Mother's Day Tea

Today, Colin's school had a special Mother's Day tea. We arrived at the school at 9:30am where tables were dressed in pink table covers and flowers in the center. Colin was so excited to see me that he almost knocked me over. We proceeded to sit down and the kids served the Moms a wonderful Blueberry Crumb Cake that they all helped make, fresh Strawberries and grapes. Of course a tea party isn't a tea party with tea so the option of having iced tea or hot tea was also available. Colin truly enjoyed bringing me my food and wanted to make sure that I ate every last bit. I do have to say that the crumb cake was pretty tasty. After everyone enjoyed their cake and tea the kids all lined up and sang to songs. During the lining up our little Col got a little sad as he wanted to be next to his good friend Zachary. Well all was good once he was able to stand next to him, but on the top riser. After finishing the songs they gave out the flowers and a shadow picture of themselves with a darling poem.

The kids getting lined up to sing.

Colin sad because he couldn't stand next to Zachary
Happy again, with Mom's flower
Sad because he loved the flower too much that it broke.
What a wonderful Mother's Day gift!

Our little photographer

So Colin asked to use the camera tonight and so I gave him our older Kodak to use. I showed him how to use it and allowed him to go around the house while I stayed in the computer room. When he came back we downloaded the pictures. I was pretty impressed with what he had captured on camera. I loved his point of view and here are some of those photos. Enjoy!

Firetruck!

Photo of Colin!

Dinner!

Kennedy's Dinner!

Self Portrait!

The Easter Bunny came late...

Well we found these little Bunnies hoping through the house and just knew that we had to capture the moment.

Our littlest Bunny

"Get this off of me"...
"I want to wear it too!"

Camas Fire Department Open House

Today, April 5th, I (Chad stayed home to work on the truck) took Colin and Kennedy to the local fire house for their open house. They had a little bit of everything for the entire family. They had local businesses their with booths giving away free stuff about safety, I even got 3 reams of Georgia Pacific Copy Paper for the printer. Clowns were there for the kids (which Colin was not a fan of). Plus they had demonstrations of their K9 unit. Colin's favorite was getting the Fire Badge Tattoo and using the hose to put out the "fire", the ladder truck and eating his hot dog. It was a great morning.

His Fire Badge Tattoo

The Ladder Truck
The back of the ladder truck
Taking Aim...
getting the fire out.

There even was a train engineer their talking about safety of trains. Colin on the way says, "Mom, how am I going to be a train conductor and a fireman when I grow up?" Pretty much, I told him that he could do one in the morning and then in the afternoon do the other. :-)

Happy Birthday to Kennedy!!

Happy Birthday to You... Kennedy turned the big 0-1 Sunday, March 23rd. Since of course this was Easter we celebrated her birthday on Saturday with friends and family. We certainly had a house full of people, but we had a great time. I went with a cupcake theme this year and it seemed to be a big hit. I even made a game for the older kids, "Pin-the-candle on the Cupcake". I think it was a winner.

The Giant Cupcake and little cupcakes.

The Favors (Peppermint Patties)
Pin the Candle on the Cupcake Game
the Birthday girl
Having a taste of Sugar for the first time

Easter is coming...

Between all the party planning and swimming lessons, we had to make sure to dye Easter eggs this year. So on Thursday (3/20), I promised Colin that we would make Easter eggs. He was so excited. His favorite color was blue, and you could certainly tell from his hands.

The Setup...

Colin looking for the best egg to use...

Daddy gets into the action as well...

Look it's blue...Picking the right Transformer Sticker to use...
The perfect egg!

Our little Fish

Well the Happy Hollister's have become the Busy Hollister's. We started Colin in swimming at the local community center. We go every Tuesday and Thursday through the month of March. This is his first time back in the pool since we took him when he was around 9 months old. He certainly loves the water and has a lot of fun. The class is a beginning class that gets the kids use to water. The next class after this is to teach him to actually swim independently without anyone. Normally it takes kids a few turns in that class before they pass.

Here is Colin walking into the pool on his first day. More pictures to come when I bring the Nikon.