Neeeeew Birthday bike...

This is a video of Evan on his new Schwinn Roadster Trike that Mom and Dad and Grandma Putsie (I'm playing with grandma names for my mom, she was called Putsie growing up by her parents. I like it) and Grandpa Allan bought together for him. I finally put it together today and Evan (and I) love it!! Here is a snipet from what I took from my phone today. There is more to the story but it wouldn't let me post that much from my phone. :( He can't pedal yet but he's having a fun time pushing it and being pushed. Plus: it has a super cool bell on it. I'll take better pictures later.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Our Son is 2

Dear Evan,

You are such a JOY to us! Although yes there are many grumblings about how active a BOY you are, that doesn't mean we don't appreciate and love all the other things you do and say. Here are just 'a few'. ;)

"I seeee you... chips/cira (cora)/mommy/car/"

"Who IS it?" (when there's a knock at the door)

When we say it's time for family prayer, you yell "PRAYER!" then run to Cora's room and leap to the floor on your knees while simultaneously folding your arms. :) he he he

When we say your personal prayer (that you repeat) at night and the words aren't exactly as we said them to you and it's hard for mom and dad to stay reverent at that point.

You love going outside, backyard especially, and either being pulled in the wagon or pull it yourself all over the yard.-

That you love popcorn! (and sit still while eating it)

You know your ABC's, upper and lower case, numbers 1-9 by site but recite numbers up to 13 I think. You also spout off any letter or number you see in public or bold on the T.V.

You spell your name like this: "E -V-A-N... Evan!" :)

You often sing the primary song "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam", jumping at the appropriate moments and also the ABC song.

You help me throw things away in the Yucky Trash and Yucky laundry.

I could stop your recent tantrums with the mention of one of the following: Popsicle, popcorn, play, outside, hug, help me or "hurt?".

You have a beautiful smile that you give very readily during mommy's many photo shoots.

You wake us up in the morning by yelling "I see you" (to your baby monitor) or if you hear me walking around but not ready to rescue you from your bed, you say "Mama?", breaks my heart every time!

You love your cars right now but not as much as your cousin Liam does.

You hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop everywhere and all the time.

You now LLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE your baby sister and will do anything to help her or make her smile.

Of course there are many more things that make us smile but you are so sweet to our family. We want to be better parents because you are such a gift to us. We are so glad you are talking more and more so we can know your needs. We cannot wait to see who you choose to be and we can only hope we helped you along the way to be a great young man.

Love, Mom and Daddy

here are a few of our favorite moments...

the cake

So... My friend Lindsey inspired me years ago when I saw a couple cakes she made for some baby showers and her kids birthdays. It was simple but 'refined' if you will and I thought... I'm gonna try to do that one day. Last year I made my first (ambitious) attempt: a three tier, pink and white checkered cake with homemade light green tinted frosting (pink accent frosting) and girl baby toys decorating the top. I was told by a few people that it was really neat AND really really yummy. Since I didn't get any negative comments, I felt excited to try it again one day. The day has come!

My son's second birthday party was a 50's Sock Hop theme. I researched online for ideas and chose to do a Drive-in Cake. I only found one example so I used that information and took off from there....

I made the cake white but did later add some rainbow sprinkles before I baked it. I mostly used the frosting above but tinted one can of it brown by adding 3 heaping spoonfuls of cocoa so it would look like a 'dirt road' and used the milk chocolate for 'mulch' color later for around the trees.

Once I baked the cake, in a 13x9 cake pan, it had the traditional 'hump' in the middle. I used my bread knife to cut it down till it was flat. I tried to cut as big of pieces as possible cause I set them aside to support layers and the 'ramp' to the drive in later. After cutting the hump I flipped the cooled cake upside down on foil covered foam board that I made sure fit in the fridge shelf (make sure you loosen the cake from pan on sides and bottom before to avoid breakage). I'm sorry I don't have a picture of this part cause it is very interesting. Once I layered the extra cake pieces for the ramp and also raised the tree areas around the sign and screen with the other cake, I spread a thin layer of white frosting over the entire sides and top to sort of glue it together then refrigerated it for a couple hours before the real frosting time.

In the mean time. I prepared the cakes elements: Trees, dollar store cheap cars, Homemade from my card shop program Drive-in sign, Movie screen with image of the movie from online and the candles. I used bamboo skewers for the stakes. Not pictured is the large sugar crystals I used for 'gravel' and the Nestle Crunch "pebbles" I used for the "rock wall".

Here is a close up of frosting, 'gravel' and 'rock wall' landscaping. After the white frosting set, I frosted the sides and most of the top with the 'dirt' colored frosting, while it was still 'wet', I did the rock wall so they would bond. I also made sort of 'ramps' for the cars for watching the movie with the 'dirt'. I purposely went into a wave pattern in places with the rock to give more interest. Next I did the 'mulch' frosting, then the 'gravel' was spread, cars were placed and trees. Last I added the lettering for Happy Birthday etc.

Evan seeing the cake for the first time. "CARS!!!" and he was fascinated by the candles which he doesn't remember seeing before.

It was so much fun to be creative and design my own cake for such a fun party. We had a really great time. :)

You Ain't Nothin' but a hound dog...

My Name is Evan. My birthday is October 14th but my parents gave me a Sock Hop party today with some of my friends. I'll let my mama tell you the rest. :)...


First of all, I love his hair, it reminds me of the way my Dad's hair was styled in the *real* 50's, so that's for you dad. Yes he has 'side burns' that I made with eyeliner for fun. I have mixed feelings about whether I should have taken them off but we kept them and there you go. He's adorable and they are funny sideburns.


Unfortunatly we were going soooo crazy this morning that this is as close as you get of his whole ensamble (minus the leather jacket! rrrr) photographed but he was totally 50's. :)


Ok, it was actually sweet here because as soon as Evan got over his initial jealousy that Cora gets to inherit his car walker (he seems to remember it?), he was actually really nice to her and pushed her gently all around the room. She loved it. Then again, she loves all her time with her big bro.

The Decor seen through 'rose colored glasses". he he he.

I made this one big cause you may not see us together in a picture alone for a very long time. It's been two years since we even considered taking a photo alone together. ha ha ha. I had to make a scene in order to get him to wear the super cool glasses and it was worth it cause it ALMOST looked like Michael dressed up. Thank you honey, you are the cutest in these glasses. xo

And the kids arrive and the fun begins. Malt shop channel was playing, balloons were chased, kicked and thrown and girls (us moms) started gabbing. Whoo hoo!

Let us not forget the cutest girl there! Cora Grace was adorable. "Scarf" around her neck, pale pink shirt with hand layed rhinestone "C" on her chest, pink tutu from her birth photo shoot under her hand made poodle skirt, bracelet from Henny Penny and Socks from Grandma Jennie to complete the outfit. The happiness and smile are natural, no money can buy that. :)

My friend Linda in her homemade "poodle skirt". ha ha ha I loved it soo much!

Linda's little bean

As usual, content baby C.G. She's checking her hair in the side mirror.

Stacey giving what will be come the greatest attraction at the party... the Wagon rides! ha ha ha.

Linda's little man on his favorite toy (and others), the quad.

Evan is actually looking at a plane and completely tuning me out but I think the boy has a future in GQ modeling right? He and the wagon have been attached at the hip lately.

Evan and his all time friend "H" on the wagon ride of doom, let by Evan's running mommy. Whew! It was making me very hot but they loved it.

Elizabeth is one of my good friends, former babysitter and mother to "H". We were not only wearing the exact same shirt but the same shoes (different colors)! :D It was really fun and funny. Wait till you see what we're wearing to church sunday! ha ha ha, j/k.

Linda taking a turn at being a slave to wagon pulling. :)

"H" circled her 2 or 3 times, I lost count. snicker snicker snicker ;).

Elizabeth, Stacey and her son "S" enjoying the shade from our warm weather today.

Jessie helped me with C.G. and her daughter "C" didn't even seem to mind. Thanks Jessie!

On to the "Drive-in". The kids each had a box to decorate with their choice of flames on the side and headlights so they could all have their own "Hot Rod" like my dad had in the 50's. We watched Blues Clues while eating popcorn (as Mike got lunch ready). The kids were sooOOOO good! I was really happy to see them understand sitting in the boxes too and was especially happy that they all love popcorn! whoo hoo!

I failed to photograph the food but it was yummy. Hot Dogs wraped in crissant rolls then baked in the oven, hamburger 'sliders' and Rootbeer floats. (I forgot to make the fries but we didn't need them anyway)

Here is the back story on these pics. "C" is a couple months older than Evan and although very femanin (sp?) is as active and mobile as any boy I've ever seen! Anyway, when Evan was smaller and not walking, "C" had once jumped on his back while he was crawling and tried to ride him like a horse! :D She also layed his first kiss on him when he was maybe 7 or 8 months old which is really funny that she is like this cause her mom is pretty reserved and her dad seems pretty even keeled, lol but this Miss "C" is a charachter she is. So here she has chased after Evan his whole life but in this picture, she's climbed up the chair and Evan is below, jumping laughing at her that she is the coolest for doing this then goes up to her and randomly says with outstretched arms and fingers... "HUG!?" A question and a statement all in one of which you see her reply in body language... until....

... She can resist her prince charming no longer! ;) eek! so cute! (p.s. there was a point where she did in fact push her bare foot in his face to keep him back. ha ha ha)

Every good Sock Hop has a Pinata (let's just get this out of the way... there was no "sock hop" but anyone could dance at any time. ha ha ha)

Smart girl Ema! Little bean, you'll rot your tooth out! :)

Proud parents watching their future rock star. Now me thinks I know where the lost sunglasses belong... hmmm....

I am going to post a whole blog about this cake I made cause I am so proud of it! I really appreciate all the great feedback too. I think my friend Liz really didn't believe me that I made it. What a compliment! :)

It was so fun that this year he actually was able to try to blow candles out! We blow his windchime every night before bed for practice. :)

In the end there were hugs for everyone. Thank you all for making our party so fun and happy!

Buddies for Life x2!

After party rebellion. He took NO nap today despite falling asleep practically while I was getting him out of his party clothes.

Up from her nap and still soooo cute!

C.G. is a very good stander. I am only keeping her from falling but she stands very well.

The End. Thank you! ( i will still try to post video but it has been taking WAY too long lately )