Birthdays, Visitors, Politics

Jim had a birthday at the end of February and one of his wishes was to go take photos.  His birthday fell on a Saturday, so after Emmett's basketball game we did presents and then cut him loose to be a photographer for the afternoon.  He got some good shots of lots of birds, including an owl, a whole field of swans, and geese.

A random picture on a trip to Costco

Jim opening his birthday gifts

 While Jim was away we had guests arrive for a visit.  Our good friends that used to live here moved away 4 years ago and have been renting out their house.  They are ready to sell it now and needed to come do a few things to get ready to list it.  Tim is a farm manager and was too busy to make the trip, so Elizabeth came with her five children.  The kids played great together and even though there was more house stuff than Elizabeth was anticipating, we were glad for the time with them and they were very glad for their accommodations.  We all went out to dinner twice during the visit and we learned that you get a table pretty fast when they learn that your party of 11 only has 3 adults.  Not sure if we were just lucky, but two busy restaurants got us right in and I thought that all the kids did amazing at both places.

I'm not used to girls...they wanted to do my hair and play house

All but the littlest watching Wild Kratts

We even had a gathering for other friends who miss this family to get together

I think this is the only shot that has all the kids (+Jim) in it

 Wednesday was Ezra's 5th birthday!  Our friends had to leave that day, but we had fun with them in the morning and then continued our celebration through the day.  Ezra has been saying that he doesn't like cake, so I made a Rice Krispie treat castle.  It came together really fast (thankfully) and he seemed pleased with the result.  Ezra shares his birthday with Dr. Seuss, so he had green eggs and ham for breakfast.  In the afternoon we had a few friends over for a party which was really low key.  We played one game where the kids had a bit of an obstacle course, jumping over a widening "moat" and then ducking under a lowering "portcullis."  My guys really like obstacle courses and Ezra loves to do limbo at daycare, so this was pretty fun.   Other than that the kids just played, Ezra opened his presents and we had our Rice Krispy treats and fruit.

 When Jim got home Ezra opened the rest of his gifts and then the birthday boy and I got ready for a date.  Our Chick-Fil-A had a mother/son date night with a medieval knight theme (that is why I used this theme for the birthday party).  A bunch of friends from our playgroup planned to go and it seemed the perfect thing to do with Ezra on his birthday.

 When we first got there I got a flower and we got our picture taken.  Then they gave Ezra some gifts and seated us with menus.  We were sitting around lots of our friends.  Our food was delivered and afterwards Ezra played in the playroom with his friends for a while.  The date ended with a limo ride around town.  It was pretty fun!

Ezra and Elliott playing with RC cars

Emmett's basketball team (minus one player)

 We have been trying to involve Emmett in some of the politics going on right now, discussing candidates, telling him how the process works and educating ourselves at the same time.  One candidate came to our town so Emmett and I went to our first political rally.  The rally was at a hangar at our airport and it was well attended and fun to see an actual republican candidate.  We listened to Idaho Senator Jim Risch give a small speech and then Senator Marco Rubio talked for about 20 minutes.  Emmett was bored waiting for it to start, but seemed to engage pretty well once it started.  I held him a good portion of the time so he could see (he weighs 52lbs now) and he was holding the sign and shaking it above his head when people cheered.  Emmett also went with Jim when he voted, and I took the other two with me while Emmett was at school.

Other than that we have been exploring options for schooling next year, having a great report at Emmett's student led conference, and getting a bit of snow in our otherwise very Spring-like weather.  Jim is taking the boys skiing tomorrow for probably the last time of the season.  Elliott also "turned" 18 months old and is playing, interacting and communicating lots more and becoming more enjoyable at the dinner table...not as much screaming, however he still throws things.