Our Wee Butler Family

Sunday, July 3, 2011

The Tulip Tree

Not a magnolia trying to look like tulips in a tree. It is a real Tulip Tree. Everett is known for them and the oldest living tree happens to be in the very front of our boundry line from our neighbor and the street. The city has it protected (not that they do an awesome job taking care of it). We love it for the most part. After it blooms though you end up with brown petel/leaves everywhere and then the leaves actually start to fall which means a lot of raking in the steep part of the front yard. We do love it though! I haven't ever seen one bloom before and it was really pretty. the petels are a lot like leaves and start green but have an orange stripe near the bottom. They are just really cool looking.

Pre 4th of July sparklers and Marshmallow roasting.

We really wanted to light some fireworks off. Obviously it was not the warmest of nights. Alestair was the only one of us that decided he was warm enough without long sleeves. We decided that friends or not we were going to let the boys stay up late and make some fire :). The boys were excited! They watched me set up while Robert got them ready and the sparklers ready. We kept the rest of our fireworks for the actual Fourth of July. Alestair was of course most excited to roast marshmallows. He has never done sparklers before so this was a big deal.

My boys. Alestair wanted to take pictures with Emmett really bad.
Neither one wanted to look at me though. I love Emmett trying to
sneak Alestair's marshmallow and Alestair laughing at him.

The boys loved to eat the marshmallows but couldn't wait for them to roast. I however used the red (or pink) white and blue star marshmallows and made a very beautiful marshmallow stack.

Robert soon brought out the sparklers. He got Alestair started with one and stood back while I took pictures. Emmett watched from the sidewalk. Robert was never far away. Alestair did really well and listened far better than I think he had in days.

With Robert's help Emmett got to do one sparkler for his second Fourth of July. He was pretty happy with it. He said "OOOOO!" nearly the whole time. I love his O face!

We got a cute video of him with the sparklers. He only tried to reach for it once. I love nights where we get to do things like this. It is so much fun and such a memory!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Emmett's favorite food...

Ever. Mashed tatoes. He double spoons them. They are not to be wasted. I can mash about 5 large potatoes on Monday and by Friday they are gone.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Birthday Cake

Finished cake. Picture done by Robert cake and letter placement by Mindy.

Alestair turned 3 today! I can't believe he is so big now! I don't feel like it was yesterday that he was a baby but I do feel like it was yesterday that he learned to walk. Now he is working on potty training and he tells stories and talks ALL THE TIME! I love him so much! Its been fun helping him grow and learn. I love to watch him and see what is new that he can do.

killing the cake.

He really didn't like his cake much. He wouldn't even taste it. I thought he would love it since it had nuts and was chocolate. I guess German Chocolate with coconut peacan frosting isn't good. Should have done sugar frosting i suppose. He did love trying to kill it. and liking all the letters to dust and the umbrellas. He thought one of the candles was sugar like the letters and bit into it. He was very rudely surprised :). He did pretty well blowing out the candles but had to have Mom and Dad take a turn too so he didn't actually blow them out Dad did. He thought that was pretty awesome though.

Emmett waiting for cake. He loved it!

Alestair's Birthday Train

Robert came home from work and told me that he was going to make Alestair a train. He used the wagon and built the train from a few boxes he brought home. Alestair loved it! We had a hard time getting him to come inside without it.