Taking the Scenic Route

#123 Church Carnival. My parents came up, picked up the kids, and took them to their church (the one I grew up in) for a kid’s carnival. Since I was sleeping and 50 miles away, I didn’t take this, but it was cute, so I will use a “guest photographer” (my mom) for today’s entry.

#105 Reading with Grandma. Mom came up to watch the kids so Zach and I could go out for our Anniversary.

It was a chilly, rainy, gray Easter, but we had a good holiday. We just avoid church on holidays (change in routine isn’t really worth it for us most of the time), so the Easter Dress was replaced with a pair of her older brother’s pj’s (she couldn’t decide, so she has half of the “dinosaur” pjs, and half of the “car” pjs). The weather didn’t make for a picture perfect day anyway, so somehow the less than beautiful, but comfy, pjs seem totally appropriate.

We woke up to Easter baskets left on the mantle. Both of the baskets were the same, except Zora’s had some cute hair clips (she wanted to wear all of them to Grandma’s later) and a miniature bowling set for Zane.

Zora wastes no time getting to the good stuff.

Zane playing with the little bowling set. It is the perfect size to work with his marble run stuff.

The Easter Bunny hid the eggs last night, before the rain. When we got up we were hoping that we wouldn’t have to use umbrellas to find them. It was a little soggy, but it turned into a misty drizzle for a bit, so the kids headed out and gathered the eggs. Some of them had candy, and some had little miniature animals.

We ate at the farm, with Mom, Dad, my maternal Grandma, Uncle Steve, and a family friend, Corolla. It was, as usual, very fun and relaxed. She had baked ham, a tasty potato side dish, her 7 layer salad, and lots of veggies for nibbling.

This year Target was selling these neat little “Bunny House” kits. They are like the Gingerbread houses for Christmas, but with Spring decorations. I knew Zane liked things like that, but I still underestimated his enthusiasm. The dinner dishes weren’t even totally cleared yet and he pulled it out and started putting it together.

Resident engineer helps with the chimney construction and a few decorations.

Zora and Shelby

Through most of the construction Zora was zooming around giving her new stuffed bunny a wild ride in the play shopping cart, but she did stop to make her mark on the construction.

The Bunny House complete in it’s candy glory.

Steve had the kids help him make some homemade ice cream. It made quite the impression because the next week, when Steve came up with Mom and Dad to join us for supper, when Zora heard Uncle Steve was coming, her first comment was to ask if we were making Ice Cream. lol.

Yummy Yummy Ice Cream!

Getting every last drop of the ice cream and asking for more.

And, the dreary ride home.

#38 “Family Get Together”

#17 “Grandma time” Mom came over to watch the kids while we went out for my birthday. We never made it to the movie we were planning, but lingered over lunch at Olive Garden, then a bookstore, then we realized we weren’t going to make the movie in time so we went grocery shopping. lol.

His is about 4 months late, mine is a few days early. It was great. Mom and Dad took us to Olive Garden and we had a lot of fun talking and joking.

My handsome brother

Scrunching up her face in response to an offer to try a lemon wedge

Grandma sat in between her two favorite (only) grandkids, and they kept her busy during the meal.

And, when we got back home, in Zora’s attempt to get us to go back out again, put on every piece of jewelry she has. Silly girl.

From the 23rd

Zora’s birthday party was fun. She has been talking about her birthday party for weeks already, insisting that she wanted balloons, cake, party hats and presents. (although she was never specific about the presents part, which made me giggle a bit). She decided she wanted a “Dora” party. Party guests included: The 2 Opas (although she is starting to call Grandma “Oma” now sometimes…but she is still an “Opa” most of the time) and Robert’s family. We had pizza and cake and ice cream, then opened the presents.

Dad’s hat cracked me up

I think she was as excited to give the gift as Zora was to get it. (Polly Pockets)

Zane helped pick out a Leapster for Zora. He thought she would like the green more than the pink one. For some reason, he was really intent on her opening his gift. As soon as it was opened, he wanted to test it out for her. (we got it primarily because she keeps running off with his handheld games and it really upsets him, so now we have something to bargin with.)

From Grammie Z, a music/treasure box. The writing on it says: “Discover your world ~ my barefoot child ~ your dreams will take you there ~ your heart will guide”. She loves to open the little drawers and watch the horse turn when it plays.

From Grandma & Grandpa, a ride on bear (that Zora calls a dog) that both of the kids love.

We also got her some Polly Pockets, and both girls went to work playing intently with the dolls.

It was fun, but I can’t believe it has been three years. As always, it is going too fast.

From the 20th

The annual “Christmas Cookies with Grandma” was a success, as usual. Mom said it actually went smoother this year because Zora was much more able to participate. Everybody had fun. (including mom and dad who went out on a date while Grandma was here).

Grandma’s secret cookie recipe

Zane wanted a Mario theme for his birthday. I could not find any Mario themed birthday stuff anywhere, online or otherwise. When I was at the Party Store (where I get balloons and plates and stuff), there was another mom there with a boy who was turning 6 on the 27th also, who wanted a Mario theme for his birthday party and we lamented the lack of Mario stuff. In passing, she said something about how weird it is because it seems like kids always want the same themes at the same ages. I know it was just a passing comment to her, but to me it almost made me bawl. I remember another time standing in line with my Thomas themed stuff and another parent was commenting that her 2 year old liked Thomas too. It is so cool that he likes stuff that is age appropriate. I know that might not always be true in the future, but I enjoyed the comment anyway.

Anyway, I got “Mario” colors, plus orange (his current favorite color), and some stars (there are stars in the games) and hoped that he would see a theme in it. He did. When I asked him which hat he wanted at his place setting, he wanted “Mario Party Red”. Score!

Usually I do the cake decorating if we don’t order a cake (which we often do simply because the holidays are too busy for me to have the energy and patience to decorate cakes), but since Zach is better at drawing Mario, he wanted to do it. It was the first cake he has ever decorated. We ran into several problems along the way, the main one being that we didn’t get enough icing (and I really didn’t want to make icing), so we had to cobble together several of the leftover cookie decorating icing with the stuff we got for the cake. I was also reminded that our oven is not leveled, which resulted in one corner of the cake being about a centimeter thick, and the opposite corner being a good 1.5-2 inches. The thing that made it worse was that the second cake wasn’t quite as uneven, so even when we moved the layers the other way, it was still really uneven. (and I did not really want to go to the work of cutting off the top to make it more even because I don’t really have the appropriate tools to do it easily). It was a little goofy. By the way, Zane wanted Strawberry cake, so we were also dealing with an odd color to try and cover up with frosting.

The most important thing to know here is that Zane loved the cake. Even Zora loved the cake and was excited about it. Had we paid for it, it would be a candidate for Cake Wrecks, but since it was lovingly made by a Dad who had never decorated a cake in his life (and declared “frosting is a lot harder to work with than paint!”), I think it is a masterpiece and I love it.

The guest list was the same as Zora’s party, except that Robert’s wife stayed home.

Zane was a little overwhelmed after the week of festivities, and then the blow horns I chose happened to also be noisemakers (unbeknownst to me…I know, stupid, but I didn’t realize those things could make noise) and the other kids were blowing them like crazy. I finally had to put a stop to it and they were kind enough to stop it for him. He took refuge with Grandma, snuggling with her for quite a while when everybody else finished eating the pizza.

Time for the cake!

Grandma & Grandpa gave him a Caterpillar backhoe like Grandpa drives and Zane had fun driving out at the farm.

There was also a completely unplanned “Star Wars” theme to the gifts. We gave him a Star Wars lego game, Robert’s family gave him a comic book and action figure set, and Grandma & Grandpa gave him a few action figures.

He got two games; the First Star Wars Lego game for GameCube (he enjoyed the 2nd version a lot) and Wii Mario Party 8, the game he wanted so much.

From Grammie Z we got him a block set. It reminded us of a big version of the blocks we brought back from Germany that he adores, and he loves blocks. It is a gift that remains in our living room and both of the kids, but especially Zane, really love building with them. (FTR, we chose the gifts from Grammie Z for Birthdays and Christmas from a generous gift certificate from her. We tried to choose more heirloom type gifts from her, especially for the birthdays)

It was a good birthday party. Zane wasn’t feeling his best…a combination of the week off schedule and a tummy thing he has had going on all week that seemed to really get worse starting on his birthday. He did enjoy the day though, and when weather looked like it might delay the party, he insisted we still held it. ( a good decision…the weather cleared and he was much worse the next day).

I can not believe he is seven. It doesn’t seem real. Seven sure isn’t what I thought it would be when I held him in my arms that first time, but it is precious none the less.