Getting ready for take-off

excited about the birds in our backyard

Not quite there...but watch out, he's coming soon!

In fact, Timo took his 'first steps' on his own a couple weeks ago, but hasn't progressed much past 2 or 3 steps since then. Lots of holding on to our hands/legs/furniture to walk; lots of pushing stuff around; lots of fast crawling; lots of free-standing; and lots of getting frustrated and yelling and wanting to move around better! He's quite good at standing unassisted (and clapping & waving while doing so), and even standing up from sitting or kneeling.

This afternoon I tried to capture a few shots on my new phone (not the best camera; but Jim has the camera with him on his trip to Nepal) of our new 11 month-old in action in the backyard. During a phone conversation with Rachel, she reminded me that kids love to be outside to play with 1. Rocks, 2. Dirt, and 3. Water. We have #1 and #2 in abundance in our backyard, and we have spent a lot of time out there lately!

 

Here's Timo right after I watched him crawl over to get his car, then stand up (unassisted).

Boy, he loves to push his cars around!!

This little plastic trowel is the best $1.82 I ever spent at Target. Both kids love digging with it and carrying it around the yard and banging it on the rocks.

I'm not sure what this face is...but is it a Hawkins face or what?

That's a mouthful

Someone in our house loves to eat dirt...

Wish you were here, too, Adah Joy!! Then you could join in! We miss you. (I don't have a picture of Adah Joy in her own yard/garden 'helping' out - so this one taken in July at the lake (eating sand) will have to do.)

Look who is quite pleased with himself.

 

 

Oh, and someone in our house likes to help organize...
 

Happy 3rd to Gemma!

September 1st was Gemma's 3rd birthday!! And what a wonderful day it was!

The 1st was the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, so we really enjoyed have a long weekend together as a family and extending the birthday celebrations, as we love to do (like getting to see the hot-air balloons, from previous post). 

This year Gemma was very much looking forward to her birthday, and had requested cake (either pink or "ballet"), ice cream, balloons (but no balloon game, that is too loud and "a bit scared"), birthday hats, and lots of friends and cousins. We couldn't provide as many cousins & friends as last year's party when we were visiting Granddad and Nonna in Wheaton - but we did have two friends over and plenty of presents and cake to go around!

The night before her brithday, we let Gemma open one present (maybe this will be a new tradition?); she opened a gift bag of clothes sent from Nonna! (As you can see...Gemma loves to wear her leotards...)

Birthday breakfast! And Gemma got to open some presents from her Mom & Dad, and all her birthday cards sent from family. (Gemma selected & arranged her 'crown' headband - a necklace - as her birthday girl attire.)

On Sunday afternoon (after morning church), Gemma helped frost the chocolate cake. I mean, eat the frosting off the beater. (I'll be honest, we were uncertain about high-altitude baking for the first time - don't want the birthday cake to fall flat! - so we just did a box cake mix with some extra cocoa thrown in for richness.)

Friends arrive: Karen and Miriam! Amazingly, it turns out that they live just one neighborhood over from us!! Miriam (on the right, holding Timo, below) was a student of mine and a soccer player at BFA when we were there in '02-'04, and we were pretty close at that time. When we moved to Colorado Springs we didn't realize she was living here, so it was a total shock - and a joyful one - to find out that we are nearly neighbors. She and Karen were wonderful to have at the party and were very energetic with the kids and playing with Gemma's new toys. We are looking forward to many more times together (like some trail walks such as we have already done with Miriam and her dog, Bristol).

Opening presents! While sitting in her new Dora chair from Nonna!

the new jump-rope! A huge hit!

Meanwhile Timo delighted us all with pushing his little cart around the living room (and then yelling and banging it when he ran into a wall or couch). He is very proud.

 

Time for cake! And an attempt at a family pic. Hmm. Gemma did great this year and blew out her candles very precisely. (A big improvement over her 2nd birthday, when she didn't even know how to blow. Whoops.) Happy, happy, happy birthday to Gemma!

Our little lefty loves her cake!

Colorado Balloon Classic - first time!

NOW we are starting to feel like Colorado residents. Nothing like getting up early on a Saturday morning (the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and Gemma's 3rd birthday) with thousands of other folks and eating breakfast at the park while dozens of hot-air balloons take off! Absolutely beautiful and incredible.

Both kids were very interested and excited by all the activity. Spectators were allowed to mill around on with the staff and the hot air balloons, so at one point we were sitting right next to several balloons as they were firing up (pretty loud!). The event is held at Memorial Park in downtown Colorado Springs, which has nearly 200 acres of grounds (fields, small lake with boating and swimming, ice rink, Velodrome, trails and playgrounds).

 

The festival is held over three days, with festivities in the morning and evening. The balloons begin to be inflated and take off at 6 AM. There were thousands of people there to view this amazing scene! They also have an evening 'Balloon Glow' where the balloons fire up but stay on the ground - but it was too late in the evening for the kids. Maybe next year...

 

Oh, right, there's a range of mountains over there!!

Timo is working on his scrunchy grin.

Happy happy birthday birthday!

Our new birthday tradition, to match the number of years: 

Say that 35 times, as fast as you can: "Happy birthday! happy birthday! happy birthday! happy birthday! happy birthday! ..."

Well, no, not really. But it was still a celebratory bash! Jim arrived back from his 2 weeks in Cape Town on the evening of his birthday, Aug 26th. So we celebrated with birthday dinner and presents on the 27th (and a full day at home together even though it was a weekday, since Jim didn't have to return to work on his first day back). And of course we continued our real, long-standing tradition of "surprise birthday dinner" featuring new recipes.

(The dancer on the left was drawn, upon request by the featured girl, by Jim.)

Hanging out while Mom prepares dinner

Sweet potato fries with crunchy spices: sea salt, cumin, coriander, and brown sugar

Spinach salad (plus feta, blueberries, sunflower seeds, croutons) with tahini dressing

Gemma helped bring bread to the table

Steelhead fillet (with black grapes on the side)

And here's birthday Jim with his dessert! (once the kids were in bed) Icebox strawberry pie with pretzel crust!

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