Red, White, and TWO!

 Our little girl turned two this weekend!  It's hard to believe sometimes!  We celebrated with a Red, White, and TWO party at Lone Pine farms.  We had gorgeous sunny weather (considering it was still raining the week before) and Elise and Mateo enjoyed seeing friends and running around the farm.  We brought out the water toys, giant balloons (thanks Grandma!), and croquet...which really consisted of the little kids throwing the balls.  There was plenty of red, white and blue fare to eat, and cupcake cones for the kids.  What more could we ask for? :)

 Elise's friends Vivian and McKenna.

 Croquet anyone?

 Cutie Slayden

 Harper!

 Love the action shot!

 This is Elise's friend from school, Stella.  She's ALWAYS smiling when I see her!

 Elise loves babies.  Here she's giving some love to a one month old Jeremiah.

 Yum!

 A trip to the farm isn't complete until we feed the goats.  A highlight for Mateo and his cousin Nolan!

Happy Birthday, Elise!  Love you sweet girl!

A happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies and future mommies out there!  It's so nice that there are days that are designed to make your family be nice to you the entire day!  Why can't everyday be like that?  Ah, oh well.  We had a great day at our house.  I started off the day going to yoga, then after lunch and a nap we went for a hike at Mt. Pisqua.  It was a gorgeous day!  We have been blessed lately with sunny skies and temps in the 70's and 80's and NO rain in our forecast!  Yippeeee!  Our hike was super nice and just what mommy needed.  Then Matt made me lobster for dinner!  Oh gosh, how spoiled I am.  I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful family!

Early morning fun

This all took place before 8am.  We got the blocks out and Mateo made quite the impressive structure....

Then, "the claw" came out.  Mateo is really into making claws.  Big ones, little ones, scary ones, and baby ones.

And then, the structure was gone.  Then repeat. A pretty typical weekday morning for us.

Babies and Mirrors

Elise LOVES babies.  She loves baby dolls and real babies.  This includes herself.  She is really interested in looking at herself in the mirror.  It's pretty darn cute.

Classic

Omg.  This has got to be my favorite photo of the year.  Straight down to the expression on his face and the umbrella that could easily be swapped for a cane.  All he needs now is a gold tooth.

Peek A Boo

Ahh, another use for our bookshelves.

Cascades Raptor Center

This weekend I took the kids to the Cascades Raptor Center.  I had been intrigued by this place for a while.  And then there was a Living Social deal, so I finally decided to check it out.  I'll just put my naivete on the line and define what makes an animal a raptor, because before I visited the Raptor Center I did not know.  

 What is a Raptor? - "Raptor" is another word for bird of prey: eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, osprey and kites ... hunting birds with keen eyesight and hearing, strong feet with sharp talons for grasping and killing prey, and curved beaks for ripping up their food. Raptors are not the only predators of the bird world, but they are the only ones that hunt with their feet!

 So there you have it. I have to say it was a neat little place.  All the raptors that were housed there are permanent residents due to either a mental or physical disability.  There were several species of owls, and quite a few bald eagles which were fascinating.  My favorite was perhaps the snowy owl, which was white and big and I just wanted to give it a big hug!  The kids were intrigued by the birds, but Mateo was probably more interested in the rocks and sticks on the ground.  Oh well, someday they might thank me for taking them.