Celebrations

We have had a very exciting last couple of weeks- Easter, Kael's birthday, my birthday were all within a week of each other this year. So we've been keeping busy with all of that. Easter was so fun- this was one of the first years that Kael has really gotten the idea of the Easter Bunny thing so naturally that made Kylee excited, too. We went to the mall and saw the Easter Bunny, went to the Ankeny Easter Egg Hunt, and the Easter Bunny came to our house. The kids were so excited about the Easter Bunny coming to our house they opened the first egg they found and started eating the candy out of it. Kent and I were like, "But there are more eggs! Go pick them up and put them in your baskets!!!". No deal. They were insistent on eating the candy as they found it. I later asked them what their favorite thing the Easter Bunny brought was and out of all the toys, books, and candy, Kael's favorite was a red starburst and Kylee's was a bouncy ball. Ahhh if they could only be this easy to please forever!

The day after Easter was Kael's birthday. 4 years old, can you believe it? I sure can't. I feel like I blinked and he grew up. Kael and Kylee are so sweet and still so innocent; I wish I could just freeze time. I know there are so many great moments ahead of us but if these years could just last a little bit longer I wouldn't complain at all. Anyways, we had a great time celebrating his birthday. 4 is a fun age. They're old enough to get really excited about their birthday, but not old enough that they only want to hang out with friends. We are so lucky to have grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles who live close and who want to celebrate the kids birthdays. So we did quite a few little family celebrations. Here's Kael with his requested chocolate strawberry birthday cake. (I actually didn't burn it or anything!!! Even Kent was marginally impressed.) I think Kael's favorite part of his birthday was when eveyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him.

Above is Kael enjoying (simultaneously) some of his birthday presents. When Kael opened up his rollerskates, Kylee looked me right in the eyes and said, "Mom, where are pink rollerskates for me?" Ahh that's my Kylee.

After all the birthday craziness, we decided on one last celebration at Adventureland Inn. Kent used to work there so we got quite a discount. And it was really nice because there is a pool with zero depth entry so Kylee really had fun playing too. Kael absolutely loved all the waterslides and was so proud of himself when he realized he's tall enough to jump in the pool all by himself and reach the bottom! We had so much fun.

Each year I get less and less excited about my birthday. And not because I'm getting older; it's just so much more fun to play a child's birthday party than my own! But I was not forgotten. My favorite part was when the kids and Kent took me out breakfast. Actually, Kylee had gotten up early so Kent let me stay in bed and was just going to take her with him to pick breakfast up but Kael woke up while they were getting ready to go. So Kael wanted to go along. Then Kael looks at me and said, "Mom aren't you going to come?" so we all ended up at Daylight Donuts in our jammies. Such fun memories. I got lots of wonderful presents- here is a picture of me in my new Italian apron. Yes, I said Italian. As in, straight from Italy! Mom, Dad and Tam picked that up for me when they were there. If you can't tell, I'm super excited!

Clearly I should do this blogging thing more often because this one has gotten way too long! I will close with a couple more pictures of the kids. First if of Kylee in her little pigtails trying to ride a scooter. She also is growing up way too fast. She looks so grown up in this picture! Next is of Kael on a preschool field trip to the farm where he got to ride a horse. Yes all 24 kids in his class took turns riding a horse and every last one of them loved it. Including Kael, as you can see by his huge smile.