summer fun

Our climber

He discovered chalk + water makes fun paint

I made baking soda ice and he sprayed it with vinegar for a fun sizzling paint

The big 2 years!

Here is the cake I made for Levi's 2nd birthday. He picked this "tye dye" cake over Elmo and all other "character" cakes. The inside pretty much fell apart and was plastered together with lots of frosting but the outside turned out better than expected.

I printed off a free banner from this blog, and hung a few balloons with marbles upside down from our dining room lights. Levi is really in to balloons right now so I wanted to make sure and have plenty.

 10 adults and 16 kids attended (including ourselves). It was quite boisterous and fun.

Levi is enjoying his "Happy Birthday" song rendition.

Levi doesn't quite get blowing out candles so his friend Vera, and I , helped.

Here is Levi's room after a stray toddler disappeared in to it. I found him jumping on the pile of books. 

Here are the PJs that my mom's neighbor sent for Levi's birthday. They fit perfectly and he loves them!

"My 1st Tato-head."

On his actual birthday, we took Levi to the lake for a family day that was being put on. It turned out to be super cold. It was in the 20's over night and was only in the high 30's by this time. Stringing beads on pipe cleaner was a hit with Levi. He was really concentrating.

Levi played his 1st round of golf with daddy.

I know, I know, sweatshirts, winter hats, and ICECREAM?!? It was one of the last times to get S.D. ice cream for the year and we were celebrating Levi's birthday after all; what's a birthday without ice cream ;)

Daddy's ice cream looked better to him. We ate indoors to stay warm enough.

 

 

I love this photo of my guys. Levi loves the lake so regardless of temp, he wanted to go down and look at it. 

Here are the photos of Levi opening his present from Grandma & Grandpa Balsley. We talked with Grandma on the phone while he opened it.

 

Thank you, Grandma & Grandpa!!!!

 

This punch balloon was an instant classic hit from our neighbor next door, "Mimi Hunt". 

State Fair 2012

We went to the State Fair (held in our town) again this year. This was Levi's 2nd year and he thoroughly enjoyed it. I spent most of the morning/early afternoon browsing the fair and talking/strolling with a friend and our children. Andrew then joined us in the evening for more fun. Above, Levi is watching his 1st ever jousting tournament. Bad idea? Possibly! How do you explain to a toddler that just because "big men" hit each other with "sticks" does NOT make it okay for little boys to hit, poke and otherwise jab others (especially with sticks!)

We quickly moved on to gawking at the large elephants.

Here Levi and his friend David are watching the elephants. I thought it turned out well so I used sepia tone to enhance it. It reminds me of "days gone by".

Being allowed to touch all the big machines was every little boys fantasy.

Levi enjoyed two whole buildings dedicated to toddlers being allowed to poke (gently :) ), prod, feed, and otherwise generally harass all sorts of cool animals.

Here he is attempting to touch a piglet gone wild. It was running maniacally around the pen.

The biggest highlight for Levi and us was the corn box. Similar to a sandbox but somehow cleaner. He did not want to leave this box and enthusiastically allowed Andrew to bury him and then would roll around with pure toddler joy.

I just love his voluntary smile here as well as Andrew's wonderful smile in the following photo.

There was a tiny mini golf area where we attempted to introduce Levi to the sport. He loved dropping the ball in to the hole.

When I needed a rest, a stall worker very enthusiastically invited all of us to try out her vibrating back massage pillows. Levi was too light to work it on his back so he got to sit on it.

We have found the cheapest fair drink is the dairy stall where you can get unlimited chocolate/white milk all day for $2 a person. I am a big milk drinker so I am thrilled. (But not THAT big, that is not a milk belly :) ) Yes baby #2 is enjoying taking up TONS of space already :) (I was only like 17 1/2 weeks here)

Andrew and Levi enjoying a break from walking at the end of the day. My two favorite men!

Right before leaving the ride lights started turning on and Levi was thoroughly impressed. Next year little man!

Well that was our fair in review. There are tons more things to do but I just listed the toddler friendly activities we enjoyed. We welcome anyone to come some year to enjoy the fair with us! It is very inexpensive and lots of fun! (Plus the housing would be free :) ) It is almost always the first week in September or there about.

21 Month Update

At 21 months, Levi is more and more of a little boy and less of a baby!

Here Levi has used a block to make his own bulldozer out of his fire truck. He did this without any help! Bulldozers are one of his favorite things right now.

Here Levi is trying on Daddy's shoes.

Recently we were in Aberdeen for meetings and I stopped at Storybookland with Levi. It is free and GREAT for little kids.

His favorite part of the park was the train ride. (Only thing that costs a tiny bit of money) He rode the train 4 times in 2 days. He liked it so much we got him a little replica and had to bring daddy for a ride.

He got to feed geese while in the free zoo portion of the park.

Levi learning to work his 1st bulldozer.

Levi also has a passion for firetrucks and was thrilled with this toy one.

Levi is also very in to making faces to make people laugh right now. He also thinks his daddy is hilarious and says "funny daddy" all the time.