a party for posterity

We celebrated David's birthday last Saturday with a simple family party. My sister, bro-in-law, and 4 kiddos, and brother, and sis-in-law (Michael's sister and family were out of town) all came to spend the night on Friday night. No real partying that night after late arrivals by all. We began all the festivities on Saturday morning. After a breakfast of homemade, sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits, we got an early start at Bouncin' Bears. Arriving at 9ish was the smartest thing we did (we were the only ones for quite a while but when we left at 10:30, it was packed!) We had fun and were quite exhausted from the exercise in that short time. The adults did agree that it would be quite possible to seriously injure oneself there though!

We came home so David could open presents and then eat some lunch and the cake. David has enjoyed doing the train puzzle and the clock puzzle from A&B. The golf clubs we got him have become a new favorite, even going to bed with him. (He does have a natural swing...watch out Tiger!) I had prayed for several weeks previous that David would interact well with E and J since he did not like being mothered by them last time they visited. God answered the prayers! E and J kept David quite entertained!

For lunch, David ate his favorite, peanut butter and jelly, for lunch. Then, we moved on to cake. After attempting to get David to keep his party hat on while presenting the cake, he began screaming and we gave up. I had made a very "homemade" cake that was far from beautiful but fun, nonetheless. David was interested in the racetrack and the Lightning McQueen candle! He stopped crying while we sang Happy Birthday to him but would not blow out the candles. He did, however, indulge in cake...lots of cake!!! (two large pieces)

Naptime for David (which he ended up not taking), swimming for Anna's kids, followed by lots of video gaming by the two oldest, movies for the youngest, adult naps, and thrift store and Antique shopping with Anna, more playing with presents etc...

No one had been hungry after a large breakfast, so we ended up eating our large meal around 5ish. We had a large crockpot full of italian wedding soup...all gobbled up by the 11 hungry mouths. Andrew and Shayna said farewell and left only 9 bodies.

We awoke Sunday to an absolutely cranky boy (Saturday--no nap, lots of exercise and an exciting party left David exhausted). After church David did nap and Anna and I did some more Antique shopping before they headed home again.

Happy early Birthday, David!!!

on the injured list

David drew his first serious blood a couple of weeks ago (right in time for 2 year old pictures! :) ). He tripped and scraped up his forehead with a plastic medicine bottle cap. It looked far worse than it was, but there was a LOT of blood from a surface scrape. Poor boy did not want to keep the bandaid on, but it was gushing for a while. We finally found a bandaid he could not get off.

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Nursery Chairs--

One of the chairs is South America,

One of the chairs is a ship at sea,

One is a cage for a great big lion,

And one is a chair for Me.

When We Were Very Young, A.A. Milne

in the family way...

and no, I do not mean pregnant!

David seems to be keeping up the Brown family tradition for naming things.

He has taken to calling Michael by his first name half of the time. (guess he hears it from me regularly) However, instead of being able to say "Michael," he says "Bacu." It is quite cute! And here is where the similarity seems poignant. One of my family members is the self-proclaimed "Racu," another is "Boku." David seems to be just carrying along the family naming pattern.

PS my family has always come up with multiple, funny nicknames for each other--these are just nicknames.

Vivid Nights

I have heard that you dream most vividly when you are in a light sleep right before awaking. Perhaps all my early morning bathroom trips have led to very vivid dreams this pregnancy. Almost every morning I awake with a full color dream on my mind. One night my poor son (even at age two) was imprisoned for robbing a bank (until I convinced them that a two year never could have done the job). I have had people chasing me in other dreams. Random people show up in real life scenarios where they would not normally fit. Last night I dreamed we won free pizza for 6 months. I am sure Michael would be disappointed to wake up after that dream!