Zeke's 6th Birthday Party

Birthdays are so much fun! Zeke has been anxiously awaiting his, and it finally came. We really had about 3 days in a row of celebrating. 

Zeke taking the vanilla ice cream to the party.

Big yellow present from mom and dad and Nora (a fun Hot Wheels track!)

Opening the very first present.

Pile of new clothes.

Transformers plane. 

Zeke's train cake. We pulled out these candle holders a couple of weeks ago, and when we discovered that the train is 6 long, we knew it was meant to be!

Zeke had a very happy party and a happy birthday day too. He loved all of his presents, and his party, and the people who came to celebrate with us. When I asked him about his favorite part, he said 'All of it.'

This little man is growing up before our eyes. He is sweetheart and a goofball at the same time, and is good at making me laugh. 

Sunday Cuteness

We've captured a lot of cute moments on Sundays recently. On General Conference Sunday, we started the morning by looking out the window to find a young ring-necked dove on our window box. He was content just to sit there while the kids looked out the window (and tapped on the window...) for quite a while. 

During one of the General Conference sessions, we got out the duplos and built some towers. I built Nora a window for her bunnies and a castle for her princess, and she played for quite a while. 

Zeke used all of the other blocks and vehicles to build a city.

Cute girl ready for church. Yes I did get her to wear something besides her purple dress, for one week at least. I have loved this jumper. 

Cute hair! I took a picture because I figured it wouldn't last through church (and it didn't). Her hair is super fine (she gets that from me) and ponytails just don't stay in well yet. She tolerated it well, but I could tell it was a little weird for her :)

Purple Dress

Nora got her purple dress last year for Easter, a gift from Aunt Carrie. At that point, the skirt was so long that it brushed the ground when she had shoes on (and dragged when she didn't) and she tripped over it all the time. Going up stairs was nearly impossible, and on occasion caused tears. 

It was the only dress she had for most of the year, so she wore it every week and became quite attached to it. By fall it wasn't quite so long and she was much more skilled at stairs (and running, jumping, walking, standing up from sitting....) so it didn't get in her way anymore. 

Towards Christmastime, we inherited some fun hand-me-down dresses and she wore those for several weeks, which was so adorable and seasonal. For Kyle's wedding, we needed to have purple - so glad I arbitrarily picked purple over pink when Carrie gave me the choice! Nora got to wear her purple dress for two days in a row. 

Ever since the wedding, there just is no other dress that can compare. Nora loves her purple dress more than ever, and I have learned that trying to talk her into a different one is just not possible. Getting her ready for church is no problem at all. She is totally willing to get dressed into her purple dress, the sooner the better. In fact, if she sees me in a skirt she runs to her closet yelling 'My purple dress!' 

It is pretty miraculous that she's been able to wear this dress for a whole year. Sadly, we can see that the end is drawing near. I'm not quite sure how she's going to take it when it truly is too small....it's one of her very most favorite things!

Easter Weekend

Our Easter holiday was most fantastic. It was a perfect balance of doing fun Easter traditions together as a family, remembering our Savior, and much-needed relaxation. 

We colored eggs Saturday evening. The kids had a blast. Nora was loving stirring the dye and then it was even more fun when we added eggs to it! She had her eggs in and out, in and out - so much that after all the eggs were done and dried we could tell which ones were hers because they had white scratches. She used her hands as much as her spoon and turned green rather quickly.  Fortunately I had the good sense to get the orange, yellow, and pink away from the blue and green before they got contaminated! 

(As an aside, as I moved pictures from camera to computer, this one and a few others corrupted and now they look like the electronic puzzles Zeke does with Grandma. A cool effect, although it would be better if I had the un-puzzle version too. But, given that the memory card croaked as soon as I got the pictures off, I'm grateful that I have them at all!)

Zeke dyed most of his eggs blue. 

A long bubble bath got Nora clean, and here are the kids with their two dozen Easter egg masterpieces. 

Easter morning we hunted for Easter baskets and Easter eggs. We had to really work to get Nora to leave the eggs alone to find her basket, then once she found her basket all she wanted to find was the Easter candy corn in the eggs. But we finally got her back to the dyed and/or egg-wrapped eggs that were hidden. 

Zeke did super awesome with the egg hunt this year. He found his 12 almost before Nora got started, and was bummed when we told him he had to let Nora find the rest. 

Then we got ready for church. My two favorite kids in their purple Easter Sunday best.  And somehow we managed to get there early for choir practice :)

Dishes

Nora has become my sink dishes buddy. She comes running when I start to fill the sink, and pulls a chair over to stand next to me and play in the rinse water. She has to have a wooden spoon to 'stir' the water (and to pass water over to my side). One time she took the wooden spoon with her when we got done with the dishes, and I let her have it to play with. Much to my surprise, when she was done playing, she brought the spoon back to the kitchen, dragged the chair back over to the sink, and put the spoon in the drainer.

While we are doing dishes, Nora will pull the dishes out of the water for me and put them in the drainer unless they are too heavy (which the pots filled with water usually are). She also loves the bubbles. Yesterday she said 'Oh the bubbles. They're beautiful!' I said 'The bubbles are beautiful?' She said 'Yes, they're so cute!' For the first time ever, doing sink dishes is fun!

March Birthday Parties

We have two nieces with birthdays in March, and we went to two fun birthday parties. 

Nora played outside on the swings for most of Ashlynn's party, until it was time for cupcakes and ice cream. Then she enjoyed 4 cupcakes worth of frosting (mom, dad, and Aunt Heather donated theirs to her). 

Similar story at Mia's party, Nora went after the frosting. This time, though, she actually at the cake too!

  

Zeke adores birthday parties and loved all of the festivities. Here he is giving birthday kisses to the birthday girl.