ace and megan: late birthday.... early birthday

last friday night we were getting things ready for liela's bday party (which is the late one). she's one!! and cute as a button. i love her so much. she acts JUST LIKE NICOLE! seriously. she's sassy, adventurous, and she knows what she wants. i can't wait 'til she's a teenager. she looks more and more sherfy everyday. and i LOVE her hair. it's curly and wavy and it's just everywhere.

so we were sitting around, and nathan was playing around online. the next thing i know he's on the phone with some guy asking about a bike. my first reaction was to shoot him a nasty look. usually the bikes he looks at are road bikes and they typically cost around $1000. he's got some friends that are into riding and he likes to dream about getting a bike to go out with them. but we both know it's not in the budget, so that's why i was so shocked to hear him actually calling about a bike. what was he thinking??

he gets off the phone and says, "relax, this bike is for connor." well, i still wasn't thrilled. kids bikes are overpriced too! so then he tells me.... you won't believe this.... they were selling a 12 inch boys bike with training wheels included for $10! nathan asked the guy all about it and found out where he was located. then he asked again if it was really only $10.... sure enough. turns out it was a grampa selling his grandkids old bike that they had outgrown. he thought $10 was fair. uh.....YEAH!

when we go to target as a family, we get a popcorn and pop and then i go shopping and nathan and connor hit the toy section and play for 20 minutes. connor ALWAYS wants to walk past the bikes. he has just always loved looking at them. he would usually say something like, "i'll get a bike someday. maybe when i get big." so this bike idea was turning out to be a perfect birthday present..... he's going to be three in two weeks! can you believe it? i knew there was a chance that nathan would get there and check it out and the bike would be in horrible shape or the guy would want more for it, so i was trying so hard not to get my hopes up. but connor was SOLD.

he had seen nathan looking at it online and heard him talking to the guy about coming to check it out. so nathan decided to take him out there in the morning. connor woke up early saturday and asked, "can we go see a new bike now?" i was just praying that this thing worked out. so they took off and drove out to find it.

when they got there connor wasn't exactly sure where he was....since he had never been there before. but once he saw the bike he started asking, "can we take that one home with us?" nathan got out and checked it over, and it was in great shape so he gave connor a $10 and told him to give it to the man. they loaded it up and came right home to work on it. as soon as they got everything lowered connor was ready to ride.

he's never ridden a bike with pedals before so nathan had the training wheels lifting the back wheel almost completely up so he could push the bike while connor learned the muscle motion of pedaling and steering at the same time. it took him about 3 days but he's getting it, and the training wheels have been adjusted again so he can pedal himself. of course, nathan still uses the stick b/c connor doesn't know how to brake and he gets stuck on hills and uneven pavement. but he's LOVING it. he thinks it's so cool that he has a bike.

pretty good deal on a bday present i'd say.

the cake....good job, nic.

chillin' out with gramma sanders.

megan loves tally

papa told me his umbrella is humungo b/c it has to be big enough to cover him and his backpack. *rolls eyes* of course, he's probably never used the term "humungo"....that's all me.

the birthday girl!

this picture and the next one go together.

here's everyone sitting around enjoying the party food......

.....and here's my dad sitting on the other side of the yard---by himself.

can we say 'anti-social'?

actually, i have to tell the truth... the shade that had been over everyone on the other side of the yard was gone, so he just started the migration to the shady side.

nic made a scavenger hunt for the kids, and hope helped connor and ava go through it. it was super cute.

finding some goodies.

it took them FOREVER to spot this one. it was so obvious and out in the open. hope didn't know what to do. she didn't want to give it away, but she was itchin' to just show them.