sprinkles and silly faces

aka A Boy's Fifth Birthday

In the days and weeks leading up to his birthday, anytime we mentioned the day, Nicholas would let out this maniacal giggle. 

He was incredibly excited.

He gave me a list of what he wanted to do on his birthday:

• Go to Grandma's House
• See Sarah
• Go to Bear Lake (we did that the day before his birthday)
• Eat everything with sprinkles, and not eat anything healthy
• Do a pinata
• Not wear party hats

I believe we fulfilled everything on his list.  Especially the sprinkles part.

 First thing in the morning, checking out the presents. This kid gave us the most awesome faces all day long. He was just.so.excited. 
We let him open one present right away--a remote control truck--and at that point, 8:30 am, he was already exclaiming that this was "The BEST birthday ever!"

 His breakfast request: oatmeal with sprinkles.

 Nicholas picked out this pinata and wanted to break it open all on his own.
It took him several minutes of good, hard swinging, but he finally broke off the front wheel.

 Pinatas are super fun when it's just you and your little sister to gather up all that candy!

 Nicholas first asked for a batman cake....but since he doesn't even really know who batman is, and since black frosting is super difficult to pull off, I helped him make another choice.  And boy was he excited about his chocolate cake... with sprinkles! (of course!)  

For lunch we picked up pizza and took it to a park.

Nicholas spent the day laughing like a madman, eating several pieces of cake, driving his new remote control truck everywhere, and pretending to be Captain America (thanks Grammer and Papa for the helmet and shield!).  
He now insists that we do not call him  Nicholas; he wants to go by Captain America "Because he's super strong and does everything that's right!"

I adore this sprinkle-loving, wild-giggling, right-choice making, sweet happy boy.

Happy Five, Captain America!

my little fish

 This little boy loves to swim.
At the beginning of the summer he didn't even know how to put his face in the water. 

We'd have to arrive extra early to our lessons to give him a good half hour to even warm up to the idea of getting in the pool.

 And once we got him in, he'd often cry/scream for me for the first three or four minutes.
But then I had a moment of mommy genius (helped along by my own mother, because Grandma's really are incredible).  
I had a hunch he was doing the crying/screaming stuff just out of habit, just because once he stopped crying, he was fine. No fear of the water or of swimming. 
And every day, as we left, he was giggling, happy, yelling "Thank you!" to the teachers, and telling me how much he loves swimming and wants to swim forever.

So I'd say, "That's great, that means you don't have to cry tomorrow!"
And he'd look at me sideways...."Um, no, I think I probably will cry tomorrow too...."

We tried bribes, but they were never enough.
Until the day I bought him a treat ahead of time,  and told him that if he cried when he got to swim lessons,
I  was going to eat his treat. Without sharing.

He looked at me, horrified, and was quiet the whole drive over.
When we got to the pool, he walked right in, not a single complaint, as if it were no big deal.

And that was that.

 Ellie was never very happy during swim lesson time, either. She'd whine and cry and say she wanted to go home.  Almost-three-year-olds are almost as fun as three-year-olds.

From his lessons all summer, Nicholas has now learned how to swim, really truly swim. With his face in the water, his arms over his head, kicking his feet. It's amazing!  His form is sure lacking, but for just nine half-hour lessons, I'm pretty impressed!

His favorite thing? Tossing the pool toys halfway across the pool and swimming to retrieve them. He could do this for hours. 


You can bet we'll be doing lots and lots of practicing this winter.  

roommate reunion

The weekend after we got back from camping, some of my dearest friends in the world, who also happen to be my former roommates, came to stay with us.

These are the kind of girls that you love forever.  We lived together for a year, but here we are, eight years later.

 We were missing Megan in this picture--should have taken a group shot before she left!

Kayla, in the orange and blue to the left of me, and her darling family stayed at our house the whole weekend. She has three adorable boys.  The kids got along so well!  
Especially Nicholas and Luke. 
Nicholas cried when they left.  
They're just going to have to come back to visit sometime!

 We took everyone up into the canyon for a picnic dinner and s'mores, of course.

Ellie has decided that pictures are the time to be goofy.

Honestly, to her, there isn't  a time in the day that isn't a time to be goofy. This girl!

The boys enjoying popsicles on the back step.  
Thanks everyone for making it happen-it was so wonderful to see you!  We're definitely going to do this again!

camping, the rest

"None shall pass!" she says....must have gotten that from one of her uncles...

She found an "Ellie-tree," just her size!

She sat in this stroller and ate cereal for about two hours, patiently waiting for us all to be ready to walk!

Gotta love this kid's poses lately...

puddle jumping

My girl loved camping in the rain.  She spent nearly the entire two days in these puddles.

At one point, we were trying to cross over to the bathrooms and she got distracted by the puddles. I told her she could pick ONE puddle to jump in, and then we had to go to the potty.

She tried to pick:

"Eeney Meeney Miney Moe, Catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers make him pay, Eeeny Meeny Miney Moe, I pick....

All of them!"

(Also, humidity is this child's best friend. Her hair does amazing things in the humidity.  Her curls were perfection on this trip.)

good morning from a tent

Our night while camping was long.
Really long.
The rain was pounding, and did not let up, all night long.  

Nicholas slept fantastically, and when he woke up he sighed and said, 
"Ah, camping nights are really long!"

You have no idea, bud.

Bathroom trips in the pitch black, constant checking for tent leaks (none in ours, thank goodness!), an air mattress that went flat (twice...), and a sweet little girl who was too cold and wanted to snuggle/wiggle in our bed for hours.

But that morning, when we finally woke up, the four of us piled in our nearly flat mattress and snuggled and giggled and it was awesome.