Jay's been practicing to be a bagpipe player when he grows up.

I think he's almost got it.

Jay's Birthday

On Saturday Jay Alvin turned 3, and we actually celebrated.

(Last year we ended up doing absolutely nothing for his birthday.

I'm not even sure why, but there were no presents,

no cake and ice cream and no party.

We're lame, I know.)

 In true Reber fashion we made Jay eat breakfast with his presents sitting on the table to torture him.

 He was pretty excited about the watermelon.

 We let him open one present after breakfast.

 This is the moment he unwrapped it enough to tell that it was a soccer ball.

He was pretty excited, and he and Leo have been fighting over the ball ever since.

 After breakfast we went down to Cannery Row and rented a surrey.

What you can't tell from the picture is that it's absolutely freezing outside.

When we left home it was nice and sunny, but by the time we rounded the bay we were in a cloudy, windy mess.

We ended up riding for about 5 minutes and turning around.

We took the surrey back and went to Ghiradelli for ice cream instead.

(Funny story:

One of the workers at Ghiradelli had a laser pointer.

My kids totally chased it all over the floor like cats.)

By the time we finished our ice cream the sun had come out so we went down to the beach for a while.

  We climbed out on the rocks and found a little tide pool.

 Leo and Ty even found some hermit crabs.

 And then Leo fell in and got soaked up to his waist.

 Once we got back home Jay promptly made a mud hole in the back yard and proceeded to dirty up his snowmobile. (Making mud is one of his new favorite things. He generally uses the water from the fridge instead of the hose, so there's always a lovely trail of mud from the back yard to the kitchen. It's awesome.)

And then he got to open his other present:

New clothes and Skittles.

We ended the night with cake and ice cream and remembered why we hadn't done anything to celebrate the year before. Having a birthday is hard work! Especially when it's not your birthday.

Some of Jay's favorite things:

This outfit:

 He finally fell in love with those fire pant and wants to wear them all the time.

He does not love sitting on Ty's bike, but how can we not put him there when he's wearing those pants?

Riding his bike.

Holding babies.

 As long as they're babies that "come to our house and then go away."

He's not on board with getting a new baby of our own.

Having his picture taken.

He always wants to make this face though:

I have to trick him into making this one, which is just so much cuter:

 (Funny story: Whenever I take his picture I say, "Jay, smile!" And he says,

in his most gravelly voice and with a straight face, "Smile.")

And, of course, burying toys in mud.

We had an awesome Valentine's Day yesterday.

And today was the start of a 4 day weekend for Ty.

Basically we're partying non-stop.

The boys were thrilled with their Valentine's treats.

They got candy, gum and bubbles.

In typical fashion Jay ate every last piece of his stash in about half an hour and Leo still has about half of his left. Jay keeps sneaking Leo's though, so I'm not sure how much longer it will last.

Ty and I had a hot date with a Redbox movie on the couch after the boys were asleep.

Then today we did something awesome.

Seriously, I'm so sad that we took so long to discover this.

We would have been doing it all the time.

We rented a surrey and biked along the bay trail.

 There's a little bell up front where the boys are sitting.

It was being rung by one boy or the other almost the entire time we were biking.

They loved it.

We stopped for a few minutes to climb on the rocks and watch the waves crash.

 Ty almost got swept out to sea.

We had lunch at Bubba Gump.

Jay does this funny thing where he's more than happy to share your food, but he refuses to share his.

Ty got a strawberry lemonade and Jay immediately claimed it as his own.

It's hard to see, but I have Jay's root beer in my hand.

As soon as I tried to take a drink he grabbed it from me and drank it.

So then I tried to drink the lemonade.

Since he couldn't drink from both straws at the same time he just covered up the lemonade so I couldn't get at it.

Awesome Oatmeal Muffins

AKA The perfect "on the go" breakfast.

• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 2 cups unsweetened applesauce
• 1 mashed banana
• 1/2 cup honey
• 5 1/4 cups rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups milk 
• Optional toppings: fruit, nuts, chocolate chips

Mix together the wet stuff. Add in the dry stuff. Finish with the milk. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes

This seems to works best as 24 muffins, although you can use a 9 x 13 pan. Use cupcake liners because the muffins will stick like crazy if you don't. These can be frozen. Just thaw overnight in the fridge and microwave for 20 seconds or so. 


Here's a funny story:
I found this recipe on Pinterest and it's awesome! Seriously, I've been eating them every day. My favorite ones are with dried blueberries, but I like them every way I've tried them. But the lady who originally posted the recipe is like, "This recipe and my photo are protected by copyright law and you can't post it on your blog." (BRAT!) So I looked up the copyright law for recipes and it basically says that you can copyright your specific instructions for something, (ie "Lightly toast the bread and add a thin layer of peanut butter.") But you can't copyright the list of ingredients. So I wrote the instructions in my own terms, and I even altered the ingredients a little. (Because I'm not putting 1/4 cup of groundd flax seed in anything.) Nanner, nanner. 

Happenings

I started packing. We're not moving for a good 6 weeks, but I prefer to limit myself to under 10 boxes a day. Also, I would much rather pack something up because I want to than because I have to.

 Side note: The process of packing up a house makes me happy. I love organizing everything into boxes and getting it out of the way. The only part I hate is when I get to the end and things get messed up because I can't pack up the stuff we still need to use.

Ty got me this beautiful bouquet, and Leo was in love. 

He kept climbing on the counter to check the progress of the buds that hadn't opened yet.

And he constantly had his nose in one of the flowers.

He kept saying, "I love these flowers. They're really beautiful."

 Side note: Jay will only let me take pictures of his feet these days.

If the camera is out he'll say,

"Mom, you take a picture of my foot?"

Same outfit, different day.

And another. Random

Also, I made fruit snacks.

(Yep, from Pinterest.)

They're really weird.

Maybe they would be better with regular Jello instead of fat free, sugar free.

We won't be finding out.

Yeah, that happened

I saw these curlers at the store the other day and decided I needed them.

Then I decided that I didn't need them and put them back.

Then I decided that I really did need them and went back another day and got them

They were supposed to make "soft waves" in my hair, but really they are pink foam curlers in disguise.

I kept them in for several hours and ended up with this:

Awesome!

Lat Week's Pinterest Projects

First off I turned these:

into these:

It required 30+ hours of soaking in bleach water before I could dye them.

The stitching stayed gold so they make me feel my old Mesa pride.

Go Rabbits!

I also had some fun in the kitchen.

I made these:

Red Velvet Brownies

 Red Velvet Cake Mix + 1/2 C melted butter + 1/4 C brown sugar + 2 eggs + 375^ for :25-30.

And topped them with this:

World's Best Frosting

(Mix one vanilla pudding packet with half of the milk called for on the package. Whisk until it begins to thicken. Then fold in one container of Cool Whip. )

And they were delicious.