Blooming Spring

I really enjoyed the spring flowers this year. Not sure if it was because they were especially beautiful or if I just noticed them more. Regardless, they were so pretty that I did photo shoots in both my mom's yard and in Aaron's mom's yard.

Mother's Day Flowers

I love that our ward gives out potted plants for Mother's Day.

Last year I got an African Violet,

which has lived in our bathroom and grown up just as much as Zeke has in the past year.

This year I got a Cyclamen. I had never heard of or seen one before. When I received it, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it. But now I like it more every day. It is a bright light - cool temperatures plant, so it will have to move around the house as the seasons change.

Butterfly Sandbox

You may have been wondering 'What was in Zeke's big birthday gift anyway?'

It's a sandbox! It's a butterfly, with one wing as the sandbox and the other wing is the lid.

We have all enjoyed it very much, thanks to sand and toys that came as birthday gifts as well. Zeke's favorite games to play are 1- destroy the molded crab / whale / plane that an adult has made, 2- dump sand onto an object and brush it off, and 3- throw the sand out of the sandbox. Aaron suggested that we should move the sandbox around the yard to the low spots so Zeke's sand throwing could even out the lawn. Could work, but with 25 pounds of sand in the body and another 75 pounds of sand in the box, this butterfly isn't moving anywhere quickly.

RC Startup

When starting an RC plane, it's important to have a buddy standing over it so it won't roll away when the propellar starts to turn.
(like Aaron and Draper are preparing to do here)

Zeke is well aquainted with this particular routine (he has grown up seeing it, after all). Apparently for Zeke, this extends to RC cars as well as planes.

Look how proud of himself he is for getting the RC car all ready to go.

Turning Two

In celebration of Zeke's second birthday, a few Saturdays ago we threw him a birthday party. Several of Zeke's aunts and uncles and both sets of grandparents were there. We ate soup, opened gifts, and enjoyed cake and ice cream.

Zeke started his actual birthday the next Tuesday by throwing himself a confetti party with parmesan cheese. That afternoon we went out for lunch and dessert with Grandma Carlile. Zeke blew out the candle in his gelato all by himself and then grabbed the wick. Not the coolest idea he's ever had.

We have also been to the pediatrician for a well child visit and learned Zeke is healthy and right on track developmentally. After all, he started acting his age pretty much immediately.

Another Fine Presentation

Aaron was scheduled to give a presentation-demonstration to his flying club about the club's website last night. Aaron had his laptop and one of the other guys brought the projector. Then the club's website was down for the 2 hours of the meeting. Naturally was back up by the time Aaron got home.

All we can do is laugh. It is pretty funny when you think about it. Two failed presentations in one family in one week really is absolutely ridiculous....

A Fine Presentation

Maybe three weeks ago I was asked to teach at enrichment night. The invitation/assignment went something like this: 'A few months ago you mentioned you'd be willing to teach. What would you like to teach, and would you like to do it May 12th?' When I made the offer, I had intended to be teaching part of a class on what I do for work, not presenting the whole program. But I accepted anyway and was told I could borrow a laptop and broadband card for the class.

I thought about it on and off for a few weeks, and was reminded that this was happening now when I saw the announcement in the program on Sunday (in which my name was misspelled, of course). So I worked hard Monday and Tuesday perfecting my presentation and practicing what I would say. Not to my surprise, the borrowed laptop and internet connection never arrived. No problem - Aaron has a laptop and we just got wired with mobile broadband (for other reasons) a week or so ago.

I arrived at enrichment 45 minutes early to set up my laptop and projector. Aaron really wanted to fly his flight simulator on the big screen, so after I was all ready he started to fly his big jet. The appointed start time came and went, and I sat there watching Aaron fly and wondering how long we would have to sit around if no one came. Ten minutes later, 3 people arrived. I didn't want to start without the leadership there, so we waited another 20 minutes while Aaron and Zeke flew on the simulator and Aaron lost a game of chess to the computer before looking up his homework assignment online. Finally I gave up waiting and gave a powerpoint presentation to 3 people who knew absolutely nothing about the topic at hand.

Right as I got started, Zeke ran out of milk and loudly let me know about it. Aaron distracted him. Halfway through my presentation, Zeke came running around to the front of the room, stopped in front of me, and said 'home! home! home!' (Sorry dude, I'm a little busy right now.)Then he headed over to the piano. After his concert, he was totally ready to go home and was starting to get loud and irritated. Aaron took him down the hall to look at something else and I made my concluding points.

It wasn't a total loss.... I think those 3 people did learn something new, which was my intention. However, it was absolutely nothing like I envisioned and prepared for. And on top of it all it was freezing in that room.

Strolling Among the Tulips

Two weeks ago we went to a tulip festival with Grandma and Grandpa Loertscher. It was gorgeous.

Spending a warm spring day walking through beautiful gardens sounded like a great family outing. That is until we were reminded just a little ways down the path that Zeke does not stroll in the stoller. Brisk walks yes; thoughtful meanders no. Regardless of how nice the scenery is.

So out of the stroller it was and Zeke walked/ran/played the whole time. He was much happier to be out and free and so were we. We wound our way through the gardens, next to small streams, and over bridges.

There was also a good sized koi pond with plenty of good sized koi. Zeke loved the fish. When we finally pulled ourselves away from the observation platform, Zeke kept asking to go back and look at the fish.

We were all getting tired and hungry toward the end of the morning, but Zeke refused all offers to ride in the stroller. He asked instead to be carried by Grandma and Grandpa, who were both kind enough to oblige. They carried him up around a pond, behind a waterfall, and through more flowers on our way out of the gardens and on to our picnic lunch.

Mower Mania

We got a lawn mower about a month ago and finally got the chance to go try it out a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to spring the grass was covered in snow off and on for a couple of weeks. By the time we got out to mow, Zeke received a bubble mower for Easter from Grandma so he could go out and 'help'.

However, he much prefers to pull the mower than to push it.

And here is the finished product. We got a reel mower (totally human powered), so it's a workout as well as yard work.