More of Tommy's 3rd Bday party memories

Superman's blue lips:

Harrison as Batman:
Josie as a superPrincess and Deborah as Spiderman:
The girls sure hit it off and played well together, loving those ponies! The two Spidermen, Deborah and Kyle, had fun together as well.

Every superhero needs a good back scratch once in awhile! Charlie's backscratcher became a big hit midway through the party, and each superhero wanted a turn with it. Who would've thought?! Tommy took a much needed "rest" from flying around to have Ironman Kaden scratch his back.
The plastic golf set from Harrison was also a big hit throughout the party. Harrison was so stinkin' cute walking into the party with his gift for Tommy...he was SO excited about his gift that he pulled it out of the gift bag the second he saw Tommy and handed it to him to play with right away. All the boys joined in the golfing fun while the superhero girls played Barbies, Polly pockets and Pet Shops in the loft.

Tommy's Superheroes 3rd Birthday Party

Tommy loves his twin buddies, Kyle and Kaden, who also LOVE dressing up and wrestling, too! Tommy is enamored with their daddy because he is a real, live SOLDIER! He is super impressed with real soldiers and the twins' dad flies real helicopters in battle, even more impressive! This super sweet family is the one who shared their home with us for six months for FREE, and they didn't know us from adam. The twins' Mom is probably one of the nicest people I've ever met. Kara is so great!

This Superman's expression melts me:
Tommy often tells us, "Superman do's this:" (and then he strikes a typical Superman stance.) Love Tommy's made-up word, "do's." Not does, but do's.
Party guests cross the street to walk the block to our neighborhood park for some outdoor Superhero games.
"Good guy, Good guy, BAD guy!" (a.k.a. Duck, duck, Goose!)
Superheroes have great balance and skill with breakable eggs!
Fletcher's cute superhero sign and Sarah's superhero welcome:
The dress-ups wait to be donned by party guests.
Superheroes cover most surfaces in the den to set the party mood and give newly arrived guests something immediate to play with while the other kids run around in their dress-ups doing super-feats, like ninja kicks and flying.
Another one of Fletcher's birthday signs for Tommy:
Tommy got a new pool towel from us which we used to set the mood on the dining table where the kids would color superhero pictures. Tommy LOVES his new towel and often mimics the brief preview he's seen of Green Lantern spinning into his hero outfit. He cracks us up imitating his favorite heroes' moves.
The kids made these super cool animal crayons with Gammy last summer at Gammy Popsy Camp. Tommy's guests got one in their party favor bag along with some other small toys.

Tommy on March 13, 2011

Baby Short Arms...Noah Demonstrating at 7 months

This is tough, Mom! I promise I can touch hands up there.

Noah is starting to get a single baby curl on top of his head:

Love this expression:
This is his how he greets most everyone who talks to him:
I love this sweet guy! We still affectionately call him his Tommy nickname, "Dough Dough."
He loves to be sing-song called his other family nickname, his FULL given name, "Noah David!"

Paris was the one who was always singing, "Noah David," to soothe him as she changed his diaper and dressed him. The rest of us were so used to hearing her sing his name to him that we all started copying her on that. He is the only kiddo in our family who we often refer to with both his names. We rarely ever use the other kiddos middle names (or Fletcher's first name).
One of his most frequent smiles:

More Matching Brothers Pictures

Tommy newly three years old and Noah newly seven months old:

These expressions are ones I see a lot from both boys. One thing I've been meaning to jot down for memories' sake is Tommy's quote about Noah when he was about four months old and really drooling...."Mom, me press right here, him DRIP on me!" It was as if Tom thought that pushing his brother in a certain spot caused him to drip (Tommy's word). He still doesn't know that "drip" is really called drool. I don't want to tell him! His word for it is so much cuter!

Paris is so sweet playing with Tommy!

One of Paris and Tommy's favorite activities is dressing up. They love to do this with their friends and together as siblings. Most days Tommy says, "Mom, me play dress up?" When I say, "Yes," he yells, "GUYS, Mom says, 'Us CAN dress up!'" The kids (T,P and F) also LOVE pretending to be animals together. They are most often a collection of felines these days. They pick a variety of cougars, cheetahs, & jaguars. They find the exact species in one of our animal books and love to show me the pictures of the ones they are pretending to be that day, well, that MOMENT, because they often switch species many times throughout the game! I love hearing them pounce around in the loft and chat about what their feline is doing throughout the imaginary play. The best part about these long playtimes is they rarely have any toys to clean up when they are done. When I tell them, "Time to clean up for dinner," they laugh and say, "Mom, we didn't use any toys! We are cheetahs!"

Tommy posing in Feb. 2011 wearing Paris' panties one day when she thought it would be funny to put girl underwear on him. Notice how she gathered them in a side knot and rubber banded them to be smaller and fit snugly!
The Spiderman mask from Grandma is a big hit and fun for the kids!
Paris and Tommy playing dinosaur set-up together. I often hear, most frequently from Tommy these days, "Hey Mom, come see my set-up!" The kids used to laugh behind his back because he'd sometimes have just two toys "set-up" for his play scene. When they would ask me to see their set-up, it would be an intricate scene of many toys, but Tommy joined in the excitement of showing Mom set-ups and would call for me with just a couple toys ready for action!

On another note about Tommy, today we had a five minute banter back and forth about "Bat-a-wang." I could not for the life of me figure out if he meant Batman's batteries (which didn't make sense because we both know Batman doesn't have batteries) or Batman's wings (his new action figure has black wings as opposed to the other Batman figures which have capes). He was so frustrated with me not understanding what he was asking me about Batman. It turns out that I finally figured out he was asking about his new Batman's Bat-a-rangs which Batman uses to catch the bad guys. Ohhhh. NOW, I understand..."bat-a-wang"...not Batman batteries or Batman wings, Bat-a-rangs, of course!

Valentine's Day Fun, 2011

The kids show off their creations:

Tommy loved tasting the creations:
Daddy was an enthusiastic overseer of the dipping work:
Paris just loves her new friend, MaKenna, and the two enjoyed the Young's Valentine's Day party together.
Sarah and the girls had a ball with the Valentines exchange and special food treats. Our kids brought gift baggies of their hand-dipped chocolate pretzel rods with sprinkles to give to all their friends and some to share at the party, along with their chocolate covered strawberries.
(Sarah, Lauren Keegan, Katelyn Keegan, Lexi Young)

Sledding with the Webbies (Feb. 2011)

Matching Brothers on March 18, 2011

Tommy just turned three and Noah is now seven months old! Tommy ADORES his brother, as do all the kids, and tells me often, "Mommy, me LOVE Noah!" and "Him so cute!"

Three Big Kids' Monart Drawing Lesson: Tiger

Paris' tiger drawing:

Fletcher's tiger drawing:Sarah's tiger:
The three tigers from February 2011 art lesson:
The kids were so excited by their drawing lesson projects this week. They had such fun creating these tigers!

Noah, March 6, 2011