Nature

I have a new favorite place on earth. We have been frequenting a lovely nature center here. There are ponds and paths cabins and birdwatching nooks and acres of trees. We've seen turtles, geese, lots of birds, frogs, tadpoles and fish. I love it so much. It is rejuvenating and good for the soul.
I remember when I was little playing forever outside in the mud and water, spending time in the woods exploring and discovering. I feel that those experiences have been the foundation of the creativity and quest for knowledge in my life. I believe that this is one of the greatest gifts (along with a healthy diet, loving family and faith in God) that I can give my children. Where we live I have found that I have to actively find ways to get them into nature. They play in the backyard of course, but I think they need wild places, wild quiet places that speak to the soul.

Easter 2012

We had a nice and peaceful Easter Sunday. The weather was perfect, the kids were in good moods and Jonathan cooked the entire meal. The easter bunny came and brought the kids some bubbles, chalk, a mini kite and a pear. He also left eggs all around for the kids to find. They were all empty except for a few that had a dollar bill in them. The Easter bunny thought we have had WAY to much candy around here lately. :) And I made them a stuffed Easter bunny. They loved it. 

I also decided to quickly make a dress for Annika and a bow tie for Ezra on Saturday afternoon. Amazingly enough, they both turned out well enough to be wearable. It was an(other) Easter miracle!

Look how much they have grown! This picture was taken three years ago! E was 3 and A was 1 1/2. Time flies!!

Wizard training

The kids have recently learned to enchant the bathroom drawers in their wizard homeschooling endeavors. I'm so proud...

What's new?

Someday I am going to sit down and write about the total awesomeness that was this past summer, but since that will take a really, really long time...I am going to write about a few things that are new this past month or so instead. Not much really happens around here, but that is alright with me! I am a-okay with hanging out with my babies and husband in our cozy little home doing nothing at all. 

Back to what is new at our house...first of all, this is Ezra's new trick. He loves to climb the walls, quite literally. I love it. He is like a little monkey. It's funny, I remember doing most of the acrobatics that he does. I wouldn't try them now! 

 Another new thing is that school started. I had much anxiety about this. I'm not sure why, but it probably has to do with my fear of the unknown. If only I can overcome that one, oh well. Here is Ezra's first day of Kindergarten photo below. He seems to really like school so far. I love going to pick him up and seeing him in his element. The other day I got to go volunteer in his class. He didn't see me for a couple of minutes so I was able to watch him do his thing. It was hilarious!! They were having recess inside because it was raining out. The kids looked like little ants busily working. Ezra was busy, busy, busy walking all around playing with things. I can't describe it well but it was so adorable to see him so busy playing like that. So much pent up energy from sitting, I guess. It was cute!

 Annika has also started preschool. She loves preschool! What I think she loves most is that she can paint there everyday. She also comes homes with all kinds of drawings that she does on her own. One day she came home with one that said "To Mom" on it. So cute! I know these are all extra things she is doing because Ezra went there last year and he rarely brought home a painting or extra drawings like that. I think we have a little artist on our hands! And it is good to know that she misses me. I miss her too!

 We went to another Reds game. I think we are bad luck for the Reds. Every time we go they really stink, but it is fun to go anyway. This picture looks a little photo shopped, but we really were there. Waaaay up there, but there. The Reds lost 10-1 this night. This time we found the secret (not really) $1 hotdog stand. They were kinda gross tasting, but you have to get a hotdog at the ballpark, right? And for $1, you might as well get two. 

 Ezra and Jon started playing chess. Ezra loves games and he is really good at them too. He beat Jon on his very first time playing chess with him--for real. Ha ha! There is a chess team at Ezra's school starting in first grade. I think Jon wants him to be on it, so he's starting him out early. Wouldn't it be adorable if Ezra was on the first grade chess team? Okay, I want him to be on it too. 

 We started decorating for Halloween! It is my favorite time of the year. I have passed down my love for this holiday to the kids because they are crazy about it too. They have been begging for a couple of weeks now to get the decorations out. I finally let them on Saturday. I'll put up some pictures when we get everything done. The kids' costumes are going to be awesome this year, I'll make sure to post pics of them too! Check out my awesome spider web made from sticks. Pretty scary, eh?

 I have been doing some crafty type things lately as well. I was super excited with how my latest attempt turned out. I found the below wall shelf at goodwill. It was plain wood with no back and uggggly! I should have snapped a picture, but alas, I did not. Anyway, I found a great apple green color at Lowe's and got a sample of it. I painted the shelf and made the backing for it. Which by the way was really fun to make and it has made me really want to make some printmaking-type things. I'll have to share what I come up with in that department. Anyway--I'll have to take some better pictures of the shelf during the day  because it really is cute. I just couldn't resist putting up this picture. I love it! Now if I can only decide what to paint on the gigantic canvas that I have to put on the wall above the chair....

The end.

Jonathan's birthday!

Happy Birthday to Jonathan today! 

 He is a wonderful husband and father and we are lucky to have him!

The cake is a little funny, I should explain. Every year Jonathan always wants a pie or something like that for his birthday. Well, this year when I asked him about what he wanted, he said we should use up the cake left over from Annika's birthday that we've had in the freezer. I kept asking him if he was sure and that I would make him anything he wanted, but he said it was fine. 

I thought we should decorate it a little, so I asked the kids what we should put on the cake.  Ezra said "Ourselves!" so that's what we did. 

The kids drew pictures of themselves, cut them out and taped them to toothpicks. Ezra's is on the left and Annika is on the right.  I told Jon to imagine the pink frosting was blue or some other "manly" color. I think he liked it!

9 random things.

1. There's a boy in Ezra's class that always tells Ezra he is THE  REAL spiderman. Ezra is a bit confused about it, he keeps asking us if we think that is true. I always ask him "What do you think?" Ezra always says he doesn't think it's true. (But I think he's not all the way certain.) hehe

2. Another kid in Ezra's class told her mom that she likes Ezra because "his eyes smile." How cute is that?

3. Ezra is getting to be quite the ladies man. We were at Annika's ballet lesson last week when the above mentioned little girl walked in, saw him, ran over to him and hugged him then grabbed his face and kissed him right on the lips. His face flushed and he looked at me like he needed rescuing. I wonder, does that counts as his first kiss?

4. I've developed allergies for the first time in my life. I've never been allergic to anything before but this week I've been miserable! There is something in the air.

5. I cannot make black bean chili like a certain Mr. Belt can. His chili is sooooo good and I even begged for the recipe because I love it so much. I've tried to make it many times and it never tastes as good as his. It is really quite sad. 

6. I've been watching old episodes of Scrubs on Netflix at nights. It takes a lot for me to laugh out loud at a TV show but this one is hilarious!


7. We adopted two cats for Annika's birthday. Now we have the same two cats for giveaway. Anyone interested?

8. Our air conditioner broke last week. That is sad sad news. 

9. My goal is to write/illustrate a children's book in my spare time this year. Then again, that is my goal every year.

Annika's 4th birthday!

Last month Annika turned four. We decided to throw her a birthday party since last year her birthday consisted of a store-bought cake and one sick mama. It was lame. I wanted to make sure she had a good birthday this year. We decided on a Kitty Party theme because she loves cats and acts like a cat for 90% of each day. My super nice friend Sarah made me a really cute kitty invitation which turned out really cute.

 We had each of the kids adopt a kitty. We gave them adoption papers and had them choose a name for their kitty which we then wrote on shrinky dink paper to put on their collars.

Then they could take their kitty to the vet and check them out and give them their shots.

 Annika picking out her kitty.

Their was lots of kitty food of course. It wasn't very healthy! We had Kitty chow, cheerios, swedish fish, goldfish crackers, cheese cubes, grapes and tuna fish sandwiches. 

She opened some presents, they were all kitty themed. :)

I tried to make her a cake. It was supposed to mimic yarn balls. I tried. It tasted pretty good though. 

Here is most of the party-goers. We might have missed one or two. We gave everyone a little box with their kitties in it with some little toys for it as party gifts.

Happy Birthday Banana!