Oh, Easter!

The Official 2016 Easter Egg Coloring Adventure...

 The finished masterpieces...

 Sunday morning, of course if you're dressed in your finest you do a little dancin'!

 Two kids who absolutely adore each other!!  

So precious.  

 A peak out the window revealed the Easter bunny had dropped off a few fun things.  

 The girl was thrilled!! 

After church, we headed to the country!!  Of course, we checked out the baby calves, the dogs, the horses and checked cows on the 4-wheeler.  Then, Uncle RyRy hid the Easter eggs.  

Fun, fun, fun times!!!!  

Handsome and Five

 Today, our sweet boy turned five.  Its been a momentous milestone he's been looking forward for a long time.  For some reason '5' is very different than little '4'.  Well, because I guess it is :)  Five means soccer and kindergarten and a new found sense of 'big-ness'.  Tonight I picked the kids up from daycare and I had plans to make 'snack supper' as Kaleb's been telling me how we never have 'snack-supper' which is his favorite.  'Snack Supper' is....food you eat on Christmas Eve.  Chex mix and cheese with crackers and cookies and veggies with dip and pigs in a blanket and the list goes on and on and on.  As we discussed what we could have for 'snack supper' Kaleb got quiet for a minute then said... "Mom, maybe we go somewhere and eat."  He then laid out three options... HuHot, Chinese or 'the Macaroni and Cheese Place' (Zamariks) and I was to choose.  Since HuHot is on the other side of town and we've been enjoying a healthy supply of Chinese lately.  Zamariks it was.  Because I am just getting over bronchitis and a severe ear ache and I hadn't showered today or even gotten truly ready for the day and I've spent basically a week on the couch coughing up a lung... I told Kaleb we would stop at the house so I could change my shirt and they could just wait in the car.  He insisted, he needed to change his shirt too.  He wanted a nice shirt.  And, this is what my handsome little man put together for his 'handsome outfit' as he calls it.  At first it was just the button down shirt and the nice cord pants.  Then, he said to me, very matter of factly "Mom, I'm going downstairs to get something."  A few minutes later, he comes back upstairs with a tie on too.  Oh, my sweet boy!  Suddenly we we're just going to eat somewhere, we going to dinner in our most handsome of clothes.  Which meant of course I needed to get out of yoga pants and figure out what to do with the scrunched up pony tail mess of hair :)  He even picked out a beautiful necklace for me... my Ugandan paper bead necklace.

 Our tie wearing handsome five year old drinking his strawberry milk from a straw.  

 Followed by Monster Cookie ice cream at home with a number '5' candle :) 

 Then, the reveal of the one last present from Mom & Dad......

he was banished to the couch and told to not peek from beneath the beloved soccer ball blanket.  

 What could it be????

 We call this 'swallowed by the birthday present' it's so big...

 A new bike!!  

 Of course, we tried it out around the kitchen island :) 

 It's good to be five.  

Oh, my baby Kaleb.  We love you so incredibly much!!!  It is amazing and wonderful to see your adventurous spirit and sweet tender heart grow.  Every day, I thank God he chose me to be your mama!!!!  

Birthday Party #5....an Explosively Good Time!!

Kaleb started inviting his friends to his birthday party in December.  Really, he did.  When you start inviting people four months in advance, well you know the stakes are high and you better have your A game on :)  And, then he got a microscope for Christmas.  Which gave him the idea of having a science party for his birthday.  It was a blast... in so many ways :)

Uncle RyRy of course showed up with robotic fish which could swim in Mom's lemonade pitcher.  

What's more to love??  

 Perhaps a cake with smoldering chemical concoctions :) 

 Thanks Auntie for helping write the letters and assembling the cake!!

 Then, the friends showed up and the experiments began...

 The classic diet coke and mentos experiment.  

On a 5 year old indoor level... 

 Next up some liquid chemical (vinegar) with some secret chemicals (kool-aid mix).

Then, they got to dump in a spoon full of dry chemical (I know... shockingly, this was baking soda).  

 Kudos to the adult helpers... pretty sure Elsie would have eaten the baking soda without Justin's persistent 'guidance' ;)  She loves her Justin!!!

 It was fun :) 

 Sometimes, when you're the birthday boy and you're having such a good time... you just gotta wear your Superman cape to eat your food.  

 Five.  It's pretty awesome, I tell ya. 

 10 kids+ 1 baby + 14 adults= 25 people 

Crazy good, fun times.  

 Did I mention, I basically hadn't moved from the couch in five days.  

And, I went to Urgent Care the morning of this picture in which they gave me more meds for my raging bronchitis, I basically could not talk and I'm fairly certain my ear drum ruptured that morning due to a severe ear ache.  

Thanks to the 'calvary' who arrived Saturday morning... they pulled it off without a hitch and even made me cough away rest in bed while my ear drained all sorts of fluid.  When you started inviting your bff's four months ago... one does not simply postpone the party for a mere bought of illness on mama's part.  

  

And, you get to play with your new robotic racing spiders with your friends compliments of Uncle RyRy with the wise guidance of Uncle Justin :) 

 Then, when the house is quiet and the party is over... you climb in the kitchen sink and play with fish again.  And, life is just awesome.  Only made better by staying up late watching a new movie snuggled up on the couch with Auntie and Justin.  

 This is the joy of life my friends :) 

First Family Day

In the midst of the craziness of moving and Kaleb's birthday and bronchitis that lasted a month...we managed to celebrate Elsie's 1st Family Day.  One year together.   It has been a wild crazy year.  The loudest year of my life.  We've welcomed you home, changed jobs, switched daycare 5-ish times, sold a house, bought a house, moved, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  A year of soooo many changes on so many levels.  We're in a wonderful place as a family- so incredibly blessed to live life with our little family of four :)  

 Of course.... we had noodles.  

Lots of noodles!!

 And, a little something to commemorate our Elsie's 1st Family Day...

 Not bad considering the 'artists' involved ;) 

 And, of course... cupcakes.  

Because that is the tradition.  

Cupcakes with massive quantities of sprinkles!!!!

 Love you our sweet Elsie girl :)  

So proud of the year you've journeyed through.  Through a crazy culture change, to new foods and rules and norms and words and phrases and a brother and a big girl bed and a dad and a mom who is even more stubborn than you ;)  

So overjoyed to see you find your words, to see your thoughtfulness bloom and watch joy grow in your soul.  You're one crazy kid who loves wildly and absolutely never misses a beat!  We love you so much and are so incredibly grateful to have you in our lives.  

God is so incredibly good.