Owen's Birthday Celebration

Owen is 2!!


GranDave, Mimi, Uncle Travis and Taylor came to town to visit and join the celebration.  We had a lot of fun while they were here.  Everyone enjoyed wearing their dinosaur party hats.

Owen got a fun horse to bounce on.  Rachel named him "Charger Love".

We also got to have lots of fun outside with bubbles.

Here is Owen's dino cake.

Yummy!

More bubbles.

Rachel wanted to help opening the presents.  We had to hold her back so Owen had a chance to do it.

We enjoyed playing with all the fun new toys

Thank you GranDave, Mimi, Travis and Taylor for coming to visit!  We had a fun time.

Oma and Opa Visit

The weekend after Rachel's birthday, Oma and Opa were able to make it over for a short visit.  We had a great time!


Henry loves being with his Oma.

His official 2 month picture

Rachel's official 4-year-old picture with her pink elephant.

Opa is a pro at bouncing babies in the chair.  He took great care of Henry during their visit.

Rachel had fun playing with Oma in the sandbox.

We all went to the "school park" to have a picnic dinner and play (Rachel's favorite kind of outing).

Oma kept Henry happy.

Wes played hide and seek with the kids.  Rachel found a great hiding place under the slide...too bad it turned out to be filled with ants. The bites looked bad the next day but didn't seem to bother her at all so that is good.

Owen throwing the ball up in the air - it came down on his head and he thought it was hilarious.

Hiding from Daddy

Oma  rescuing Opa when Henry started to fuss

Opa has it under control when Henry is happily in his bouncy seat.

Here he has successfully rocked Henry to sleep and is reading Owen a book.  Way to go, Opa!

Color time on the new storage furniture we found on clearance at Ikea.

More outside time.  We were blessed to have such nice weather this far into May.

Lots of Os for Owen

Henry rocked to sleep again by Opa 

Happy boy when he woke up.

Congratulations Doctor YaYa!! (aka Doctor Ferguson)

After Rachel's birthday celebration, we switched gears and celebrated Angela's successful defense of her doctoral dissertation in Austin the same week.  Although we have not officially seen her cross the stage just yet, all that remains are formalities.  HOORAY!!  CONGRATULATIONS!!  We are all very excited. 

Princess Doctor

The fancy gift we found on short notice :)

PhD-level art work (OK - really Rachel did it and YaYa helped).

We were sad it was such a short visit but we were very happy we could celebrate with YaYa at this exciting time.

Rachel's 4th Birthday!

We had a great time earlier this month when Tante YaYa was able to celebrate with us.  She was in the state after a visit to Austin (more on that in another post).

Henry loves to relax with his tante.

Trip to Karbach with beer and healthy snacks for the kids.

Henry took a nap.

Rachel helped me decorate her birthday cake.

It was beautiful weather so we ventured out for at trip to the zoo.

Owen has gotten a lot more engaged with all there is to do.

Rachel loves to climb on things.

Silly girl with YaYa.

Silly girl on the drums (that she climbed up on)

It is hard to see, but this is the first time we have gotten to see the chimps having a snack in their special feeding area.  They were using sticks to get some tasty treats while we watched.

 

Our best effort at a family portrait.  In an unsurprising turn, Henry slept through it.

Ready for the birthday celebration!

Rachel had a princess theme so everyone got to wear tiara birthday hats.  Henry was a trooper and did not complain about it.

Castle bithday cake.

Looks like everyone but Rachel is excited about the celebration.  She was ready to light the candles.

Now she is excited!

It took a few tries but she got all of the candles out without any help.

Owen accepted the party hat as long as he had cake.

Even Daddy got to wear a hat.  Henry is looking slightly less excited about it here.

Rachel got a lot of fun gifts and cards. Thank you to everyone!