Jacob's (aka Clark Kent) Birthday and Superbowl

Superman as Clark Kent as Jacob Rhees!  Jacob loves Superman.  His grandma made a cape for him and put it with this cool shirt and glasses for his birthday present. 

When he opened it, he was so darn cute.  He went over to her and said "Thank you, thank you, thank you," with the biggest smile I've seen on him in a long time.

 We had a party for Jacob on Sunday evening during the Superbowl.  We had originally intended on having a party Saturday morning, but the tummy bugs took out their weapons of mass destruction on mommy this weekend.   So we had to uninvite Jacob's friends and have a smaller gathering with just grandmas and grandpa.  We still managed to have a good time.

Dinner in the family room.  Meatballs, veggies, fruit and crackers!

The loot.  In addition to the Superman stuff, he got lots of Toy Story toys.  His faves were the garbage truck (that's all he's been talking about since Christmas) and the Lotso bear.



Happy Birthday Julia!!!

Julia had a tea party for her second birthday.  This is the "main" cake, shaped like a tea cup.  I also made little tea cakes so I wouldn't have to cut the tea cup.

Julia's tea party was complete with all kinds of finger foods--veggies, fruit, crackers, sandwiches, etc.  Of course everything went into tea cups!

The happy birthday girl dancing around!!  Grandma brought her a new hat for her birthday!  Julia loves hats!  She also got new shoes from her other grandma. 

If there's anything she loves more than hats, it would have to be shoes!

 I made paper tea cups to go along with the tea party theme. 

We filled them with cookies shaped like the number "2."



Happy Birthday to you, Julia!!!



Jacob's idol

So, Jacob finally got to meet Robert Franz.

Grandma Coolidge made arrangements for us to meet with Mr. Franz after preschool. 

Jacob was so excited!

Robert Franz gave Jacob an autographed photo with the caption "Best wishes on your conducting career."

Then Jacob got to see all of Robert's music scores (There were quite a lot).  They share the same "favorite" piece to conduct, the "Nutcracker."

After browsing Mr. Franz's scores, Jacob got to go into the rehearsal room and stand on the big podium.  What fun that was!!!

So much snow!!!  All three kids enjoyed playing in the snow over the last couple of weeks.  Julia was especially delighted to feel the snowflakes on her nose.  Both Julia and Jacob took great pleasure in eating the snow from anywhere possible, especially off the swings in our backyard.

Meet Robert Franz, orchestra conductor

 My mom took us to see the Nutcracker on Sunday.  Ballet Idaho and the Boise Philharmonic collaborate each year for this local production.  Jacob has been obsessed lately with conductors.  After my concert in November, he was conducting "mommy's orchestra."  After Sunday, he introduces himself as Robert Franz the Nutcracker conductor.  Here are a couple of shots of our budding conductor.

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving is here!!!!  What fun it is to eat turkey, stuffing, and all the fixings.

This year, we had dinner at my mom's house with my uncle Eddy.  We had a great time, ate too much and enjoyed the evening (late afternoon really).

Fall Snow

SNOW!!!!  There wasn't a lot of snow and it quickly froze, but the kids enjoyed playing in the snow this week.  Julia and Jacob decided to "eat" the snow from every possible location, particularly off the swings.

Here, James made a snow angel when it snowed a couple of days earlier.

The kids all enjoyed frolicking in the snow.  It got so cold after it snowed, though, it was miserable.  Then the snow was so icy that we couldn't make a snowman.  Jacob was so disappointed.