A Special Sprinkle Cake

Brittney's birthday is tomorrow! I almost always think it is on the 10th and end up wishing her "Happy Birthday!" on the wrong day. But this year I got it. Thank you, outlook calendar at work...!

When I asked her what cake she wanted, I expected something challenging. Instead, she wanted the cake Matt made me for my birthday. My favorite cake is delicious, but hardly a challenge once you've made it a dozen or so times. So I decided to jazz it up a little!

I wasn't sure that rainbow sprinkles on cake was really "a thing", so I decided to look it up online. Not a super common combination apparently - the only thing I saw were people making a number on top of a kid's birthday cake with the smaller sprinkles. But then a related image caught my eye - a chocolate donut with rainbow sprinkles - my favorite donut!!

After that, it was just a matter of deciding how many sprinkles to put on this cake. I decorated it very tastefully and then took it to Matt for his opinion. "It needs more sprinkles!" So it kinda snow-balled from there until the whole cake was covered in sprinkles - as were most surfaces in the kitchen.

Once Thomas discovered all the colorful things on the floor were sprinkles (possibly his favorite 'food' in the world), he plopped down and started eating the off the floor. I was a bit surprised that a child with my genetics was doing that...!

But then it soon occurred to me that it might not be my genetics that was promoting such behavior. At least Matt stopped Thomas from eating the things that were not sprinkles on the floor - once Thomas reached for a piece of dirt, Matt called the sprinkle hunt off until the next decorating craze...

Happy Birthday, Brittney! Hope you love your cake as much as the boys did! :)

Now That is Love!!

I have the best parents ever! :)

I think that several people envisioned we were moving to a true wilderness by moving up here. Anchorage is by no means a wilderness - regardless of the random bears and moose roaming around the place. But there are certain things we just can't get because we live up here. Shipping is one thing that drives me crazy - Free Shipping* (to the 48 contiguous states) or "No shipping to Alaska, suckers!"

The biggest thing we all complain about though - is food. Mostly it's restaurants. We would love to have a Chick-fil-A, Whataburger, Waffle House, On the Border, etc. anywhere near us. But I also love to complain about the lack of Mrs. Bairds and Tastykake baked goods. I've tried to fall in love with Hostess chocolate donuts, but I just can't. And the other brands up here? Meh...

So I've taken to instituting "If you visit us from Texas or go to Texas, you must bring Jen a bag of Mrs. Baird's Chocolate Donuts" policy.  So far, it's been a huge success (for me!) and then mom and dad surprised me in the dearth between visits with a baked goods care package. They really are the best! (The parents and the goodies!)

Hope

Hope sits almost directly across Turnagain Arm from us, but we hadn't made a visit there yet. While driving back from Homer, we looked for it and thought we saw it across the arm. We looked on google maps to see if we were right (we were!) and realized it was only about a 90 minute drive away.

So my first three day weekend at work, we decided to head down for a drive and eat lunch there. With such a short drive, there weren't any meltdowns in the car and it was a nice, peaceful drive. There isn't much to Hope, but it was a very pretty little town. If it hadn't been so windy and raining on us, we probably would have tried to explore a little more.

But since it was, we just had lunch and Matt took Thomas for a walk down toward the arm. The food at the little cafe was pretty good and our server there was super friendly. Thomas had his road trip usual of clam chowder - that's definitely not a staple in Texas... 

I would imagine we will go back to Hope later this summer and explore some of the hiking trails. Until then, thanks for the yummy lunch!

Three (24.5) Months!

Another month flew bye and I have to go back to work tomorrow. But we won't dwell on the fact I don't get to snuzzle with my boys all day, we will focus instead on just how darn cute they are right now!

Thomas refused to put his brush down and smile for photos. Not that he ever smiles on request, but especially not with a brush in his mouth. And it's not like he had been brushing his teeth recently - he managed to find his old toothbrush he had thrown under Henry's crib. Awesome. Henry even looks super skeptical about the whole toothbrush thing. ;)

Henry has gotten sturdy enough that I didn't freak out when Thomas decided to stand up next to him. Probably also remained calm because Thomas has done super about being careful around his brother. I mean, he's a toddler so he's still a bit of a wrecking ball, but not usually around Henry. Whew!

And that was the end of cooperation with the toddler Luckily Henry is a bit more of a captive audience and couldn't bolt away. 

He's turning into quite the cutie, huh? I love that he's full of smiles and giggles right now. Full of gas and burps too, but I'll take the bad with the good. :)

Get-away to Homer!

For our last big trip before my maternity leave was up, we decided to head down to Homer. It's the longest road trip we've attempted with the boys, so we figured there would be plenty of stops and we would be fine as long as we didn't pretend otherwise.

Stop one was actually a family agreement - we were all hungry! We found a campground after the turn-off to Homer from Seward highway. I think it was called Quartz Creek or Crystal something. I should probably just google that instead of guessing...

After we ate, I fed Henry while Matt and Thomas walked down to the nearby creek and then found the bubbles I had packed in the car. Thomas *loves* bubbles so much - of course he was excited to chase giant bubbles around a deserted campground. I think this trip was right before the summer season really takes off up here. Things were open, but there weren't any services available.

Of course, I had to run down to see the creek for myself. You can see that things are starting to get green, but there are still a few brown holdouts!

The next stop was 'requested' by the boys. One was antsy and one was hungry - you can probably guess which was which. So we stopped at another campground. This was mostly driven by the fact Thomas could stretch his legs and that we just bought a park pass and want to get our money's worth!

We walked down to the lake, but booked a quick retreat when we saw the vast number of mosquitoes that were already hanging out. I think we managed to get away bite free (these mosquitoes are indeed bigger than the Texas ones, but much slower), but we weren't taking any chances.

First stop in Homer was to check in to our cabin. Second stop was (obviously) for some food. We were told to try the Salty Dawg as it is an institution in Homer, but it really is more of a bar and we deemed it not the best spot for an overly tired 2 year old and baby. But the place we did find was outstanding - Thomas was even eating clams and halibut. With a name like Captain Patties I was kinda thinking Spongebob Krabby Patties, but the food was actually super good. I highly recommend it.

Thomas chowing down on the rest of my clam chowder. If I had known I had to share, I would have ordered a bowl, not a cup.

Our cabin was just down the hill from the Alaska Islands & Oceans visitor center. I read online they are a conservation entity for birds and sea life, so I was thinking it would be like the Seward Marine Center. Not quite... It was ok, but Thomas wasn't as interested in the hows of conservation as he would have been in looking at birds. 

See? Bird sculptures were enough to make him smile!

Just outside of the center were a few trails to walk down to the beach and those were probably our favorite part. Henry and I came back and walked them again when Thomas was napping - had to get enough steps on my fitbit for the day!

These reminded me so much of the bluebonnets back home that I had to share them. Not enough to do the classic "kid sitting in a field of bluebonnets" photos, but Thomas kinda hated that last time anyhow...

He much prefers pushing his stroller than riding in it most of the time. We figured it would wear him out and let him blaze his own path. He, of course, chose uphill when we needed to go down. Toddlers...

The end of the Homer Spit - it's not technically the end of the land, but it is the end of the highways in this direction.

Hanging out on Bishop's Beach. It was a little windy, which Henry didn't much care for...

But made it perfect for kite flying! I know you can't tell in this photo because the kite is so awesomely high up in the air, but it has minions from Despicable Me on it. Thomas didn't appreciate this at all, but I think the minions are adorable and had to get it!

He also didn't quite get the concept of holding on to the string, but he loved looking at the kite and got all excited when it was going up or coming down. 

Another park stop on the drive back home. We are pretty sure that volcano is the same one that we can see from our upstairs landing when the sun is just right. I am pretty sure it is Mount Redoubt, but it's hard to match up the Google Earth imagery with the view from across the inlet. We'll go with it until proven otherwise. And a plane landed on the beach down the cliffs while we were there. Pretty awesome!

And a second stop at the same location as the drive down. This time we didn't drive all the way back to the campground and the scenery was actually way better. And I googled it - it is indeed Quartz Creek. Well worth a stop just to take in the scenery if you are already driving by (especially if you have kids who could use a break!)

Whale Watching Tour

Our real plan with coming to Seward was to go on a whale watching tour. I heard an advertisement on the radio and thought it sounded super fun.  the glacier tour last year was a bit of a bust on number of glaciers, but it was still a great time. So I figured Matt and Thomas would be game for looking for some whales. Henry, of course, had no say in the matter... ;)

Since we had some time to kill after breakfast, we headed over to the town park right off the bay. Thomas never says no to time at the park!

He was super excited about being at the top of the slide - less so once he was halfway down... But he must have liked it well enough, because he kept going back for more!

Someone offered to take a photo of all four of us at the park. It's rare we get one with us all, so it was a super nice gesture. (And I seriously doubted a lady with her two grand kids was going to try to run off with my camera.) How nice is the view from this park?

On to the whale watching! We started seeing whales right away. There was one whale frolicking around right next to an otter. The captain on the ship was great at spotting the sealife and letting everyone know where to look. And since it was a weekday, it really wasn't that crowded on the boat. We could actually get photos without having to fight for a spot at the railing. (Yes, I'm referencing you, glacier cruise!)

Thomas even got in on the photo taking action. He may be most talented at shots of his forehead but he sure was trying hard to get a photo out the window like everyone else. :)

Henry really didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

I was super excited to see the "blow" when the whale surfaced. In my mind it was going to be this huge cloud of mist 50' up in the air. So it wasn't quite like the childhood drawings of a whale... but it was still pretty cool!

And the best part - the tail up in the air. This is apparently called a fluke and the dives where the fluke comes out of the water are the deep ones. So when you see this awesome sight, don't expect to see that whale again for awhile!

Thomas did super good on the tour, but he did start to get bored after awhile. We weren't too keen on letting him walk around outside though, so he mostly stayed inside with one parent while the other one took photos. Matt busted me bargaining with Thomas that he could play his Elmo alphabet game if he would stop trying to run across the boat... 

Other than the whales and otters, we saw bald eagles!

And Sea Lions!

And Harbor Seals (oh my)!

And we finally lost the kiddo. He seemed to have a good time looking for the wildlife and even nodded off to nap time without too much trouble. A successful day all around!

Alaska SeaLife Center

We decided to try and make the most of the last two weeks I have off from work by doing a few short trips around Alaska. Brittney and Duncan graciously offered to watch the girls for us, so we could do an overnight trip and not have to stress as much about long car trips with the boys - well at least not two long ones in one day.

First destination - Seward!

Captain Thomas is at the helm of the Sea Life Center fishing boat - he really liked turning the wheel! I think he looks like the most adorable boat captain ever! :)

Posing in front of the sign. I always struggle to get good photos in dim places like museums. I figured it was a good chance to try and play with the settings myself instead of letting the camera try. It always wants to use the flash and I try not to use the flash if it's avoidable. Especially in a place with a lot of people and reflective surfaces like an aquarium...

Thomas is super into birds right now, so we spent a good deal of time in the bird enclosure.

The sea ducks even swam right up to where we were standing and put on a show for Thomas. You can see his reflection in the glass - he was pretty pumped!

He had zero interest in the marine touch tank. I can't imagine why not, don't you just want to touch this squishy guy??

He did enjoy the sea lion tank though - the big guy was happy enough to swim around in laps to keep Thomas entertained. He would consistently do three laps, surface for air, do three more laps, etc.

The seals were a little more unpredictable, so he kept running up to the tank and looking for them.

After awhile, it became clear to us he was more interested in playing musical chairs at the various exhibits. He would run to a set of chairs, crawl up at one, then point at the chairs next to him and say "Momma!" "Dada!" until we sat in the correct chair. Then he would get up and run to a new set of chairs...

And of course, back to the birds for one last visit before we headed off to dinner. He was quite a trooper on the drive down to Seward, then was in a super good mood at the SeaLife Center - much better than our visit last August!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Since Cinco De Mayo was pretty big back home, we decided to celebrate with our fellow Texans - albeit the day before since they had to work. I'm still on leave so it didn't matter to us, but we're nice like that. :)

Our little kitchen helper decided to model my weapon of choice in the fight against crying while cutting onions. Yes, I know they look ridiculous, but they honestly work! I wasn't even the one cutting onions - I offered them to Matt to use, but I think he decided he would rather tear up... *sigh*

Matt hard at work making his Uncle Jerry's salsa recipe. He had been promising Brittney a batch practically since we moved up here, so he figured today was the most fitting occasion!

Thomas and I went for a walk while Matt was hard at work and when we came back he had multiple batches in differing states of jalapeno content and texture.

Thomas was more than happy to be the taste tester. And, as usual, he liked the hot salsa more than the mild stuff. That is certainly not my genetics! Oh and I know he looks a little ridiculous, but he didn't want to change out of his pajamas before our walk...

Once we finally made it to Brittney & Duncan's house, Henry proceeded to do his usual routine of trying to sleep the entire time. I wonder if babies ever realize they fell asleep in one place and woke up somewhere completely different? That would certainly freak me out!

Brittney even made us tortillas to go with our fajitas! Talk about spoiling people - she's worse than I am! ;)

Of course by the time the fajitas were ready to eat, we had all eaten our full weight in tortilla chips and queso, guacamole & salsa. Completely normal behavior - especially at all of my favorite Tex-Mex restaurants back home. I miss you , Lupe!

Thomas even had more birthday presents to enjoy! He pretty much loved his new Elmo couch. I can't say that I blame him - a couch that folds down into a lounging bed? Why don't they make these for adults??

Eklutna Lake

The weather has turned gorgeous up here, so Matt and I decided to make the most of it and take the boys out for some fun. We had talked before about going to Eklutna Lake and scoping it out, so no time like the present!

I'm sure if you had asked Thomas what his preferred mode of transportation would be, he would choose to walk on his own. But if that wasn't an option (because we want to go faster than a snail...), I am sure he would choose his dad carrying him. He's gotten to the point where he will climb into the backpack rig without too much prompting. Yay!

Heading down from the walking path to the lake. Having never been here before, I don't know if the water is higher or lower than usual. I do know it was still pretty brown and there were still a few patches of snow. Those seem way more treacherous when you are wearing sneakers and carrying kids, by the way!

See the mountains all around? See the lack of snow? Apparently that is super unusual this time of year. We lucked out for our first year with a mild winter and an amazingly awesome spring. I'm wearing short sleeves - unheard of!

As awesome as the sun was, I started to get worried that Thomas was going to get a sunburn on his face. His baseball hat my parents got him is super cute, but not so great at covering the sides of his face. So I tried to convince him to wear my hat instead. I don't mind getting burned if it keeps him from it. (Note to self - bring sunscreen next time!)

The beach of the lake was super muddy. Matt had the foresight to wear his boots, but I was stuck jumping around puddles and tiny rivers of water to get around. And as you can imagine it was super slick.

We retreated up to the rocky part and let Thomas run around. You might notice he isn't wearing my hat anymore. He wore it long enough to laugh and let me get a few pictures, but then decided he didn't want it. Luckily, he didn't get sunburned. My face was fine, but my arms definitely got some color. So at least I had the smarts to put Thomas is long sleeves!

His favorite activity of the day? Throwing rocks! We were safely away from anyone getting hurt as long as he didn't throw backwards, so we let him have fun with it. The boy is developing quite the throwing arm!

I can't let him have all of the fun, can I? I think he would have been more impressed by my throwing skills if he had looked up long enough to see them - he was too busy hunting for his next rock to throw.

All in all, it was a fun day with the boys. Not a long trip by any means, but enough to test out the kid carrying packs for future use. I think Henry slept the whole time, so he may not have even noticed we were out in the gorgeous Alaskan "wilds". :)

Thomas Turns 2!

Thomas turned 2 today! It was such a fun day hanging out with him, opening presents and taking him to Chuck E Cheese. We went to Chuck E Cheese pretty frequently (well for celebrations) when I was a kid and I thought a two year old might enjoy it. Plus for the same price as a normal lunch in Anchorage, we got lunch and two hours of fun. I'd call the whole day quite the success. There are a lot of photos in this post, so I'll try to explain the events just using the captions on the photos to save some time and reading effort on your part. :)

I made this awesome balloon chandelier for him the day before and had Matt sneak it into his room last night. That backfired a little when he woke up in the middle of the night (he's not feeling 100%), saw the outline of the balloons and flipped out. Luckily, when Matt came in and turned the light on, he saw the scary shadows were just balloons and giggled at them. So not scarred for life (hopefully)!

He absolutely loved hitting his balloons and running into them. What toddler wouldn't?!?

Unfortunately there was an incident. I took the balloons downstairs while we ate breakfast, then we went back to his room to play. We had hung them from the dome on his light fixture and when I tried to put them back up there, the dome slipped off and shattered all over his floor. The exploding glass and balloons was heart attack inducing, but luckily neither one of us got hurt (he was still out in the hallway telling Eliza to "go!"). He was pretty upset at me for breaking his light though...

Inspecting his birthday banner!

His cupcakes yesterday were homemade "funfetti", so I had to buy sprinkles and thought since we had a huge tub of sprinkles, why not add them to the pancakes?? He approved! In this photo he was testing the temperature of his pancakes and deeming them "hot".

So he blows on them to cool them off. That's one thing he's gotten pretty good at!

Another new skill - helping dad make coffee. He can turn on the grinder, start it and turn it back off. The he hands his dad a filter and helps dump the grinds in. Obviously he doesn't drink coffee yet, so this is truly a labor of love for his parents. And adorable!

Sitting on his first present of the day. Like his birthday shirt? I made it from a swatch of tie-dye felt I found at Michael's. I like making him stuff from my limited crafting skills! Also note the Elmo socks - his favorite (from his Granny!)

This rocket ship is made by the same company as the airplane I bought him for his first birthday, so I thought it would be good to add to the collection. He loved it! (And I love toys I find that are actually made in the US - shockingly hard!)

This photo is from his birthday last year. He absolutely hated when we tried to put a birthday hat on him. He didn't even want me to wear one. There are several "melt-down" photos because we kept trying to convince him that party hats are awesome. He never agreed...

So while the rest of us wore party hats, we never got Thomas to keep one on. Henry goes along with it, though his expression is pretty skeptical.

Since we had so many extra, Matt finds other ways to wear them than just on his head.

And you might be able to tell here that Matt was saying "Don't let go!" realizing he was about to be whacked with a party hat. I think Thomas actually put it back instead of hitting his dad with it. What a nice little guy, huh?

On to Chuck E Cheese! Thomas was a bit overwhelmed when we first got there, but he warmed up to the idea pretty quick. First he just wanted to help put the coins in the slot, but then we managed to get him to help play some games.

Of course, Chuck E Cheese knows what even the littlest of kids like - he loved this "game" where you dial a number and a Chuck E Cheese character talks to you on the phone. Woooo.... ; )

Matt got in on some race car driving while Thomas helped by holding his tickets.

Break time for lunch. The pizzas were about as good as I remember, which wasn't bad. Even the little guy approved of the choice of toppings. I think he actually ate the bell peppers even though his momma was picking them off. Sorry - green bell peppers are not made to be eaten. Gross!

He tried his best to help with skee ball, but didn't really get the concept. He sure liked the fact the games had balls though! I distinctly remember them being wood though, now they are plastic... Henry was strapped in his baby carrier for most of the visit, but unfortunately Matt didn't manage to get a photo of me playing skee-ball with him strapped to me. I'm sure it looked pretty silly!

Thomas was very intent on this game, it required shooting little balls and trying to get them through holes. I don't think they scored very high, but he liked it!

This one - he did not like! He was excited about sitting on the horse - until it started moving. To his credit - it was shaking him around pretty good. Matt ended up finishing the game for him and he seemed to be having a blast on it.

I remember spending so much time at the end of the day counting tickets to see what I could get in prizes. Now they have machines you feed the tickets into and it gives you a printed receipt to take to the counter. Kids these days have it so easy!

We picked his prizes for him and got him a bunch of stickers and a crazy straw. On the drive home, Matt told me to look at him in the mirror. He had stuck stickers on his face and was content with them staying there. Also note the yellow bags in the far back - those are the summer tires we need to get put on the car. Last day for snow tires was April 30th - whoops!

By the time we got home, he was passed out and still had the stickers on his face. Only now we noticed he had them on his hands too. This boy loves his stickers!

More presents before dinner - this one was the only kitchen set I could find that wasn't rated 3+. I was pretty excited because he loves playing with my kitchen stuff, so I figured he would like his own set. And he loved it - he was pretend feeding us with the spoons. We avoided actual contact with the spoon since he had already stuck it in his mouth... "/

And after dinner, more present opening! We tried to spread it out over the day to make it more exciting. Henry even seems more excited about the party hat this time. :)

We decided to open the last presents and eat cake while chatting with his Granny and PawPaw on Skype. Here the boys are looking up at their grandparents. You've got to love the wonders of modern technology!

Thomas loved his helicopter that Tom (his namesake or whatever the term would be for the person he is named after) sent to him. It's a model of the Eurocopter that Tom flies for the Army - UH72 Lakota. Don't tell Thomas, but this one is likely going to be hanging in his room, not readily available for play. Well at least until he's old enough not to break it accidentally!

The Elmo birthday cake! Still the same red problem as the cupcakes, but this time Thomas said "Elmo" as soon as he saw it. And it didn't even have the black on the eyes at the time. So success! How could I resist buying the Elmo pan when he loves Elmo so much (and I had a 20% coupon!)?

Blowing out the candle on the cake. Well trying to, I think Matt helped him out so he wouldn't end up blowing spit all over the cake. Good call, Matt!

But he wouldn't put his bubbles down to eat his cake. I think he loves bubbles almost as much as stickers!

And this is about as messy as he got. Matt's mom was asking me if I was worried he was going to ruin the cute shirt I made him, but he actually didn't get any cake or icing on it. This kiddo can be a neat eater when he wants to be! Which is usually when I want photos of cake all over his face... Oh well!

I'd call it a pretty successful birthday! He seemed to have a fun filled day and I don't think he had a single meltdown all day - so at least for the day he turned two, we avoided the "Terrible Twos!"

Love you Thomas and we're so glad we've had you around for the past two years! You're turning into quite the awesome little guy! :)