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The Dump Truck Party
Party Sign (I designed and then printed at Costco) and now hanging in his bedroom.
Invitations
Decorations – I made the flags last year for each of his parties (Maria has a pastel more girly version for her parties). This balloon idea debuted this year after some similar inspiration from pinterest.
Of course we had dump trucks to play with! This was his favorite. His Uncle Mike’s from the 1970s — Note to Parents: big metal trucks can be rough on walls and kitchen cabinets!
Cake – We also had cupcakes with some dump truck toppers that I forgot to photograph.
Party Favors – Kit Kat’s with special Dump Truck wrappers.
Charlie is 2!
I can’t even believe how fast the last 2 years have gone! Charlie has gone from this baby boy…
to this little boy!
More pictures here. Photography in the midst of entertaining is not my strength…
Charlie at 2 loves cars and trains (choo choos). He loves books, especially books about dump trucks. He loves balls and being outside! Blocks are great fun as he figures out how they fit together. It’s fun to watch him as he solves a “problem”.
He loves his sister and his bum-pas and bum-mas (grandparents). He also loves Elmo and Curious George.
He is also independent and pretty fearless. He does not mind being dropped off at the church nursery or the YMCA kidstuff to play for an hour or so. He jumps right into activities that look fun.
He does not like to sit in the shopping cart but prefers to walk when we’re out. His vocabulary is exploding and it is fun to see how he associates different things from memory.
Although he has his “two year old” moments and part of me fears that his two’s will be more terrible than his big sister’s, we still think he’s pretty great! And looking forward to the times ahead and trying new things as our family of 4 gets more and more “mobile” every day!
Maria’s Valentines
Maria’s Valentine’s. Taken with my iPhone, so forgive the quality of the photo. But I think they turned out really cute. Easy & Yummy too!
Unbroken
Unbroken: A World War II Book of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really liked this book. It took me a long time to get through it, but if the size of it intimidates you, know that almost the last 100 pages were annotations.
Story of an Olympic athelete who is drafted into WWII. His plane goes down over the Pacific and survives in a raft, then ends up in Japanese POW camps. I knew very little about the Japanese POW camps or how the war was staged over the Pacific. The book had a lot of history with the story, so that is why it probably felt a little slow, but I appreciated that too.
I would recommend.
Hello February!
So maybe it seems like time is going by like crazy, because weather wise it really feels like Spring! I mean today it seems cold (16 degrees F). so yes, that is cold, but not relatively for MN for February!
So the last time I wrote we had finally gotten some snow. Well that snow has gone. A little more came, but now that snow is gone too.
Maria has also recovered from her tonsilectomy. She is doing well. Even had a cold that did not turn into an ear infection! And she is sleeping and just generally seems to be feeling well overall. She is sleeping well. Wondering if we have a growth spurt on our hands. As they say this is likely with her body finally feeling on par! She is all about writing notes, primarily Love notes “I Love you Mommy”, “I love you Grandpa”. And also cutting and coloring and taping!
Charlie has also grown. The kid is walking around in short pants. Oh and he’s talking a lot more in just the last month. He amazes us. He loves his dumptruck and will be 2 next week! We are having a dump truck themed party. If you ask him how old he will be on his birthday, he whispers “ump-tuck”. ha!
Will try and add some pictures later tonight (no promises… I’m just saying..)
