The birthday cake-Juner.

Here's what mama came up with for my first 1st birthday cake. I'm assuming there will be more.

Our inspiration was my favorite toy. It plays songs when you push its feet.

And here's what mama came up with. That's a lot of food coloring. I can't wait!

One more video.

Here's another extra cute video.

And some stories.

Today, June and I went to the gym. When I was done working out, I walked into the daycare to find June walking behind a walker. She hasn't walked behind either of the 2 walkers at our house. Turns out she's been doing it for weeks at the gym. What a stinker.

Henry continues to be very practical and have no imagination. He was parking cars when a dump truck lost it's payload. Papa asked if his Car movie car Sheriff was going to pick everything up. Henry just looked at him and said "Papa, Sheriff doesn't have any arms."

The balloon-Juner.

So apparently, we shop at the best grocery store ever. There are always plenty of fruit and veggie samples. Plus free bread, olive tapenade, goat cheese, and cookies every day. (And on Saturdays they have wine sampling!) But we didn't even now how great it was until today when we found out they give away free balloons. I think mama always knew, but didn't get us one because she thought we wouldn't play with it.

But today, I played with a mylar balloon in the checkout, so she decided to bring a balloon home for me.

And Henry took a long nap, so I got a lot of time to play with it all by myself!

This must be a super balloon. Look at the grip I have on this thing. And it's even nail clipping night, so you know I'm sporting some sharp claws right now.

I had the best time ever playing with my new balloon.

Here's some videos of the action.

Mama took about 20 minutes of video cringing and waiting for the balloon to pop. Luckily the balloon held strong.

A whole lotta Juner.

June woke up early from her nap so she could spend some special alone time with mama.

And a little alone time with her toys away from the prying hands of a certain older brother.

Without her hair barrette, June has been undercover as a boy today. She's been wearing so much frilly stuff, we had to take it ack to basic colors and overalls.

What a goof. June has just this week discovered that she can take her barrette out. (Which really bugs mama because each of those pretty hair bows cost over $1. That's pretty extravagant for a little girl without a job, if you ask us.)

So here's our solution. That's a classy look. With her hair pulled back, you can also faintly see the big bruise on the right side of June's forehead.

That came from a nasty mishap while shower diving. The shower floor is never as soft as it looks when you launch yourself over the side of the bathtub.

Best friends-Juner.

Henry ate a good supper last night, so mama let him have a bowl of "ice cream" (or frozen pudding pops that got pulled off the stick trying to get out of the mold).

And Henry is such a great big brother, he shared his bowl with me.

As long as I stood by his chair and yelled, he was ready with a bite for me.

Here's hoping neither of us have a cold.

For those of you wondering, potty training is not going. Tonight after our bath, Henry told mama that he had to poop. She asked if he wanted to sit on the potty. (No pressure- just asking.) Henry proceeded to have a panic attack of monumental proportions. Honestly, we think Henry is preventing himself from pooping just so he doesn't have to sit on the potty. And we haven't even really been asking for the past two weeks. We're beside ourselves. Does anyone have suggestions for potty training a kid who just doesn't want to do it?

On a good note, today Henry came home to the news there was a baby asleep upstairs. We were watching our friend Baby Audrey while her mama and sister when to the doctor. Upon hearing the news, Henry asked if this was the baby he was giving his nukies to. So apparently the promise of a big train track present is starting to work. Now all we need is the big train track from Aunt Jenni and a sweet new baby from Miss Karen!

After the nap- Juner.

When Henry woke up from his nap today, he invited me in to see his trains. Very generous, as he normally keeps huge roadblocks between me and his train.

He showed my how he and mama changed the batteries in his train and how the remote control worked.

Then he gave me a drum lesson.

He's a pretty loud drummer!

Henry tried to show me how to hold the drumsticks.

...but I have my own style.

The foot you see is Henry's. He was helping mama take the video and was experimenting.

Later, Henry decided that in addition to the battery changing, he wanted to unscrew all the screws in the stepstool. Mama wanted to tell him no, but also doesn't want to stifle The Knack hidden inside Henry, and in doing so hinder his chances of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, and subsequently shower his beloved mother with the prize money in her gold years.

So here's Buster's final result. The scattered tupperware was my doing. Mama says she's going to send a bill to Henry for having to put the stool back together.

Art Catchup.

It's been a while since we turned on our desktop computer. Something's wrong with the motherboard, so the screen doesn't always recognize that the computer is on. But today I persevered and after only 39 tries (yes, I counted), I got everything up and running. First on my to-do list was to scan the ever growing pile of Henry's art. So here's what he's been up to:
This is obviously pretty old, but I found it under the couch, so it gets scanned. The teachers had this laminated so Henry could use it as a placemat. I think the border is made with bingo stampers.

Now December. More bingo stampers. I'm impressed by the accuracy. This seems like the perfect craft for Henro. No imagination required.

Here's the Christmas card Henry made for us. God bless those teachers. Watercolors with 6 two-year-olds? That's beyond my courage.

January's theme was snow. Here's when the heavy gluing started.

I love this little guy. But he didn't scan very well because he was so big he left the scanner cover open a bit.

More glue.
The shaving cream snow experiment. The whole house smelled like a menthol-y, husky man for days.

February's theme is "God is love." God even loves giant purple girls who step on entire nations.

Did we mention Henry loves to glue?

Henry and I made this one after discussing June's birthday. Since Henry shares a birthday week with Natalie and Oliver, he decided to generously share his birthday with Juner too.

More watercolors. Necklace side 1.
Side 2.

Stamping.

The valentine close-up.

Abstract.

Finally, this one is from Evie. This is how she envisions our house.

Happy Valentine's Day (or the Candy Post!)-Henry.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. We celebrated in true turner fashion and mostly skipped it, but did make it a point to go to the store and buy some half off candy today!

Here's the valentine's day card I made. Mama did the cutting and I did the gluing. I was very pleased she thought of something appropriate and not too mushy.

Despite the many offers, June decided to spend Valentine's day solo and in the buff. Eat your hearts out. She is looking rather svelte these days. Mama says she thinks we've both grown a few inches since Christmas.

Anyway, we want the rash under her armpit to air out and clear up before she makes any serious commitments.

Look at those ig cheeks. Those aren't slimming ot any time soon.

We celebrated Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday in the grandest fashion. Out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and then more candy. I got to eat this great Abe sucker (thanks, Aunt Molly!).

We heart this sucker almost as much as we liked all the PBS Lincoln specials that have been on this week!

... even though one of the specials pretty much extolled the virtues of John Wilkes Booth (only in the South).

Mama and papa were pretty grossed out by the fallout from my black sucker.

But now I know how I would look with a 'stache and an awesome goatee.

Finally, we got to the big day and mama surprised me by actually getting me a full price box of monster truck candy. I even got to eat all of the pieces, but only ate 3, as I didn't care for the stawberry creme filled chocolate.

Mister Paul and Miss Susan came over and cooked a whole turkey with us. We had all the fixings for a great Thanksgiving dinner. Even homemade mashed potatoes from scratch and cranberry jello salad. And Miss Susan stepped up to take papa's taste as the official turkey leg eater for the night.

Today, Juner really turned on the cute and spent a lot of time playing with her dolls. some of her current favorites are the two June Little Einstein dolls. She really turned it up when she started giving the dolls kisses.