Blain turns 3!

My Cowboy: For Nate's Birthday this year I got him a pair of gator skin cowboy boots that he picked out. They just barely came in after being special ordered. He likes them a lot and says they are comfortable too. Now all he's missing is the horse   :)

 Nate in his Sunday Boots

 Close up

Mason Jars: My cousin Anna has been living in her Grandma's house who was an avid canner and now she is getting rid of most of them. I was lucky enough to go over a week ago and pick out 2 dozen or so, including some old ones with beautiful designs and 4 half gallon jars that will be perfect when our milk comes or we get enough beans from the garden to dry and store.

 I love old mason jars!

Play Time: I've been trying to spend as much time as possible outside these days as the weather is close to perfect - warm but not too hot. We have been playing on the swings and in the "sand box", learning baseball with a tee and bat, and telling stories as we water the trees.

 Happy Swinger

 3 babies on the swings

 Chloe my big girl

 Wendy and her kids are here for the next couple weeks! They were staying with Em last week but we took a trip down there to stay the night and spend a fun day together. I took Chloe and Timmy to the park while the littler kids napped. Timmy is so sweet to me, giving me lots of cuddles and hugs :)

How to Train your Dragon 2: For Blain's party we took his family and friends to the new "Dragon Movie" as Blain calls it. We brought in candy and popcorn and I think everyone had a good time. There were 17 people there to celebrate with Blainy.

 Riding in the car to the movies - his first one!! Chloe and Timmy have been switching car seats whenever possible

 Sitting on a booster in the movies with his popcorn cup next to cousin Darius. He got a little restless about 3/4 of the way through, finding it more fun to blow pretend fire and people and play on the stairs by Damian. Good thing we almost had the theater to ourselves.

 Back at Em's for Cake, Ice cream and presents (those are his feet by Molly, getting piggies done to his toes)

 Opening presents - he got so many fun toys and nice things for his birthday: ant farm, helicopter, shorts and sandals, lots of dragons and knights, flying superman, viking hat and sword & shield.

 He ran around like this for the rest of the day, fighting Timmy the knight who was wearing the rest of the costume and knight helmet

 Nate made Blain the Blankie cake that he had been talking about since Chloe's birthday. He spent a couple hours the morning of making "tickles", mixing up blue frosting, and assembling the whole thing to look like his bed at home. What a good Daddy.

It's hard to put into words how Blain reacted to his cake, not excited or sad, it was almost like he just knew he would have a cake that looked just like his Blankie. "complacent expectancy" is how Nate puts it.  Overall a very fun day :) Happy #3 Blainito!!