Feeding the Neighbors

Zeke made a bird feeder in Scouts last summer and thus started our adventure in feeding birds. For a while we had our feeder in the wrong place and were feeding a mouse instead (yikes!), but after we got the feeder moved to a better place we started seeing feathered friends. The first few times Zeke saw birds feeding, he said "Hey there neighbor!" and from then forward we have referred to the birds as our 'neighbors'. 

Most of what we saw through the summer and fall were finches. 

We also got 2 other feeders for Christmas and since then our bird population has really grown!

We've seen goldfinches,

and a really pretty pair of flickers,

and juncos (love these ground feeders),

and starlings,

  

and adorable downy woodpeckers

and my favorite, the chickadees.

We've loved watching our feathered neighbors and look forward to meeting more of them.

Easter Festivities

We just love Easter. I think it has something to do with all of the fun traditions, as well as the joy of spring weather and flowers. 

Saturday the kids found the box of baskets and Nora didn't want to put hers down. So we took a few pictures outside with our lovely tulips and snow glories. 

Then we colored eggs. 

Sunday morning we hunted those Easter eggs, 

and ate chocolate bunnies.

And took pictures before church. I had a hard time getting good ones because they wouldn't focus... maybe it was all the sugar?

Then it was off to grandma's for dinner and family and a few fun Easter surprises. We had a such a great holiday weekend!

Yellow Skirt

Not long ago Aaron's mom mentioned that she could teach me to make some simple skirts for Nora. Given how quickly Nora outgrows dresses, I jumped at the chance. I love that we can make them the length we want. We have made two now, plus lengthened a dress, with probably a couple more skirts to come later. (I have her Easter skirt fabric all picked out!) 

This yellow one is the first one we did. Fortunately Nora decided she loved it enough to wear it to church.... I wasn't sure she would be willing to give up her too-short brown dress. I love how the skirt turned out. It's incredibly adorable!

This Sunday morning was drizzly and chilly and the kids were only sort-of focused on the camera. But they made some great funny faces! 

Valentines

We have a lovely Valentines Day this year. We had our Valentines tree, which was slowly decorated for the first 13 days of the month. 

Zeke was super excited to take race car valentines with Kit-Kats to his classmates.

Aaron didn't have to work on Valentines Day (yay!) so we went flying in the late afternoon and then spent the rest of the evening running errands and making dinner together. 

Creative Kids

There is a lot of creating going on at our house these days!

Coloring and drawing is a staple, particularly for Nora. She often wants to do homework right along with Zeke. Her current favorite medium is marker, and she will color the whole page navy blue, red, or magenta. Thank goodness these washable markers really do wash out of clothing!   

Both kids are in heaven with PlayDoh. Mom and dad aren't so crazy about the mess, but the kids have a blast. We have a food set, so they create all sorts of 'tasty' things. Zeke loves the ice cream cone (with sprinkles!) and the popsicles and has been awesome about cleaning up. 

Nora loves the molds and cutting out various food items - it is one of her very favorite things. Here she has a piece of bread and a cookie. She also loves to make pretzels.

Zeke has of late been leaving me pictures on our white board, usually with a story to go with it. Here we are as gingerbread people, 

and this windmill has the caption 'Wheat can make bread and flour.' I love the stalk of wheat, loaf of bread, and sack of flour next to the windmill. 

January So Far

We started our January off busy! 

Making gingerbread cookies

Visiting and playing at the Loertscher party on New Years Day

Meeting cousin Jacob and opening presents with him 

Dressing up for church

And building puzzles we got for Christmas

Here's to 2014!

Halloween Tree

Around the end of September we got this crazy idea to do a Halloween tree. You know, like a Christmas tree, but with Halloween decorations. The kids had a blast helping decorate. 

We have so many Halloween items, and most of them usually stay boxed up because we don't have enough space to put them out. We used them all this year. 

Spider web taking over the back of the tree. 

Aaron has a Lego ghost train, which ran around the tree all October.

We loaded up the flatbed car on the train with various kinds of pumpkins: orange peanut m&ms, mellowcreme pumpkins, and pumpkin pie spiced white chocolate covered almonds my mom brought us from Costco. However, the load kept disappearing ... into Nora's mouth. 

It was a fun experiment and we enjoyed it. The tree is becoming a Thanksgiving tree as we speak, then of course it will be our Christmas tree. We'll see in January if we've still got the endurance to put snowflakes and snowmen on it!

Backyard Fun

A few weeks ago my sister offered us her little climber/slide/playground, because she had gotten a sweet deal on a big playhouse-style one. Given that our kids love to slide, and this little one was the perfect size for our patio, we went and picked it up right away!

The kids have both loved it. They have sent toys down the slide over and over. 

They are both big Jake and the Neverland Pirates fans right now, so they climb aboard to play pirate ship and even had a pirate picnic of saltine crackers and milk one afternoon. Nora keeps saying 'It's Bucky and the Jolly Roger!' While I'm not quite sure how it's two ships in one, I'm glad it's such pirate-y fun.

And of course, lots and lots of climbing up and sliding down. 

When Nora wants to go out and play, she says 'Can I go have fun?'

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!

Reed's Visit

Marc, Ashley, and Reed came to visit over Swiss Days and it was lots of fun to have them here. We had dinner with everyone one evening and Reed and Zeke really had a lot of fun together. Zeke just loves having a boy cousin to play with! 

And we got to enjoy Ashley's homemade ice cream, yum!

Easter on the Way

I pulled out the Easter decorations on Sunday. It was a cold, snowy day outside but very springlike inside! Monday the kids found the plastic eggs and had a great time playing with them and spreading them all over the house. It was kind of like an Easter egg hunt as I tried to round them all up and get them put away on Monday night. We're ready for spring and Easter at our house!