Look at this boy go! I’m so proud of him!! His teacher (in the red bathing suit) is also super proud of him and raves about him after each lesson. Silly boy still fusses before each lesson and tells me he’s too tired, but then he does the lesson, does great, and comes out super excited about what he’s learned.
At the end of his lesson he did the freestyle stroke for about 3/4 of the length of the pool (not across as he is in the videos).
Happy, happy birthday to my big girl today! Just four short years ago today we welcomed her into this world, forever changing our little family. Lucky, lucky us!
Today she woke to find a little birthday something waiting for her.
Happy Birthday Eve!!
A tiny pink Samuri eraser makes her say "awww"
Ribbon on packages is kind of like torture to small children.
Lex picked out a flashing "Birthday Girl" tiara for her. She loved it :)
Big birthday hugs
The chocolate cupcakes I made for her party this weekend didn’t turn out well (literally, they did not turn out of the wrappers well and made a huge mess) so last night I whipped up a batch of yellow cupcakes (thanks Betty Crocker!) and this morning we put Cool Whip, red sprinkles, and raspberries on top. They were a big success with her friends at school.
Decorating cupcakes
Like my snazzy cupcake transport system? They all made it to school, safe and sound.
After school we decorated a princess mirror, put together her new puzzle, ate lunch, and spent an hour watching videos of her first year. That was fun.
Eve's friend got her a Decorate Your Own princess mirror. Eve loves it.
This was a gift from me, but it ended up being much harder than I had antipcated. We did it though!
This is Eve’s favorite…
This is one of my favorites (it’s hard to choose just one!)…
Now she is napping (which took some effort on my part!) and this afternoon we are off to swimming lessons again and then out to dinner at a restaurant of her choice, which is still undecided. It is a lovely day.
My birdy buffet turned out to be not such a great idea for the birds. I didn’t think through the fact that most birds need to land on something before they can eat. Fact, right? It seemed to be the case for the birds around here anyway. We saw several birds try real hard to enjoy the buffet, but it didn’t work. Eventually I knocked the whole thing over to see if the birds would eat the seeds from the pine cones on the ground, but I didn’t see much interest. Poor birds.
A few days ago I noticed one of the hanging pine cones from the porch missing. This afternoon we discovered why…
There's the bird seed bandit!
When I first noticed the squirrel he (she?) was hanging upside down from the railing, grabbing the pine cone. He brought it up, got situated, then went to work biting through the string!
He quickly got it free and took a moment to show me his work :)
Then he popped the pine cone in his mouth and away he went with it. Smart little bugger.
When I realized the pine cone plan wasn’t working I ordered some real bird feeders. Actually, I’ve been looking for suction cup bird feeders in local stores all winter, with no luck, so I went to trusty Amazon and found just what I needed. They came yesterday and this afternoon we put them up. Let’s see how quickly the squirrels figure these out. Hopefully the birds get a few days head start!
We spent our evening at a new pool trying new swimming lessons. Thankfully the kids were super excited about it! We got there really early and explored the whole place and the kids did great… until the very last minute. This is kind of like a camp wherein the lessons run daily for a week, five nights, in a row. There are tons of kids there and each kid gets their own swim instructor. Private lessons. Cool! The instructors are college students. Lex’s instructor’s name was up on the big board as a champion back stroke swimmer. Or whatever they are called! When it was time the kids all lined up and went down on the pool deck together to meet their instructors. Lex did great until the moment arrived to leave my side and go down to the deck. Once again, sobbing face pressed to my leg and statements of, “I just can’t do this today.” Brave Eve walked down with the crowd. I ended up walking with Lex all the way until I handed him off to a very nice instructor. Then he had a great time! Eve was mistakenly signed up for a parent/child class so it took a bit of arranging to get her an instructor, but she was brave and sweet and did a great job. I’m super proud of them! After the lesson Lex’s instructor said that he can already do everything at the level he’s signed up for, so tomorrow they are going to bump him up to the next level… which just means his instructor will be teach off a different sheet. She already started today. Anyway, good times. The kids were happy and tired and it took me until 8pm to have them in bed. I wonder if we can sustain this for four more days?
Doesn't he look chilly? The water was so cold! They both had blue lips at the end.
I couldn't get a good close up of Eve, but she is in the back right, under the bridge.
After lessons Lex excitedly demonstrated the freestyle strokes he learned.
Eve was very tired after lessons. I'm glad I insisted on a nap this afternoon!
I was a little worried about how this morning would go after such a busy weekend. I was pleasantly surprised when the kids were happy and Lex made it out the door with no fussing. He actually made it all the way into his classroom where he stopped short when he saw not one, but two, substitute teachers! He immediately pressed his face into my leg and said, “I don’t think I can do this today.” We chatted a bit and he eventually agreed to try. He knew both of the teachers and one was actually there on Friday as well. I left him on the verge of tears, but of course he came home happy. Whew!
On the Eve front, I left her like this:
Large hat... large shoes... yep, this looks like an efficient way to sweep the floor.
And came home to find her like this:
Eve's salon
She was sad when Rosy left. We had plans to go visit a friend this morning but Eve insisted we have a quiet morning at home. I asked about inviting our friend over instead, but Eve said no. She was quite insistent so I called and canceled. Eve and I had a nice quiet morning at home, cuddling and reading stories and enjoying each other. It was really nice.
(I’m not quite ready for her to be four yet. I still get a few more days with my three year old!)
For her birthday this year Eve wanted a “just family” party. Over the past weeks I’ve asked her off and on about inviting others, maybe a few friends, or neighbors, or classmates, but she held firm to her “just family” idea, so this weekend we had a fun “just family” party. Luckily we have more than enough family to fill the room! :) Eve was surrounded by love and duly doted on.
Lex learned how to use the vacuum and did a great job helping us clean for the party.
He was THRILLED that I let him stand on the counter while he dusted the shelves.
After he was done with the shelves he decided to clean the counter. This kept him busy for awhile. It was great.
Eve and Rosy
Mema and Lex.
Eve's idea of birthday heaven is a room full of people ready to play Candy Land with her.
Books are irresistible in this house. If you pick up a book, both kids will immediately appear. Aunt Katie is an excellent book reader.
Eve chose pizza for her birthday dinner. I love her idea of a good party - family and pizza!
Cake! This year Grampy Don convinced Eve that she wanted a Parcey Cake for her birthday. She agreed before she even knew what it was :) Parcey Cake is a Johnson family creation consisting of layer cake with a layer of Jell-O and Cool Whip between the cake layers. Eve chose chocolate (of course!) and raspberry Jell-O. Yum.
Eve liked the cake!
Eve and Grandpa Tom.
Classic.
Eve got wall sticker dress up dolls and a doll house. They were quickly put on the wall and the kids have been having fun with them.
Sunday was beautiful and we got out the bikes!
Lex is going to try and lose the training wheels this year.
Taking a break with Aunt Rose.
Once again my counters are covered in sugar. This time we made flower cookies (a few days ago) and last night I put white royal icing on them. This afternoon we decorated them. I thought I’d be “fun mommy” and get out the food-safe paints and markers. The markers were great, but the paint made a MESS! Eve painted three cookies before I took the paint away. We had fun with the markers instead.
Not only were the paints super messy, but as with everything Eve paints, the cookies ended up black.
Lex showing off his work. He did have a great time, despite that sour face.
You'd think these kids were in different rooms. My camera flash was wacky.
Lex said he made ths cookies specially for Eve.
Guess who made these? I thought hard about cleaning the kitchen while the kids colored, but where's the fun in that?!
Cookies! After all that hard work we were hungry!
Here are pictures of Eve from the past few days. We’ve been having fun doing our silly things.
Eve helps put away the groceries.
Pirate fun
We did some rearranging.
Eve ran in to chastise Lex and I for talking too loudly while her baby was nursing.
Daddy love
I love this one with the calendar in the background :)
We joined a CSA this year. Every year I think about it and this year I finally did it. I’m trying to “do” more and “think” less. How’s that for a goal?! :)
The farm we joined also makes maple syrup and they held an open house today for people to visit the farm, see the new baby lambs, and sample some syrup. We had fun! We also got to see the greenhouse and the tiny seedlings starting to sprout. Lex loved seeing the tractors and they both loved the swings. We are all excited to go back each week in the summer to pick up our veggies and see the baby chicks and piglets – who will be available for sale as meat later in the summer!
This little guy was just born yesterday.
The fires were burning in the sugar shack today. This farm has 100+ trees on a tube that flow directly into the tank out back, plus 90+ trees with buckets.
Lex and Alan looking at the buckets.
These are great swings with an awesome view!
It was another beautiful day today! I feel a million times better this week than I have in the past few weeks. I was in a total funk and I KNOW it was because of the dreariness of the weather. I think I’m an undiagnosed SAD sufferer… but really, who isn’t? Anyway, sunshine today meant more melting, which meant… puddles!
It's been so long since we've seen the sun that she forgot how to wear sunglasses! (just kidding, of course)
Puddle boots.
Walking and talking. We miss Lex when he is at school.
This puddle was super deep!
Alan went for the first run of the season. Eve was pretty worried about him :) We were outside when he got back and when he ran past the house Eve took off after him. Here they are walking back towards the house.
I know you haven't seen a lot of him on the blog lately!
Their boots were FILLED with muddy water :) We emptied them outside and I'm hoping they dry overnight.
After all the excitement outside we came in for showers. Eve cried her way through a shower and almost continually for the next half hour until Alan laid down on the couch with her and they both fell asleep. I woke them for dinner, but Eve sat like this the whole time. We aren’t quite sure if she was sleeping, but she definitely might have been. :) I brought her up to bed after dinner and she was mighty glad to be there.
Is she sleeping? We aren't sure.
She has been waking up a lot at night this past week and coming into our bed. The other night she was wide awake at 4am. I have no idea why. I’m dreading tonight after her early bedtime and she hasn’t really eaten much since lunch. Maybe I’ll bring a snack upstairs so when she is wide awake at 2am I can feed her and put her back to bed :) We’ll see.
I feel bad sometimes about her and naps. With Lex I clung to my “respect the nap” stance until he was almost in kindergarten! Eve would still nap most days if I let her, but even a short nap results in her being wide awake until 10pm. That’s too late for me! When I do a good job of being home for the regular schedule (lunch, stories, quiet time… all on time!) she does well for the afternoon, but lately I have been doing a very poor job of that. Trying to squeeze in errands after playdates, or lunch dates, or “quick” grocery shopping after preschool, or whatever. More times than not these past few weeks she’s had either a late quiet time or none at all. I need to get better at respecting her quiet time. The problem is that she’s just so sweet during the day it’s easy to try and fit in “just one more thing.” Slowing down will be next on the agenda… but not tomorrow.
Tomorrow we are going to two parties! Good Beginnings of the Upper Valley (of which I am a past volunteer, recipient, and current board member) is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary and we are having a big kid party tomorrow morning. It should be fun. Tomorrow afternoon we’ve been invited to a March Madness party. We know next to nothing about basketball, but we will dig out our SU shirts and enjoy the party all the same. It may be our last seeing as we are not sports people and I volunteered to bring cookies but copped out at the last minute. I envisioned nicely decorated cookies that looked like basketballs, and maybe some with the SU logo, just for fun. Instead when it came time to decorate I was tired, the kids were tired, the day grew late and I had to put them to bed, the royal icing got too stiff, my hands hurt trying to do the piping… so I grabbed a knife and just swiped orange icing across the top. Today I bought store bought icing in a tube and “decorated” them to look like basketballs. When our dear host tomorrow sees them he might kick us right out the door!!! :)
World's worst decorated cookies! (they don't even taste fantastic either!)
I’ll bring a box of Thin Mints as well, maybe that will redeem me!