Weekend visit from Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma Ginny and Grandpa Steve visited this weekend and the kids had a great time playing with them all day. After a full day of wearing out Grandma and Grandpa, we all headed for Dewey's pizza and had a yummy dinner. Thanks for coming Grandma and Grandpa!


For some strange reason Eric really likes lemons. He always makes a face at first, but he never puts it down. He just keeps eating them. It all started when I gave him a piece while making some chicken salad. I thought he'd taste it once and that would be it, but we actually had to cut him off because he was eating wedges of it. Now whenever he sees one he wants it. Natalie always tries them too, but she makes a face and puts it down like a normal person :-)

Natalie the Pottery Maker

A couple weekends ago Natalie went to a pottery place with her friend Callie, and they each got to pick out a piece of pottery to decorate. Natalie chose a bowl (she gets the practicality from her mother) and spent quite a bit of time painting it with a rainbow of colors. They actually had a great time.




The only downside was having to wait a few days for the shop to finish off the pottery after it was decorated. Still, it was worth the wait because the finished product looks great. Good job Natalie!

The Circus!

This past weekend both Natalie and Eric got to go to the circus for the first time ever! They both loved it. Eric really enjoyed the tigers and Natalie thought the zebras were pretty cool. Natalie also really enjoyed the magic tricks and Mr. Gravity, who was the bad guy throughout the show.

Even though we went on Saturday, Eric still talks about it, especially when we get into the van to go somewhere. He thinks that's where we're going now whenever we get into the van. He says, "Circus? Tigers, and elephants with trunks, and clowns..." It's pretty cute.

Here are a few pictures. As you can see, Eric had a little intermission of his own in the middle where he took a quick nap. At one point he got startled by applause and quickly sat up and started clapping even though he was still in a daze and half asleep :-)

Mmmm, Pizza

We still enjoy the occasional family pizza making event, and it's even more fun now that Eric can participate more easily. It isn't economical, but we usually have a pretty good time so it's worth the effort. I thought you'd enjoy a few pictures from one of our recent pizza-making adventures.

Here's Dad and Natalie discussing pizza-making philosophy. Notice that Eric is busy testsing the ingredients for us while we chat.



In fact, I'm pretty sure that Eric took as many ingredients off of the pizza as he put onto it.



Eventually I had to give Eric a snack on the side since we were running low on pizza cheese and he wouldn't stop "testing" it.


We forgot to take a shot of the final product, but it was yummy :-)

Birthday Party #3

Natalie's third and final birthday party was with a lot of her friends at a place called Pump it Up. This is one of those play places with the enormous inflatable slides, trampolines, and other toys. Natalie has been there several times and really loves it.

One of the toys in the first room was this enormous tower contraption that you're supposed to run up to see how high you can get your flag to stick on the tower. The kids were a bit young for it, so eventually the parents joined in to try to help the kids get a little higher up. That's when it got really amusing (and tiring). Some parents were essentially just launching their kids through the air and the kids were bouncing off and then sliding down.








There were also a couple of huge slides that everyone had a great time on.






Eric looked nervous going down but he was smiling by the end.



A few even tried the climbing wall and the little cars.





Then the kids got to eat cupcakes and ice cream before Natalie opened her presents.







Here's the whole crew. Thanks for coming everyone and we're glad you had a good time!