Jake and Daddy Go to the Movies

I (Kris) took Jake to see a movie on Tuesday. We saw Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. Jake was pretty impressed with the 3D-ness of it all. "How does it come out?" he asked, as he flipped his glasses back and forth over his eyes trying to figure out how it worked. About halfway through the movie, though, he decided he preferred the 2D version, probably because the glasses were far too big for his face. (He probably was seeing a lot of rim.)

Before the movie, I fulfilled a longstanding promise to get him a "small chocolate shake." He's been fantasizing about drinking a "small chocolate shake" for quite a while now. "Before the movie, I'll get you a chocolate shake!" I told him--whereupon he himself extracted the additional condition that it must be "small." Because his fantasy was not to have just any chocolate shake. It had to be a "small chocolate shake."

Jake watched attentatively and asked questions about the plot throughout the movie. I don't know what he's going to do once we finally break the bad news to him that in the movie theater you're "supposed to be quiet." That will make for a sad little Jakey. (It was okay this time because the only other people in the theater also had a kid who was also pretty talkative.)

Afterwards we played Air Hockey in the theater lobby. Jake won 7 to 6. I need to work on my game.

Next our task was to pick up Grandma from her eye doctor appointment. While waiting for her, I tried some frames out on him. Almost all of them looked really cute. They actually make frames that are correctly proportioned for kids' faces. Why they can't do this for adult males, I'll never understand.

What a Week!

Wednesday night was like Christmas. We waited up very late for a visit from our friends, Maroua, Ryan, and Rami. They arrived around 1:15am and we spent the next two hours catching up, even though we were all dead tired.

The next day, the kids' doctor appointment had been cancelled so we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and drove into Wichita Falls for lunch at Double Dave's pizza. We then drove to Fort Worth and stopped by dad's house before hitting John and Nikki's. Nikki made a fabulous dinner and we all sat around talking until late into the night.

Friday, we went sight seeing. We started off at the Log Cabin Village, which was surprisingly really cool. The kids ran around and got to pump water, pet fake chickens, and try on coon skin caps. I may have been photographed in a bonnet... I left my camera in Holliday so I'm at the mercy of Maroua and Nikki to send me pictures. After all the candle dipping and corn milling, we headed to a sushi place for lunch. So good! It had been a long time since we'd had Japanese food. A front came in so it began to feel freezing outside so rather that check out the Botanic Gardens, we headed over to the Omni Theatre and watched The Grand Canyon Adventure. It was pretty cool. The kids didn't get scared or bored (though they would have probably liked the dinosaur one better!). Afterwards, it was Free Family Friday at the museum so we checked out the museum stuff which was being housed inside the Cowgirl Hall of Fame due to renovation. After that, we made our way to an Asian grocery store and picked up a few things for dinner.

The last event for the evening was cake baking. The plan was to bake the cakes and freeze them overnight. That worked for the two 9" rounds, but the bundt was a problem. Half of it stuck inside the pan. We salvaged what we could, but decided to try the other bundt the next day.

Saturday morning we had orange rolls and baked a cake-- this time it worked! Around noon we headed over to dad's house to frost the cake and get ready for the party. By 4:30, we were full up with Jessica, Kris, Jacob, Ella, Maroua, Ryan, Rami, Michelle, Lisa, Johnny, Grandad, Grandma Linda, Grandma, Mommy-O, Daddy-O, Jonas, Kaemon, and Melody. We ate pizza and fruit flowers; sang happy birthday; ate snake cake and ladybug cake; and opened presents. The kids got tons of clothes and toys and will be very stylishly playing for weeks.

Happy Birthday, Ella!!!

Ella's second birthday started out with cinnamon rolls and a chorus of "Happy Birthday" sung by Jessica and Jacob. Ella picked out her new pink dress to wear and we headed to the gym. Once there, Ella handed out cookies to all of her Kids Klub friends. Since Ella is now two, she gets to go with Jacob and the big kids to Kid Fit. She was reluctant to try her new tennis shoes at first, but she soon changed her mind when she saw that her buddy, Jaleesa, was wearing some. After Jessica ran THREE MILES (oh yeah!) she picked up the kids and headed to JCPenney's for more pictures. Ella wanted cheeseburgers for lunch so we did the drive through at Jack in the Box and headed home. After a really long nap, Ella had to be woken up to have a dinner of fried chicken. Jacob and Jessica made brownies for dessert (Ella was having 2 year old issues at the time) and so we all sang "Happy Birthday" again and Ella blew out her candle a second time. Soon after it was off to bed.

Happy Birthday, Jacob!!!

Jacob is FOUR today!!! The morning started out with pancakes, a #4 candle, and a chorus of "Happy Birthday." Then to appease Ella, we followed up with a #2 candle and an encore of "Happy Birthday." Jacob took M&M cookies to Kid Fit at the gym and afterwards, we took the yearly birthday pictures at JCPenney's. They were behind schedule (of course) but we were given the added entertainment of crazy people both before and after us in line. There was yelling and arguing and security... very exciting. Since we were nice, we were given the Smiles By Wire for free : ) We had a mall lunch before heading back home. Once Ella was awake from her nap, we all piled in the car and headed to Chuck E. Cheese. Jacob was really REALLY excited. He barely touched his pizza (Ella didn't even take a bite) before heading off to ride rides and play games.

Ella Bella

Limited Time Offer!!!

**No, I'm not selling the kids... yet**

I responded to the following weird meme on Hope's blog:

The first 5 people who respond to this post will get something made by me (my choice) for you. Don't you feel super special already? This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. What I make will be just for you (it could be a craft project; it could be something to eat; it could be anything...)

2. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.

3. It will be done sometime before September.

4. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 who do the same on their blogs. And you have to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Chest