Aunties and Birthdays and...Go Broncos!!!

Between aunties and cousins visiting, a birthday celebration and the Broncos winning the Super Bowl, we've had lots to celebrate over the last couple of weeks!  My sister, Savannah, and her son, Bane, came out to visit the day after my official retirement.  It was fun to have the little cousins playing together.  We went to the Mall of America for Toddler Tuesday and even rode some kiddie rides, which was a huge hit!  Then we drove home for 2 hours in the biggest snowstorm of the year (a drive that should have taken 25 minutes.)  But we got to play in the snow the next day, and I made snow ice cream with Lyla - a childhood tradition I remember loving.  L was not impressed by the flavor and ended up adding salt and pepper.  She was going for savory and sweet, I guess.

The morning of Lyla's birthday and party Auntie Alycia and her daughter, Brailyn, came into town.  Savannah and Bane didn't leave until that evening, so we had lots of family in town to celebrate!  The party was at a local indoor park, and the kids had a blast.  I tried talking Lyla into some "sensible" clothes, but she could not be deterred from her fancy party dress.  :) 

We surprised Lyla with an Elsa cake at the party.  All she saw before the party was the frosted cake, which she found to be totally anticlimactic.  She'd lost her Elsa doll when we went ice skating in December, so when the new doll showed up at the party she was so excited.  :)  Thanks to all our friends that came to celebrate!

The next day was the best day of Ryan's life, I'm pretty sure.  I mean, forget the whole wedding and baby thing, the Broncos won the SUPER BOWL!!!  We had a little get together, naturally.  Two parties in one weekend?  No big deal.  But we kept it low key, and then woke up the entire neighborhood when Ryan and Lyla ran screaming through the streets with our Broncos flag.  In shorts.

Here are some photos of all the fun!  :)

- K

 

 

toddler tuesday

 

ridin' rides

we happened upon Blue - who is one of sis' favorites.  :)

 

helpers making birthday cakes

4th birthday!

cupcakes for breakfast :)

both girls were thrilled to see Goan!

this is when Evie spotted Goan.  :)

I made a measuring stick to start recording the girls' heights on their birthdays :)

Brailyn trying on L's new Rapunzel wig.  I think she's feelin' it.  :)

getting ready for the big game!

family selfie...minus L

I'm honestly shocked there were no holes in the walls after this happened...

The Weekend

So Lyla may not have been able to use her touchdown celebration as many times as we hoped, but it was still a pretty great little weekend.  Saturday was mostly spent working on the new TV in the man cave.  For those of you that don't know, this is a very serious, very important project.

We also had a Backyardigans birthday party to attend that afternoon, which Lyla had been looking forward to for weeks.  Every time she saw the invitation she'd say "WHOA!" and then point at each character and say "dat? dat?"  I've never seen the show and have absolutely no clue what the characters are so I'd make it up as I went.  After several "party! go!" demands from Lyla we managed to pull Ryan away from his TVs and headed to the party, Lyla clutching that little invite the entire way.

The party was cute, and it's always a kick to get a bunch of toddlers together.  Lyla still pretty much stays to herself, running around exploring every inch of every room as fast as she can.  She eventually won the "Most Curious" award, which I think couldn't have been more perfect for the girl.

Sunday was obviously...well, a disappointment to say the least.  But, we had a great get together at our place and I think it'll go down as the best Super Bowl ever in Lyla's book.  At least until next year.  I'm pretty sure she thought the party was for her, the way she'd run up to just about anyone at the party, grab their hands and drag them off to go play.  She even got an entire dance party started in the man cave during half time, running to each person, literally pulling them off their chair and waiting until they started dancing to run off to the next person.  My personal favorite was when we moved back upstairs and she pulled me in the middle of the room and made me dance in front of everyone for the remainder of the half time show.  It was just like college, except stone cold sober with a huge baby belly. 

Hope you had a good weekend too!

- K