Simon's Photo Face

When Joey was a baby, he seemed to have the same startled look on his face every time we took a photo, so I started referring to it as his "photo face." It seems Simon has a photo face, too. Observe:He makes this face practically every time I pull out the camera. I think this kid is going to give us a run for our money.

Another Jam Session

This week, there were some very delicious looking raspberries and blackberries at Costco. So I thought it was time to make some more jam! A few months ago when we made strawberry jam, I thought it would take all year for us to use it up. I guess I underestimated how truly delicious homemade jam is, because it's all gone now! Originally, I was going to have the same group of friends over to make jam, but it didn't work out. I still had all the berries, though, and no hope of fitting them in my freezer. So: I decided to have a solo jam session! Well, not really solo. Kristin helped me a lot. She helped me mash up and measure the berries. Then I did the cooking part. Here is what the jam looked like as it was cooking. Isn't it the most beautiful ruby red color? And it made the whole house smell like warm berries. It was divine.When all was said and done, we had three batches of jam. One was plain red raspberry, one was mixed berry (raspberry & blackberry), and one was triple berry (raspberry, black berry and strawberry). The Mixed Berry one was my favorite! But they all turned out well. I think I might make some more berry jam, actually. It's so pretty and so delicious. Stuff this good is meant to be shared!

Simon's First Birthday

One year ago today, Simon Atticus LeVine came into the world to join our family. I can't believe it's been a whole year already! To celebrate his first year, we had a birthday party here at home. Lots of friends and family came to wish him well. Simon had a great time. He especially liked his birthday cake. At first, he would only poke at it, but before long he decided to dive right in.It's kind of funny to me that Simon enjoyed his cake so much without any prompting from us. With both Joey and Kristin, we had to coax them into trying their first birthday cake. They weren't even interested in touching the frosting. Simon didn't hesitate, though. That's my boy.This next photo shows the aftermath of his cake experiment. He was messy, but happy! Sometimes a sugar buzz makes everything better.After we gave Simon a quick bath to get all that buttercream off his face (and out of his nose, and out of his ears, and out from under his fingernails...) we opened presents. Simon got so many fun things! He got lots of toys, especially toy cars! Simon LOVES cars, and didn't really have any to play with that were age appropriate for him. He also got some really cool bath toys. But more than anything, he needed clothes. And boy, did he get plenty! Yay!Since we had 14 children at the party, and not much for them to do inside, we decided to get a bouncy castle for the back yard. I thought it would be fun for the kids, and would also give them something to do while the adults visited inside. I'm really glad we got it, because it was definitely a hit! The party was at 2pm, but the bouncy castle was delivered around noon. Joey and Kristin didn't waste any time getting inside! It looked so fun, even I got in and jumped with them for a while. Of course, I ran out of energy after about five minutes. Jumping takes a lot out of you!The bouncy castle we got also had a slide built into the side of it. It was a pretty steep climb to get to the top - and a pretty steep drop to the bottom. But it was super fun! (Yes, I tried the slide a time or two myself as well!) Joey would sort of jump up before heading down the slide, so he'd sort of fly/fall down most of the slide. He thought it was great, but it kind of gave me a heart attack.Awww, look at Joey and Kristin getting along long enough for me to take a photo!Anyway, it was a really fun day! Happy birthday, my sweet Simon!

Bath Boy

Up until now, Simon has bathed either in a small tub, the sink, or in the big tub with Mommy. This week, he had his first solo bath (closely supervised, of course). Okay, so maybe it's not exactly a rite of passage, but Simon sure had a great time. He kept crawling from one end of the tub to the other, shrieking with delight. Guess the boy likes to have his space!