Neighbor Girls

Elora has been lucky the last year or two. When we first moved here, most the kids in the neighborhood were older than ours, and the few that were younger were all boys. But because we live in student housing, there is a turnover every year or so and now...there are tons of little girls! Almost all of them are between the ages of 3 and 5, just like Elora!
True, we don't hang out with them as much as we could, partly because the other kids all have busy schedules, and partly because mommy can be anti-social. But this year especially, Elora has had so much fun!
There were kids to play with at important events (this was at Halloween), and most any time we go outside on sunny days.




Sometimes, Elora gets to do fun girly things she doesn't get to do at home, like play dress up!
And Elora has been lucky to be invited to lots of parties in the last few months: A Tinkerbell party, Pinkalicious party, and a dance party to name a few. (Isn't that the fakest smile you've ever seen? On Elora that is.)



A few weeks ago, there was even an outside tea party! Yeah, Elora spilled her juice almost right away, but it was so nice to be with the other girls.



Its a little sad that we'll be moving in a few months, but not so sad when you realize almost everyone else is moving soon too. Oh wait, that IS sad! However, most of these bigger girls will be going to kindergarten next year too (Elora won't because her birthday isn't till October) so that might have changed things anyway.


We're just lucky that we were all here at this perfect time for little girls to play and have fun together. Thanks girls!


(and yes, Josh has lots of kids his age too, he loves playing with all the other boys outside!)

Jonah's Grandpa face

Remember when like 15 people read and commented on my blog regularly? Yeah, it was fun being popular for five minutes..

Anyway, this is about Jonah. Jonah is a sweet little boy,though somewhat more serious than Josh at his age. Most of the time, he can be coaxed into a cute little smile like this:




Quite often, he is sticking his tongue out too (we think it is to feel his teeth?) and his smile looks more like this:



But the face that Jonah makes the most often is a little more....strange. He usually has his tongue out, but instead of a smile he has this strange expression of..disgust? Concentration? Confusion? I'm not sure. He's been doing it for months, and we still giggle every time we see it:



It wasn't until our trip to Moab last month that we finally figured out where that expression came from. We had just arrived in the parking lot of the hotel and were greeting grandma and grandpa (my parents.) Jonah was making his usual face, when my dad decided to make it back at him...and we realized they were mirror images of one another. Scary, I know. The thing is, my dad actually makes this face on a regular basis too! Usually, he's trying to be funny (or annoying, its hard to tell) but he's done the squinty tongue face for years.
How could we not have noticed before! And did I mention that Jonah and my dad have the same blue eyes, and the same pointy eyebrows?
Now, everytime Jonah makes a face like this:


Or this:

This:

and especially this:


We have to call it his "Grandpa face". Poor Jonah.

Eating Outside

This last week we ventured outside for our evening meal, on a beautiful day with temperatures that had reached the low seventies. We had fruit salad with waaay too much whipping cream (which made it delicious!), and some Brautwurst sausages.
I'm always the party-pooper that doesn't want to eat outside, because I'm always sure it will be more trouble than its worth, not to mention the probability that the kids would rather play than eat, and we might get bugs and sand in our food.
But once we're out there, it usually is a pleasant experience. I'm lucky I have a husband who is persistent in the face of my occasional negativity! This time, we took Jonah's highchair out to make things easier, and our kids actually ate their food!
What fun.



(This was the least posey picture I could get of Elora with her stick. She must take after her aunt Kiera, who had to overpose for every picture at this age!)




"Lets have some of that salad, Daddy!"




"Just the right amount of whipped cream!"





"What? Do I have something on my face?"




"Well, let me tell you...it was delicious!"

Easter stuff

Friday, we colored eggs....



Saturday we went to the Easter Egg Hunt for Family Housing. Its always well done, with separations by age groups. There were a lot of people, but not nearly as many as usual because of the snow... which had fallen the night before.



Elora had a great time running around for eggs, and was pretty happy at her haul....




As you can see, there were plenty of eggs, due to the lack of participants! When we were done, there were STILL eggs lying everywhere. How often does that happen?



Jonah hung out with daddy and Josh, enjoying the excitement around him.




And Josh was freezing. After every few eggs, he had daddy warm his hands up for him.




Aww, poor little boy.



Sunday morning, we had our own egg hunt in the house, with more plastic candy-filled eggs, as well as those we decorated Friday.
"I wonder what's inside!"



Elora was thrilled to find eggs in funny places like on top of picture frames and on the thermostat.



Of course the Easter bunny also left them some goodies in their baskets.



And Jonah discovered the best treat of all!
"mmmmmmm."