Bo's 2nd Birthday

Exactly a month ago our little buddy boy turned TWO years old.  It has taken me 30 days to get the pictures off my camera but I am so glad we have them.  It is sweet to celebrate his life and the wonderful gift of being parents.  My parents were in town that week and I'm thankful they were able to stay for his little party.  

After looking at party ideas on Pinterest I got totally burned out on themes and just felt overwhelmed... so we went with a classic 'birthday party' theme and I still got to get a little creative with some banners and the piece de resistance... my homemade pinata.  

Little B-O cookies were a hit with our buddy.  Thanks to my mom for the help! 

 

The pinata was a lot of fun for the buddies and it survived enough to be sent to NC for another special 2 year old's birthday!  I was happy to see my hard work reused.  

Oh my goodness, after hours of sugar and rolling around with cousins and the spider man bubble blower . . . an hour after bedtime and dirty dirty dirty.

We still managed to get this photo with Coco and Poppy.  I'll have to get more pictures from their visit up here soon.

more sweet friends

Right after the Mulandis visited, another one of our Kenyan connections came out for a visit!  The Nagles live in Atlanta now and it had been almost a year since I'd seen them.  Even though they have 3 kids to our 1, they made the drive to our house and we enjoyed having their sweet family in Franklin for the weekend!

We started off our weekend with an Easter egg hunt at a local park. 

Bo did not like waiting for the hunt to start.

Ty was enthusiastic about the visiting Chik-Fil-A cow. 

Since it was a cold day, we spent the afternoon at an indoor play place.  This particular one was a great place for them to run, climb, and burn off energy.  Unfortunately, we had an 'incident' with Bo that will go down in our family folklore.  He was playing on some equipment and was crawling through a tunnel when I heard him scream.  I was standing right there but on the outside of the tunnel, so I couldn't see what had happened.  A chubby toddler was perched smugly inside and my little lamb was bawling in terror.  As I tried to calm him down, I noticed a raised circle on Bo's face and thought at first he had been kicked, but it soon seemed too pronounced and circular for a shoe print - it was definitely a BITE.  The offender's mom came over and apologized but as the day went on, the mark got more pronounced.  By the next day it had faded so that it looked more like ringworm - we definitely were questioned by the nursery staff at church, which was awesome.  Anyway, he's fine and it will be a funny story, but of course I felt so bad for him being assaulted by that ruffian.  He still pats his cheek and says "my bite" when you ask him about it. 

After naps we visited a nearby horse farm turned public park for some family picture time.  Allyson recently got a new camera and I wanted to take advantage of her skills.  We had a lot of fun corralling the little ones and trying to get all of them looking in the right direction and smiling at the same time.  

 

Thanks for coming, buddies!! We love you!

catch up

Wow, it's been a while!  Life has been very FULL lately with some very good things and some very hard things.  We've had to put aside some things in order to keep up with the rather hectic pace of our days, and blogging was something I haven't had mental energy for.   Since March we've been hosting some of our very favorite people at our house, as well as house hunting, birthday planning, carving out time for new and old friends, running a little business, keeping up with our busy little boy, and somewhere in there we flew to the East coast and then the West.

Over a month ago our sweet friends Dexter, Jenna, and their son Kaylo drove all the way from New Jersey to spend a few days with us.  We had an awesome time catching up since our last visit in NYC and watching the boys play together.  Kyalo and Bo were born just a couple weeks apart and got along pretty well!  It was so fun watching them interact.

buddies!

I had to steal the following two from Jenna because

1) I need a picture of their family 

2) My son is a monkey

We spent time at the zoo, ate a good country breakfast and had barbecue for dinner, played at the park, and shared some nice time catching up on the last year.  Kyalo bonded well with Moose which made our family super happy.  :) Thanks for spending part of your vacation with us!!  

worth sharing

I do have words and pictures to share, but until I can upload and edit and transcribe and publish, here are some things on the internet worth reading and watching.  Warning: some of these posts may induce pooleyness- tears springing to your eyes- or maybe even a full-out trickle down your face.  (Or am I the only emotional one?!)  

Ann Voskamp's poignant (as always) post: After Steubenville, What our Sons Need to Know About Manhood

The Home Team: the sweet small town of Murray and the home town heroes of Murray State basketball.  

Brandon Hatmaker's post about the movement to improve the international adoption process.  

This darling, darling video of a boy and his brother: Caden and Conner (2012 Sports Illustrated Kid of the Year)

Fred Roger's acceptance speech for his 1997 Lifetime Achievement Emmy.  This was floating around this week because Mr. Roger's would've been 84.  His tone and cadence took me straight back to that giant old tv with channel-changing buttons of my pre-school age living room.  

This hilarious post on crazy holiday 'traditions' that aren't really a thing. 

coco, goats, and machu pichu

Last month Matt went to Peru for a week+ on a dental mission trip.  While he was on the beaches of Lima and the foothills of Cusco...

We were holding down the fort in Franklin with the help of my mom, who spent almost a week keeping me company and Bo on his toes.  I sure was glad to have her her!  And I think she enjoyed having some time with her #1 grandson.  

We went to the zoo... here they are looking at horses, of all things, but Bo thought the neigh-neighs were pretty cool.  

Bo's first time on a carousel and he got to ride a chimpanzee (ooh ohh ee ee, according to him). 

Standing like a flamingo:

The highlight was the petting zoo, which we've never been in but you would've thought Bo had been there a million times already.  He was all about the goats!  

He had no fear at all (unlike me) and ran right up to them.  He actually treated them like he does Moose, getting pretty excited, affectionate, and a tiny bit rough.  

I think this video is hilarious... when things are cute, Bo talks to them like you would a baby, kind of like he's saying "cootchie coo."  He does it to babies, stuffed animals, and... nanny goats. 

One of our other adventures was out to a science center.  It was so interactive and fun for him!  He loved each exhibit and would become totally engrossed in whatever he was playing with.  We had to drag him away from the water table, especially, so go see what else was out there.  Discovery Center in Murfreesboro for the win!  If only it was a little closer! 

We played outside on the one and only sunny day.  

And Coco spoiled Bo a little bit with ice cream and cookies.  (JUST what this kid needs!) 

We dropped my mom off at the airport Saturday morning and came back late Saturday night to get Matt.  Bo was super pumped about the balloons (now when we go to Kroger he thinks we're getting "daddy balloons") but even more excited about having his Daddy back.  I'm going to say that a kid in pj's at the airport with his bunny is the cutest thing ever.