One day this week, I got a brake from sword making, fighting with weapons and action figures when Ayden decided that his lastest favorite grouping of stuffed animals were going to play catch together, take a nap and play with their acrobat triangle toys! It was fun for both of us because this is my favorite type of play, the kind that doesn't involve any violence! :) Check it out, I finally realized that posting video is easy!
Getting bigger and bigger and still have 2 months to go! I think I am starting to inflate at this point, I may not be able to wear this shirt for the photos much longer! :) Well, better than the last pregnancy anyway. We are currently taking a childbirth class that is informing us about all the different methods of laboring. We'll see if it convinces me to try this the "au natural" way. It is at least great for brushing up on things, it has been a few years!
I thought I was clever when I came up with making stamps out of potatoes! I cut heart shapes, X's and O's and Ayden stamped them on the paper. It was a bit chilly out that day late this month (January) and so Ayden lost interest pretty quickly! Oh well, at least we have some fun paper to cut and make into Valentine's for his classmates at preschool!
In the last couple of months, we discovered when we took Ayden out on the grass to play soccer, that he could dribble the ball, kick pretty well and he had fun doing it! We heard about an indoor soccer place that gives classes for all ages. We signed him up for the "Cottontails" class that involves parent participation. He seems to love it so far. The class is on Saturday mornings, so Pancho can go!
In mid January, we had some cold enough weather for some snow to fall and acutally stick to the ground for a couple of days! It was so pretty to watch from inside where we were cozy and warm! There is something so nice about really wintery cold weather including a little snow!
The next day, Pancho and Ayden got all bundled up and took a bike ride outside to check out the snow!
The girl in the tiara is Ayden's friend Chloe. She had a fun 3rd birthday party at a comedy works place where they put on an interactive play for the kids, it was a riot!
Here is Ayden as "Prince Ayden" and of course Chloe was "Princess Chloe."
Ayden's job as Prince wasn't too eventful except for saying a few lines so he decided that he should play the part of the Dragon also since no one else had claimed it! He was a ham, it was pretty funny! He was a regular old actor!
We had a fun day on January 1st, Ayden's actual birthday! We took him to Marbles Museum, the one pictured in the Thanksgiving post. We then had Frank and Sonja over for a birthday dinner of macaroni and cheese, fruit, salad and more brownie cake!
Make a wish! Three years old already!! We had a fun Curious George theme!
Cousins...identical cousins...they walk alike, they talk alike...they often get mistaken for twins when we are all together. :)
We celebrated Ayden's 3rd Birthday with the Lukacs', Grandma Gayle and Grandad Eric at Chuck E. Cheese before we left for home in late Decmeber. The kids had a great time, danced with Chuck E. Cheese himself, played all the games and ate yummy ice cream cake!
After cooking all day to prepare Christmas Dinner, we had an awesome meal thanks mostly to Marcie and Julius! Then we played some more including some tackling for the boys!
First we found the gifts that Santa left in the stockings! Ayden had never done the whole stocking thing before, so this was fun! The weeks leading up to Christmas, we were telling him how Santa flies in his sleigh lead by raindeer and then he delivers the gifts by coming down the chimney. All the kids left some cookies and milk for santa and some carrots for the raindeer the night before. It was fun to start these traditions this year (now that Ayden can understand it!)
Then it was on to the gifts left under the tree!
The kids commanding attention from my cousin Matt and his wife Vanessa. :)
Vanessa's brother was a sport and played that game with all three of the boys where they ride on the feet of the adult while he walks around, lugging their weight as best he can! :)
Aunt Kathy and Cousin Kim in the kitchen, we had some yummy lasagna after I don't know how many years of cracked crab and clam chowder. Changing traditions...dangerous! No, we had some sea food opposers in the group this year.
Every year at Christmas time, my Dad's side of our family gets together for a Christmas Luncheon. This year we were at my Grandma Jean's brother's house in Berkeley. The kids all had a great time together. Pictured here are of course the three usual suspects along with my dad's cousin's child, Julien. Sammy and Julien are about a month apart and get along just great! They had a fun time building a lego set while the younger too ran around with "guns" in their pants, I mean holsters! Were talking lincoln log guns. :) These days, Ayden will make anything into a weapon so that his character toys can fight each other! Uhhhg, I guess it is unavoidable. :) It was a fun party this year!
As if one 30th Surprise Birthday party wasn't enough back in November, Pancho threw me another one on December 22nd!! My reaction: "Ok, enough celebrating of my birthday!!" But it was so nice to have everyone together, even some friends that I don't get to see very often like Cherelle and Damian. We all had brunch at Marie Calendars and some more birthday cake, it was a fun morning that I wasn't expecting. :) Ok, are we done celebrating Cindy's 30th birthday? :) No really, I was grateful!
On the 21st of December, we were fortunate enough to meet up all together in old down town Sacramento for dinner. Caryl, Papi and Aunt Judy were on their way to accompany Grandma Betty to North Carolina to live with Judy and Henry, so we met up there the day before their flight and were able to have a fun dinner together with Caryl, Papi, Judy, Grandma Betty, Gayle, Marcie, Julius and all the boys! It was so nice to be together and Panco and I were even able to go to another birthday party that night, my old friend Damian was turning 30 that day also and he lives in Sacramento with his wife Jill. It was a fun day!
