Our boy turned one. It is hard to believe how quickly the time passes, but it just flies by. I'm so grateful for this busy, adventurous, and bright little boy! Gideon is such a blessing!
Getting pictures of him has sure become difficult though, he just wants to move!
You can't blame him though, the fun stuff is all right there.
He cooperated for a little while though and gave me some wonderful smiles!
He is just so joyful!
And so proud of himself! He isn't really walking yet, but he's working on it.
Lily keeps insisting on growing up. She is a five-year-old now, all grown-up and ready to start Kindergarten. She loves to draw, paint, sing (in her own way) dance, and is slightly obsessed with The Avengers. We had a little party for her birthday with some of her friends and of course it had to be Avengers themed.
I had all of these great plans, and then remembered that not only am I just one person, but I'm also on a budget so we kept is simple. I find that children don't need a lot to entertain them, just getting together with friends is plenty of fun. We still had a pinata, because my kids love them.
And I kinda went crazy on the cake. I do that. But I like to, Birthdays are chances for me to play around with fun ideas so I take full advantage.
Everyone one of The Avengers is represented on the cake. We have Thor's hammer and Ironman.
Hawkeye's mask
Black widow
Captain American is represented on the top and of course Hulk is front and center.
The kids LOVED it! It was also delicious. Chocolate cake with a chocolate and peanut butter ganache filling...perfect!
Presents were also a favorite.
After the party was over and friends went home I found Lily and Charlotte playing with some of her new presents. Apparently her new Captain America action figure was going to the ball with Cinderella...
I love watching Lily open gifts. She had been asking for Avenger Legos for a long time and I found a great set that I knew she'd love. Her reaction was priceless!
We sure love our girl and we are so glad that she is a part of our family!
I can hardly believe that Lily is old enough for this, but this morning we registered Lily for Kindergarten. For at least three years now I've been hoping that I could get her into the Idaho Arts Charter School. I entered her name into the lottery on January 1st and we have been waiting and waiting to hear from them. Last week the letter finally came and Lily's name was drawn. I'm not sure that I can explain how excited I was when I read that letter. Aside from being a great school, they also have a traditional Kindergarten schedule whereas the local public schools have a very wonky full-day-ever-other-day-and-every-other-Friday schedule that makes my mind go haywire just thinking about. Anyway, we are in and so happy about it.
Today was registration day. Lily was nervous about going last night, she even told me that she might be sick today (she's too young for that game, right?) but this morning she was excited to see her new school so off we went.
Charlotte was just as excited to check it out. It will be an interesting adjustment for them this fall to be apart from each other.
Next year I'll try my best not to schedule a big race the day before Easter. It sure threw me off and everything felt so rushed getting ready for both at the same time. Since Saturday was going to be so busy the kids and I dyed Easter eggs on Friday. We only spilled one cup of dye (red, of course) but otherwise it was a pretty easy and fun process.
I let the girls pick out a glitter egg coloring kit...never again. That stuff was a pain to put on and worse when it came to peeling the eggs. They were sure pretty though.
Easter morning was a little rushed, that happens when church is at 9 o'clock so the only picture that I took was one of Gideon while we waited for the girls to wake up.
After church though I managed to get a few pictures of the kids in their new Easter outfits.
Gideon is not a fan of holding still for anything.
Lily is so grown up these days. Our baby girl is getting so big,
Charlotte here is a little spitfire, but that's why we love her.
I decided to run Robie. If you've never heard of it...well, you must not be local...but it is a half marathon that goes up over a nice big hill. It is a race that sells out quickly so I sat at my computer on President's day counting down the seconds until noon to sign up...than then I wondered what I had just done!
I trained with some friends for it and then it was time to run.
I even had a shirt made just for this race with my running buddy on my sleeve. (www.whoirun4.com)
I love the energy behind the Robie Creek race. The first couple of miles of the course were lined with people who came out the watch and cheer the runners on. The volunteers were exceptional! Overall a terrific race that was so well organized. It was a rough race course though. I survived the hill but my calves seized up on the downhill which forced me to walk (which was heartbreaking), but in the end I finished and I'm very proud of that. Next year though...maybe I'll be crazy enough to do it again.
Gideon is now eleven months old, he has eight teeth, cruises, crawls, and climbs all over the place and still has us wrapped around his little finger. He's fearless which scares me to death! He has mastered going up the stairs, but hasn't figured out going down yet. I've started weaning him and he takes his sippy cup really well...when he wants it. Otherwise he just sucks and then spits it back out all over because he likes to make a mess. It is a good thing that we love him so much, but honestly, look at this boy, how could we not?
We went down to Utah over Spring Break and while we were there it rained a lot, and when it wasn't raining we were doing some work at grandma's house, so for our outing with the kids we opted for something indoors. Lily has been checking out books about dinosaur bones lately and since she had an interest we decided to go to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. Grandma and Grandpa came with us and we all had a really enjoyable time.
Having exhibits that the kids could touch was a lot of fun.
It is fun looking at things with grandpa.
These things are massive!
Charlotte inherited my ability to make silly faces without trying in pictures. She's sure cute doing it though.
I don't think that Gideon had any idea what was going on here, but he sure stared a lot.
Lily was so excited to see the two T-Rexes, they are her favorites.
These things are massive!
This itty bitty mammoth was so cute, it could not have been more than 2 feet tall.
This one is a tusk-less version. It would have made for such a cute pet!
Near the end of the route there was an area to dig in the sand and find fossils. Tyson got in on the play with the girls. We kept Gideon out as he would have just eaten the sand.
While the girls dug about in the sand Gideon stayed with Grandma.
