play

today our family played with a piñata that Peter brought home from school.  It was simply a decorated paper bag filled with goodies, strung up from our second story railing. 

But there was plenty to smile about and beauty to be found.

beauty in play 

and laughter

Today is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

four

Today marks four years as a mom of this boy.

And I am so proud (and humbled).

As a girl who grew up in a family of girls and is, well, quite girly, bringing up a boy has been is a stretching, often frustrating, creatively demanding, mind-blowing experience.

I often look at him and say "Where did you get that idea?"

I have come to love crashing monster trucks into each other, building tall towers just to knock them down, incorporating super heroes in to every aspect of life, contemplating what bad guys eat (namely, no fruit or food their mommy makes just trees and snot, according to Peter), and examining the wonder of a dead bug.

a car we recently built together

This little guy is equal parts strong and sensitive.

Sometimes his tears and need for mommy surprise me.

He did not want to turn four.  

In fact, he was crying a couple of nights ago about it and this morning he declared he was just "almost four".

But he's come around.

Of course blowing out candles,  

opening gigantic presents and a huge frozen yogurt treat with daddy didn't hurt. 

I can't wait to see what challenges and joys this next year brings.

I think they'll be good for both of us.

And he still gives the best neck squeeze hugs around...

six

Today marks six years of mommyhood for me

and

6 years of Hannah Joy in our family!

She celebrated at school with a rowdy round of "Feliz Cumpleaños" and handed out Confetti Squares (Rice Krispy treats with Cap'n Crunch & Fruit Loops) to all her classmates.

At home, she designed her own birthday crown 

(in Kindergarten, or at least her class, the teachers no longer make sparkly crowns for you).  

And we used the leftover Fruit Loops to design some fun necklaces.

Fancy accessories are a must for this birthday girl.

She still loves pink and purple but has now expanded her wardrobe to anything that has a good spin to it.

The best quote was 

"Mommy, we need to make a list of all the numbers I've been."

6 candles were actually rather hard to squeeze onto her Rice Krispy Treat.

 

Matt's singing "Happy Birthday", thus the contorted face.

 She loves being the big sister and picking up Abigail, who is definitely not as light as she used to be.

And don't worry, being six hasn't changed her love of crazy face making.

She finished off her day with our birthday tradition of a treat out with Daddy.

Tomorrow we celebrate this little guy.

My two birthday kids,

seriously so sweet!

photo montage

Montage /mɒnˈtɑːʒ/ is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information. 

(definition taken from here)

Here is my photo montage of some of my favorites from the past few months...

"Mommy, I need hot cocoa to warm me up!"

Yes, I have a climber.

this is how "water-play" generally goes in our family....from Peter to Hannah

coloring with pastels on our camping trip

our friend Sophie, enjoying the sand

beach happy

flying kites with daddy

me and my littlest one

California poppies, even at the beach

some cute baby faces

reading bedtime stories by headlamp with Alex,

 can't decide which is my favorite... 

snow fun

a daddy and his girl

I love his happy, post-sledding face

the 5 of us

bedtime reading at the cabin

my happy girl

a night away with my love, sleepy but happy faces...

It's been a pretty, good February and March. 

 I am incredibly grateful for it!!!

halloween

For some reason, there was a lot of this on Halloween.



Not sure why.  Definitely can't blame it on sugar.
But hence, there are zero pictures of Abigail in her costume.

She was a cuddly little lion who hated her head piece and wore the costume for a total of 20 min. 
(good thing it was a hand-me-down from Peter)

The older two enjoyed carving pumpkins with daddy.

The special thing about these pumpkins? 
we grew them.  and they were a decent size!

 

Hannah drew both faces this year and Matt did the cutting.

Okay, there were a few minutes of crazy joy when we put the jack-o-lanterns outside.

 

And then we put Abigail to bed, got dressed in costume and the trick or treating began.

The larger Spiderman stayed at home to pass out candy,
while the younger Spidey and cute bumblebee went out trick or treating with mommy.

And the jack-o-lanterns greeted all who passed by!

 

Boo!