For Kent's 8th birthday, he took us to a White Caps baseball game in Comstock Park. He threw out the first pitch.
For some father-son bonding, Uncle Ben and Pa Bob did the Dizzy Bat competition. A worker came around and recruited Ben for this and Ben volunteered Pa Bob. It was a one on one competition. Pa Bob won... with a little cheating.
Below is a video of the competition. Pretty funny. It was a surprise to us all how it was going to all play out. They didn't tell Pa Bob until just before they started to just let Ben do the spinning himself.
The kids got to run the bases after the game. A whole bunch of kids lined up to do this. Anna didn't participate this year, but Maeve, Lukey and Kent did.
Kent waited at the end of the line so that he could make sure he had the field to himself. Lukey waited for him though and went around a second time. So, just like last year at the MSU v. U of M game, Lukey liked running the bases so much that he did it twice.
Just like last year...there's Lukey out there all on his own taking his second run around. He was the only one who took a second lap.
The 3 cousins managed to be the last kids on the field. Here is Lukey's annual picture of getting escorted off the field.
On the way to Kent and Maeve's house. Both kids wanted to wear their hats and mittens in the car even though it was about 72 when we left.
Anna sharing her Peep-popsicle with Lukey. She really liked wearing this chef's hat.
We went to a farm. The kids had fun playing with and feeding the animals. There didn't seem to be any rules there. It was kind of a free for all with the animals.
There was a cat pen at the farm.
Anna liked meeting the "Easter Bunny".
Everyone got a turn feeding a goat.
Back at the house, Lukey loved doing anything Kent did as usual. He also thinks that everything he does is hilarious. He sat on his lap when he was watching shows.
Last weekend we went to Grammy and Gramps' house to dye Easter eggs. Anna liked dying most of her eggs purple. Lukey was very mature and careful with dying his eggs. His style changed a lot since last year.
Anna got a little wild at the end and wanted to mix all the colors together. We had to slowly take them away from her.
At dinner, Anna repeated over and over a story about how, "once upon a time, hello kitty banged against the wall and orange kitty came to kiss it to make it better and hello kitty didn't like that kiss. And mean kitty said ? (something?)" We didn't get the whole story when we tried to record this. She just kept talking and singing on and on. This is the real Anna.
On Saturday, Anna had her 2nd birthday party. It was a balloon themed party. She had balloon cupcakes, balloon animals, water balloon ice cubes, a balloon wreath and lots of pink and purple balloons.
When the balloons first arrived, she loves running around in circles yelling "look at me!" A lot of the balloons popped, which Lukey didn't appreciate, but Anna didn't really mind.
So happy to be turning 2!
Dancing with Maeve. Anna and Maeve bonded this weekend. Maeve gave her a really nice present of some of her old clothes wrapped up in beautifully decorated boxes.
A happy girl. Anna's favorite things as a 2 year old: macaroni and cheese, chocolate milk, kitties, playing with Lukey, dancing, shopping, singing, talking a lot, reading, coloring (especially pictures of kitties or garages with various things in them like pumpkins or Hello Kitty), tea parties, balloons, building castles with her magna tiles, dressing up, and the colors pink and purple. She is a very smart and opinionated, but happy little baby.
She had her usual help with opening presents. She got a lot of really great gifts! Thanks everyone!
Trying on her new shades.
Leah gave Uncle Pat a good beating.
Lukey and Kent were good at making funny faces to make Anna smile before we sang Happy Birthday to her. It worked! She even made a silly face back at them but I didn't get a picture of it.
She smiled while we sang to her and blew out the candles all by herself! When we sang "how old are you now?" She said 2, but she didn't want to sing this year. We'll try again next year.
On Anna's birthday proper, we went to the Henry Ford Museum with Nana, Pa Bob, Uncle Ben, Aunt Carrie, Uncle Pat, Maeve and Kent. The kids were wild! They had a great time though. Anna liked holding hands and running down the ramps with Maeve a lot.
There was a lot of running around and rolling on the floor and tackling going on.
After the museum, we went to Mongolian Barbecue. Lukey had fun picking out noodles and tofu and mushrooms to eat. Though you can't tell from the picture, he kind of liked it.
Anna mostly liked just eating tortillas, but her favorite part of the restaurant experience was the gong. For her birthday they yelled out to all the patrons that it was Anna's birthday and they banged the gong a few times for her. She was laughing and kicking out of control. She loved it! She kept asking to go back to the gong. Then when I was singing her to sleep at night, she was just about sleeping then was wide awake all of a sudden asking me to tell her about the gong. So I told her about them banging the gong for her and she got really happy and made me tell her about it again.
One of Anna and Lukey's current favorite songs is "Have you ever seen a Lassie". They really like a version that asks, "have you ever seen a kitty?" Anna likes cats again (but don't tell her that). She sometimes thinks she is a cat and likes to point to kitty pictures and say that it is her. Or when she hears a kitty meow she says it sounds like her.
This video and the next one were taken right after Anna's first haircut! She did great! She sat on my lap and was happy the whole time and answered all of the stylist's questions. She even thought it was funny when her hair was sprayed with water.
Anna also likes Eensy Weensy Spider. The best part of this is the "peek-a-boo" part.
