Birthday

We celebrated Connor's fourth birthday this Sunday. This was the first time we had a 'big' birthday party for him here. Usually, we just do a cake and gift thing with the family. This year we wanted to do more to celebrate him. We had quite a few people over and Connor had such a good time. :) Everyone enjoyed the bouncy house, and we enjoyed spending time with both family and friends.
We did have a minor cake mix-up the day of the party. We had ordered a Costco cake, but when we cut into it we realized they gave us the wrong one. We had ordered a carrot cake with apricot filling and got a chocolate bread cake with some kind of white filling. The outside and name on top were correct which is what threw us for a loop. Well, rather than incite a riot from the kids, we served the 'wrong' cake anyway. The next day we went to Costco to complain and they gave us another cake; this time it was the 'right' kind. So that left us with more cake than we could ever eat and we have been busy giving cake away to anyone who will take some. :) Connor decided he liked the carrot cake better; Nicholas is still partial to the chocolate one.
Anyway, enjoy the pics! Thanks to all who attended and shared in Connor's special day. For those of you who could not make it, we sure missed ya!

Connor's Fourth Birthday

Here we have a video done by our good friend, Trevor. He was kind enough to make a movie for us about Connor's birthday party. Thanks so much, Trevor!
Enjoy!

Our Dead Car

So we went to visit my very dead, squished Matrix today. It was very sad. The guy at the tow company said that it was more than likely going to be declared 'totaled'. I said that I couldn't see how it would be labeled anything else in its sad condition. :(
Anyway, Charlie asked me to take some photos since we will probably never see our little car again. Here they are. Can you imagine being on the inside of that as it happened? Scary. Poor Charlie and Dave. :(

Bouncy Fun

We bought a bounce house the other day. It was a super great deal we found on Craigslist. In our search to see how much it would be to rent a bounce house, we found a woman who was selling hers for only $30. Can you imagine? So we went to see it and expected it would be in bad shape or something to be that cheap, but no! It was in really good condition. She blew it up for us to see and test out and everything. :) She just wanted it out of her garage and so it was win-win for all.
We blew it up in the yard today, since we plan to use it for Connor's birthday party on Sunday-- we wanted to make sure it would fit where we intended it to be used and such. The kids enjoyed an afternoon of bouncing, followed by a good bath. It was a good way to unwind after such a chaotic day. Enjoy the pics.

The Bus

Hello all. This is my first official blog update on our family blog. It is I, Charlie- the father of those two cute boys you all tune in to see. Let me start off by saying that we are down to one car as a family for now. To get the first question out of the way it was just my friend Dave and I in the car. We both lived to tell. Unfortunately, Nadia's little car got totaled by a bus. Yes, that's right folks... a BUS. I can hardly even believe it happened. It happened at Homestead and Lawrence Expressway at about 10 am. A drunk bus driver plowed into a van behind me --pushing it into me, pushing me into another car. Once the other two cars were clear, I had been pushed sideways and the bus slammed into my car again, this time in the back seat area. I have to tell you it is not a fun thing to see a bus coming at you and realizing that you are about to get hit. We don't have any pictures of the end results, but the police do. I will just end by saying that I hope that I never again and you never have to go through anything like this. Thank you to all who called to check up on me.

My Pet Alligator

Here is a photo we thought we would share. Nicholas dug up his 'pet alligator' today. It is an alligator that has a shoelace tied around it's neck. Nicholas puts the shoelace around him and has the alligator follow him around as he plays. We think it is very cute and it is something he has done since he was able to be at all mobile (scooting, crawling, etc.) Of course, as soon as Connor saw we were taking pictures of Nicholas, he too decided he must be photographed. He was eating his lunch. I hope you enjoy the pics as much as we do. :)

And for those of you who have not seen my hair as of late, it is still short and very curly.

And we're back!

For those of you who were blissfully unaware, we have just returned from the beautiful island of Kaua'i. We spent one wonderfully restful week enjoying the beauty of the 'Garden Island.' The kids spent a lot of time in the ocean or in the pool. Happily, we return with no sun burns! Yay!
We were lucky enough to go with Charlie's family, which made the trip all the more special. :)
Some quick highlights from the trip- Grandpa Jim was kind enough to chase Connor around the beach and jump in and out of waves with him. Needless to say, both Connor and Grandpa Jim got quite a workout! Nicholas fell deeply in love with Grandma Connie's spaghetti. He had three helpings at dinner. Connor fell in love with a belly dancer at a Mediterranean restaurant we went to dinner at... he became very obsessed with her. She was kind enough to let him follow her around the restaurant and even let him dance with her. She was such a good sport! Uncle Phill was kind enough to chaperon Connor as he followed the belly dancing girl around the restaurant. Pictures of this will come later. Both kids loved looking at all the wild chickens that are everywhere on this island. I fell in love with the beautiful ocean views, the spaghetti, and coconut turnovers (if you love coconut, you'll love those too!). Charlie remembered why he loves spaghetti so much, and he really enjoyed spending loads of time in the pool trying to teach Connor to swim and stay afloat. Auntie Molly had the foresight to fully research all the sights and activities on the island so that we were able to see and do the best of best the island had to offer. :) Thanks to her research, we saw many, many beautiful things and sights on our trip. I can see why people love Hawaii so much.
Many, many thanks to Grandpa Jim, Grandma Connie, Uncle Phill, and Auntie Molly for sharing their vacation with us. It is truly one we will never forget. :)
Here are some beginning photos to show you. We will have more when we have compiled them.

Here is a sunset view from the condo we stayed in.

I *believe* these were the Wailua Falls. The kids loved looking at this, but they were disappointed they couldn't go in it.

Here is Connor swimming in the pool by the condos. Doesn't it look like it could be some beautiful lagoon out the in the jungle?

And below you have 2 pics from the car. The kids were taking turns wearing some sunglasses and looking cool while we traveled from one site to the next.


Stay tuned for more info and photos to come from our family vacation.