March 2011

Happy Birthday Parker! We have had some beautiful days around here and we are loving having a 2 year old. This year for Parker's big day we started with chocolate pancakes. He blew out his candles and dug into his chocolate treat. He is our chocolate boy. To celebrate the day we went to the Folsom Zoo. It is a rescue for animals that can no longer live in the wild. I like it because the enclosures are really close and you can see the animals well. The zoo also has a little train ride that was a big hit with both boys. Parker's favorite part of the zoo experience was watching the male peacocks strut their stuff.

The peacocks roam free around the zoo, and it will soon be mating season, so they will fan out their tales and strut around in circles. There are so many around that it is an impressive sight.



His party was a lot of fun. We celebrated that on the weekend, and unfortunately Darryl had to be gone for drill, so the missionaries and my awesome neighbors stepped in to help me get "Parker's Ranch" all set up. We had about 8 kids over for games and play dough and cake. I got some bales of straw from a local feed store and then had all the kids play in the back yard with a bean bag tossing game. The goal of the game was to hit the farm animal with the bean bag and have it land inside a hula hoop. The kids had fun with it and at the end got a little duck full of bubbles. After the backyard games we came in for a rousing round of playdough and birthday cake. Some of Parker's favorite activities. Tanner was a great big brother helping get it all set up and regulating the play dough. In all it was a great party.

Tanner and Parker are getting really good at riding the scooters. On the beautiful days, the boys will be out front with the bikes and scooters and all the neighbor kids.

Darryl is busy finding his groove as the commander of his company. He's doing a great job and often finds that his soldiers really benefit from his leadership. We also benefit from the soldiers liking his command style. Recently we needed our garage door fixed and 2 of his soldiers drove all the way out here from Hayward to fix our garage door and install a new opener for us. I was so impressed. They had nothing but great things to say about Darryl.

I have been involved with the Mom's Club of Elk Grove/Franklin for almost a year now. I like the ladies in the group, and we have formed a little playgroup for Parker's age. Each Monday morning we get together and munch on snacks and let the kids play. If it's nice we will meet at a park, but most of the time we hang out at someone's house. I like the opportunity to talk with other adults, and Parker is great around the other kids.

It's Musical time of year for the local high school and theater groups. I went to see 2 musicals this month. Two of our young women were in "Seusical the Musical". It was a very cute production and the lead lady bird really stole the show. We went as a youth group to the performance and enjoyed every minute of it. I also got to go see the Franklin high school's performance of Les Miserables. The theater for that one was cozy and the sets were great. The show was well staged and I knew one of the girls in the chorus and one in the orchestra. I kindof miss performing.