Monday, August 27, 2012

2012 Easter Eggstravaganza

For Easter this year, we didn't head up to Fraser like we usually do, but we did get together with the Posts...because it's tradition! 

 Grandma Marjie and Grandpa Paul helped Elias dye Easter eggs

 
The Easter bunny and his helpers hid eggs for Mika, Elias and Ezra to find.  He even left baskets/chocolate for Elias, Ezra and the Posts.
 
Ezra found his basket with a bunny and eggs filled with fishies.  Sure hope this picture doesn't foretell Ezra's high school days.  What's he got there?


For me?  What about some of your goodies instead?

Turning 4 - Part II

Back in April, Elias turned 4.  I looked and looked trying to find a great place for him to celebrate his birthday with all of his friends from school.  It is exceptionally difficult to find a reasonably priced venue for anywhere from 20 - 30 kids.  His class at school had recently been broken up into 2 different classes, and new kids were added to each.  We wanted some kids from the other class to be invited, but I felt like I better invite everyone because the kids at school really talk with one another about what they have been doing.  The best place I found was the same as last year: music class.  There were 20+ kids there, and we all had great fun.

Ms. Jacquie who led the party


Elias (in his music shirt, of course!) and me

Parachute fun.  

FYI, it is very difficult to have fun with a parachute when not enough adults are involved.  If you find yourself among a parachute in the future, grab a handle.  It makes it better for everyone.

Ezra found the crayons after the music party.  He ended up eating only a few.

 When a fellow classmate of Elias' said, "It's a parachute!" when first seeing the cake, the day was a success for me.

Luckily for us, Grandma Marjie and Grandpa Paul were up visiting for Elias' birthday.  We had a great time at the party and afterward opening up his huge pile of presents.

 
 Stomp Rocket blast off

 Finally some bathroom furniture for the dollhouse

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Turning 4 - Part I

Breakfast in bed

Elias is not thrilled he is 4...yet

That's better

Cheese!
Some of the presents he opened on his birthday morning:  A new bike, a doctor's bag, including his new doctor's coat (pink!), a piggy bank, a ladybug pen, a crazy singing stuffed animal, $ for college, a bug clock.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Pagosa Springs

In March, we headed to Pagosa Springs, CO for a week long family vacation.  We had traded our Florida timeshare for a place with a little more snow.  Two nice things about a timeshare are the full kitchen and planned activities...a must for a week's vacation with a 1 and 4-year-old.  The woman leading the activities was great.


We decorated bags

 
Made t-shirts

And we were the only ones who signed up to decorate cookies.  What is wrong with people?  By the time the cookie activity came around, the activity director knew us.  She thought Elias and Ezra were super cute, especially with their red, red cheeks.

Elias and Ezra "playing"

Luckily, I was a bit of an activity director myself.  I had a different craft for Elias and I to do every day.  Those ALEX craft boxes are life savers.  Every morning Ezra would nap, and Elias and I would make things.

Elias' butterfly

Matt managed to hit the slopes on the best snow they had had in a long while.  WooHoo!  It was a bad snow season.
 Elias and his 3 tiny snowmen

 They had free board games to checkout (we played a lot of Candy Land and Shoots and Ladders) and free miniature golf.  We also had access to the indoor pool.  The lack of snow worked to our advantage for golfing!

Par 12 on every hole (at least for Elias)

Near the end of our trip, we had dinner with our dear friends Wendy and Lani.  They made the trip from Durango to spend some time with us eating, drinking and catching up.  My favorite part of the whole trip.  I wonder what next year's vacation will entail?

Ole the 2nd

Ezra is quite the troublemaker, to put it mildly.  He imitates much of what Elias does, including getting a hold of Ole and hugging him and kissing him, all the while saying, "Ole."  He is almost certainly teasing Elias because when Elias gets upset and grabs Ole back, Ezra doesn't cry.  It seems to me Ezra might even look a little smug.

I have put multiple animals in Ezra's crib to see if he will attach to one of them.  He seems to prefer taking off his shorts and hugging those...until recently, that is.  Ezra has chosen a burp cloth as his comfort object, and he has named it Ole.  Of course!  Why wouldn't he think that the one thing that you snuggle and love above all others would be called Ole.  So now we have the Oles.  I sure hope they can learn to get along.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Let the Partying Begin

There are a crazy number of birthdays in the Spring and Summer for the kids in Elias' class.  When Mom and Jim were here, Elias had 2 to go to in one weekend.

 First up was Joey's gymnastics party.

The birthday girl...although not at her party, but at a different party.

 Ezra loved it!  Thanks goodness Mom was there to help chase him down.

 Elias needed a little more convincing, but once he finally jumped off the horse into the pit a few times (with some pushes from me), he liked it.

 Elias in the pit.

Next up was Grace.  Her party was at a bouncy house place.  Oh how I do enjoy those!

Happy birthday Grace!

 They had a play area for small kids, which was a life saver since I had Ezra with me too.

 Elias playing on the little slide.

 Elias going down the big slide.

I think I love going to the kid's birthday parties even more than Elias does.  Good thing we have Ezra so I can do them all again!

The Epic Visit

Mom and Jim came to visit in early March.  They were life savers because Matt had to go out-of-town for a week for work.  We spent some time at home and some up in the mountains.  We had a blast:

Both my Grandma and my Mom are outstanding sewers.  They love making wonderful things and have a great talent for it.  It must have skipped a generation (neither my sister nor I sew much) because Elias has been asking about sewing quite a bit.  I told Mom about it, so she brought some material to make PawPaw a shirt. 

 Elias' favorite part may have been the magnifying glass.  I think this pose is so Elias.

 Making stitches.

 The final product.  Orders anyone?

Up in the mountains there was much to do.  Grandpa and Elias HAD to go skiing together.  We went out to breakfast, and Elias wore a crown he made.  The waitress took a picture of him on her phone.  Recently, we went back to the restaurant and she remembered him and showed him the photo.  Pretty fun!
 Riding in the wagon to the ski slopes.  As you can see, Ezra can't wait.

 What is snow made of?  Water, so of course Ezra loved it!

After skiing with Grandpa down the double black diamond...OK, maybe it was the bunny hill.

Since it was close to Mardi Gras, Grandpa and Elias made a King Cake.  Yummy!

 Elias "helping."

The final cake.

Both Mom and Jim helped feed Ezra.  Not a small feat, that's for sure.

Seems like forever ago Ezra was drinking bottles.

 Lentils.  Delicious!

I do believe The Second Annual Epic Visit has already been scheduled.  I can hardly wait!

New Toys

Elias asked me today why we Ethan and Tate always give us toys when we see them.  I must admit it is pretty cool being the last one in the family to have kids.  We get everything from everyone!  It's like Christmas all throughout the year.  I know I have written about some of the things before.  Here is a list of some recent items:

Workbooks (came in very handy on our last plane trip)
A Wiggles guitar
Clothes & PJs
Hyperdash
Books (Thomas and others)
Thomas memory cards
Stickers
Puzzles
A stuffed frog
Hullabaloo
Crocodile raft and crocodile
Snap together toys for building
Blocks

Luckily, I am not the last one of my friends to have kids, so as Elias and Ezra grow up, on they go to someone new!

Shorty


Once Ezra was 1, it was time to switch him to a new car seat.  With the recommendations now being rear facing until at least 2, Ezra is lucky he is so short. 

Matt and Ezra with the new car seat



Bath Time!


Finally a cute bath time picture of Ezra.  I have way more of Elias.  That's what you get when you are the second kid.


National Western Stockshow

Earlier in the year, we went to the National Western Stock Show.  I fondly remember going to the Illinois State Fair, so I was a bit disappointed in the stock show.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but here is what we did.  We watched a bad rodeo clown performance,


 enjoyed the free petting zoo,
saw the cows getting thoroughly groomed for their moment of glory, sat in big farming equipment, walked by hundreds of booths trying to sell us stuff (and we paid admission to the stock show!!), and paid 50 cents so Elias could play on some playground equipment that was really just a big advertisement to get parents to purchase it for their backyard.  Maybe we will have to check out the Colorado State Fair one year in hopes of reliving my childhood.

Ezra Turned 1

January 9th, 2012 Ezra turned 1.  Funny how they just keep getting older.  We must not have done much because I don't remember, and more importantly, there aren't any pictures of a huge party.  If it weren't for our camera, this blog would be even more pitiful.

I do know that Ezra got this great tent with balls (which I have already bought for someone else because it is so fun).  Both Elias and Ezra enjoy playing in it.  In fact, it got Elias napping again during quiet time.  He would curl up inside it with his toys and books up in his room and fall asleep.  Anything that does that is practically a miracle!



Ezra also got a water table.  He is obsessed with water:  playing in water, drinking it, splashing in it, swimming in it, licking it off the concrete, spilling it and cleaning it up...you name it.  It was winter, so we played it in the shower.


I don't have any other pictures of gifts, but I know he got loads of other really awesome toys!

Sigh

I don't mean to get so behind.  Such is life.  I got a wonderful postcard from Aunt Serena a few months back with a great cartoon about blogging.  It is always encouraging to know there are people who enjoy reading about our crazy lives.  Let me work on getting back to it...