Birthday Boy!

Last weekend was Eli's birthday! He is FIVE years old! Wow. And what a great five year old he is. He's such an amazing kid and I feel so lucky to be his mom. We decided to give him the option of having a birthday party this year, since he's getting older and has several friends. We asked him if he'd rather have a party or spend the day doing something else as a family (like the Science Museum or something he would like). I honestly thought he would choose the museum because he loves that kind of thing, so I was kind of shocked when he said he wanted a party! But I was glad he was so excited about it, and we had a fun little party for him last Saturday. He invited 4 boys from his church class and they were all planning on coming, but sadly, one got sick and one forgot. The mom that forgot felt so bad and her poor little boy was so upset when he realized he missed it. But we got together with them later, so it all worked out.

Anyway, so we looked at a few ideas and he decided he wanted a "construction" themed birthday party. He and Connor always say they're going to be construction workers when they grow up (Connor actually says "instruction worker"). It was pretty fun. We did some building activities - making little cardboard dumptrucks and building structures with toothpicks and marshmallows. We also had a digging activity in the sand, and a demolition activity with a big building made out of cardboard boxes and a wrecking ball tied to a string. It was a hit! Then we of course opened presents and had cake and ice cream. It was a fun day and I think Eli was really happy. The next day was his actual birthday so we got to celebrate again! It was a fun weekend.

 "I want a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles". Nooo problem.

 Anna got in on the action too.

 Classy, I know.

 It didn't start raining until the last 20 minutes or so. Perfect!

Robby's dad and sister stayed most of the time too, so that helped boost our numbers. :)

Eli's house - totally on his own. As I expected, he was the only one who even attempted a 3-D structure - or really, the only one who did more than eat the marshmallows.  He is his father's son - future engineer!

Eli and Beckham. Cute kids!

We totally forgot to do candles before I cut the cake. So we put them on the half that was remaining. Oops!

 It was a fun party!

 Opening presents Sunday morning. We like to do presents first thing around here on birthdays - just like Christmas.

 He got a lot of things he needed from his boring parents, but he got plenty of fun things from his friends and grandparents, so it balanced out.

 And we finished off the day with some more birthday cake. I sure love this kid!

Ack! April's almost over! Time to catch up...

Jeremy's office got Good Friday off, so we took advantage of him being around on a week-day and we went to lunch at the food carts downtown. There are several blocks lined with food trucks in every variety and oh my goodness, the smells were divine! We both agreed if we worked downtown, we would feel a need to try a different one every single day until we'd tried them all...at least once. It only took us 15 minutes to get there, so I'm not sure why we didn't do this before. It was so fun and I'm glad we were able to cross it off the list (but I still wish I could go everyday...) 

 Yea for pitas!

 We got some Greek, Vietnamese, and Indian food and everything was awesome. And inexpensive! Win!

After lunch we went to the Hoyt Arboretum. It has 12 miles of trails and thousands of trees and plants of over a thousand varieties, most of them labeled. There were a lot of unique varieties of trees we'd never seen before, so that was fun (and it's free; I love nature).

 The magnolias were blooming while we were there so that was of course beautiful.

 I told Jeremy, "I feel like I live in a magical fairy land". Seriously, Portland in the spring is like the Garden of Eden. Things are blooming EVERYWHERE and it's so green and flowery and lush and unreal. But it is real.

 I know you're all probably sick of all my green pictures, but I'm not!

 This little one likes to eat dirt.

 Then on Sunday we had a lovely Easter. It was pretty low-key, but it was nice to have a day listening to beautiful music, talking about the atonement and the resurrection, and enjoying good food and our family.  We had a delicious ham dinner and a blackberry-peach crisp for dessert (the last of our berries/fruit from last summer, sniffle) and then my boys helped clean up. We're training them young!

 It's a good life!

Here We Go Again...

Well, we've been living in Oregon for 10.5 months now, which means it's about time for another move! Are we having fun yet? We got the official news yesterday that we'll be moving to Chicago, Illinois! It's been a roller-coaster of emotions the last couple weeks trying to figure out where we would/should be going, but now that it's all settled, we are thrilled! It's so nice to be done with that awful process and now we can start making plans. Chicago was never a place I was dying to live, but now that I've done some research on it, I'm really excited! I think it will be a great place to call home. And the best part??? It's only 3 hours from my sister Heidi in Iowa and 2.5 from my sister Amy in Indiana! (They're moving from Idaho this summer too). Party in the midwest!

Jeremy will be doing sales in the Electrical Division of Eaton. He's going to be in charge of the alternative energy category (wind, solar, etc.), and he's really excited about it. It's one of the largest sales offices they have, so he should have a chance to meet a lot of great people. AND, since Chicago is so huge, most of his customers will be local, so his travel should be very minimal. Hooray! Another great thing is that the office is actually about 30 miles west of Chicago, so he won't be commuting into the city. There are a lot of great suburbs nearby full of LDS members, great schools, and all the amenities. It should be fun!

We have friends from Pittsburgh that live in Batavia (west of his office - most likely in the Stake we'll be in) and I have a few friends from BYU Singers that have lived or currently live in the area too. Yea for connections! I'm a little nervous for the winter, but I'm hoping after the worst winter EVER it will be slightly better this next year? Maybe? Hopefully? We'll definitely need to stock up on winter gear, but we have several months to worry about that.

So there's a lot to do in the next 2 months as we prepare for another move. This is our 4th summer in a row moving, so we're getting to be pretty proficient at it, but there's still a lot to do. We just booked flights to go out and look for a place in May, and thanks to my wonderful parents, we will be going by ourselves! It will be our first trip without kids EVER. I'm just a little excited. I asked my mom a year ago if she would babysit for us, knowing we would be moving again and that I wouldn't be nursing a baby (ahem, still working on that). I love my children and I know I will miss them like crazy but I'm positively giddy thinking about being alone for a few days with my husband!!!

In answer to the question, "Are you sad to be leaving Portland?" Uh, YES. For sure. I love Oregon. So so much. But as much as I hate leaving all the wonderful places I come to love, it's also fun to see so many great areas and explore new places.  I really love our country and its diversity and I know we'll love wherever we live. I didn't realize how much I LOVE to travel either until the last few years and now we tell people, "we don't travel, we just move every year". It really is a great way to see the country!  We'll also be sad to leave the West Coast because it always feels like home - near where we both grew up and full of familiar things and our parents in the state below, but it's on to the next adventure folks! No time for tears! Here.....we.....go!!!!!!!!

Seattle!

We took a quick trip to Seattle this weekend. We were originally planning on going next weekend, since Jeremy has Friday off, but we changed our plans mid-week last week and hopped in the car Friday afternoon. I'd never been to Seattle before and I LOVED it! Wow, it is an awesome city. Someday we'll have to go back when we have more time and money...whenever that is. Luckily we had a free hotel certificate we needed to use up before it expired, so it was a pretty inexpensive trip. We came back home Saturday night, so it was very fast, but we were able to do a few things - swim at the hotel (the kids' favorite of course), Pike Place Market, lunch at Ivar's Fish Bar, Ferry to Bainbridge Island, a few minutes at the beach, and lots of sunshine and scenic views. There were lots of other things we could've seen, but we packed in quite a bit considering our little ones. They kept up quite well though, and I think everyone had a good time.

 Cruisin' in style.

 Don't let her fool you - she screamed nearly half the drive. Ugh, she hates being in the car!

 Watching them make cheese.

 The flowers were ridiculously gorgeous. The guy below gave Anna one for free since she was making googly eyes at him.

 Okay, so I'm not usually too into street musicians, but these guys were so entertaining! As they said, "they play all the rock 'n roll hits of the 1800s". The girl playing the guitar also "flatfooted" (danced) on the board and it was awesome.

Mmm fish and chips. So bad, yet so good.

 We're on a boat!

 Coming into Bainbridge Island. Gorgeous! My visiting teacher from Pittsburgh actually moved to Bainbridge Island about the time we moved to Portland. Rough life, I know.

 Ah, sunshine and ocean. Good for the soul.

Oh, she's so cute when she's asleep. Fun times!