

Coming Soon...our trip to the Children's Museum on Keaton's birthday, Fun at the Park, and Keaton at ONE!!

Happy Birthday To You!!

So this post is 100% in honor of Shawna's birthday!! I don't know how, but I never posted these pictures from my gorgeous, sweet, fun-loving Goddaughter's 2nd Birthday!! Keira had a Hungry Caterpillar birthday party...and it was decked out with every detail from the book! Below you will see the cake...how PERFECTLY adorable did it turn out?!?! Keira absolutely loved her "taterpillar cake" - she is still talking about it almost 2 months later!!
The next picture cracks me up every time I look at it - this is how excited she was when she found out it was time to open presents!!
And here she is with part of her gift from us! She loves Ceili's umbrella and never wants to give it back, so I thought she needed her very own umbrella (and matching raincoat, of course!)! She thought it was a great idea too - she just put it right on and wanted to walk around to show everyone...how adorable is she?!
And...below are some of the maternity pictures I took for Shawna! I think I would have a million babies if I could look like this during pregnancy!
Below is one of my favorites...again - how cute is my neice?!
And about 10 days or so later, this little guy entered the world!! Kalen James is just as sweet and precious as his big sister, not to mention the fact that he looks just like her!! If we ever wondered what Keira would look like as a boy...this is it!! I have been keeping these pictures a secret until the birth announcements were out and received by all - I would have hated to spoil it and post them before people got to see them first-hand on the announcements!!

So, Shawna, I hope you enjoy this post that is dedicated to YOU!! Happy Happy Birthday To You! We love you!!!