Saturday, September 12, 2015

Snapshots of Summer Fun

Playing in the "sand dunes" at the Children's Museum
Fill bucket, dump, repeat...30 minutes of uninterrupted fun.
Little firefighters in costume and truck at the Children's Musuem
Ezra found this awesome tree on a mountain hike
Enjoying the great outdoors at 9600'
Homemade fishing poles and good fisherman squats--no fish
Primary temple trip and some of our favorite friends

Birthdays, etc.

We had a busy week.  Labor Day family BBQ and Grandpa John's birthday, first day of Ezra preschool, Ezra's fourth birthday, second day of Ezra preschool, and a marathon doctor appointment day for the kids.  In my spare time I painted the garage door, the front entrance/porch area of the house, and painted more kitchen cabinets (the unfinished part from six months ago).

I am so pleased to report that Ezra had a glowing first impression from his new preschool.  As he bounded out the door after his first day, with a big smile on his face he said, "Mom, my teacher is nice, and the kids aren't scary!"  Hallelujah!  My Ezra-boy seems scared of his own shadow some days, so meeting--and liking seven new strangers is a BIG deal for him.  His second day was equally positive, in fact, he asked me twice on Friday when he got to go back to preschool.  It is hard to fathom that he can be so contented after the knock-out-drag-out fight we had last year with his very informal preschool friends group, but, obviously, he has found his good fit.

Maren had her #2 birthday a few weeks ago, and Ezra had his this week.  It is birthday season here at our house, so I will share their birthday celebrations together.  When I was growing up, my mom made a special request dinner on our birthday; I decided to continue that tradition in our family.  Maren and Ezra requested the very same thing this year: homemade macaroni and cheese and a fruit bowl.

Maren isn't much of a cake eater, so we put two candles in a bucket of strawberry ice cream, and she was tickled.  Ezra had a very specific request for a very special birthday cake.  He is enamored with ocean life right now, so he asked for a chocolate cake with an iceberg, icy ocean waters, and lots of cold-water sharks and whales, and if possible a narwhal.  I had fun creating his request, and aside from the narwhal, I nailed it.

Ezra and the shark cake, he was so pleased!







Maren (non-cake eater) loving her cake-on-a-stick
No surprise here, Ezra's favorite gift was the $6 tube of sharks
Grandma joined us for Ezra's birthday and had a few belated Maren gifts too.
Maren's birthday ice cream
Maren was VERY focused on her birthday ice cream
Maren--and Ezra (by association) got an IKEA kitchen for her birthday