S'more fire fun

Last night we had a few friends over and we broke in the new fire pit. The kids cooked hot dogs over the fire, and then we made s'mores later.

We had a lot of fun, and the boys are already asking when we can do it again. Actually, Nate asked us today if he could cook dessert over the fire every night.

Nile, helping get the fire ready.

The kids, cooking hot dogs.

The "roaring" fire

S'mores.  (at least the marshmallow part)

Star Wars in Concert

On Wednesday, July 7, we, along with our friends Matt and Emma, went to Star Wars in Concert. I was a little nervous to see how the boys would do with an evening concert. But when you combined amazing music (performed so well that we would often forget that the symphony was live on stage) with movie clips on a giant HD screen (synchronized with the music), it was an event that both boys loved.

Nate's favorite? "Darth Vader"

Nile's favorite? "Everything."

Now, I can't wait to share the actual movies with them.

Before the concert we ate outside in the beer garden at the BierStube in Moline.

Here are Nate and Emma, during the intermission.


And here is Nate with one of the many displays of props and costumes from the movies.

Matt's blog entries from the event are linked below.

• Emma Frozen in Carbonite
• Darth Emma
• Emma and C3P0
• Emma and Ewoks
• Emma and Queen Amadalla
• Emma and Anne
• Intermission
• Nate and Emma
• Star Wars in Concert

Star Wars Book

Tom literally pulled in the driveway 2 minutes ago. He brought Nate a
new Star Wars book from Emma.

I think he likes it!

Superheroes

Nate had a Superhero birthday party on Saturday. One of our friends captured these two videos of the superheroes playing outside. This is Spider Girl, Wonder Woman, and Nate the superhero (he had so many different superhero names, I honestly can't remember one). Oh, and Nile.

First they race down the hill...perhaps for battle? If you look closely you can see Nile coming down behind the three.


Then they return up the hill. I'm not sure why Nile needed the baseball bat.


Thanks to James for capturing this on his iPhone.

Nate turns 5!

On Thursday, Nate turned 5. My little boy will be heading to Kindergarten in the fall. It's a cliche, I know, but it's amazing how fast time flies. Since we were planning a birthday party for his friends on Saturday, on his actual birthday we just had a family dinner and gifts at home.

Thanks to Gramma Elaine for sending home a giant brownie so we had something to put candles in! :)




Yeah, it was that good.


With Autobot Ironhide.


Looking at a new space book from Gramma.

I mentioned the party on Saturday. We only got one good picture that day - I did get some videos but haven't uploaded them yet.

For Nate's party, he had a Superheroes theme. He invited six friends, two of whom were unable to make it. So we had Spider Girl Emma, Wonder Woman Rachael, Batman Nathan (our neighbor), Andrew, Nile, and of course the birthday boy, who made up so many superhero names I don't know who he was.

The kids had tons of fun playing outside (see here for proof) and then we had pizza and cake. It was a perfect party - low key and laid back. No planned games and just enough guests. (It doesn't hurt when the parents stay too!) Nate had a blast and is already playing with his gifts. Now, the challenge will be to get him to write thank you cards.

And see, we did have a real cake for him!

Is he still my little baby boy...?

My baby boy Nile turned 3 on Friday. We spent most of the day at home. Cousin Emily came over for the day, so we didn't plan on doing much of anything. Nile didn't want to get dressed in the morning. I figured, "what the heck? It's his birthday!" - so I told him he could stay in his PJ's as long as he wanted. So here he is at 3:30 pm, eating a snack with Emily, still in his frog jammies.

We had been asking Nile what he wanted to do for his birthday for the last several weeks. It was always one of two things: Stay home and have his friends come over, or go to Monkey Joe's. The one consistent statement? "With Andrew, Alex, and Emma!" Since Tom didn't feel like hosting a party, Monkey Joe's became the plan.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Monkey Joe's, it's basically a large room full of inflatable bouncy things and slides. It's loud, crazy, and at least 50% of the times we've been there, absolutely packed with sweaty kids. But, the kids love it. They claim to cater to the parents - if you read on their website this is the statement they have: "While your kids monkey around, you take advantage of our adult area, which features comfortable seating, free high-speed wireless Internet, flat screen televisions, and computer stations."

This "adult area?" It consists of about four chairs in the middle of this room of craziness. Not really what we pictured. But, we're talking about preschoolers and toddlers. We know when we go there, that we aren't going to be sitting down and relaxing any time soon.

So, last night, as soon as Tom got home, we headed out to dinner at Old Chicago, then off to Monkey Joe's for an hour or so of running, jumping, climbing, and bouncing. (With Andrew, Alex, and Emma of course!). We only stayed an hour because that's all the time we had, they close at 8 pm, and dinner took until 6:45!

Nile got to open one present at dinner - from Andrew, and Alex. It was, in his words, a "rock guitar!" - when he opened it, this is exactly what came out of his mouth. I quote: "No way, Jose!" Here he is this morning (he had to get it out right after breakfast). Emma got him some new books - a Mater (from Cars) book, and "Where the Wild Things Are" - we've already read them at least once.

Tom and I had also bought Nile a guitar. But we got him (again in his words) a "John Denver guitar." These two guitars haven't left his sight all day. Guess we did okay, huh?


Back to what I said at the beginning. My baby boy Nile turned 3 yesterday. I told him I probably couldn't call him my "baby boy" any more. So I asked him what I should call him. He told me, "You can call me baby boy." So I guess I'm off the hook. He's still my baby! :)

New Year's Madness

We went to the home of our friends the DeBaene's for New Year's Eve. Their daughter, Emma, is three and Nate and Nile love visiting her house - mostly for her really cool toys.

Nate loved dressing up in Emma's "superhero" stuff. He started out as Robin, wore that for an hour, then changed into Captain America for a few hours. Finally he finished off with the Spiderman gloves and mask (we did draw the line when he asked to wear the sparkly Spider-Girl outfit).

Here he is as Captain America.


Nile put on a guitar concert for the kids. Basically he was playing with Emma's Barbie guitar and microphone, so the rest of the kids set up chairs and pretended they were at a concert. I think he was oblivious to them. But...maybe he did know what was going on. Either way he entertained them for quite a while.


We got home late (really late) and Nate was worried that he hadn't gotten to open the "poppers" that the boys had made with Grandma Elaine at the Bettendorf Children's Museum. So, on New Year's Day, right after breakfast, they were excited to find out "what was inside" them. (Although they made them, so they knew what they had put inside...)




We spent the rest of New Year's Day hanging out at home with Grandma, Papa, and Becky and watching four college football games. And of course, we ate our lucky black-eyed peas.