More breakfast in bed

The kids took it up a notch and brought me a bowl of ice cream with chocolate and peanut butter on it for breakfast in bed, with a note taped to the bowl that said, 'I love you mom', and two extra spoons, just in case I decided I wanted to share.

New boots

Most of Esther's clothes are hand me downs from Elin and Solvej, which is awesome. But every once in awhile it is fun to get her something new.

More Baby Jon pics

He's just so fun to take pictures of.

This is the quilt Ann Mize made for our wedding.
 It has messages written from all of our wedding guests around the edges.

Esther is not feeling well, she fell asleep next to baby Jon.

Compliments

Esther responds all compliments with 'I know'

Breakfast

Yesterday, I was laying in bed with Baby Jon and Esther. Thinking about breakfast but too lazy to get up. I said, 'Esther, what are you going to make me for breakfast?'

She took up the challenge and returned later with a bowl of applesauce she had poured herself. 

The next day I was feeling a little better so I asked her what I should make for breakfast, but she would not to be deterred from her new breakfast preparation ability and told me to wait there, she wanted to "a'prise" me. 

Van (who must have woken up and teamed up with her) brought me a bowl of applesauce and these bumblebees. 

They are peanut butter, honey, and powdered milk (should also have wheat germ). Then they made the stripes on the back with a fork and added cocoa powder. And chocolate chips for good measure. It's a recipe I often make for them, so they had seen it before but never made it on their own. 

I was impressed.

McHugh - Little kids

While Svea was hiking with the big kids, Andy and I took Esther on a mini-version of that hike, we reached our goal, the top of the ridge. I don't know the distance but it was a great accomplishment for Esther, she had a great attitude and powered up really well for a 3 year old. Jon did well too, he slept the whole time.

I helped motivate Esther by telling stories and pointing out 'magic rocks' along the trail.  I'd point out a 'magic rock' and when she stepped on it, I would pick her up and make her fly a couple steps. Needless to say, I had to limit the amount of 'magic rocks' we ran into. But it was a fun boost for her.

I couldn't get enough of taking doubles pictures with Esther. I love that cute little mini-person.

Once on top of the ridge we talked to Svea and learned their location. We had thought at first that we might run into them coming back down; we had left the house a couple hours after them. But they were almost to the top of McHugh peak, still miles away from us. So we left them a power bar and headed down. We made a plan to get the kids some Happy Meals as a treat for when they made it back to the parking lot.

A picture of the Powerbar we left for the big kids

A picture of Esther pointing to the location of the bar, so I could send it to Svea, so they would be able to find it.

Esther immediately after reaching the car.

McHugh - big kids

Svea, being the super hiker and super motivator, took all 5 big kids up to the top of McHugh peak. That was a big accomplishment, I have quoted the stats of the hike before, it is the same one we went on for Kyle's bachelorette party, from memory I think it is 6.5 miles round trip and ~3400ft elevation gain. Here are some pictures she sent from the hike. 

To help with motivation I agreed to meet them at the parking lot when they were done with Happy Meals. After about 5 hours of hiking they deserved it.

New Playground

On a walk through a neighborhood we had not been in before, Esther and I found a couple cute little playgrounds.