Birthdays

The last few weekends we have been attending Birthday Parties for Pennington and Piper's friends Aiden and Magnolia (aka Maggie).


Aiden and Pennington met last year at Aiden's first birthday. They have been hanging out about once a month ever since. Aiden also was in Pennington's Little Gym class. Aiden's mom (Kayla Sande Isaac) went to High School with Johnny and I.


In January Maggie moved up to Moscow, Idaho so we haven't seen much of her lately. She celebrated her 3rd Birthday here in Boise with Family and Friends.


Speaking of Birthday's Pennington and Piper are turning 1 and 2 in the next few weeks. We are having a celebration for them on August 14th. Anyone that would like to come is invited. Just let me know and I will send you the evite.


At Maggie's Birthday the kids got to dye silks in food coloring. Below is a picture of Pennington rising his silk. He has been wearing it around the house as a cape.




Below is a picture of Pennington giving Maggie a hug. How sweet.

Below is a picture of Piper with her friend Sage at Maggie's birthday. They are soooo cute.

Below is a picture of Aiden opening his presents. I just love this picture of Aiden. It is so fun to see how happy a child is to open up presents.

Below is a picture of Aiden and Pennington in the kiddie pool at Aiden's birthday.

Ivywild Pool

On Monday night we took the kids to Ivywild Pool for the first time. They LOVED it. Ivywild is a community park with a pool. It is relatively new (meaning it wasn't around when we were kids) and located in SE Boise by where we live. They have a toddler pool with two slides and water fountains. They also have a big kid pool with three slides, one of which you can take toddlers down on with an adult. Both Johnny and I took Pennington down one of the big kid slides. He loved it so much he went about 10 times. Piper also enjoyed walking around in the toddler pool. She is starting to really enjoy swimming. Below are some pictures of the family at Ivywild Pool. Johnny is taking Pennington down the slide.

Twilight Criterium

On Saturday evening Mommy, Nonnie, Poppy, Pennington and Piper went down to the Twilight Criterium. For those of you that don't know what the Twilight Criterium is it is a bike race held in downtown Boise. Mommy and Daddy thought it would be a lot of fun to take the kids since Pennington is really into riding his bike and wearing his helmet. Before going to the race we stopped by Pie Hole to get some breadstick for the kiddos to munch on. Pennington thought Pie Hole was pretty cool since they had arcade games such as the original Super Mario Bros. Daddy met us downtown after he got off work. After watching a few races we when to the Brick Oven Beanery (it will always be the "Beanery" to me even though they changed the name at least 5 years ago to the Brick Oven Bistro). Pennington wanted to go into the fountain at the Center on the Grove so we let him. Of course Piper wanted to join him as well. Below are a few pictures of the kids at the Criterium.

Piper Eleven Months Old

Piper will be Eleven Months Old tomorrow. Here are a few new things she has been up to this last month.

1. Piper likes to sit on the tricycle and push herself around with her legs. She does this at such a young age because she wants to keep up with her big brother.

2. She is starting to respond verbally to us by saying yes. Not all the time but she does say it everyone and a while. You can also ask her what a dog says and she will say "woof-woof". I am super impressed by this since Pennington just starting telling us what a dog says about 2 months ago.

3. She is constantly getting into the toilet, toilet paper, dog food, dog water, ect. Super annoying but I know it will be over soon.

4. She knows to stop doing something when we tell her "No Piper" or "Please don't do that Piper".

5. She is beginning to understand how to go down stairs.

6. She eats pretty much anything you put in front of her though she prefers fruits, vegetables and cheese.

7. She is starting to drink out of a sippy cup.

Below are a few recent photos of Piper

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Pennington 23 Months Old

A few very exciting things have happened over the last month.

1. Last Thursday at school Pennington went on the potty not just once but five times. Obviously I don't want to get my hopes up since he never wants to go potty at home but has consistently been going at school now for a few months.

2. He is getting pretty good at drinking from an normal cup all by himself.

3. I know I have mentioned this several times but he LOVE sports. Soccer, baseball, basketball, swimming, you name it. I took him to watch the Far West Regional Soccer tournament games a few weeks ago and he really enjoyed it. He dribbles the soccer ball and yells "go go" now all from watching a few games.

4. He painted a watercolor painting for Daddy last week. I was really impressed because I think he is finally getting the hang of dipping the brush into the water then the paint and then putting it on the paper. Before I would find him spilling the water and putting the paint brush in his mouth. Yucky.

One other thing I would like to make note of is that he is starting to give us an idea of what the "Terrible Twos" will be like. He is starting to want to be very independent which is a good and bad thing.

Summer Time at School

When I went to pick up Pennington from school today I found him playing with all the other kids in the sprinkler. He was totally wet from head to toe. The kids were having so much fun. Hot summer days in Boise definitely remind me of my childhood. Below are some photos of Pennington playing in the sprinklers at school.

Pennington and Adam.

Pennington sopping wet.

Horsethief

For the 4th of July our family took a day trip up to Horsethief Reservoir to meet up with our good friends Eddie and Erin. Horsethief is about 20 minutes outside of Cascade, ID which is about 90 minutes from Boise. When the kids woke up we put them in the car, drove to pick up supplies and food for the day, and then headed up to Horsethief. Piper slept pretty much the whole way and Pennington slept for about 30 minutes. We got there around 10:30am and headed straight for the lake. The kids LOVE it. Johnny and Pennington fished off the dock and went swimming and Piper and I played in the water. Pennington couldn't stop talking about fishing and swimming. We tried to lay the kids down for a nap but we had no luck. Of course when we put the kids in the car to drive home at 7:30pm they both passed out within about 10 minutes.

Johnny and I realized that while it isn't ideal to have your children sleep in car seats that the drive up and back was super relaxing because the kids slept and we were able to have a few hours to just talk to each other. Johnny and I don't get a lot of time together since we both work and only have a few nights a week where neither one of us is working.

We also realized that what we loved about our childhood was getting outside. We are hoping to take the kids on more day trips and hopefully venture out on our first overnight camping trip with the kids next summer.

When we got home around 9:30pm last night the neighborhood kids were lighting off fireworks in the cul-de-sac. Both Pennington and Piper were interested in what fireworks are but the loud noises scared them. Since the kids had already been asleep for about an hour and half on the drive home there didn't want to go straight to bed especially since it sounded like there were bombs going off outside. So Johnny and I had to stay up with them until the fireworks stopped around 11pm and ended up having to sleep with both of them. Oh the joys of parenthood.

Below are a few pictures of the family at Horsethief.

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Parks and Cars

I know I have been slacking lately with posting photos of the kids. So here are some recent photos.

The first two photos are of the kids at Municipal Park. Daddy took the kids in the bike trailer last week to Municipal Park and then to Wendy's to lunch. When they were at the park they saw a deer for the first time. I guess Pennington was standing about 20 feet away from it. I have to give Daddy props for taking the kids out in the bike trailer. Imagine towing an extra 50 pounds around on a 8 to 10 mile bike ride. It is quite a workout. Sometimes I wonder why we even have gym memberships anymore.

The last picture is of the kids at the mall. Mommy is a sucker for super sales at Gap and Old Navy. Last week there was a "take an extra 40% off all sale items" sale at Gap so we just had to go to stock up on stuff for the kids. Honestly our children have way to many clothes. Pennington's current set of clothes fill up an entire 5 drawer dresser. Right now I am purchasing 18 to 24 month and 2T clothes for Piper and 3T clothes for Pennington. Most of the clothes Piper is currently wearing were purchased before she was even born. I have found that if you just wait for the super sales and stock up you can save a ton.