Better than Dessert

Grandparents never disappoint.  Grandma Marjie and Grandpa Paul brought some wonderful things they had made when they visited back in April.

 Paul made Elias his own stool, so now it was Ezra's turn.

 Beautiful.

 Ezra siting on his new stool.  He loves it!

After dinner one evening, Elias was eating his dessert when Grandpa Paul started setting up his newest creation in the living room.  Elias opted to skip his dessert in order to see what was going on.  Paul didn't let him down.  He had made and painted a wooden castle set, and Grandma made a special bag to hold it all.  Paul told a story with all of the characters as each one made an appearance.  Elias loves to play it still.

 

A birthday celebration story.  It is almost always a birthday party when Elias sets it up himself.

What wonderful toys we will cherish always.  Thank you!

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

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.

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.

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!