Duke Gardens

We usually try to do a family activity every Saturday (beach, lake, movie, swimming, museums...), I put Travis in charge of picking out the activity for last Saturday.  He chose Duke Gardens.  We hadn't been there in years, and the weather this summer has been uncharacteristically bearable, so it worked out perfectly!

Of course we saw lots of flowers...

And some fish...

Travis bought 2 loaves of (cheap) bread to feed to the ducks, fish, and turtles.  We pretended that we didn't see the sign that said "please do not feed the fish and ducks".  

We had a lovely afternoon.  Neither of the kids wanted to leave (but the humidity was starting to get to me and Travis), we have plans to go back and have a picnic again in the fall.  

a little lady

Two Sundays ago Audrey picked out her outfit for church...

She did a VERY good job!!  I love it when she lets her inner fashionista out!

Phoenix's Birthday Party

I wasn't in the "big party" mood this year, in fact, I am not even sure if I would have thrown a party with friends for Phoenix if he hadn't brought it up on his own.  I can't resist that cute little guy, so I put together the smallest and easiest party I could.  

When we were in NY, we watched the first Superman (Christopher Reeve) and while most of us were making fun of it (lets face it, the acting and special effects were not...good...), Phoenix was totally into it.  He kept talking about Superman for days after.  So the theme of his little party was pretty obvious...

I made capes for all 6 kids.  What I thought would be a quick project turned into much more :-/

Fastest way to dress up a water bottle?  Duct tape!!

We had Little Caesars Pizza, Sun Chips, Doritos, Grapes, and Jello Roll ups.

After the kids were done eating I had them all put on their capes and glasses, we did a quick super hero training, and then the bad guy (aka Travis) came and stole a box with candy in it.  The kids chased him...

They used silly string to combat his green glow stick (kryptonite sword).

The kids LOVED it!!

Good thing I told him to wear his glasses!! 

When Travis finally got down on the ground, the kids tied him up with crepe paper and hit him with punch balloons until he told them where he hid the candy (nothing like teaching the kids the value of torture ;-) ).  After a few false leads, the kids "beat" the truth out of him.  

I made lemon cupcakes with fluffy cream cheese, butter cream frosting.  Mmm Mmm Good!

Phoenix had a great time, and I am pretty sure all of the kids did too.  One of the boys would NOT take off his glasses!  It was adorable!  I am starting to see the beauty of smaller parties.  I was really happy with how it turned out.  I love my lil superman!

Phoenix is 4!

Prepare for picture overload...

Phoenix turned 4!  He had a jam packed day filled with all of his favorite things:

Daddy took the day off from work (what a lucky boy!).  We hit up Marbles first.

Then we went to the Cupcake Shoppe to pick out cupcakes for dessert that night.  Phoenix knew immediately which one he wanted (chocolate with mint frosting).  

Then we hit up Pullen Park...

He even got to play in some water! 

After the train ride (at Pullen Park) he got a cookies and cream milk shake from Chick-fil-A.

Then we went home, Trav made some work calls, and Phoenix went to the dentist with me (I didn't realize I made the appointment for his birthday :-/).  He was SUPER good!!  After that we picked Audrey up from school, and got some Little Caesars Pizza (his favorite).  I made some lemonade (at his request), and we ate.  

He licked the wrong end of the candle (no frosting on the wick!), luckily it wasn't hot anymore!

Audrey made a list of what presents she could get for Phoenix, one of her ideas was a horse.  She has one and she is extremely good at "riding" it around, so she wanted Phoenix to have his own (because when he "rode" with her it really slowed her down).

Phoenix got a few superhero toys, and he spent the night shooting everyone with darts and spider-mans glowing web.  It was SO cute (and kinda annoying when it was me he was shooting :-) ).

Please note his tongue in this picture!  (this one is for you Jess!)

And no party would be complete without Travis falling asleep!  (he really did)

Phoenix had an awesome day, he is such a sweet boy!!  He couldn't believe that all of the presents were for him!  He really loves playing with his toys!