Tulips and Waterfalls

Over the weekend we went to see the tulips at Thanksgiving Point with Grandma and Grandpa Loertscher. It was a summery day to be seeing spring flowers, so we layered our sunscreen and wore our sunglasses and brought lots of water.

The flowers were beautiful, and for the first part we all walked together enjoying the scenery. 

As soon as we saw water Nora was out of the stroller, and running across the bridges and saying 'water' over and over again. So wandered down to the pond to see the koi. While Zeke and Aaron fed the fish, I followed Nora around. She ran all over on the deck chattering about 'fish' and 'water', stopping occasionally to watch the fish.

We had a hard time getting them away from the koi to look at more flowers, but they were finally convinced by the offer of another bridge to run across. Nora was completely done with the stroller, so Zeke was riding and I was trying to convince Nora to walk with us rather than run the other way.

After a while the kids were done with flowers and we went to the waterfalls. As much as he loved the fish, this was for sure Zeke's favorite part. 

I told Aaron that maybe next time we should come without the kids, and then it would be more of a peaceful stroll rather than a serious workout. But I do love sharing all of this beauty with them. 

Easter Egg Hunt with Friends

On Easter Monday we got to spend a gorgeous spring day outside with friends. We had a barbecue, played, hunted Easter eggs, ate strawberry shortcake, strengthened friendships, and played some more.

Zeke counted out his eggs all by himself and proudly declared he had found 16 eggs. 

Nora wasn't interested in counting eggs and abandoned her yellow basket to go slide some more. 

Nora played and played until she just couldn't take it anymore, and she fell asleep in the swing. So sweet! 

When it was time to head home for dinner we were sad to go. I'm so glad we have started getting together more often.

The quote of the day belongs to Zeke. Not long before Nora fell asleep, the kids were swinging and sliding and the moms were sitting nearby chatting. Valerie said something about monkey bars, and Zeke replied 'I don't like monkey bars, I like granola bars.' :)

Lovely Easter Sunday

A few scenes from our Easter....

Nora's new dress, made by Aunt Carrie

Pretty little girl that loves tools

Family picture after church

Hunting eggs. Nora caught on really fast. Zeke's not so good at looking for anything.

Zeke loved his chocolate rabbit.

Flying Kites

A couple of weekends ago we took the kids and our kite to the park. Our kite is a red triplane called the Red Baron, and it's kind of a touchy kite. It flew, but there was a lot of up and down. 

For a while Aaron was holding the string and I was launching the kite. He would fly it as long as it would stay up, then we'd start over. After three or four times of this, we decided to switch and he launched the kite and I ran with the string trying to get it up high. As I stopped and turned around to fly it, I was stunned to see him walking towards me holding the string of another kite that was flying high. I guess someone had staked their kite in the ground and just left it flying, and it eventually crashed among the weeks. Aaron put it back up in no time. Zeke got a turn to 'fly' too. 

It was one of those simple plastic delta kites like you get at the grocery store, but it went up easily and flew well. Aaron was inspired to try making his own. When it was ready, we went back to the park to test fly.

This one didn't go up as easily or fly as nicely as the one we found in the park, but it worked a whole lot better than the Red Baron. The wind this day was pretty gusty, and our homemade kite hit the ground a lot but it fared better than I expected. No major impact damage.

The fun came to an end when a rather large gust tore the kite off of the string, and we had to chase it down. A few repairs and we'll be good to go again :)