Amelia turned 9 in June

I cannot believe this kid is nine.  She is so dang cool and funny and creative that it sort of blows my mind.

Amelia has fallen in love with Dr. Seuss books, mostly because of their art, but I think secretly, she really likes the stories, too.  She was ecstatic to discover The Lorax book as one of her gifts.

But the highlight was this giant yellow Japanese import: Toad.  Oh my, was there a squeal of delight.

And a surprised Dylan.

She planned her birthday party this year.  It was a Mario Brothers-themed bowling party, complete with paper plates and cups and goody totes covered in Mario Bros. art.  

Amelia even made her cupcake into a bowling ball.

Here she is with her cousin Brooklyn.

And another cousin Abby.  Amelia wanted this to be a "girl" party and most of the cousins near her age are boys or don't live in the state, so these two girls were just about it.

Amelia did invite her brothers.  Dylan thought there were certainly a lot of girls bowling with him.  But he didn't seem to mind.

And Simon didn't mind one tiny bit.

Happy Day, Amelia!

Simon turned two in May

Simon woke up on his second birthday to a stash of gifts on the ottoman.  He knew they were for him but he allowed his brother and sister to help him open them, which we all thought rather generous.

We spent the morning at the Phoenix Children's Museum where our kids hid in boxes...

Climbed art sculptures...

Absorbed all sorts of germs...

Built forts...

Played with the cactus puzzle that I will someday locate and purchase...(it was that cool)

Contemplated blocks...

And got the mail...amongst other activities.  

I didn't even photograph half of what we did.  (We love our visits to this museum!)
We ran through the noodle forest, worked in the grocery store, played with magnets, launched scarves and balls through wind powered tubes, rode vehicles through the car wash, made origami animals, and painted a rocket ship.   It was quite a day.

Mario Mustaches

This is one of the many reasons that we love Amelia.  She deemed one random evening Mario Bros. Mustache time.  And then she proceeded to color and cut out mustaches for everyone.  

(I forgot to have someone take a picture of me wearing mine.)  

Here you have represented Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi.  But not necessarily in that order.  

 See if you can match the mustache to the character.

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Saturday Shenanigans

On any given Saturday, Dylan will wake up a six a.m. and eat a bowl of cereal and then another an hour later.  Sometimes even another after that. Simon might not wear any pants for much of the day.  Amelia won't change out of her pajamas until it's actually time to go somewhere.

These are Saturday pictures:

A smiling toddler with pacifier teeth.  Yes, it's time for the binky fairy.

That same toddler who won't open his eyes for a picture.  And I have eyelash envy.

And, again, the same toddler who thinks coloring on paper is overrated.

Three kids on a slide. All wearing pants and none wearing pajamas. (An unusual occurrence.) 

One is yelling. (Not so unusual.)

Two kids on a slide.  One still yelling, but half-heartedly.

Dogs and Do's

We are bound and determined that our little Simon will not be afraid of dogs.  And we are going to accomplish this task by borrowing other people's dogs rather than have our own.  

We know that dogs make wonderful additions to the family, etc.  But we are not ready for another child, especially one that poops in the yard and tears up shoes.  Our own human children can do those things well enough, thank you. 

You may (or may not) be wondering why we are so bent on avoiding canine phobia in our youngest pup.  Well, this can be attributed to the irrational (and too often ridiculous) fear of dogs that his older sister experienced for many years.  At the sight of a dog somewhere in her proximity, Amelia would scream right out loud and attempt to climb the nearest piece of furniture or person to escape what was often someone's mild little terrier.  Dylan was so disturbed by her outbursts that he figured dogs must be something dreadful and started to scream and run away when one came near just as soon as he learned to walk, and then scream and run away.

They've both gotten over it.

And Simon never got under it.  At least, not on my watch.

This was later that day.  

I think Simon was inspired by the dog's curly locks and attempted to duplicate them.

Not bad.

Egg Hunters

So I don't think I have ever posted Easter pictures in the same year that the Easter egg hunt actually occurred.  This is new territory for me.  

We had a little hunt at our house with family, friends and neighbors.  The kids lined up from youngest to oldest--sort of--and the line was so long it took three shots to get all the kids pictured.

They were all hopping and jumping with anticipation as a few dads went outside to hide about 130 eggs.  

It took a while. 

In the meantime, a few kids whacked each other with their baskets and cried, Hannah got her bucket stuck on her head, and colored Easter grass managed to find its way into every crevice of the couch.

Once outside, Simon found a blue egg and set his basket down, content to enjoy the treats the egg concealed.

The kids had a 12 egg quota, so Dylan paused periodically to count how many eggs he had gathered.

Amelia easily found her dozen and then helped the other little ones readjust their numbers because Amelia is the boss of  fairness.

We were supposed to have brunch after the hunt, but somehow the kids didn't seem to have any appetite for muffins and egg dishes.

The next day, we had a hunt with the Stewart cousins who couldn't make it to our party the day before.  Grandma Brenda put dollar bills in many of the eggs, which was a serious motivation for the grand kids.

And Simon seemed to understand the rules of the hunt this second time.

We didn't have an egg quota this round, so the kids loaded their baskets with promises to even out the booty once all the eggs were discovered.

The trampoline was the gathering spot to open the eggs away from the invasive ants that make their presence known as soon as the first jelly bean accidentally hits the grass. 

Simon is apparently confused about prepositions as he kept trying to go under the trampoline instead of on top of it.  And this upset him.  But the tears were short lived as were the sugar highs that preceded the crashes. 

Ahh, Easter.