The Park

A weekend or two ago Kyle and I took Kayden down to this local park to play and have fun. This particular park is really fun and has two separate play gyms, one for older kids and one for younger kids. Kayden is at that in between age where he can play on either one and be fine. We haven't been to this particular park too often, but the few times we have been there, no one else has. Fluke? I don't know, but we enjoyed having the park to ourselves.

Glow Stick-ing (As Kyle called it)

Last night Kayden wanted to turn off all the lights.  I have yet to meet another child who loves the dark as much as Kayden, he loves playing around with all the lights off!  He wonders around just giggling, thinking it is the funniest thing ever!  So, I thought it would be fun to show him how glow sticks really work.  He has played with them over the summer, but not with as much darkness as we had last night and he just LOVED it!  It was so much fun watching him have fun!  We played with the glow sticks for a good 45 minutes until it was time to put our pj's on and get ready for bed!

While playing with the glow sticks I got the idea to grab my camera and leave the shutter open for extended periods of time, I played around with it and did three seconds all the way up to thirty seconds!  I think the pictures turned out really cool!

It was a lot of fun playing with the glow sticks!  It'll be something we do again and again, I'm sure!  And I love how cheap glow sticks are now.  I remember when I was younger they seemed to be more expensive.  Now you can get 15 for $1 at Targets dollar spot!  Can't go wrong with that. 

Kayden even wanted to sleep with them last night.  I wasn't interested in arguing with him about it and figured it really couldn't hurt much, so Kyle and I agreed and we never heard a peep out of him.  When he woke up this morning he had lost one of the purple ones and asked where it was, "momma, where other purple one?"  Thankfully we found it hiding under monkey!  Kayden then gathered all five of the glow sticks that he slept with and nicely placed them in one spot in his crib.  I don't think he realizes they will have stopped working by the time he goes to bed tonight!  Thankfully we have five more to replace them! 

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

A friend of mine invited Kayden and me to go to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium with her today and her youngest son.  We have been having such nice weather lately that it seemed like the perfect day to go.  The sun was out, most kids were in school which made the zoo not very busy and because it wasn't too hot outside, most of the animals were out for us to see.

When we first walked into the zoo we headed out to see the elephants.  Kayden LOVED seeing them.  When Kyle got home from work today, Kayden told him that we saw BIG elephants! 

After we saw the elephants we headed over to see the new tiger cub, Dumai.  It was so stinkin' cute.  While visiting the tiger cut there were some zoo keepers there who told us that next Thursday they will be getting another new tiger cub.  I don't believe they are related, but are very close in age, only four days apart!  Hope we can see the new cub sometime.

The cub was sleeping when we walked by and it looked so cute.  I just wanted to snuggle up to it and fall asleep next to it! 

After seeing the cub we headed over and saw an adult tiger.  They are just so pretty!

The monkeys were very active today!  Swinging around and jumping in front of us, a lot of fun to watch.  And I think it was the most fun to Kayden because he could actually see something playing and running around instead of just laying there. 

The zoo has two camels you can pay to ride.  Once we saw them Kayden told me he wanted to ride one, but they weren't opened for business yet, so we stopped to look, but kept on walking.

We watched the zoo staff feed the otters.  That was fun!

We saw a bunch of puffins.

Besides getting excited when we saw the BIG elephants, Kayden was a bit of a crank pot today!  Just a little cranky for some reason and this really was the facial expression he wore most of the day today.

The zoo has two polar bears!

Artic Foxes, they are surprising small.  It's difficult to tell in these pictures, but they really are little.

 

Musk Ox's. Kayden was happy to see these. We watched and recorded Frozen Planet that was out earlier this year, I think spring time, and on that show they talk about Musk Ox's and Kayden likes watching them.

Red Wolves

And that really concludes our zoo trip.  After seeing the wolves we ate our lunch and let the boys run around for a bit then headed home!  It was a fun, short trip to the zoo, but that helped prevent any meltdowns! 

We hope everyone has enjoyed their Friday just as much as we have!

Kayden's 3 Year Pictures & Family Pics

Last night Kyle and I took Kayden for his yearly pictures and our family pictures.  It didn't go that well.  Kayden didn't cooperate AT ALL, but we still ended up with a few good pictures.  And here they are!

Kayden's Three!

As many, if not all, of you know, Kayden just recently celebrated his third birthday on Thursday and celebrated yesterday with a big monster themed party!  It was a big hit and I think everyone had a great time.  The weather started off a little cold and gloomy, but ended up clearing up and getting warm, so we were able to do a majority of the party outside!  YAHOO for that.  All the kids have so much more fun out there and the parents enjoy it too.

Here are a few of the things I made for the party! 

These monster candy jars are adapted from this on Pinterest!  You know how much I love Pinterest and most of my ideas for the party came from there.

Monster Munch in little Monster goody bags that I found at Target this Summer.  How cute are they???  Monster Munch recipe came again, from Here on Pinterest. 

 Little water bottles also from Target this summer.  Gotta love their dollar spot!

I made this Happy Birthday Banner, but after I hung it up I wish I would have made it bigger.  It looked a little small on there.

The table cloth looks a little white/grey, but it was actually green.  Christy came over early and put those little monsters all over.  Thanks, Christy!

I love these.  They are white chocolate covered marshmallows with hair made out of frosting and edible eyes!  Need I say they were from here on Pinterest?

These were probably one of the easier things to make.  I got self adhesive googly eyes and just put them on hershey kisses.  From here.

Monster Magic Cookie Dough Dip.  This was an awesome recipe and when you used a Nilla Wafer as a dipping spoon, it was even more delish!  Recipe here.

Love this little monster guy on the door.  He was the scariest monster at the party.  Well, unless you count a few of the melt downs from the kids.  Just kidding.  Here was the inspiration.

Christy made these awesome monster cupcakes.  Of course they were oh so yummy!  

I made these pictures holders from two clothes pins.  I love this picture of Kayden too. This idea I came up with on my own, no help from pinterest.  LOL

These balloons were hung with fishing line and it amazed some people.  I love fishing line because you can barely see it and it is strong.  It took me an hour or two each night for about four days to blow up all the balloons, but it turned out cute.  I loved it so much more when I added the streamers.  Thank you, Christy and Cindy for the help!  here is where I got the idea.

 Picture of the overall Goody Bag Table.

 My mom made these pillows, got the idea, of course from pinterest here.

Another Pinterest idea.  Kayden didn't like this little guy, he kept telling me, "no, mommy, I no like it" and tried to take it off.  I think he turned out cute.  Here is where I got the idea.  I think I might try and leave it on there until after Halloween, that is unless Kayden tears it down!

Here are some pictures of the party itself.  I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have liked, but it is hard work being a hostess!  :)  Here are a few pictures.

 The sandbox was a big hit!  All the kids loved it.

The older girl with brown hair is Marin, Kayden's girlfriend and my niece, Katie's, best friend.  Kayden just loves her and follows her around every where she goes.  At one point Kayden had come inside the house with Marin to get something to eat and wouldn't go back outside until Marin was holding his hand.  It's all too cute.  Kayden will even tell you, "Marin my girlfriend".  We'll be sitting at the table eating lunch and he'll look at me and say that.  It's too cute.

This is my best friends daughter, she just turned five and started kindergarten this year.  She is way too cute.

And here is the last picture I have to share.  Austin and Kayden playing in the sandbox together.  Austin was in charge of the wheelbarrow and started rolling away with it and Kayden looked at him and said, "Austin, share with me!".  Very cute.

Overall it was a great party.  I was scrabbling around to get everything done in time, but like most things, it all worked out and I even had about a half hour to spare.  We had 17 kids and even more adults, so a houseful!  I'm already started to think of next years party!