She missed sharing her Granny's birthday by only a day. Alex and Isaac had to share their mommy's attention with their newborn cousin, but the welcome visit from Granny made it well worth it. 
Mom's birthday may have been overshadowed by Arena's birth, but we did take some time out of baby gazing to garage sale our way across the entire Pullman-Moscow area and attend a street fair in Moscow. 
The boys and I even had to resort to eating ice cream while mom checked out the town's consignment stores.
After a week or two to stash away my garage sale finds, Isaac's Grandma and Grandpa came to celebrate his first birthday.
After one failed cake, my second attempt looked pretty, but Isaac was more interested in finger-painting with it than eating it. 
Alex didn't have a problem eating his. "Can we have cake now? Is now the time for cake? Now would be a great time for cake, mom!"
Despite a change to fall weather, we headed outside to play with Grandma's new toy, a remote control car.
Dad came and celebrated his and Isaac's shared birthday with us this week. It was a beautiful fall day, and we enjoyed an afternoon at the Moscow arboretum with Julie, Ryan, and Arena. Alex learned from Uncle Ryan how to climb trees (Ryan's lesson seemed to be: climb as high as you can when no girls are looking, and try not to get caught. Thanks Ryan!).
We headed home for a buggy birthday party, complete with my one very successful cake of this birthday season: cockroach cake for Dad... he even made my day by biting right into one of the realistic plastic roaches I hid on the backside of his piece of cake.... "Yum, Yum!". 
Isaac decided that cake isn't so bad, if it's coated in bugs and made of carrots. He polished off his piece and went looking for more under his plate.
Five cakes later, thanks to all of you who made this such a special time, and for traveling so far and taking so much time out to come see us. I am so thankful for the love, joy, laughter, and just plain fun that you brought to us these weeks! I love you all, and can't wait for the next special occasion with each one of you, although I may wait awhile before I bake another cake!
