Greencrest Reunion 2013

 Awwwww, oh man. I love these guys! On the first weekend in August, we had a miracle of schedules lining up. The Phillips were going to be in town from Wisconsin, Angela and her boys were in town from Toronto freaking Canada for her brother's wedding (Timmy had to be back at work, so he was the only one not able to be there) and the Oversons were able to come up from Cedar City, the Stevens from Salt Lake, the Seedall's hosted at their new home in Logan and we drove up from Provo. It was a short magical visit, but so so worth it!

They set up the projector for the kids to watch Rise of the Guardians all together. 

 Eleanor quickly reconnected with her old sweet neighbors.

Sisters Ainsley and Emmaline make an Eleanor sandwich. 

(The Stevens never technically lived on Greencrest Ave, despite our constant harassment to do so, but they were always a part of our group and all of our activities.)

 All the girls! Angela (and Bennett), me, Ashley, Lexie, Ruth and Ann. The best friends you could ever accidentally live next to! I know Heavenly Father sent us to that street to meet these people, they were the best support system during our three years at law school!

 Most of the kids!

 All? of the kids! From left: Eliza, Lauren, Wesley, Jasmine, Sophie, Miles, Nora, Winston, Maddy, Eleanor, Spencer, Benny, Zach, Bennett and my Grant. Missing is Ainsley, Emmaline and Wells.

 Group shots weren't enough for our little model, so I took a few more.

 I never get "real" smiles! Usually it's some weird closed-eye, squinting thing that she explains is her "magic face" or "superhero eyes." So it's nice to occasionally get a few normal ones in.

Lamely, I was having too good of a time to take more pictures. We had awesome pies from Mmmm? I can't remember. I'll have to ask Clayton when he gets home. Ruth made her awesome cinnamon rolls and there were countless bags and plates of goodies. It all went to fast as the Stevens had to go home early, the Phillips had to continue on with their trip etc... etc... I loved it all though, and can't wait to see any of them again!

Bowles Quick Visit!

 Oh my goodness. I love this family. Our sweet friends from Michigan, the Bowles, have been living in San Diego for the past year and we were lucky enough to get them for a few hours while they were on a visit to Utah. Liya and Eleanor quickly cemented themselves back together and we got a few pictures. Hilariously, the pictures of their initial reunion were so dramatic that they wrestled each other to the ground in mega-hugging. I would post the pictures, but their dresses were all over the place and I like to be a bit careful in posting nakey pictures of our little ones. Anyhow, these other ones show how happy they were to be together. I felt the same way to reunite with Kim for a few good hours of conversation!

Here is the only one without bunners showing, ha ha.

Cuties.

 Lovey love!

 Working on projects together.

 They had a good time playing in this bin for about 25 minutes.

 Winston wanted to be involved too, well, to an extent. He is still the age that likes to play near his friends, not with them.

OH! This just hurts. Such an awesome family! They have moved again for Justin's work and are now deep in the forests of California where Justin teaches emergency survival and stuff along with his medical work. For a doctor, he gets to do the coolest stuff with the military. 

Justin, Liya, Kim, Charlie and Michael.

Mini-Michigan Reunion

 On May 30th we had a sweet mini gathering of as many of our Michigan friends we could find in Utah that week. It started with darling Ashley getting together with Valerie, and me somehow inviting myself along, and then quickly spreading the word. Sadly, we still missed a few- either I didn't know they were in Utah or they had just had a baby (What up, Jamie!), but even still, we had a nice gathering and  a great time. Ashley generously let us gather at her place. Her apartment complex has a cool little playground that we enjoyed until it started raining and then we moved inside for lunch. It was soooo good to see everyone again! It made me homesick for all of these friendships that defined the previous three years of our life. These are the babies who were born when E was born, when Win was born. These are kids I've known since the day they were born. So much love in the air, it was a little overwhelming at first, but oh so good for the soul!

( I'm not using last names, but my blog is public, so if you want your child's name removed, please let me know and I'll remove it right away!)

I loved seeing little friends reunited! Daxton and Dean, blond as could be!

 Wells and Benny!

Benny Blue Eyes! 

 Eleanor and Grant (and Winston and Bennett in the background). I love these kids!

 Jane and Lila, it's so fun to see these girls that were newborns when we moved.

 Benett, Grant and Eleanor. Stupid Canada. (I actually love Canada, but Toronto is where Angela had to move, so... stupid Canada.)

 He's kind of still MY boyfriend, but I try to not act jealous when he hugs E.

 Zach, Ainsley and Robbie.

 The moms! And our hilarious attempts at self timers with children wiggling in and out of the picture.

 The mom's, from left going counter clockwise: Ruth, Emily, Ashley, Tiffany, Me, Angela, Valerie and Jody.

 Little princesses, all together again. Eliza, Nora, Eleanor, Ainsley, Ellie, Kate and Emmaline.

 Emmaline, Eliza, Ellie, Kate, Ainsley, Eleanor and Nora.

And Grant, Zach and Benny.

It took us a while to officially get in the car. The kids were being good waiting for us to stop talking, from left: Grant, Bennett, Eleanor (who is DISTRAUGHT over something), Ainsley, Winston, Zach and Emmaline.

She starts to calm down...

 ... a little more...

...and then, oh my gosh! She's fine! Drama Queen!

The only bad part of the day (besides leaving) was when Winston did his usual "walk directly in front of the swing-set" trick. He does it ALL THE TIME and it makes me bonkers. Usually he does a miraculous Mr. Magoo type of thing and narrowly misses being clocked by feet by mere centimeters. Well, not this time. He walked right in front of a gal on the swing and got knocked back onto the sand. Luckily, she was barefoot and weighed about 30 pounds soaking wet, but he still got a good bonk. I gathered him up and he started throwing up everything he had eaten all day. Mostly Cheetos, don't judge. The other luck is that two of my friends have husbands who are doctors. One in ER and one who is neurology. They talked us through it and all was well, he was totally fine in a few minutes and there were no lasting effects. Yay. Look forward to his second concussion adventure when I get around to blogging our zoo visit. Poor Winston!

Eleanor's 4th Birthday!

Before the birthday post, I thought I'd show a few of her "dimnastics" pictures. Allie is in an advanced tumbling class (Jolley's in Draper, if you're curious. They're freaking amazing!) and Eleanor loves to pretend she can do what Allie does too.

 

 Luckily, little people are still naturally bendy, so Eleanor can do the scorpion thingy here and the back bend thingy above. I know, I should write books about gymnastics!

 P.S. We had a fun time at Tom and Jenni's house once having adults try this move. You take a tape measure and measure the distance between the toes and the back of the head, the smallest number wins. Most people were around 27 inches. I don't think I even tried, I mean, it was my game and all...

 Our little Pro!

 Allie, teaching Eleanor the ropes. I love these girls!

 Another self portrait to mark her last days of being 3.

 March 12th is Eleanor's birthday, a day she starts getting excited about around March 13th. I went more low-key this year (for me) and decided on a theme of Sprinkles. Here are the invites, I blurred out the address in this picture as I am super web-savvy and cool like that.

 I made a cute picture frame covered in sprinkles for her party and tried to take a sweet picture to put in it. 3 year olds are definitely hard to photograph easily. There is a reason you pay people to do this.

 20 pictures and I ended up using another picture I had on hand.

 Happy!

 The morning of her birthday, she picked out her favorite outfit (the slip) and got to open her first present, Wreck It Ralph. What a cute show. We didn't see it in the theaters, so it was fun to watch it at home.

 Her sprinkle cake! So cute and so easy. One of the darling things I saw on Pinterest and wanted to try, thus the "theme".

 Her adorable little friends! We did face painting and made "circle things" necklaces. Basically Fruit Loops, Life Savers- gummy and hard, peach rings and anything else I could find to string up. I lined them up here for present time. From left to right: Lucy H, Eva H, Charlotte G, Eleanor, Kherrington W, and Allie H.

 Princess makeup! And girl Legos, treats, nail polish, a bunch of helium balloons, a Doc McStuffin's toy set, a Cinderella doll and other magical things that 4 year olds live for. Thanks, friends!

 Girl Legos!

 It's so cute to see how happy they all are watching and how ecstatic she is opening. The time flew by and we had to send home some of the cupcakes as we ran out of time.

I bothered to make her cake extra colors inside for.... um, not any reason. I wanted to make a polka-dot cake, but didn't get the pans in time. Also- realized how little 4 year olds care about the inside of cakes. We probably ate 2-3 pieces and ended up throwing most of it away. Every year I think I am just going to make cupcakes and always end up making a cake too. They are just so fun! We got her art supplies, more girl Legos, some bug catching supplies (Why???) and other odds and ends. She had a fun day and I'm happy it went well. The only sad part was that my parents were in the middle of their cruise and missed it. Eleanor loved her party, and she's been steadily planning Winston's party ever since. Last night, her genius idea: "Mom! I've got it! Balloons!" Not even joking, she thinks she is making his birthday amazing. Ok, she kind of is.