Gunnar's Party...

On Sunday we had a fun party for Gunnar's birthday at a little park here in Providence. After counting how many people were going to come, I was praying for nice weather all week so that we could do it outside. Well I wouldn't really call it a "nice" day, but it wasn't too bad. Just really really WINDY!! But that actually worked out well...we gave all the kids kites and they had a blast flying them after eating, opening presents and having cake!
We had pizza, chef salad, and fruit salad and these cute little pops.

(I remember my Dad getting us these for picnics when we were little and they were always such a treat! And they reminded me of Gunnar...little and cute!)
After we ate, Gunnar opened presents. We set them out on the grass in the sun where it wasn't quite as cold and windy. He loved everything and it was so cute to see his reactions when he opened each thing.

Ashton sure loved helping him dig into everything... We got him this... ...and some new sand toys, a little bubble maker, new big boy undies and a new potty seat.

Ashton picked out these new pajamas for him.
He also got lots of Toy Story stuff and a LeapFrog Toy from his Godparents Tony and Angie, a firetruck from the Hanson boys, a cute little car race toy from the Villa kids, a camelback type backpack & some money from Nana & Papa, a little people airplane from Aunt Kelli, an ice cream maker playdough set & giant bottle of bubbles from his cousins and this cute furry spring horse from Grandma & Grandpa Harry. Spoiled! Thanks everyone!!!

For his cake I had the idea to do an airplane since he loves them so much. I got online and looked for cute ideas and found one I liked, so I ordered this cake pan.....thinking it was much bigger than it actually was. When I opened the box and took it out, it was about half the size I was expecting it to be! My sister and I were laughing so hard at it. Well anyway I decided I would just make 2 of them and some cupcakes to go with them. Then to decorate them I made these little star candies with a candy mold and my sister found these cute airplanes to go with them. (Thank you so much Kelli for all of your help!!) We handed out these little bags of them for party favors with the kites.
On the instructions for the cake pan it said that you could bake it in the microwave in only 6 minutes, so I had to try it. I figured if it didn't work out, I'd just try again in the oven. Well it did work! They tasted just like I'd baked them in the oven and it saved me a ton of time since I had to do 2 of them.
Anyway here they are... They were pretty fun to make and I think Gunnar loved them!

His "bling blanes"...

It was way too windy to keep candles lit, so we just sang Happy Birthday to him, then let him pretend to blow them out. He loved the singing...his little face was so cute to watch!Then it was time to cut up the planes and dish them out. They went fast, so I'm glad I did cupcakes too. Yum!

Ashton got mad at one point because he dropped the star off of his piece of cake on the ground, so I got this lovely picture of him :)After cake and ice cream it was time for kites. All the kids got to choose one, and they were up in the air in no time.
We actually did the same thing last year on Gunnar's birthday because it was such a similar windy day.

I think all the kids ended up flying them for about an hour on Sunday night!

So much fun!

Then we handed out our little party favors and it was time to head home.

HaPpY BiRtHdaY GuNnaR!

You are such a fun kid!We love you so much.

Please don't let your 3rd birthday sneak up on us so soon!

Gunnar is 2!!!!

Happy Happy Birthday today to our sweet little Gunnar boy! I can't believe he's already 2!

We had a fun busy day that I will post all about tomorrow...
Love you buddy!

Some days...

...these boys fight like crazy!

But then there are moments like these that I love...

Recent stuff...

It seems like it's been a long time since I've done a normal post (whatever that is)...so anyway here are some things that have been going on around here...

Aunt Kelli has been staying with us and it is so nice to have her here. We all love it! Especially Ashton and Gunnar. They beg me to go in and wake her up each morning. I try to hold them off till 9:00. She is so helpful with them and with everything else we have going on all the time.

Ashton has been in gymnastics for about 6 weeks now. He goes once a week for an hour and loves every minute of it. I have yet to get any good pictures of him doing it, but I'll keep trying.

It's so fun to see him getting so excited about it!
It will be intersting to see if he likes soccer and T-Ball as much...

The other day he looked so cute dressed for school, I had to take a bunch of pictures of him. Honestly 95 % of the time we see him in his various pairs of pajamas, so it's refreshing (and surprising) to see him in cute clothes! He literally gets dressed 5 minutes before we have to go somewhere (not very willingly!) and then before I can blink when we get home, he's back into his pajamas! I don't think Lars ever sees him in clothes except for church or if we go out to eat on the weekends! Love the pajamas Ashton, but you sure did look handsome this day in your clothes ;)

Gunnar on the other hand just wants to be naked!

He has learned so much earlier than Ashton did how to get undressed! And he just wants to stay that way. He's been taking his diaper off and going into the bathroom and throwing it in the garbage, getting up on the potty and peeing lots of times this week. I guess I should be excited and really start working with him, but I'm just not ready for potty training again yet! He seems too little to me still, but I know I should try. He's doing really well, but I have a feeling he is going to be so much harder than Ashton. He is one stubborn little guy!

He will be 2 on Sunday and boy is he acting like a 2 year old!

Here is one of his latest injuries...

(he looks like a little piggy..haha!) Not nearly as bad as Ashton's split chin, but it was a good little cut. Aunt Kelli the nurse advised us that it wasn't bad enough to go in for stitches. And it's healing up really good now.

He sure does keep us laughing all day... The other night while Lars was out of town fishing, we had Brianne and the boys over for dinner. I just grilled some hotdogs (yes I figured out how to use the grill...okay the neighbor helped me, but I did it!) Anyway Gunnar ate all of his and then I hear him asking me for

"more hot-diggity-dog Mommy." He cracks me up!

I love all of the cute funny things he is saying right now and the way he talks. I love it when he comes up to me and says "What you dooney (doing) Mommy?" And I think it's so funny that he calls Grandma "Glamma". She says it's because she's so glamorous :). Aunt Kelli is Aunt Telli.

He still most of the time calls Ashton Aggie, but a few weeks ago he actually called him Ashton and I have to admit it kind of made me sad!

Which reminds me, we got Ashton all registered for kindergarten last week. He did great on the little readiness test and they said he is all ready to go. This week he (on his own) has started sounding out words and gets so excited when he gets one right! Hard to believe he will be starting to read!

Oh and I guess I never posted pictures of Gunnar's new crib tent... That has been heaven by the way. It really just gives me peace of mind that he's not going to hurt himself trying to get out! And after the initial loving it, then hating being in it (realizing that he couldn't get out)...he doesn't mind it at all. Money well-spent!

And I can't forget these pictures from St. Patrick's Day. Ashton's little friend Jace called that morning wanting to know if Ashton wanted to get his hair spray-painted green with him for school. They had some extra green spray paint left over from Halloween...well Ashton's favorite color is green, so he was totally excited for me to do it. And I think it turned out so cute! His teachers loved it too!

Gunnar was napping when I did it, but when we went and picked him up from school, he took one look at Ashton's hair and said "I want green hair!", so I sprayed a little on his when we got home......but then he wouldn't cooperate for any pictures.

Other than that we have had a few nice days, so they boys have already been enjoying the swings and sandbox and I think they'd prefer to be outside all day.Gunnar has learned how to blow bubbles and ride his little scooter he got for Christmas... Too bad it's winter-ish again today.

I'm praying for nice weather this weekend so that on Sunday we can possibly move Gunnar's birthday party outside.

Here's the invitation I made for it...
I guess that's all for now!