Off to LA!

Packing for LA to visit Isaac and Abigail when Eva started throwing up. All day long. We decided to wait a day as she didn't have a fever (and we really wanted to go and meet Zachary .. but wanted to keep him healthy!). She slept for 14 hours then seemed much better in the AM, just really cuddly and occasionally holding her tummy saying "Owie!" We took the kids to the park to try and decide what to do. When Eva decided she wanted to climb a tree like Daddy and brother, we decided we could go.

We made it to Flagstaff, AR. Eva moaned "Mommy!" in the car repeatedly, but was happy and active once we got to the hotel. Elijah was so excited to swim in the pool he hopped back and forth in front of the mirror shrieking "I have floaties! And a swim suit! I'm going SWIMMING!" While the boys were out, I put Eva to bed in the pack-n-play in the bathroom! She slept all night.

We all woke up happy and ready to continue to LA. Elijah and Eva are "journaling" about their trip so far this morning. Poor kids don't have a chance with a teacher for a Mama! :)

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Yodel

Elijah says: "Mommy, Sissy's just yodeling." (His word for babbling.)

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Still tractors

Just in case you were wondering, Elijah still loves his tractors!

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Elijah's first year of AWANA

Elijah loved his first year of AWANA as a Cubbie. We were so proud of the way he learned all of his Bible verses with excitement. I believe AWANA to have been a major part of his spiritual growth this year.

Our friend Katie took this picture of him at his AWANA graduation ceremony, and I can't get over how mature and charming he looks in it!

An interview with Elijah, 4 years old

I hope to do this every year and watch how the answers change.

1. Favorite color: Blue!
2. Favorite toy: Monkey!
3. Favorite show: Mighty Machines, Dinosaur Train, World's Toughest Fixes, Thomas the Train
4. Favorite lunch: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or bagels
5. Favorite snack: goldfish
6. Favorite book: Tag Reader books
7. Best friend: I have LOTS of friends! Caleb and Leah and James... Merek and Kennedy...
8. Favorite thing to do outside: DIG with tractors and shovels!
9. Favorite drink: chocolate milk
10. Favorite holiday: Halloween (costumes!)
11. What you like to take to bed: Monkey and lots of toys (which he sticks in his sleeping bag! It was a great tragedy when his paper airplane and paper train, brought to bed, were rolled on and flattened.)
12. Favorite breakfast: yellow eggs (scrambled)
13. Birthday dinner: Macaroni and Cheese... the STRAIGHT kind (not that homemade stuff!), chicken sausage and brownies
14. What do you want to be when you grow up? Work on satellites like Daddy!
15. What makes you happy? Monkey! And trains!
16. What makes you sad? Owies.
17. What are you good at? Playing trains, pretending I'm machines...
18. Favorite place to go: Barnes and Noble, and the sand park

Happy 4th Birthday, Elijah!

A family birthday party!

A rocket train!  Trains featured heavily in this year's presents...

He was so excited!

A train crane!

Eva took advantage of the time Elijah was distracted by his presents to read his Tag books.

Putting his new crane into the track!

Elijah's first soccer ball! He also got a baseball mitt! He's excited to play with Daddy at the park.

Happy Birthday, Elijah!

Elijah's 4th Birthday: Trains!

For his 4th birthday party, Elijah announced that he wanted to have a play date at our house where they played trains. We love trains in our house!

For invitations, we made train tickets, sent to each child in Air Mail envelopes that I had from when we lived in Japan.  Elijah and I went to the post office to check if it was all right to use air mail envelopes for local mail, and the post officer got misty-eyed when he saw our train-envelopes and smiled saying "I think those will get to them just fine! Happy Birthday!" Elijah talked for days about how he would collect his friends' tickets at the door by saying "Tickets please!" then hole-punching their tickets. When the actual birthday party came, he was too excited to do any of that!

As this was a New Mexico party, Elijah told me that we needed a pinata, a train pinata. We decided to make our own from a goldfish box, oatmeal box, a cereal box, with a little milk container for a funnel. He was thrilled to be working on this project with me. It was one of my favorite parts of his birthday.

Those eyes!

Our finished train pinata! I wasn't sure how well it would hold up, but we figured each kid could get a whack at it...

David made black painter's tape railroad tracks leading the way into our house! Elijah ran back and forth on the track with his buddies pretending they were trains.

We got each child an engineer's hat and a red bandana, and spread the table with a railroad table runner.

Elijah is starting to recognize words, and could tell David that this said "All Aboard!" I think we will start working on his reading soon, as he is very interested in what things say.

Note the Arrivals and Departures board carries the names of cities near where there are people who love Elijah?

Can you tell how excited he is? In every picture he's making some goofy face!  We brought his beloved train table downstairs so the kids could play, and it was always packed with several kids at a time. Since most of Elijah's presents from family were train-related, he was excited to show off his new battery trains. I hung vintage train picture, train schematics and maps on the wall behind the table.

The boys set up another track on the carpet, using every last piece of track we had. Eva kept up with the big kids no problem!

Cute Kennedy rocked a baby doll as chaos played around her. 

The pinata was much sturdier than we expected, and each kid got to hit it quite a few times. Elijah thought it was loads of fun to hit with a baseball bat. I think making a pinata may become a birthday tradition for us!

"Go Eva!"
Of course she had to have a swing, too! She does whatever the big kids do. I love how Elijah is cheering her on! He really is a great big brother.

Our table train with logging car (pretzels) , coal car (mini oreos), produce car (strawberries) and dairy car (cheese sticks)! For a craft we had 3-D paper trains for the kids to make, but, as expected, the boys were far too excited to sit down and make them.

We made homemade pizza cut into the shape of trains (easy bento-style!) with roasted broccoli for steam and cut carrots for wheels. The kids appreciated the effort. 

Presents! Eva wanted to help with the tissue paper.

Elijah immediately sat down to read his new book Steam Train, Dream Train (We love it!) Jennifer picked it out because it had a train on the cover carrying a backhoe, and a monkey riding it. Elijah's favorite things. We noticed there's a giraffe (Eva's lovey) riding, too, and knew this book was destined for us!
Presents were also momentous as Elijah received his first Nerf gun from his buddy Merek. Wow, did he love that!!

The bluest, most chocolatey cake ever made, as requested by the Birthday Boy.  My first ever cake-decorating attempt.

Ah, motherhood. Holding Eva back from the flaming candles with one hand while setting the cake down in front of the birthday boy with the other...

Happy birthday, sweet Elijah!

Ideas from:
http://grantandjessie.blogspot.com/2011/10/vintage-themed-train-party-crew-turns-3.html
http://kommunicated.com/2011/02/choo-choo-graham-is-two/
http://www.marabous.com.au/blog/2012/12/vintage-train-boys-birthday-party/

"Mommy!"

Eva gave me a Mother's Day present today... she carefully said "Mom-my!" She was so pleased. Then she pointed right at me and said it again. So sweet!

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"My Daddy!"

At our small group Bible Study, it was getting well past Eva's bedtime (not hard to do. She sleeps from 6:30pm-6:30am... amazing!) Eva was getting tired and fragile when she peeked out the window and saw David playing basketball with Elijah and another boy. We heard the most pathetic cry. I thought she had gotten hurt so I picked her up and asked her what was wrong.

She pointed out the window and wailed "Myyyyyyy Dadddddddy!"

Her first phrase! It was also the first time she said "Daddy" and not just "Dada." We called for David and Eva quieted immediately once her Daddy was holding her. 

Since then she is quite proud that she can say "Daddy." She says it with emphasis all the time and grins.

Potty Training herself!

Eva is pretty much potty training herself... completely on her own! She tells us (at least once a day... sometimes up to three) "Popo!" and when we put her on the potty, she goes. She is so very proud of herself!  My guess is this is yet another way that she wants to be exactly like her big brother, but still... at 18 months is no small thing! Good work, Eva!

Run for the Zoo

This Cinco de Mayo we participated in the ABQ BioPark's Run for the Zoo. It was a massive race with a half marathon, 10k, 5k, 5k fun run/walk, and a mile run. It was great to see all of the support for the zoo as this is their big fundraiser of year. Because we were going to push the kids in the stroller we had to sign up for the 5k run/walk as this was the only race they allowed the strollers to participate in. They asked the strollers to be in the back for some reason so we spent a mile dodging walkers and nearly taking folks out, but were able to speed up for the last two miles.

It was a great experience and a lot of fun running with everybody. One of the pastors from our church set up a meeting place where we could meet up and pray with other members of our church who were there. He's starting up a group/ministry/activity called Faith and Fitness and had shirts made for folks who were interested in participating. They have the churches website on back (a good thing and possibly a bad thing for folks I might have cut off with the stroller).

Jamie had the great idea of putting the kids in their tiger and giraffe costumes. We probably got comments from 50 people about how cute they were and what a great idea. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a lot more kids next year in costumes. 

The kids enjoyed being pushed and defintely had the best ride as Jamie hooked them up with snacks, and water. By the end of the run Eva was out cold. 

It was good to be back in a race (first for me in years). 

Pigtails!

Eva's in pigtails! She's quite the squirmer when I'm fixing her hair, but she's been leaving the bows in.

In other news, Eva has learned the word "Why?" She doesn't know what it means but she has learned from her brother that it is the appropriate response to the answer "No." Huh. Didn't take her too long, did it?