Another First

Today is Lucy's first day of Second Grade.

She looks impossibly grown up in this picture. *sigh*

But she asked me to walk her in to the classroom.

And gave me kisses in front of her friends.

Lots of kisses.

And a big bear hug around my neck, squeezing so hard I almost cried. (I said almost.)

And then she blew me a kiss from her desk and did the hand sign for "I love you."

Yup, still my 'little' girl.

Counting to Four

We had a fun day of celebration earlier this week as Josiah turned FOUR years old. Since we had his 'official' party with my family in Indiana a few weeks ago, we chose to spend his actual birthday at the zoo.
Besides the fact that we sought shade whenever possible due to the melting heat of the sun, the kids and I had a fabulous time!

It was a special day for all of them, but I was particularly focused on making it special for Joey. I let him choose our direction, said yes to most of his requests, and splurged on some things I usually would not. Like the carousel.

True to his careful nature, his favorite exhibits were all the ones he could get close to behind the safety of the glass: the gorillas, the polar bears, and of course the lions.



And it wasn't hard to say yes to the Dippin' Dots in that heat.


It has been fun for me to reflect on this year in Joey's life and think about the way he's growing up and how I've been privileged to watch him develop right before my eyes...

I love how he often notices details and will compliment me on something small like my earrings or my choice of shoes. He was the first to notice when I rearranged the wall art in our living room, and more than once he has leaned in to whisper to me that he thinks I look pretty. (He's a keeper!)

He loves to wrestle with Daddy (and his baby brother) but it's never a complete match until it ends with some snuggle time.

His giggle is contagious and he loves to make us laugh. I'm never sure who laughs harder when he's being tickled.

Music speaks to his heart, and I will often find him playing by himself while singing whatever little song he has on his mind--sometimes one we haven't listened to in weeks--and his sweet voice is music to my ears. It often brings to mind this verse: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise." Psalm 8:2

He has surprised me by way of frustration as he has resisted my desire to teach him to identify the letters of the alphabet, yet when asked what a particular letter is, he's correct most of the time. Stinker.

And though he is by nature shy and timid, I've enjoyed watching him recently as he independently introduces himself to a new friend and asks their name, and as he has bravely conquered the two-story twisty slide at our town playground without my prompting. Big steps for my little guy.

He may be in the lowest percentiles for his size, but his heart and personality make up for it in a big way. I'm so pleased to celebrate the completion of his fourth year, and I'm looking forward with great anticipation for what this next year will bring.

National Geographic is knocking at my door

I have been spending way too much time staring out my windows this week. Since I have virtually filled up our camera's memory card with photos of The Twins, my husband insisted I post an update.

After five days they are still here!

Mama Deer has become quite bold and domesticated as she has practically taken up residence in our backyards and the green belt in between. She hops on over regularly to lick, sniff, and nurse the babes, then returns to a safe distance to watch them.

(Pardon the quality of these photos. I took them through the slats of our deck and from the shadows through our side window.)

Admit it, you would be glued to your window, too, if this little creature were laying just a few feet away.

We named them, of course. Shadow and Sunny are easy to tell apart by the markings on their heads. The above photo is Shadow, who is more adventurous and is therefore easier to photograph than Sunny, who ironically prefers to stay hidden.

Yes, I'm a totally smitten dork.

I have loved deer since I was a kid, growing up in a house that backed up to a forest preserve. We used to put salt blocks in our yard to attract the deer, then watch them silently appear at dusk -- sleek, strong, and graceful. I try to emphasize to my kids how special this is -- that most people never get this close to any deer, and most people never get to see a real live fawn, let alone two of them. They don't seem to be quite as appreciative of the opportunity as I am.

However, my animal-lover Lucy did use her own money to make this purchase at Michael's this week:

And that's not all. Look what's happening in one of the trees in our yard:
It has been a long-time dream of mine to be a writer and photographer for National Geographic. This week I'm livin' it, baby.

Twins!

My friend over at On The Run has been following the hatching of four tiny little eggs in a nest that appeared in the hanging flower basket on her front porch. Not to try to out-do her, by any means, but you've just got to see what happened in our next-door neighbor's backyard this morning...

I know! Okay, so Nicole is watching four baby birds, and there are only two of these darlings.

But there are two!

And aren't they precious?! They were wobbly and wet when I first saw them, but both have been gaining strength and fluff as the day goes on.

Mama has been staying close.

I'm sure the fenced-in yard complete with an organic garden smorgasbord looked like a safe place to birth these sweet creatures, but they are way too small to jump back to the wild side. Our neighbor's daughter assured us that they have their side gate propped open, but whether or not the deer are bright enough to figure out where it is remains to be seen.

It was at least comforting to me when I saw that Mama had hopped back over to nurse her babes.

She's been back and forth several times, and sniffs their little noses through the slats in the fence before seeking shade and nourishment from other neighbors' yards. It's very sweet, though I'm sure she's frightened to pieces to be in civilization in broad daylight.

I can't guarantee that I'll keep you posted daily (you've got me there, Nicole), but I just had to share the sweet beauty of these twin fawns.

Lucy's Garden Party

As our 'baby' girl turned seven this month, we invited a dozen of her dear friends to come and have a party in The Garden.

For our loved ones who could not be here to witness the energy and chaos in person, here's my version of a recap:

As the girls arrived, they made beaded necklaces with flowers, letters, and pony beads.
After they had all arrived and finished adorning themselves with beads, we played a couple of organized games in the backyard -- Lucy's choices were Toss The Ladybugs In The Buckets (these trusty plastic bowls were purchased for her first birthday party and have been used innumerable times since!), and Flower Flower Bee (which was an adaptation of Duck Duck Goose, but the chaser got to wear a "bee" headband).
A bouquet of lollipops was avaliable to pass out as prizes.
The girls then came inside and got to decorate a flower pot.
I opted for stickers and gems instead of paints, glues, and other messy things I would have to clean up. I know, I'm such a stick in the mud. But hey, at least I go with the garden theme! I must say that after watching 12 girls reaching over each other at the table, I didn't miss the mess at all!

They seemed quite focused on their masterpieces.
Lucy helped put each girl's pot in their take-home bag, which also had a flower-shaped lollipop, a bag of potting soil, and a bag of wildflower seeds to plant after they got home. (Here you can also see my pricey party decor, which consisted of construction paper flowers cut free-hand with green curling ribbon stems.)
While they decorated, they came over and made a guess as to how many 'bugs' were in this jar. The winner took home the large jar (she got it exactly right!) and the next closest guess got to take the small jar home.
This might have been a little overboard for seven-year-olds, but I wrapped the forks and spoons in green napkins and ribbon to look like flowers and leaves. Can't say that they noticed, but it was a fun touch for me.
(And you may be noticing quite a bit of this green curling ribbon in the decorations and on pretty much everything else. I've had this spool of ribbon since Josiah's first birthday party, and it never seems to end. It's a requirement now in our house that green MUST be incorporated into the party theme. This year I used a ton of it, and yet the spool goes on...)

For lunch the girls ate bunny grahams, fruit salad, and sandwiches cut into flower and butterfly shapes. One sandwich was cream cheese and strawberry jelly on wheat bread, the other was peanut butter and blackberry jelly on white bread.
We had them stand around our deck table under the sun shade to eat.
And then they came back inside to sing "Happy Birthday" to Lucy and have dessert: Dirty Pudding.

Each cup of chocolate pudding and crushed Oreos had gummy worms and a plastic flower. Lucy's also had a butterfly. And a candle, of course.

It got a great reaction from a room full of girls -- lots of gasping and "eeewwwwww!" But they all gobbled it up!
Then it was time for Spin The Bottle. To see whose gift Lucy would open, of course. At least that's how we play.
And I've never been more grateful for The Albatross -- our backyard swingset. In between activities, this is what they all kept asking to do.
Three things made this party possible without too much drama or loss of sanity: 1) The weather was glorious, making outside playtime possible and enjoyable! 2) Both our boys napped through the whole thing. Poor Joey woke up asking when the party was going to start. But it allowed us to focus on Lucy and the girls the whole time, which was a treat for her. And we saved him some dirt pudding, which made all forgiven. 3) The help of my dear husband and his parents -- Nana and Papa were sandwich-making, plate-serving, picture-taking, dirt-bagging, gift-recording stars, and I am so grateful they were in town to help!

What a lot of silly girls! What a lot of fun! Happy Birthday, dear Lucy!

A White Wedding...in May!

Last weekend we had the beautiful privilege to witness and participate in a family wedding in the amazing setting of Estes Park, Colorado. With our kids being little, it's not often that we make the two-hour trip from our home to this historic town on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, so it felt a little bit like a vacation to us, too. Staying in a cabin on the rushing Fall River, sitting by the fireplace while we watched the snow come down...

Yes, I said snow. In May. It's the Rocky Mountains, people. Anything can happen.

Needless to say, rehearsal was a bit wet and cold. The bride and groom said if there was any chance at all of having the wedding outside, then we would rehearse outside. Even if it the rain mixed with snow plastered us all, and large clumps of snow falling from the towering evergreens made the entire bridal party duck and cower at times.

Let's just say rehearsal was brief.

And then we went shopping for longjohns to wear under our dresses.

We were amazed and pleased when we woke up the next morning to blue skies and sunshine! We didn't hold our breath since the ceremony was at 4 o'clock, but we were hopeful -- and grateful that the existing snow was melting and quickly evaporating!

While the boys napped, I went with Lucy to have her hair done.
She looked so precious, but way too grown-up with this up-do. She loved every minute of the process.

Fast-forward a few hours... the weather held! By 4 p.m. it was cold but dry. And I was on pins and needles wondering how (or what) my older two kids would do as the Ring Bearer and the Flower Girl.

Then the moment came. Daddy was on one end of the walk, getting them started and reminding them to smile, and I waited on the other end with the camera.
Can I just say that they did incredibly well! I was pleased to the point of tears as I watched my daughter (just a few days before her seventh birthday) and my son (who is typically a silly and stubborn three-and-a-half-year-old) do exactly as they had been practicing. Not to mention that they both looked so precious!

As I watched them from the end of their walk, I was kicking myself that I had left our video camera up by my seat. I only got still shots, but my heart will always remember Josiah watching Lucy drop the rose petals, glancing at her, and glancing behind as if he were wondering if she should really be doing that, or if maybe he should be picking them up for her.
I guess it was one of the few things we didn't prepare him for. But he continued to walk with her as he should, and he got some giggles out of the crowd, too. And it was so cute how Lucy would look at him and smile and just shake her head a little, as if to say, "Silly boy..."

Joey also seemed to be a bit concerned about the very large horse that was walking up the path behind them, pulling a carriage with the bride on board. Again, not enough prepping. Or perhaps it wouldn't have helped anyway. (I think even I would have been a bit concerned about an animal that large following me, too!)
In spite of many distractions, they continued on and finished well.

One of my favorite moments, which I happened to capture with the lens, was when the bride stepped from the carriage and into view, accompanied by her parents, and I could see Joey lean in and mouth the word, "Wow..."
He was right. She looked radiant in the sunshine!

They stood with the bridal party until the opening prayer when I waved them over and wrapped them in blankets for the remainder of the ceremony.

Though Lucy and Joey had the official rights to be dressed to the nines, I can't leave out this little gem:
Adam wasn't real happy with being restrained from practicing his new skill of walking, but some snacks and his taggie blanket helped during the ceremony. He did look sharp in his vest and clip-on tie, and he definitely enjoyed the wide open spaces at the indoor reception.

In case anyone mistakenly believes my kids were so well-behaved because of proper parenting, let's just say that Joey got his reward in the form of affirmation...and Twizzlers.
What a beautiful day! What a beautiful way to celebrate the start of a marriage! What a blessing to have our little family participate in such a special way! And, if I do say so myself, what beautiful, wonderful, amazing children I have! I fell in love with them all over again and feel such a distinct and undeserving honor to be the one they call mother.

Baby Steps

Did you know that giraffes begin walking within minutes of birth, and run within 24 hours? It only took our youngest 14 months, but the day has finally come: our little man is mobile and upright! You have to admire Adam's determination and the squeals of joy that something so simple produces...

(Please excuse my shrill voice. I should have just kept quiet, but I was pretty excited, too!)



And like the giraffe, I have a distinct feeling that running is not going to be too far in his future...

Spring is here?

Did you think that I was going to turn an entire page on the calendar without a blog post? Yeah, I did too. But since it's the last day of April, I thought I'd at least share a few Spring-like photos from last weekend.

Since we woke up this morning to an inch of fresh snowfall covering the ground, I'm not so sure that I'm willing to let myself be hopeful that Spring has actually arrived. However, since we typically have snow on Easter here in Colorado, I was delighted that the weather last weekend was much nicer than we anticipated. (It's the first year ever that my nearly-seven-year-old daughter has not worn white tights and a white sweater with her Easter dress!)

Our dear friends invited us, along with about twenty others, to join their family for Easter brunch. They not only opened their home to us, but also their backyard, for an egg hunt.

Their yard is full of budding trees and blooming flowers, and their lawn is already a beautiful lush green carpet of grass. I enjoyed watching Adam's first real exposure to this new texture.

But I'm pretty sure he didn't enjoy it as much as we enjoyed watching his bewilderment. He kind of had a "get me off this stuff" look on his face, and wouldn't crawl because that meant he had to actually touch it. *gasp*

And then of course we made our usual attempt at getting all three kids in one holiday photo.

Aren't they sweet?

And...we're done.