Nora's Birthday

Nora wanted a swim party for her birthday for most of this year. We decided to split it into two days, with cake in the evening so everyone could be there and swimming for the kids the next morning.

Less than a week before the party, she informed me she wanted a flip flop cake. After some brainstorming, we figured we could use the previous cake plan and add the flip flop decoration. Turned out so cute!

Six candles!!

Love her reactions. She has the best surprise/happy face. 

Next morning we set up and filled seven wading pools and a water table in Grandma's backyard. Given that we were expecting 11 kids between the ages of 1 and 10, we figured it was prudent to have multiple play stations. We ended up with so many pools, which was so awesome. 

I somehow didn't get a wide angle shot of all the pools, but you can see 6 of them in this picture. 

So much fun with cousins and friends. 

Everyone was more than ready for pizza when the time came. Thanks to Heather for completely taking care of lunch - I didn't realize how much help I was going to need!

So much love for this adorable and energetic little six year old. She's my kitchen helper, my snuggle buddy, and my little princess!

First and Fourth

Apparently this is how you entertain yourself waiting for back to school night to start.......

This first day of first grade was a big day for Nora. Her first full day of school, first cold lunch, first lunch recess... She loved lunch recess and was stoked when we told her it was going to happen every day! She has been so excited for school to start and loves her teacher and her classroom. Zeke has been super nice to walk her to class. 

The first day of fourth grade is not quite as momentous for Zeke. This is old hat by now. New teacher, new mix of classmates (although he knows almost all of his class to some extent from years past), new routine. But everything else is the same and he is the big dog of the school this year. He was dreading the start of school but was more excited than I expected on the first day. So far he's liking it which is a relief. 

 Happy first day of school smiles.

Love this one... a true, real smile from Zeke and Nora's super excited face. 

Summer Successes

It's been a busy summer. We accomplished some great things this season!

The kids took several weeks of swimming lessons. They've never done that before and did great starting from zero. Nora especially took to it (she loves water anyway). They both will be rockstars next year.  

Nora also learned to ride her bike without training wheels! 

We took several evening trips to the park for Aaron to fly, the kids to play, and me to sit watch. 

We had our backyard tree taken out. We waited all summer but it finally got done!

Aaron flew and successfully landed this new plane. Whew!

We ran a stop of the Amazing Race for the Loertscher reunion. Aaron was subbing for his dad, but the race ran late and Aaron had to work so I was subbing for him. Thankfully Hayley was around to help me out. Nora and Zeke were great helpers too. 

This daylily bloomed for the first time, and if you look at the tomato plant you'll see a red tomato. Not only did our tomato produce fruit (unlike last year.....) but it actually ripened on the vine. I think that's a first ever for this house! 

It's been a fun and productive summer! They always go by so fast. I love all of the family events, barbecues, holidays, fireworks, warm evenings, pretty flowers, and that we don't have school demands for a while. 

End of School

May was super crazy busy. In addition to the marathon, Fancy Nancy, and the track meet, we had a bunch of school activities. Some in the evening, some during the day. We had quite an active schedule for the whole month!

The school did an arts night, and both kids performed with their classes. After performances we went to stations for music, dance, drama, and drawing. The whole family got to participate and I really enjoyed it.  

Zeke did a presentation on the kookaburra. He did a fantastic job! He and his partner really wrote great dialogue for their interviews.Learning all about birds for the last 6 weeks or so of school was really fun for him. 

Nora's class had a picnic and playtime in the park that Aaron and I joined her for. 

Nora's class also did a performance for parents to show us what they learned in kindergarten.

And everyone got an award. Nora got the 'colorful' award - the only problem was her reward was skittles, which is the one kind of candy she doesn't like! We traded her life savers for skittles and she was happy. 

This school year was a great one for both kids and we are glad to finish strong and head into summer!

Nora's 5th Birthday Party

We kept things simple for Nora's party, given how close it was after our trip and return to school and work. We ate hot dogs and chips outside and enjoyed a lovely late summer evening with grandmas and grandpas and Aunt Heather. 

And this adorable birthday girl couldn't have been happier. 

She picked out some balloons that were our centerpieces.

And she helped me make chocolate cupcakes with pearlescent princessy sprinkles. 

And the gifts... oh she was so happy to get her Elsa and Anna dolls. Thanks Grandma Carlile and Aunt Dynna for making that happen! 

And the doll stroller from Grandma Loertscher was a wonderful surprise. She has been driving her baby doll, Anna, and Elsa around in the stroller ever since. 

It turned out to be a very Frozen party, with the princess dolls, a Frozen coloring book, Elsa apron, Frozen pajamas, and Frozen legos. Those who didn't do Frozen did Iron Man, which she was just as excited about. 

Things I love about Nora: her need to learn new things and new skills, her willingness to be my helper around the house, her interest in both dolls and cars, her love of singing and dancing, and how she is super excited about just about everything that interests her. Specifically at her 5th birthday: she can't wait for kindergarten, she loves dolls of all kinds, she is starting to draw more on her own, she reads simple sentences on her own, and she wants to build buildings when she grows up. I'm so glad she's mine!

First Day of School x2

We had 'the first day of school' twice around here this year. 

Zeke started third grade. 

He was sort of excited to go back to school. Glad to see his friends, not so glad to have to get up early in the morning and do homework in the evening. We are getting into the school groove pretty quickly, so that's making the less-than-fun parts a little easier. 

He's getting so grown up so fast. I'm so proud of him for being such a great student.

Nora started Kindergarten. 

She was (and still is) so incredibly excited to be in kindergarten. She loves it all! She is so happy to go to the same school as Zeke. 

Colorado Cabin Vacation

We took an end-of-summer trip to Estes Park, Colorado with Aaron's family. All 21 of us stayed in this group reunion cabin. The kids were so excited to go on vacation to a 'log cabin'. 

The venue had some amusing idiosyncrasies, like the super creaky floors and the crazy narrow (and low ceilinged) stairs. But- every family did have their own bedroom, and the bunkhouse had beds for all of the kids! They loved bunking with their cousins.  

The cabin 'village' had a bunch of amenities, including an outdoor pool. Nora declares this was her favorite part. We also tried to teach the kids to play ping pong (which didn't work out) and they spent some time on the playground.

Estes Park is a fun little town. There were lots of options for things to do. We couldn't resist mini golf for $3 a person. It was a cute 18-hole course and it looked like the nice older gentleman who took our money (cash-only) pretty much lived there and took care of the place. Our kids had never mini golfed before, although they were so excited to try. We spent a lot of time teaching them technique. Zeke had moments of frustration but really did catch on quickly. He was doing really well by the time we got to the end. Nora took a lot more coaching. 

We had such a blast at the golf course that our family of 4 went back again for another round the next afternoon. We played pool at the bowling alley had planned to go bowling after (which our kids have been asking to do for a long time!) but the kids wanted to putt putt again. The second time went a lot faster and Zeke is on his way to becoming a master miniature golfer. He even got a hole in one!

Sunday was our down-time day. We played a lot of games and sat around the fireplace and chatted. Here is Zeke's stinky garbage can he drew in Telestrations.

....And.... Sunday was Nora's 5th birthday! We made some donuts and sang happy birthday to her and she couldn't have been happier. 

After singing and donuts, we went out for a bonfire and smores and the kids put on a talent show. It was cute and fun and I think it very well could become a family tradition. 

The one thing I didn't do that I wanted to was go into the town to walk the main street and do some shopping. There were some fun-looking shops and those who did shop came back with some really unique souvenirs. It's okay though, because I traded shopping for more down time / cousin play time, which Zeke says is his favorite part of the trip.

Some August Fun

August was super busy and we packed in tons of fun. Lots of little things, plus a big vacation/road trip/reunion and a birthday that deserve their own posts!

We went to the 100th birthday celebration at Kings. It was an impromptu thing, and the kids had a blast driving these around.

Zeke also tried out some bb guns and airsoft guns and this is a crossbow with suction cup arrows.

Nora revealed her alter ego as supergirl when she won a cape and mask from the summer reading program at the library.

Ready to fight bad guys and help citizens everywhere.

We went on another sunset walk.

And the sunflowers came out. The year Nora turned 1, there were tons of sunflowers on the path by our house. One one walk, she got to explore the sunflowers and loved it. It's a moment I treasure, and ever since then, all of the roadside sunflowers remind me of my girl. Here is almost-1-year-old Nora. 

And here is almost-5-year-old Nora. I told her this year that she is my sunflower girl, and she told me I was her sunflower girl too.