LHOTP

Right outside our front door. James took this picture using my phone. We got so close!

Genius Child

To my horror James is taking apart most of his Lego sets. He is busy creating though. And he is a genius child.

Look at these spaceships that he is creating. He is so symmetrical and precise.

This is amazing work for a 4 year old. He is using irregular parts and creating something out of nothing. He has several ships assembled and they do battle often. It is a war zone here!

Surprise, Dad!

When James and I have a secret we used hushed voices and whisper loudly to each other, within Jim's earshot, "Shhhhh!!! Don't tell him the secret!" So it would be pretty hard for Jim not to know that something is in the works.

We made James' Daddy some special birthday cupcakes. Of course James thought they should be Star Wars cupcakes and they should be chocolate.

I did most of the measuring and running around. James got to stand on his stool and smile prettily :)

Jim took this picture, so obviously he's on to us.

James rolled his head around like the mixer. Faster faster!

A good chef always tastes as he goes.

Yum. Cake batter. (But not too much.)

The cupcakes need to cool. Time to play for a bit.

Later, frosting.

Decorating. "This one is for Daddy."

I have these SW stencils. They didn't work so well on this sticky frosting. The stencil stuck to the frosting and didn't lift off well. I should have known. I'll use the stencils next time on a firmer frosting, like buttercream.

James prefers his cupcakes plain so we didn't decorate all of them.

Jim was a good sport and walked into the kitchen covering his eyes.

"Surprise!"

James is so proud of himself. Good work!

And mellow, fluffy and moist chocolate cupcakes with simple white frosting.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Fluffy Vanilla Frosting.

Happy Birthday Dad!

It's all about the cake.

@the Tavern

Cool

James and Dad

Last Day of T-ball

July 21st
I'm blogging quickly. I just want to get caught up before I have to return to work next week! ARGH!

James' last day of t-ball.

A warm-up game of a sort of relay/tag. James ran the bases so well!

He came over to me during his water break and gave me this great thumbs up!

Another quick thumbs up.

Learning how to properly throw the ball.

Celebratory ice cream cone!

Helper

July 18th. James helped me with grocery shopping.

He's been a picky eater for a few years. I let him pick out a snack and he held on to that box. He wouldn't let it get bagged.

I love when he pushes his own little cart... even though he scrapes my heels following so close behind me.

Those snacks? Yeah, he didn't eat them.

FTMCD

This picture is from last night.

But just right now James is telling me that he's taking pictures for Grandma Rose. He's using his ViewMaster as a camera! And asking us to smile and say Cheese!

I think we need to give him one of our old digital cameras and see what magic happens...

WJDN?

Legos. Rebuilding a fire station into a great Jedi Battle Arena. Just like in his Lego SW wii game.


-Blogging while living life!

Little Boy

James is still considered too little to be charged for playing at the Putting Course. Yeah! We check in at the Clubhouse but when they hear that he's only four years old they wave us through and tell us to have fun. I would guess that most four year olds don't make it through 18 holes of golf. Short attention spans, you know.

James USED TO make it through 18 holes. We only made it to 8 or 9 on this day. But what fun!

I did it!

Yay!

In the next picture James had a Tiger Woods moment. (No, not that.) He had a moment of frustration and surprised me by slamming down his club. I just happened to capture it. He calmed down pretty quickly and just kept on golfing. Yikes.

MCM & Lego Castles

There is a conveniently placed McDonald's in the skyway right before the Children's Museum. We pass by it and of course James wants to go back for lunch. It usually happens.

I think this thing is creepy.

We went back to the Lego Castle exhibit because the last time James threw a fit and he didn't really see any of the other parts. We only got as far as the Lego building area. This time I prepped James by telling him that we would build but that there were lots of things to see and do. I really stressed that we wouldn't build the whole time.

I had James go to the top of the castle and yell down, "I'm King of the World!" It was really funny.

There was a computer screen where you select different options to build a castle wall and then you send a computerized catapult to see if your wall withstands the throw. James really loved the SPLAT. Over and over and over and over.

He is very good with a computer mouse. He built a pretty impressive castle using a bunch of castle shape options.

Awesome.

The toddler area had these huge foam Lego bricks. We had the whole place to ourselves since we got there right at the opening of the museum. James used every last one of the bricks to build a sturdy castle.

And then he had a ball BUSTING IT DOWN!

Castle building, this time with Duplos. So much more manageable. Age appropriate.

We went to a few other parts of the museum too. There are the ant tunnels that allow kids the chance to run, explore, and hide.

I needed to go into the tunnel a few times when James got slightly lost or afraid (more kids at this point). I got a little claustrophobic and so I encouraged James to move along to the other parts of the museum. Darn enclosed spaces.

That giant ant is creepy too.

We'd never been to the rooftop garden. It's an area with mostly arts and crafts, like sand sculpting, water painting, leaf coloring, etc. There was this rustic looking climbing fort and James went up confidently at first but then got a little disoriented. I love the expression here. Haha. It was a jumble of kids for a bit- a staff member had to help James down to the bottom.

Snack time. A bee startled him.

It got pretty hot.

So more and more kids (two big daycare groups- mental note: call ahead next time and ask about scheduled groups) arrived at the museum. It started to be not so pleasant for me. James got a little frustrated because kids were grabbing at the play foods, the dishes, just everything. He found a broom and happily swept. I wish he would do this at home!

We finally managed to get some foods and a space to sit. I told James this was the Japanese style of eating- on the floor cushions. He smiled for the picture that we sent to his Tia Kiki :)

James pretended to be a doctor. He had me sit on the patient bench while he told me about the medicine I should take. Doctor Tauer one day?

More building.

It was a fun morning! We went to McDonald's, James fell asleep in the car, and we got home for dinner.

I took this picture at the end of the day. I brightened it up a bit but it was already a spectacular sunset. My iPhone camera doesn't have a flash so that's why I needed to brighten it up. Wow.