Winnie The Pooh and Tigger Birthday Party

Aden wanted a Tigger party for his 4th birthday so a Tigger party we had! Of course, where there's Tigger, there's the whole Winnie the Pooh crew. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time...a gathering of family and friends, yummy food and cake, and some good old-fashioned games.

We had the party at Anini Beach Park (a hop, skip, and a jump from Dave and Carolyn's house)

which made setting up and tearing down convenient. Many thanks to all those who helped!

The bounce house was a huge hit!

Here you can see the boys in their homemade t-shirts

Sippin' juice boxes and munchin' on turkey sandwiches, Dorritos, and carrots

Not a bad backdrop for a picnic lunch! :)

Great Grandma, Daddy, and Auntie Tricia (our pastor's wife)

"Bouncing Tigger" game

A "Bouncy Tigger" twist to the classic gunny sack races

The kids LOVED this! I think they really thought they were Tigger! Amazing what a stuffed, striped tail pinned to shorts can do for hopping skills!

Sweet Darla

Darla and her older brother Isaiah live across the street from us and Darla is always a good sport about playing with "the boys" (you'll notice she's the only girl at the party!) BUT we keep telling her that it won't be long before Elizabeth will be ready to join in on the fun.

Well, this can't compare to the awesome firetruck cake that Auntie Stacy made for Aden last year but it was cute enough and Aden was pleased. I just wish I would have taken it out of the Costco box before I snapped the picture!

Aden and Jonathan kept their tails on for the rest of the party...I thought this shot was cute with their tails sticking our behind them as they ate their cake.

At one point one of the parents said, "Where are the kids?" and we looked over to see Aden (my crazy tree-climbing monkey) up in this tree with all the other kids on the ground looking up. He was probably 10 feet off the ground and I'm not sure how he managed to get himself up there! It was cute though because in one of the classic Pooh stories Tigger bounces himself up into a tree and can't get down. Although, Aden figured out how to get down!

Here's Isaiah getting ready to pin the tail on Eeyore.

And here's little Kamu (our pastor's 11 month old grandson) doing the same...without the blindfold, of course!

How appropriate to play a game of "pin the tail on the donkey" with Eeyore!

Presents! Presents! Presents!

Improvise

For Aden's third birthday (firetruck theme) Jonathan's gift to Aden was a firetruck t-shirt. I wanted to make that a tradition...the morning of Aden's birthday, he'd open Jonathan's gift and it would be a shirt that he could wear to his party that went with the party's theme. Well, as soon as Aden decided that he wanted a Tigger party for his birthday this year I started looking for a cute Tigger t-shirt. I looked at all the stores here and in several stores in Oahu and I looked online. I found lots of adult t-shirts and lots of little girl t-shirts (form fitting, capped sleeves, etc.) but as far as little boys there just wasn't much out there, surprisingly. After scouring the internet I finally found one BUT to have it shipped to Hawaii would have ended up costing me $30+...for a single t-shirt. Well, that wasn't going to happen so I decided to improvise...

I bought a couple of plain boys' t-shirts at Walmart for $3 each.

I bought a yard of this darling fabric for $4.

and I appliqued some of the darling fabric onto the cheap shirts. Very easy, very inexpensive, and pretty cute.

I liked this one the best! On the day of the party Aden chose to wear the other one because it was ORANGE (of course!) and he let Jon Jon wear this one.

While I was at it I made a "Cars" shirt too!

And with the scraps I made a "better than just plain white" washcloth!

My Baby Boy...

is growing up! Our sweet Aden Thomas turned FOUR today! Just look at how he has grown!

Newborn

One Year Old

Two Years Old

Three Years Old

Four Years Old

I can't believe what a little man he is becoming. I love him so much and I praise God for giving us these four wonderful years with him! Happy Birthday Aden Thomas!

Oh Dolly!

Isn't this the sweetest little doll! This darling Baby Tinkerbell was lovingly handmade by Dave's cousin, Jill. She and her husband Mark live in Indiana but were here visiting in November. She got to meet little Elizabeth then and a few weeks later this special gift arrived on our doorstep. Thank you so much Auntie Jill!

One thing that I am thoroughly enjoying about having a little girl is the presence of sweet dollys like these! The doll on the left was a gift for Elizabeth from my dear friend Kelly. I just adore it! (So much so that I plan to try to make a knock-off version of one soon!) Elizabeth has really taken a liking to it as well. Several times recently when I've gone in to get her from her nap I have found her in there playing with it. So cute! Thanks again ladies for getting this girl's dolly collection started!

Rainy Day Fun

Last Saturday the rain made a fun (and dirty!) playground out of our front yard. The boys got suited up in their rain boots and wet suits (silly boys!) and spent the morning playing in puddles. They had a great time. As you can see, Goosey Jonathan insisted on wearing his favorite orange shorts over his wet suit.

I love this shot! He kept trying to peek at the display screen mid shot saying, "I want to see it Mommy!"

Check out the dirt in his hair and on his face! Such a boy!

"Mommy, I got da fwunt-end woader."

This is Aden's way of putting his arm around his brother. Someday he'll figure out that you're supposed to put your arm on your buddy's shoulder!