4th of July Part 1: Leah and Dallin's birthday celebration!

My parents were going to be leaving the day before Leah and Dallin's birthday, so we celebrated with them a little early the morning of Independence Day.  Leah had a blast opening presents and it was so fun to see how much she loved everything we got her.  Dallin wasn't too into the opening presents thing, but he liked a lot of Leah's stuff once she opened it! We intended for most presents to be for both of them, but there were a few individual gifts:

Leah loves all bags and purses, so these backpacks were a hit!

Even Dallin liked wearing his (his is a monkey, Leah's is an owl).

She didn't even want to take it off to open her next present... 

A "Cheese!"

We found this camera on clearance at Target and I was so excited because I'd been eyeing it for awhile, knowing Leah would LOVE it.  And she does! (Dallin loves it, too...he pretty much wants everything she has).

I let the kids play with play-doh for the first time the other day.  It occupied them for a good ten minutes!  Not bad for a 2 year old...pretty incredible for a 1 year old!

After opening a few more presents, we brought out the cake...nothing amazing, just two pieces from a chocolate cake mix cake.  Poor Leah and Dallin have a mom who isn't very into cakes (hopefully I make up for it in other ways!).  They didn't care, though.  They thought it was delicious!

Leah showed the most excitement when we brought the cakes out and sang to them. 

She immediately picked her piece up and had at it.  Then she only had 3 or 4 bites and lost interest...but she really looked like she enjoyed those 3 or 4 bites a lot!!!

Dallin, on the other hand, took his time (which surprised me, because he's very into food)!  First he needed to make a connection with his Granddad:

Then he began smashing and digging into it, making a mess of it until he finally began eating it.

And he pretty much ate it all gone.

Wouldn't want to forget to smash it into your hair, too!  Gotta get it ALL over! 

Now that's a happy birthday boy!

We couldn't be more grateful for these two handfuls.  What a blessing they've been the last two years of our lives (well, one year for Dallin...but you know what I mean).

Grammy and Granddad's Visit - Part 1

One of our power outage meals - Cheesecake Factory!

Granddad was teaching Leah the song "Whoooo is my baby-bye-bye" (this is the whooooo part)

She kept trying it out over and over...we loved the face she made as she sang it.

Everyone wanted to sit on Grammy's lap!

Granddad tried to get Leah to sing "Who is my baby-bye-bye" again, but she was a little shy about it.

We spent one morning at Port Discovery in Baltimore.  It was such a fun place for Leah and Dallin to explore and I was SO grateful Mom and Dad (Grammy and Granddad) were there for our first visit there, because I realized I never could have handled both Leah and Dallin there on my own.  There was so much for both kids to do, and it would have been impossible to keep them both together and supervised by myself.   As it was, our hands were full, but we all had a lot of fun and completely wore ourselves out!

On our way into the museum

Leah was fascinated with Mr. Potato head until he turned to give her attention.  She wanted to do the approaching and did NOT want to be approached.

Dallin was pretty okay with him either way.

Exploring "tot trails"

Giving Dallin love

Looking at the "shishies"

This silicone sandbox was a hit.  

Dallin especially loved the sandbox. 

Leah and Dallin's different personalities really came out here.  Leah ran from place to place, testing, trying and then moving on to the next thing.  She would often come back to certain things over and over, but she would never stay in one place long (except for when it came to the slide).  Dallin, on the other hand, would stay in one place and explore it thoroughly, usually until we finally moved him to the next thing.

  

This "pond" was a changing scene that used sensors to respond to any motion on it.  So when it showed any water scenes, as you walked over it, it made ripples and sounded like you were actually in water.  Leah thought it was cool; Dallin was very skeptical and didn't want much to do with it.

I thought this station was such a great idea: painting water on rocks.  No mess, and you can keep painting them over and over as they dry!

A "choo-choo"!

Leah wet through her diaper partway through and I had to take off her undershirt onesie and shorts, leaving her in just this strappy shirt and her diaper!  Here she is playing in the dryers by the doors to the water room.

Dallin was fascinated by this excavation station, especially after Granddad set him inside and let him play with all the fake rocks!

You can see Dallin's ID tag on his ankle - we all had matching tags.

Leah is also really into vehicles right now...she loves any opportunity to (pretend) drive and is especially drawn to trucks and buses. 

Traffic jam!

 As I said, it was an exhausting but fun morning and everyone enjoyed themselves.  We topped off the fun by going to a nearby pizza place and then headed home where we all crashed for naps.