Happy Easter

Our weekend of fun continued yesterday with a combined Easter and birthday party. All the local family, and our friends who have become family, gathered after church to do what we usually do - let the kids entertain us, snack, and talk - especially about legal issues (with 5 lawyers in the gathering, it's a bit hard to escape legal talk). Sophia loved wearing her fancy dress we bought for her baptism. She refused to take it off all day and even paired it with her rain boots for a while.

After church, the Easter Bunny had visited our house leaving baskets and lots of eggs hidden all around. Sophia and the boys had a great deal of fun finding them and then trading some of the presents inside so there was a fair distribution of all the loot. We were quite proud of how well they did that without any complaining.

Yesterday we had 4 birthdays to celebrate: Sophia's, Jessica and Gabe's are March 25 and Alex's which is in early April. We got all the names on the cake, and candles for Sophia, Gabe & Alex. They even managed to blow them out together without any spitting or lighting themselves on fire.

Presents were enjoyed by many. It seemed Sophia's favorites were the tent that Grandma Darla made her and a crawl-through tunnel from our friend Therese and Ellie. Even my father had some fun with the tunnel - that's him standing in it on the right. She got lots of beautiful clothes, which she was less excited about than I was. (I love it when grandmas buy her clothes, they buy nicer things than I would.) There were also several Dr. Seuss books, who Sophia has just started to enjoy.

By the end of the day Sophia was exhausted and refused to pose for pictures, hiding her face or giving us dirty looks. After 3 days of non-stop fun, it's no surprise that she was just done with it all. It was a very fun weekend.

Two!

Today Sophia is two. How is that possible? We tried to pack as much fun and excitement into one day as any two-year-old could handle. In the morning we went to an Easter Egg hunt, where Sophia thought her bucket would make a good hat. She did very well at the hunt, finding about 8 eggs, several of them on her own. Then we went out for a snack, a donut. She liked it a great deal, but not the sticky hands.

There were a few presents to open today, a couple of books from us and a bubble blower from a neighbor.

Her big present from us was going to see The Wiggles. In the beginning of the concert she was pretty overwhelmed, quiet and refused to sing or do any of the hand motions that she knows so well. We were only 5 rows back so we were almost too close for her. But after the characters, Wags, Dorothy, Henry and Captain Feathersword (and if you don't know who they are, you aren't spending enough time with kids under 5) came out she warmed up.

By the end of the show she spent some time in the aisle dancing with the other kids, clapped and sang a little. It was so much fun to see how in awe she was of it. We couldn't have found a better birthday present. A good day was had by all.

St. James Day 2008

Today is St. James Day! For the uninitiated, this is the day that Sophia's dad celebrates the first round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament (see the St. James Day website for a full history of this glorious holiday). This year, the festivities were in Roseburg, Oregon, at the home of St. James Day co-founder Derek Simmons. Sophia and dad drove down to Roseburg last night, and then spent all day in Roseburg watching basketball and eating Kielbalsa.

Sophia really enjoyed playing with Derek's son, Gabe (who is a year older than Sophia). They had a good time chasing each other around the house, coloring, and playing with legos. A good time was had by all! These are a few of the pictures of Sophia and Gabe playing together (Gabe's older brother was at school in the morning, so he didn't join in the fun until later). We'll put some more St. James Day pictures up later.

Birthday Party

On Sunday Sophia got to attend a birthday party. While not her first, it was the first since she was an infant, and is now old enough to join the fun. One of our neighbors just turned 4, and they invited most of the neighborhood kids to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate. Paul is a kind, decent and giving person and he took Sophia to the party and let me stay home. He says I have to go to the next one. Sophia enjoyed herself, but was a little overwhelmed by all the noise and activity. Talking about this birthday has helped us prepare her for her birthday this weekend. We have all kinds of festivities planned, including taking her to a Wiggles concert Saturday evening. We're looking forward to it!