When Owen whips out his smile you can’t help but melt like butter.

Counting his numbers and for some reason he was super excited when he got to five!

Mike’s 29th birthday was Friday. His best friend Phil and I wanted to do something nice for him as a surprise. We figured that since next year he’ll turn 30 on a Saturday, he’d be looking for something to be up our sleeves, so we planned to surprise him this year.

Well, we pulled it off with the help of all our family and he had no idea! He spent the afternoon with Phil and their friend Matt and when he came home he thought we were going to dinner at the Melting Pot. To his surprise, when he opened the door he was greeted by all our family along with Phil and Matt to celebrate is birthday. His sister even came down from Boston.

After the party, the grandparents took the little ones and stop the presses… I went OUT ON A SATURDAY NIGHT! Mike, myself, Jenny, Croce, Danny, Randy, Sue, Matt and Phil went out for a few drinks and to watch some basketball and it was alot of fun.

All in all it was a great success and it was so nice to do something nice for Mike. He deserved it.

Mike LOVES golf, so when I saw this cake design at Wegman’s I had to get it!

Some decorations and the munchie food… there was 2 more tables of food. It was YUMMY!


SURPRISE!! And no, he’s not yellow… it’s the light from the lamp shinning in his face.

The guys who kept him occupied all day playing video games so I could clean and set up the party.


The birthday boy and his wifey!

We’re still unsure who Benny looks like (Owen too, actually). Some say he looks like me as a baby, but some also say he looks like Mike. Only time will tell, but I can tell you one thing, Benny has his Daddy’s best feature… those blue eyes. Amazing. Stunning. Gorgeous. Blue eyes.

Alex & Owen are best buddies. You should see the reaction Owen gets on his face when he sees Alex. They run to each other and give each other a BIG HUG! The have a lot in common… Thomas the Train, CARS, Wii and they both aren’t big fans of their little brothers. Their relationship can be a little bit of love/hate at times, but they have so much fun when they are together.

Jenny sent me these pictures that she took when they visited over the weekend. It’s A & O acting like goonie birds before their slumber party in Owen’s big boy bed. These two crack me up.

Owen got new sunglasses at Children’s Place last week and since it was nice out this afternoon, he insisted he wore them when we ran an errand to the store. He looked super cute and super cool.

Ben is a climber. He climbs on everything… on and over his anywhere chair, into his high chair, on the stool in the bathroom and today, he started to climb into his toy box. He makes me smile everyday!!

1. Grammy Thomas spent last week with us while PeePaw was overseas on business. We had such a nice visit and wish she lived closer so we could see her more often.
2. The morning after Grammy left, Owen wakes us up and the first thing he says is “Where’s Grammy?”
3. Ben is starting to walk more. He’ll stand up from sitting and walk to where he wants to go. He’s still a little wobbly, but he’s doing much better.
4. Owen is blowing me away with his brain power lately. His new thing is spelling out words. He flys through his flashcards and when we were out shopping, he’d stop to spell out the words on signs. For him not being in a daycare/learning environment, I’m impressed with his knowledge for being just over 3. He spells his name too!

   

5. Owen’s a wiz on the iTouch. Mike downloaded a few games for him. He can clear the Memory board faster than I can.
6. Ben loves the stairs. He crawls up them super fast and is starting to learn how to go back down.

   

7. This is what happens when your baby is crawling and bumps into the dog with a bone in her mouth.

   

8. When you ask Ben for a kiss, he leans in and plants one smack on your lips. I love it! He started this about two weeks ago. I make sure I get a kiss everyday when I come home from work.
9. Jenny and the boys came to visit from Sunday to Monday. Owen and Alex had a blast and Roman and Ben kept each other company. Look how big Roman has gotten!!

   

10. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Last Tuesday, my cousin Lesley and her husband welcomed our family’s 5th little boy into the world. The Park clan is 100% Team Blue. No pink yet.

I had the pleasure of taking pictures of Gannon on Sunday and he’s precious. Such a good baby… very clam and relaxed.

So – all three of my grandmother’s grand-daughters have had little boys. They are all pretty close in age so hopefully they can grow up together to be buddies. I can tell you that there won’t be a shortage of boys for them to play with at family reunions and ours dads now have a slew of golfing buddies.

Owen is loving life right now. The past 2 days it has been warm enough for him to play outside and he’s been taking full advantage. I think he’s spent at least 3-4 hours a day if not more outside having the best time. He just runs around the back yard, plays on his swing set, chases the dog, plays with his golf club, football, soccer and baseball set… he’s in heaven.

Look at that big smile as he runs around the yard!

Playing catch… waiting for the ball.

He’s got it!

He even helped Daddy wash my car today.

Yes, all Dads have special days they look forward to with their sons and today was one of them. Mike took Owen to Dick’s to get his first real golf club. He already has a play set, but this was a true, honest to goodness metal Walter Hagen iron for little kids.

Owen was ecstatic. Even though it’s chilly, he wanted to go out in the back yard and play.

Daddy also had a big, busy day because he had to run Benny to the doctor first thing this morning. He’s had a temp off and on for a few days, but had been acting normal and happy…until last night. He was fussy and would not sleep. Before I left for work his temp was 104! We tossed him in a cool bath, cleaned him up and got him dressed. All he wanted was his mommy and I had to go to work, so that was hard. BIG TIME mommy guilt. But Daddy to the rescue. He took Benny in to see the pediatrician. My munchie has a double ear infection and the one ear is pretty bad.

Poor little guy didn’t hardly eat or drink anything today. I felt horrible because he has probably had it for a few days but I didn’t think to take him in to the doctor because I chalked it up to teething or the first sign of the cold Owen and I have. He’s on medicine now so hopefully he’ll feel better real soon. It’s just hard to see your baby sick. Luckily the weekend is right around the corner and Benny will have Mommy home all weekend.

1. Owen has cabin fever BAD. His behavior around this time of the year is always unfavorable because he’s bored. He is itching to get outside and run around. He really misses the park. Soon buddy, soon.
2. Ben’s starting to become picky about food. He’ll start to chew it, then spit it out. He doesn’t like the textures of fruits and veggies, so we might have to go back to some baby food. I got the cookbook “Deceptively Delicious” that gives recipes on how to sneak veggies and what not into foods so your kids won’t recognize them. I need to try something soon to make sure the little dude is getting the proper nutrients.
3. Owen’s new thing is “What’s this word?” Words on buildings, store signs, commercials on TV, packaging on food… you name it. He wants to know the word.
4. “I don’t know”. That is how Owen has been answering 90% of questions you ask him. You know he knows the answer, but he still says “I don’t know.” Things like, “What are you eating? What’s your name? What color is your shirt? Finally after asking multiple times he’ll tell you the right answer. Silly goose.
5. Ben turned 13 months old Sunday. Year two is starting to fly by already.
6. A very wicked cold is flying through our house. I had it, now the boys are getting it. Owen still doesn’t know how to blow his nose. If he only knew how much better he’d feel if he got that stuff out.
7. The boys had a nice visit with Grammy and PeePaw Thomas this past weekend. It was great to see them.
8. I seriously think Ben is the most happiest child I have ever seen in my life. That is one of the first things people notice about him. He just loves life and is so content.
9. Nerf+Owen= Bad Idea. For some reason, Owen feels compelled to bite anything Nerf. It all started with a football/basketball/soccer ball set my dad got him 2 years ago. He took huge bites out of it. Now that he’s 3, we thought he’d know not to eat it so we got him the Nerf Sports Pack for the Wii. Yeah… the golf club – bitten to pieces. The baseball bat – bitten to pieces… you get the idea. You leave the room for one minute to get a drink and you come back to chucks of nerf on the floor. The only one left is the steering wheel. Crazy kid.
10. Benny’s becoming a big cuddle bug and I LOVE IT! We snuggie in the recliner, rock and watch TV together. I wish I could keep him small forever.

Happy Tuesday! And sorry no pictures… I haven’t picked up my camera in over a week!