Levi's First Birthday Party and Other Happenings

Trevor and I decided on Wednesday it would be fun to have a little birthday party for Levi at the park yesterday.  We had a picnic potluck lunch and invited some other families.  We had 10 adults and 10 kids there.  It was pretty low-key but I think everyone had a good time.  I made BBQ pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce, tomato-avocado-mango salsa, carrot-pineapple cake, and chocolate muffins.  I was tempted to make homemade rolls, but Trevor convinced me to buy them instead (I'm glad he did).

The weather was perfect.  I'm so glad it didn't rain that day and the sun was shining!

Don't judge the writing on the cake.  I literally had about 5 minutes to decorate it.

Trevor's brother drove down from Sacramento just for the birthday party.  What a great Uncle these boys have!

Levi had no trouble eating his whole cupcake! :0)

Happy Birthday Levi!  We are so happy you are a part of our family!  You add so much joy to our lives.

Thanks Grandma Florence for the cool bubble gun from Valentine's Day!

Little Levi loves to go on walks.  He gets SO excited every time he sees me get out his stroller because he knows what it's for. 

Last Halloween Walmart had Marvel costumes on clearance so I bought some for the boys.  Calvin loves to dress up as Spiderman, Iron Man, and Wolverine.  Even though he has no clue who these people are, he thinks what they wear is pretty cool. :0)

Calvin is definitely his father's son.  He knows how to navigate the computer with the mouse and has discovered many shortcuts on the keyboard such as volume control and how to pause a movie.  Sometimes I have come over to help him and found he has opened up a ton of programs and it takes like 10 minutes to open them all just so I can close them again.

It's so much fun taking pictures of Levi.  I couldn't decide which pictures to add so I'm adding them all.

Levi is very independent when it comes to eating.  The only way I can feed him is if I give him a spoon or fork so he can try to feed himself as well.  At first I thought he just didn't want to eat dinner and was picky, but he just won't eat unless he is feeding himself.  As you can imagine, mealtime is very messy around here! :0)

Levi loves 9-grain cereal!

In other news, I (Lindsay) started tutoring an eighth grade girl in Algebra two days a week in the evening.  It's been nice to brush up on my math skills and stretch my brain a little bit.  She is home schooled so I'm practically her teacher instead of a tutor.  She is a really nice girl and it's fun to teach someone who doesn't despise math and is pretty bright. :0)

Other things I want to record before I forget:

• Levi loves to spin things. Anything. It's so cute. 
• Calvin can ride his tricycle now.  He's gotten so much better at steering and peddling.  We went on a walk together as a family for almost an hour and Calvin rode his bike the entire time.  It's fun to watch him get older and be able to do more things.
• We have been slowly working on potty training Calvin and getting him more used to the idea.  Now he tells us when the "poo-poos are coming" though he still goes in his diaper.  Sometimes he says, "poo-poos went bye-bye.  They went back to their house." when it's a false alarm.  It makes me laugh.
• Calvin likes to sing a lot more.  He has been singing Jingle Bells a lot lately and loves to belt it out in the store or anywhere.
• Calvin has also getting better at recognizing stores and knows if we are at Sprout's, Costco, or somewhere else.  He also knows you get samples at Costco and cookies at Safeway.  Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have started this habit...
• Levi is a little cuddle bug.  Trevor and I love it when he crawls up to us and puts his head in our lap.