Happy Birthday, Ian!

Today we celebrated Ian's 4th birthday! In a way I can't believe he's already 4, but at the same time I can't believe he's ONLY 4. Does that make any sense? He truly is such a little man in so many ways. We didn't do a party with friends this year but we made the day special despite that. We played at his best buddy Ashlyn's house where he was welcomed with a homemade Happy Birthday banner. Then, over a decadent lunch of Lunchables and Doritos, the two of them made wedding plans.

He and I chose this cake recipe together off of food.com (formerly recipezaar), and Madeleine helped him blow out the trick candles.

He's been wishing and hoping for this Batman building set for weeks.

Madeleine enjoyed breaking in the SpongeBob Fishing for Clams game.

Spencer and Alayna enjoying the festivities.At his request, we had McDonald's for dinner. He was so full after he ate that he hardly had room for cake. Isn't it nice that he got the one bite he ate all over his face so it looks like he devoured his birthday cake? Such a sweetheart.

Happy birthday, Ian! We love you!!

Bubbles!

Alayna is a very drool-y little girl. She is constantly producing spit bubbles that run down her chin. I usually wipe them off before she has a full on spit bubble goatee but I was a little slow in getting to this one.

Ian got a hold of the camera again. Can you tell what this is?

Galveston/Moody Gardens

Spencer took a couple days off work the week of our anniversary and we spent them as a family down in Galveston. We went down there very briefly last year and we were not impressed. The parts we saw were devastated from recent hurricanes and we didn't see any beaches that interested us. We wondered what the appeal was to people who liked going there. Maybe it's because it's been so long since we've been to the beach in California, or maybe it was that we stayed in a pretty sweet condo, or maybe that we were desparate for a little break from everyday life, but this trip was fabulous and we now think Galveston is a pretty cool place. Moody Gardens was pretty fun. Unfortnately a bunch of it was closed so we couldn't experience it all, but we liked what we saw.

We went to a few 3D IMAX shows. They were good, but just a little too long for the kids to be interested the whole time.

This was on the paddlewheel boat ride. I'll be honest, it was kind of lame. It was long and boring. We thought that at some point someone would get on a speaker and talk about Moody Gardens or possibly the sights around the bay, but we were wrong. All we learned from the paddlewheel boat ride is that we don't ever need to do it again.

Here we are at the condo pool. It was on the 6th floor of the building overlooking the coast. The kids are sitting at the poolside bar and me and Alayna are standing in the outdoor kitchen. This place had it all.

We all loved the beach! The water was so warm! Even at hottest part of the year in L.A. the water at the beach was still pretty chilly so this was nice. Ian got in right away and just loved playing in the small waves. Madeleine was reluctant at first but quickly learned how much fun it was.

After playing in the waves for awhile they built drip castles while I fed Alayna.

She slept through most of the beach fun but we'll just assume she loved it too.

And just because I had this picture, here's Alayna sporting a mohawk. Gotta love all that hair!