Birthday Parties for Ez

We had a fun party at our house a week before Ezra's birthday because some of my family from St. George were able to visit. It was fun to have cousins over, including Kamrie whom we don't see all that often. Ez was so thrilled with his new water table, bubble-blowing gun, and new sand/water toys. Also, if anyone is looking for a fun game for toddlers, we are loving Cranium's Cariboo Island. Nolan plays it very well, but even Ezra gets the idea and has a lot of fun. Ez was so funny when we all started singing the birthday song to him. He got happy and embarrassed at the same time, so he needed to cuddle into Dad.

We also had a party at Grandma K's house on his real birthday. There were many grandparents and other family from Justin's side. The boring white cake was fun once we cut into it. Nolan kept saying, "Isn't it so beautiful?" Ez would have known exactly how to blow out the candles if Nolan hadn't blown them out before he had a chance. What are brothers for? At this party, Ez got new books, a shopping cart, some clothes, some backyard toys, and a "Critter Clinic." This is also another outstanding gift for kids that are 2 or 3. It had great reviews on Amazon and has sure been a favorite of Ezra's. The little keys for the animal hospital rooms are a fun challenge. Ez kept making the piggy sound and loving his new pig, so I had to capture his piggy face.
Our weekend in Logan was really nice. Nolan had a motorcycle ride to Ryan's place park, we swam at Campbell's, we went to see Grandma K's band play at Summerfest (it was freezing cold, though), visited Moultons and rode their pretend pony, took little wagon rides to play in Campbell's backyard, and Nolan even slept outside in the tent with Grandma. As we were leaving home, he said, "I wish we could live at Grandma's. Her house is better than ours." We even had a little Father's Day celebration today just before going back home. Kathi made a delicious dinner and Justin got an ipod Nano and an iTunes card ... we're not sure if we're keeping it because, sure enough, he said exactly what I thought he would: "My phone already plays music."

Grandma K offered to watch the boys while we went to the temple and a matinee with Grandma P. Nolan was very excited for us to go. He kept saying, "Go, go, it's time for you to go to the temple. You don't want to be late." We saw the movie "17 Miracles." Though we can't recall all 17 miracles that they portrayed from the Martin Willie handcart companies, we loved the movie. It was beautifully done, even though it was apparantly low budget. We highly recommend it!