Entries from April 2016 ↓

This is the first Seder Ezri’s attended since she learned to read. So, this year she read portions of the Haggadah. She also tried the spicy horseradish (rather than the mild) for the first time and made the funniest bug-eyed face. After that, she only went with the sweet charoset which she spread ALOT of on her matzah. She and her brother both agreed that the chocolate cake was great! Ivan was heard to say, “I love this chocolate cake. Thank you.” The four children in attendance found the afikomen and opened the door for Elijah. I like thinking back through our years of Seders and noting how the children are growing. Ivan sat through until the meal for the first time. Ezri took part in the reading for the first time. The afikomen can now be hidden rather than left in the open because the children have searching skills. I thought back on people who I’ve shared Seders with in the past who have died and was thankful for my family and really good matzah ball soup! My in-laws host an excellent Seder.

“No, Amanda, these are just training exercises,” Ezri assures me.

This weekend we read books in the tent. We pretended to nap in the tent. We had tickle time in the tent. And we played a lot of “Tent Tag” where getting inside the tent meant you were on base.

Ezri and I put together a rest area for fairies.
It has a bottle cap table with two acorn chairs, a shade house, a soft napping area with petal blankets, a climbing pinecone, shiny geode gazing feature and a pebble path.

She also talked me into another fairy figurine from the garden store to join Snapdragon who has lived by our maple tree for 2 years now.
This friend is reading a book and is named Kittenetta for her love of snuggling cats while she reads.

Snapdragon who has a chipped wing on one side, but still stands proudly guarding the flowers.

Kittenetta who we are just getting to know, but seems lovely.

We planted a snapdragon for Snapdragon the fairy.
We planted a basil plant for Eric.
We planted an English ivy in honor of Aunt Coral.
We planted two patio tomatoes because we are hoping they will be tasty. If we start them early, surely we will get tomatoes this summer, yes?

“I would like to plant some dandelions. Not where they’d take over, but maybe in our weed garden.” Yes, there is a patch of our yard we call the weed garden. I have agreed to planting some dandelions there this year.

See that yellow under her nose. She loves how dandelions smell.

We collected Dandelions at the park.

The kids used them to decorate my purse.

We took them home where we now have a small floral arrangement of dandelions brightening our kitchen table.

We also took some “hoo-RAY it’s spring” selfies at the near park.

Three families who get together once in a while for a “half sleepover.”
We have dinner and then try to get all the kids to sleep or at least pretend to while the grown-ups play boardgames together. After games we carry sleepy children to their respective homes to wake in their own beds.

This is a photo of all the kids at half sleepover. It is not a good photo, but look how they love building with the magnetiles.  And they are all in the same place at the same time.
The kids range from 4 to 11, when we started half sleepover two of them had not yet been born.

Now that they’ve gone back home, Ezri is asking a lot about when we are visiting Bozeman and talking plans for the next time Tam and Mark visit.
She enjoyed mornings chatting with Tam and doing jigsaw puzzles on her iPad. These two are the morning people in the house.
She liked crafting a rabbit with her and going out for a fancy dinner with all four of her grandparents at Greek Islands.
We took Tam and Mark to Zootopia at the Tivoli and our favorite ice cream shop to introduce them to the kids’ favorite flavors of Lighthouse Cherry (Ezri) and Blue Moon (Ivan). Blue Moon’s biggest thrill is that the next day after consumption Ivan’s poop is green.
Ezri enjoyed telling her grandparents about her fairy powers and her friends and her toys and her books.

I loved this visit too.

Grandpa Mark thinking hard about which is his favorite LPS pet.