Ian's choo choo cake

I had a lot of fun creating Ian's cake this year. To go along with our train theme, I make him a choo choo cake and it turned into one of my most favorite cakes I've made!

The engine

The front view

Side view

The birthday boy was excited about his cake, too!

All Aboard! Ian turns 2 and rides the choo choo

It is hard to believe, but Ian turned 2 on Saturday! He getting to be such a big boy and one of his favorite things is trains; so for his birthday we headed into the Los Gatos mountains to ride the rails.


Our train headed up the mountain

Ian was really excited on the entire ride

Family picture on the ride

Nana and B-pa got to go on the train with us!

At the top of the mountain

Our engine's name was Dixiana and she is a logging train

At the front of the train

Bear Mountain

Emma liked climbing on the big logs

See how big it is!

Showing off her ticket

Back at the station

Waiting for the train to leave

The water tower

Playing in the dirt!

Railroad crossing

We found a banana slug!

Letting off a little steam!
We had a wonderful time riding the train. It was the perfect activity for a train loving 2 year old!

Back to Happy Hollow

The weather is getting nice, so we headed off to one of our favorite parks, Happy Hollow with friends

One of Emma's favorite rides is the frog hopper

Her friends loved it, too

Smile!

Hands up!
Ian is finally enjoying rides, too

On the Granny bugs

He enjoyed going around the first 10 times, or so and then he started telling me "all done" every time he passed me. At least he did not cry!

Emma some how smuggled her water onto the ride.
It was a great day with few meltdowns and lots of fun!

Ian wants to party

Ian was invited to his first birthday party, so we headed over to the local bounce house zone for some jumping around. The party was for one of his little friends from church.
Ian was not into jumping or sliding, but he did have fun with this....


He guarded this car like it was his own

After playing, we had lunch....

and cake!

The birthday boy (the little one sitting down) and his brother admire the Thomas cake
We had so much fun celebrating his day!

Lawrence Hall of Science

A few weekends ago, we drove up to Berkley to explore their Lawrence Hall of Science. There were lots of child friendly hands-on exhibits to play with and enjoy.

Emma tries out the wind tunnel

Ian at the roller coaster exhibit

Damming the river

Daddy shows Ian How to do it

Emma tries it out

Feeling the earth move under their feet

Building a solar car

Emma climbing

Through DNA

2011 International Day

At the end of March, Emma's school had it's annual International Day. Every year, the preschool is in charge of representing the United States. This year they learned the song "Your a Grand Old Flag" for the presentation.

Ian prepared to video tape the performance. I do have a video, that I will post once I figure out how to get it off the camera and onto the computer
I was actually out of town for a much needed girls weekend , so Dan and Grandma McCloskey attended the event.

Emma singing away

The whole group

What are Big Sisters good for???

Dressing us up in their pink hat....

and pushing us on our hippo while dressed like Cinderella, of course.