Happy Easter

Tesla concentrating on dying Easter eggs:

So sweet in her Easter dress before Church! 

 Lennon's not real good at faking it for a picture!

 Ready for their egg hunt from Grandma & Papa and to find their baskets from Mom & Dad:

 Tesla's assigned egg colors were pink & purple--she still feels the need to remind us how much she loves pink and purple!

 Lennon was on the hunt for Blue & Orange eggs:

 Lennon found his Easter "basket" from Mom & Dad:

 This year was especially exciting because each egg from Grandma & Papa was $1 wrapped around candy!

 I've got to catch proof of sibling affection when I can!!

 Tesla was very proud of the picture that she created with the stickers from Auntie Leah & Uncle Drew!

Darth Lennon turns Six!

Lennon had a hard time deciding what kind of birthday party he wanted. It was down to Star Wars or Mario--and he finally decided on a Star Wars party, and it was going to be a fun one! We had noodle lightsabers and Jedi Robes.

 Jedi Lennon, Jedi Tesla and Jedi Jordon:

Lennon requested a Death Star cake. We tried to sing to him outside but the wind kept blowing out the candles, so he asked that we go inside to blow them out! 

Darth Vader did make his appearance at the party--but then Jedi Lennon returned! 

 Using their lightsabers to get the Stormtrooper and Darth Vader balloons, as well as several Death Stars!

 He's serious about Star Wars, if you can't tell!

 

Loving his Millenium Falcon ship that he got from Mom, Dad & Tesla:

 Grandpa & Lennon putting together one of his Lego Star Wars sets:

 He got a shark sleeping bag from Grandpa & Papa and slept in it, on the ground until the last day of school the end of May!

 Excited about more presents on the morning of his birthday--he was so very excited about his Lego Darth Vader watch from Grandma & Grandpa!

 His request for his birthday was to go to the aquarium.

 He sure loves his sharks!

 

Petting the sting rays:

Having his birthday dinner at the aquarium restaurant where he opened the rest of his presents from Mom, Dad & Tesla!

  

Early Easter

Since my parents weren't going to be staying for Easter, we did a special treasure hunt for them to find Grandma & Grandpa's Easter baskets. I made clues like, "I have bark but do not bite," and he went directly to the trees--next time I have to make them harder!

 

 

 

 

 Tesla looking as sweet as can be with her new barrettes!

 Grandpa & Lennon running together--Lennon wants to be just like Grandpa!

My sweet boy always has such a hard time saying goodbye:

The Move

In February we got a postcard from a realtor saying that a townhome in our complex sold for a lot of money and was under contract in 2 weeks.  A couple weeks later our realtor emailed me saying that several units had been sold very fast and for a lot. She said if we were contemplating selling, this was the time, as the market was exploding.

 Adam and I talked about it, still not believing it was possible for us. But when we heard that we could make a $40K+ profit from the sale to use on a single family home--we were a little more serious about it. For the longest time, we thought we were stuck in our townhome. As nice as it is, we had outgrown it--the kids needed a yard of their own and their own bedrooms.

So we made the decision to sell. We were going to move into Adam's parents' basement while we listed the house and looked for a new home (a task that we knew was going to be a challenge).  Three weeks after we made the decision to move, we were moved. We all managed to do well with the chaos of me packing and cleaning everything. Most of our stuff went into a storage unit and the rest down in the basement with us--moving day, start to finish took about 5 hours!

After two contracts fell through, we finally closed 5 weeks after we first listed it, for several thousand more than our asking price--hooray!!  On the night before we closed we took the kids to have a picnic in the house and say goodbye. 

  

 Lennon was very emotional about saying goodbye. He would go into every room and take in every detail. He would hug and kiss each wall!

Saying goodbye to his closet: 

Trying to smile through his tears--he had the hardest time saying goodbye to his bedroom. 

 Breaks my heart...but I love his sweet, sensitive heart!

A couple weeks after we closed and the house was not ours anymore, Lennon got really upset while we were driving and asked if we could go back to the house because he forgot to say goodbye to the kitchen! 

The transition to living with Grandma and Papa has been as good as we could have expected. For the first couple months, Lennon would randomly asked why we moved (and there were times that the voice inside my head said, "I don't know") but I would always respond that we will find a house that we will love (Lennon's still not convinced) and that the most important part is that we're together as a family (I need to remind myself of that too!).

The difficulty of the transition for Tesla has come out in a fear of getting lost. We will be out doing errands and Tesla will ask, "what happens if we don't know where Grandma & Papa live?" or if we're at Target, "what happens if we don't remember where the car is?" She has also stopped wanting to feed herself. This, coming from the baby who didn't like baby food because she wanted to do it herself! We have to fight with her eat meal for her to eat on her own. She now replies, "I'll eat by myself when we have a house!" Come soon, house, come soon!

Christmas 2014

Visiting Santa!

As we do every year, the kids got dressed up and we headed to Bass Pro Shop to visit Santa. Tesla, especially, was excited to see Santa. Lennon was pretty neutral about Santa, which made me wonder if this would be the year of truth, since he had started school.

However, when the time came, Tesla was not thrilled.  This picture is almost identical to last year's Santa picture! I picked Tesla up after the picture was taken so that Lennon could tell Santa was he wanted. I didn't know what to expect to hear, but was surprised when Lennon told me that he asked Santa for a Red lightsaber and a Darth Vader mask...the elves started working!

Tesla bounced back quickly after Santa and both were able to enjoy their carousel ride:

  

Christmas Cookies and Gingerbread Houses!

The kids had a blast--Lennon was very particular about the ways he decorated his cookies (and about when and who would eat them) and Tesla was in assembly line mode and cruising on through her decorating!

Tesla and her gingerbread house:

How could I leave this one out!  Poor Tesla, her frowning pictures will far outnumber her smiles-but they're classic Tesla!

Lennon is so proud of his gingerbread house!

Digging for Dinosaurs
We went to the Morrison History Museum to look at the dinosaur fossils that were found in the area. Here, Lennon is chipping away at an actual fossil (I think it is an Apatosaurus):

And Tesla using the drill:

Digging in the sand pit for the stegosaurus fossil--can you believe we're without coats in December?!(you never know what you're going to get in Colorado!)

Theater Date!

At the end of Lennon's last day of school before Christmas break, we went to the Denver Center for Performing Arts to see The Grinch. Lennon and I got to ride the light-rail downtown to meet Adam.

This picture is before the musical began.  After, he wasn't so happy. He was very bothered and cranky that the story was slightly different than The Grinch that he's used to. We ran into a friend of mine after the show and his response to her when she asked him how he liked it was, "I didn't like it so much."  However, he must have had some fun because he talks about only the things he liked about it now.

One night before bed we got our jammies on, made some hot chocolate and went hunting for Christmas Lights--it was very fun!

Christmas Fun!
We spent Christmas Eve having a relaxing day at home. After church that night they got to open their presents from Auntie Em and Uncle Jordan:

For those who know Lennon, this is him super excited!  Tesla, on the other hand, wears her emotions (all of them) on her sleeve!

Lord Vader, as Lennon calls him!

Cookies for Santa (and carrots for his reindeer)! As I was saying goodnight to Lennon he asked me if I would hide his lightsaber and Darth Vader suit.  When I asked why, he said that he didn't want Santa to know that Auntie Em & Uncle Jordan got them for him already! I said he didn't have to worry, Santa already knew about it and that he saved those gifts for Auntie Em & Uncle Jordan!

Christmas Day!

Stockings after breakfast. I still love that my kids wait until after breakfast until they even ask to open presents...I'm pretty sure this will be the last year for that!  And yes, Lennon did come downstairs wearing his Darth Vader mask with lightsaber in hand!

Opening up their Lego tables:

Adam with his new Arsenal gear:

Lennon's not at all excited about his new Lego set!

I spent weeks painting Tesla's new, unfinished dollhouse and all her figurines...

...she was happy with it!

Christmas fun playing with new toys!

That afternoon we headed over to Adam's parents for round two (you see Tesla is carrying her babydoll in her new carrier and Lennon with his inseparable lightsaber!)

  

Jordon, Lennon and Tesla opening stockings:

Lennon took a break between stockings and presents to change into something more comfortable--his Darth Vader suit!  Here he is with his "very own" weather center, "just like Papa's!"

Round Three--Grandma and Grandpa!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit a couple days after Christmas--as usual, they started right back up with games they left off the last time they were here!

  

 Puzzles!

 Bowling!

We had so much fun at the Morrison History Museum that we took Grandma & Grandpa!

The building of the Bank tradition continues (Lennon looks forward to playing this with Grandpa most of all!) 

 Twister Fun!

Happy New Year!

It was fun having Grandma & Grandpa there for New Years.  I won't pretend that we stayed up until midnight--we can't do that anymore!! So we found the Madagascar Countdown on Netflix and had our own countdown (actually multiple countdowns!) at around 8pm!  I think my head hit the pillow around 10:30 (that's late for me!)