Chase turns 3!

The birthday boy blowing out the candles on his cupcake on his actual birthday on Sunday

Blowing out the candles on his "Rocket" cake during his Birthday Party!

The party food spread: pepper jelly-cream cheese ball, meatball music batons, drumsticks in a blanket, watermelon, pineapple, kiwi and Rocket's Red Slushie drink

The Rocket Cake. Chase loved this little creation, which made me feel pretty good. After I'd finished making it the night before he kept asking if he could get a chair so he could look at it. Then he'd stand on the chair and just look at it and poke it until we made him get down. He still gets excited when he sees it in pictures and just came into the room and said, "WOAH! Mommy, that's my Rocket cake!" I'm glad you liked it Chase.

This past weekend Chase turned 3 years old. We had a BIG Little Einsteins themed birthday party for him and all of his "besties" made it an all around SUCCESS! As our little partiers arrived they each got a cupcake or two to frost and decorate with gummy bears, mini m&m's, sour patch kids, etc. After all the guests had arrived and finished creating their cupcakes, all the "Little Einsteins" were invited to go outside for an Easter egg hunt-esque "Treasure Expedition". They each got a "loot" bag with their name on it and hunted for various "treausures" around the yard such as play dough, bubbles, and LOTS of candy. After the expedition was over we came inside and made music batons with styrofoam balls and colored pencils and the kids glued some glitter on them. Chase then opened all of his awesome presents and we sang Happy Birthday to him while he blew out the candles on his "Rocket" cake. We are so lucky to have such great friends in this area who are so supportive. We had 10 out of his 12 friends at his party! We couldn't have done it without them. Being able to have all his friends to play with at once was probably the biggest highlight for him. What can I say, he knows how to pick amazing friends.

Chase McKhendry,

You are such a pure joy to have in our lives. I can feel how much Heavenly Father loves me everyday when I look into your beautiful face because He sent you to our family. You've always made me work hard at being your mother but you are the best at showing your appreciation for it. I love when you say "I love you mommy" when I least expect it or I'm in a terrible mood and when you say in your sweet chirpy voice, "Mommy? You're my best friend!" You are truly one of my best friends also, Chase. You are so sweet and loving and try so hard to make your parents happy (most of the time). Thank you for coming into our family we are so blessed to have your extraordinary spirit in our home. We love you very much!

With Love,

Mom

Summer Lovin'

Landon being a great sport at big brother's swim lessons. Of course it helped that he could play on the splash pad during Chase's lesson.

Chase getting comfortable floating on his back during the first day of class

Getting out of the pool on his own. Part of passing his level was being able to enter and exit the pool independently:)

Doing the "Karate Kid" pose his teacher had the kids do right before they jumped to him in the pool.

I just love the summer. A good part of that lovin' is due to most of my favorite fruits and veggies being in season and cheap, but summer is so much more than that. I love all the time spent in the water swimming, flying kites, vacations, beach trips, etc. We put Chase in swim lessons this year and he LOVED it! He still talks about his teacher, Spencer, and all the fun things he learned in his class. He now knows how to kick in the water, float on his back and front (with a little support), hold his breath under water (for a little over 5 seconds), and dive for rings or sticks at the bottom of the shallow end. Here are some pictures of Chase in his swim lessons...