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Aaron's 3rd Birthday

This year we decided to throw Aaron a birthday party.  We celebrate Aaron's birthday at my family's spring birthday celebration and he gets plenty of gifts from both my family and Thom's so I've been reluctant to have a birthday party for him when I'm already trying to reduce the amount of "stuff" he (and now Audrey) have.  But we have a group of friends with kids all around the same age whose birthday parties we love attending, and I know it's awkward to have a party and ask guests NOT to bring presents, so I tried something a little different.

Aaron loves to help Papa in the yard.  He has his own watering can and they make their rounds watering various saplings, berry bushes and other plants that are not on the irrigation system.  So I decided to have a garden party for Aaron where his friends could bring gifts of plants for his garden.  We (meaning Thom) cleared out a spot next to his sandbox which is adjacent to the back patio.

The party was a huge success. His friends and (mostly) their parents planted a variety of plants in his garden and we had metal plant tags for them to decorate.   Aaron loves his garden and waters it several times a week.  He has a lasting gift from his friends, and it did not add more toys to our overcrowded play area.

Part of my goal for the party was to make it eco-friendly, too.  I served finger foods to avoid utensils, and used silverware for the cake, not plastic utensils.  And I made Thom track down paper cups for drinks instead of plastic cups, which is apparently no easy feat.  I made decorations myself out things I already had on hand.  And for favors, I chose reusable fabric bags (from Handmade by SAM Etsy, my new favorite place to shop).

The seller was so great to work with and also came up with these adorable pads of paper that she customized to my theme and made out of recycled paper. She also included extra stickers for the kids to use.  The favor bags included these notepads and stickers, ladybug shaped crayons (made from recycled crayons, also from Etsy), Annie's Cheddar Bunnies snack bags and sunflower seeds (for planting).

For the cake, I made a trifle which was super easy and super yummy.  I used store bought angel food cake, Trader Joe's instant vanilla pudding, fresh strawberries and homemade whip cream to top it off.  So much easier than baking and icing.

To complete our ladybug theme, we released ladybugs in the yard.

I'm grateful to my Dad for taking pictures during the party.  I managed to take some before guests arrived and a few during, but most of the photos I have from the party are from my Dad's camera. And all of the videos.

Playpen

We have the playpen set up in the living room for Audrey.  She often cries when we first put her in, but she will go on to spend 20 minutes or so playing in there with her toys.  This is great in the morning when we are trying to eat breakfast.  She can see through the mesh sides and is happiest when Aaron is playing with his cars on the floor in front of the playpen.

Although we have a gate up in the dining room and can close the pocket door to the kitchen to create a giant playpen in the dining room, we cannot trust Aaron to play with Audrey unattended (meaning one of us sitting right next to them to keep him from crushing his sister or pulling her arm off).  So the playpen is one of the safer places we can stick her when we can't be watching her closely.  She's not completely safe in there I've caught Aaron poking her face through the mesh and dropping toys into the playpen, but as long as he's playing with something else, we can let our guard down for a bit.

Reading

Aaron starting reading just shy of turning 3.  He already knew all his letters and their sounds.  In fact, he could tell you what letter a word started with.  So Kim, who takes him and Audrey to the library at least once a month, picked up the Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers.

He didn't get a chance to look at the books with Kim, so after his nap that day, I pulled out the first one.  He sat with me and sounded out the words!  I was so excited.  He read the whole thing on his own.  Granted, it is very simple: Mat sat.  Sam sat. Etc..  But it was his first attempt and I was thrilled.

He read the second book in the series too, then needed some help with the third.  Each book is progressively harder.  As with most of his library books, he lost interest within a week or two.  And he didn't really try to read other books.  We didn't push it.  He's only 3 and doesn't need to read, but since we are always reading newspapers, magazines and books, and he seemed ready to start reading, we were happy to encourage him.

Last night, when we were reading the board book version of Ten Apples Up On Top (which is abridged), Aaron asked Thom to stop reading at one point so he could try reading that page.  He did that for two pages and that was enough for him.  Then tonight, he pulled out the hardcover, full version of Ten Apples Up On Top.  This time, about 5 pages in, he repeatedly asked Thom "Stop reading please" so that he could try to read about every other page.  After sounding out the words, he'd ask Thom to read the words, so each page he read was being read twice.  This was taking a long time and Audrey was on my lap and getting fussy, but we didn't want to discourage him.  I can picture him reading to Audrey within a year.  I ended up taking Audrey to bed before the end of story time.  If he wants to start reading his own bedtime stories, we may have to start our bedtime routine a lot earlier.

Photo shoot for Father's Day gift

My friend Biriz came over late May and took some photos of the kids for me. I wanted to frame some nice photos for Thom for Father's Day and I always love the photos Biriz takes of her girls. She has a better camera and a much better eye than I do. Here are some of the photos she took.

Enjoying an apple from the orchard

Kim sent this picture from her phone while she and Aaron were playing in the backyard today. Aaron said the apple was "good" and "delicious" and "sweet". It was also one of the few apples without a worm.

Audrey's first word

Audrey started waving yesterday. We thought she was also saying "Hi" but it was hard to tell. Today, I was pretty sure she is saying "Hi" while waving. I caught it a few times in this video (along with Aaron asking politely to be excused after lunch). You have to watch closely though.

Just comparing YouTube embedding - this is the same video.