The Vagablonde: A Backyard Bash!

Despite the craziness of moving up the coast about 10 minutes, dealing with landlord issues at our old place, and a few house issues at the new place, we took a welcome break to celebrate our Cooper turning TWO years old.

Last pic of our one-year old:

On his actual birthday, we snuck some balloons into his room the night before, thinking 20 blown-up balloons on the floor would be an exciting surprise. Turns out 20 balloons doesn't even make a dent in covering a floor, and he didn't even notice them. So, when he woke up, I ran in and threw them all in his crib. He was a fan:

I know it's super short... but check out his adorable balloon 'pat, pat' at the end:

Lincoln was actually really into the balloons, too. Every time he kicked his feet around and waved his hands, the balloons went flying and he giggled. (This pic is from the next morning.)

Then, he picked out his shirt, and ate a chocolate chip muffin (which he called "chok-it milk" because, to him, anything that tastes like chocolate is either chocolate milk or ice cream) and a clementine orange, his favorite food this week (no really... he ate FIVE of them back-to-back as a snack the other day).

Unfortunately, we had to be near the house pretty much all day because we spent hours waiting for an appliance guy and a carpet cleaner to come out (we're on Aloha Time, brah... and the surf was good that day), but we still walked to a nearby park (we LOVE our new house!) and Cooper rode his bicycle and ran around chasing birds.

Daniel got home early, which was wonderful, considering he's been working pretty long hours + we were packing + moving + unpacking ... meaning not nearly as much Daniel time as we'd all like. We played in the water, then friends came over and joined us!
Check out brave Juneau, only 7 years old on the SUP by herself!

Sweet Stickley kids with Cooper:

...and we ate Cooper's favorite meal... POKE (pronounced po-kay)! It's raw fish (tuna) cut into chunks and seasoned, and he looooves it. In fact, one day when he requested it and we didn't have it for dinner, this happened:

Then, this past weekend, we had some friends over for a fanSTATCHtic backyard bash to celebrate the b-day boy!

Our friend's lent us this awesome blow-up slide!

Fajitas & 'ritas for the adults and "The Best Lemonade Ever" for the kiddos

No, seriously... it's the Best Lemonade Ever.

It's a mustache... in case you were thinking otherwise.

Pinterest semi-fail: I set up a few "sensory bins" with cloud dough and this awesome kinetic sand... which the kids loved but was shortly just all over our yard and eventually eaten by the neighbor's dog.