McKay's Birthday!

How is it possible that my baby is five?  It just cannot be!  Since this is a big birthday we let McKay have his very first birthday party.  I let him choose everything so it was kind of a Panda/Star Wars/lame party.  One day the boys are going to be big enough to realize how lame their parties are.  Then we are in trouble. 

I made a panda cake.  But it is August so the frosting was trying to slide off.  We also played panda themed games.  There are a lot more than you would think if you are willing to have no shame.

He loves Star Wars!  And cheesy smiles.  There were some light saber battles as well.  Not related in any way to pandas.

He also loves weapons!  And his friends.  We sure do love our big (little) guy.

Evidence

Just in case you needed a visual

Summer karate

Another way to get through the summer is to do indoor activities.  So we let McKay join Logan in karate.  Best. Move. Ever.  It was inside and they got worn out.  Win. Win.

McKay started in the white belt group but after a few weeks was integrated into the yellow belt class.  On his first test he skipped the yellow belt and went straight to green.  He is very loud.  It is hilarious to see this little tiny body... and then hear his ferocious "Kai!!!"

At the end of the summer Logan moved to a green belt with a blue stripe.  He is happy because those are his favorite colors.  Logan wants to keep going in karate until he is a ninja.

We take karate very seriously around here.

The staycation where I got fresh with a giraffe

Another of our summer staycations was a visit to the Out of Africa Park in Camp Verde, about an hour north of us.  We got to drive around in busses and look at some animals close up.  I loved it.  It was pretty hot and dusty so we did the tours and shows and then were ready for some yummy food and shade.  As a side note, if you go the month of your birthday it is free.  Which means we will always go when it is blasted hot because August is birthday month for me and McKay.

Perhaps too close up.  It got a little weird after this.

The boys enjoyed seeing the animal shows, especially one where a tiger jumped in the water and did tricks.  Logan, McKay and I all took some time to feed the bengal his yummy steak treats. 

I promise the tiger was interested in the treat.  He was just a little fastidious.  I appreciate a clean tiger.  Maybe the grooming habits will give me time to get away when he decides I am a bigger piece of meat.  

I want to take him home and cuddle him.  Loren promises that is not how it would shake down.

Fun fact: Here is the first shot of our baby number three!  I am three months pregnant in this photo, we are expecting HER on Valentine's Day!

Summer Fun!

It gets insanely hot in the summer in Arizona.  The only way to make it through is to stay as wet as possible.  We did this in a few ways.  First, the boys each took two sessions of swimming lessons.  Logan can now do the four strokes, and is getting pretty proficient.  I tried to talk him into swim team, but he wasn't interested. McKay can now take a breath while swimming--which has opened whole new worlds of swimming self sufficiency!  Hallelujah! 

The boys loved to go to the water park with Dad after work.  McKay loves to jump off the high dive.  I did it once.  I'm done.  Logan will jump off the high dive if forced, but much prefers doing tricks on the low dive.  Frankly, their preference is to climb all over Dad.  We also spent some time at the splashpad and crashing friend's pools.

Finally, we took a few staycations.  One weekend we went to the Point, and made it our mission to go to all six pools.  We also got to have dinner, visit a cheese shop, and go crazy at a candy store.  Good times, people, good times. 

Another weekend we went to Slide Rock, which is about an hour and a half north at a state park by Sedona.  Loren had fond childhood memories so we thought we'd check it out.  It was freezing!  Way too cold for our Arizona boys. We each went down the natural rock slide a few times, but then were done and just kind of hung out in the warmer shallow water.  

See those cliffs in the background?  Yeah, McKay jumped off them.  About twenty people clapped.  He didn't hear it, but it was still impressive.  The boys spent some quality time climbing rocks, just like little boys should. I don't think Loren found the slides as much fun as an adult as he did as a child.

Whoops! Missed a holiday.

Our Easters are pretty low-key occasions. This year I took the kiddos to a little party thrown by the Girl Scouts.  They didn't find any eggs, but they met this handsome fellow.

Later, I took them to a Easter activity thrown by a local church.  They had lunch, bouncy houses and an Easter Egg hunt.  On Easter Sunday we enjoyed church, had a small-scale hunt at our house, and had a ham.  I also had to finally cave and let the boys dye Easter Eggs.  I managed to go six years without it, that's pretty good, right?  My phone ate my pictures, so you'll just have to imagine them at the table in their underwear. Needless to say, no one likes to eat eggs.