Grant Turns 3!!

The birthday boy requested a "Hot Dog" birthday party. At first glance this was not going to be an easy theme.  Yes, we would of course have hot dogs for his meal, but what to do for the cake.  Trust me, the google search for "hot dog cake" yielded very interesting results!  Luckily, my sister in law inspired me and I went in more of the "grill cake" direction with hot dogs on top.

The "hot dog" cake

Last weekend I realized that Hot Dog (Grant's fish), actually this is Hot Dog III, but Grant thinks it is only Hot Dog II.  We replaced the second fish on the sly!  So the fish is dead.  Brandon quickly disposed of it and we decided we would talk to him about it when he noticed.  Well of course ELizabeth noticed days before he did, so she was in the know.  The morning of his birthday Brandon is getting ready to walk out the door to work and Grant says, "Where Hot Dog?"  Elizabeth replies, "Mom, I think we have to tell him."  Grant looks at me and says, "Hot Dog dead?"  "Yeah, buddy, I'm sorry, but Hot Dog is dead."  I am prepared to explain the circle of life, but he quickly follows with, "OK!" and goes on about his way.  OK, well that was easy! And no, we are not getting another fish!  We had breakfast at Ima's.  She had donut holes and we made pancakes.  Then we headed to Farm Park.

Hot dogs for dinner!

Pops surprising him with his birthday present!

A new bike!

Nothing runs like a Deere!

Future golfer? Maybe!

Aunt Sara and Uncle David came home for Grant's birthday too.  It was so special to have them with us to celebrate (sadly I failed to get a picture of them with Grant:( ) I should explain that he slipped and fell into a big puddle, so we had to put his "back-up" clothes on him! Ah, the fond memories of the Ken-ducky Derby at the Dells... "go ducky go!"  Grant had a pretty big day and pretty much held court.  When I tucked him into bed he said, "my birthday tomorrow too?"  Sorry, buddy, but we still had to celebrate with the Pauli's.

A  birthday swim

The weather cooperated and we were able to have an afternoon swim at Mimi & Pops before enjoying another hot dog dinner and cake! Aunt Amber found a really cool hot dog game called "BBQ Party" that all of the kids loved.  Pops hooked Grant up with some great fishing gear and the boys have big fishing plans next week!  It is really hard to believe that our baby is 3, but when I think of him as an itty bitty baby, it actually seems kind of long ago.  He has changed SO much in 3 years and he is so much fun to watch.  My mom says his smile is contagious and he has a twinkle in his eye!  That's our Grant Ryan :) We love you to pieces dude!

Hot Dog Cake...take 2

Singing "happy birthday!"

He let the girls help him blow out the candles

Eating the candy hot dog

Briggs likes birthday cake too!

The weather cooperated and we were able to have an afternoon swim at Mimi & Pops before enjoying another hot dog dinner and cake! Aunt Amber found a really cool hot dog game called "BBQ Party" that all of the kids loved.  Pops hooked Grant up with some great fishing gear and the boys have big fishing plans next week!  It is really hard to believe that our baby is 3, but when I think of him as an itty bitty baby, it actually seems kind of long ago.  He has changed SO much in 3 years and he is so much fun to watch.  My mom says his smile is contagious and he has a twinkle in his eye!  That's our Grant Ryan :) We love you to pieces dude!

American Girl Place

Here is the link to our American Girl trip: http://youtu.be/dKrxz1MUs78

I knew that my sister in law were going to be home this summer and thought it would be a perfect girl trip to share together.  Mimi and Aunt Sandy came too.  We were even lucky enough to have Sandy's daughter, Annie and Sandy's niece, Ellie join us as well.  It was a surprise for the girls and Pops was staying home with the boys (Grant & Briggs).  Grant tried to break my heart by crying when we left him, but he quickly recovered and enjoyed his boy time with Pops!

We stayed at Aunt Sandy's and took the train into the city.  The video link captures it all, but here are some pics too!

Cupcakes by Sandy!  Adorable!

Aunt Sandy had a tea party for us!

American Girl of the Year - Saige

Meet Lulu, Elizabeth's new doll

Lunch at AG

The girls playing with their new dolls!

Saying Good-bye to Joy!

Playing "Pizza Party" - Grant's favorite game

Since Grant is turning 3 he has to be released from his speech services that we have been receiving.  He didn't qualify for further services at this time so we are officially done with speech.  I am very excited about being done, but we are going to miss Joy very much!!! When she started working with Grant last July he was saying less than 10 words.  He now speaks in short sentences.  The progress he has made is amazing and we have all enjoyed our time with Joy.  Elizabeth always had a story (well really stories) to share and Joy was always so kind to listen.  Joy saw us at our best (when Grant had a language explosion) and our worst (when I forgot we changed our appointment time and opened the front door in my robe and a towel around my head!).  Words really can't express how grateful we are for all of the help that Joy gave us.  Joy was really Grant's first teacher and we have a special place in our heart for her!

MTHS Dance Clinic

Elizabeth's dance teacher this year is also the dance coach for one of the local high schools.  Elizabeth invited her "bud bud" Lauren to attend with her.  Julianna, a friend of Elizabeth's from both dance and pre-school was there too.  The girls had a great time and performed their routine for us on Thursday afternoon.  The song was Justin Bieber's "Baby"... it was adorable!  She is still singing and dancing!

Lauren, Elizabeth, Julianna

Miss Lauren - she was one of Elizabeth's teachers for her regular dance class

Father's Day

We had a great weekend celebrating the dads in our life.  We had a get together at Aunt Ruthie's house on Saturday.  That is where we met these adorable puppies (Truffles and Reggie).  They loved being held like babies and were being pushed in a stroller...Elizabeth was in love!  We reminded her that we have a lovely dog of our own that would love a good belly rub :)

On Sunday we met my dad for breakfast.  While at breakfast we found out that t-ball had been cancelled so Brandon got to enjoy watching golf that afternoon, which is exactly what he wanted to do!

I intended to get a picture when we were all dressed nicely for breakfast, but of course forgot.  So we got the picture of Brandon opening his gifts (new ties...which he really needed!).  Then he wanted the kids to sit next to him on the couch for a picture.  There was just something about the picture that gave me flashbacks.  Then I realized it was because Brandon and Elizabeth were wearing the same thing this year that they were wearing last year for the Father's Day couch picture pose! Grant was in his undies :)

We are really lucky to have such great male role models in our family's life.  Thank you to all of the dad's out there...for EVERYTHING that you do!

Dance Recital Weekend

This past weekend was very busy.  Elizabeth's dance recital madness started with a 5 hour dress rehearsal on Friday afternoon/evening.  She was act number 17 & 48 (the finale).  She was so excited and had a really fun time with her dance class.  She didn't smile too much on stage because she was concentrating so much on remembering the moves.  Her class was full of adorable 3 & 4 year olds!

Here is the YouTube link to see the video and more pics :) (It's only 7 minutes!)
http://youtu.be/z3i7qOaW_6s

St Jude Kids Run

"Children Saving Children" is the motto of the St. Jude Kids Run.  Elizabeth was able to participate last year and this year Grant got to as well, plus their cousin Stella.  Daddy ran with the kids this year.  Grant and Stella ran a quarter mile in less than 4.5 minutes.  Elizabeth and Daddy ran their lap in 2.5 minutes.  Pretty good paces for little legs and they never walked!  They all ran the whole thing!  Elizabeth couldn't get her face painted due to her dance recital 3 hours later, but she was a good sport and was happy for Stella & Grant (well after a brief conversation she came to terms with it!).  

Pre-run pep talk!