The 6 Bears: Ezra's 2nd birthday, Mexico team photo

Monday, June 8, 2015

Ezra's 2nd birthday, Mexico team photo

Sunday May 31st marked two years since Ezra joined our family. As is tradition, we got him out of bed with the birthday song. He was totally confused.

He's so big anymore. I still feel like he's my baby but gosh darn it, he's really not. And he hasn't skipped the whole toddlerhood punkiness like I was hoping last year. I now find it hard to believe, that he was, as I stated last year, "pretty relaxed." Isn't that why we made him to Yoda on the back of my van? Yeah, he's so not relaxed. He's a punk. He does a lot of screaming. He sounds pretty much exactly like a Velociraptor screaming (from Jurassic Park) or the Black Riders from The Lord of the Rings. It's a toss up. But at least he is cute.

Notice the arms grabbing him...?

Noah likes to kiss Ezra as much as I do.

After eating breakfast (donuts - Ez likes them now, unlike last year) and getting ready, we headed off to church. Terry's Mexico / L.A. team was finally all assembled in one place so they could take a team photo.

Unfortunately we picked a blindingly bright area. The people sitting on the ground simply could not keep their eyes open anymore! David was crying out in pain. Natasha's blinking, Mia is covering her entire face, Prae's laughing and Terry's giving it a good try. Ha!

Everyone kinda hung out for a while afterward. This was a difficult day for me. You know how sometimes the expectation of something exciting happening in the future is almost better than the event itself? Like Christmas. You took forward to Christmas all month long and then all of the sudden, it's just over. And winter goes being terrible and long for months and months with nothing fun to break it up. I've found that the expectation of Christmas is almost better than the event. Well, I had a similar experience with this trip, except backwards. Since I couldn't go along and had to be alone with four wacky/crazy/irritating kids without Terry for two solid weeks, I was dreading the trip instead of looking forward to it. And this feeling of dread was the strongest the day before they left. The day they actually left wasn't as bad as the day before when I had been looking "forward" to it. I don't know if that makes sense. The event wasn't as bad as the expectation. So it was backwards of Christmas.

Everyone getting their ducks in a row with their fearless leader.

I can't even remember what we did that afternoon. Rested I think. Laundry. Oh, and moved dressers around. But at about 4pm both families came over to celebrate Ezra and my brother (since they share a birthday). I love holding little chunky Theo. Ezzie wasn't too happy about that. He wormed his way into my lap. And how cute is little Sarah?!

Noah took some family photos while Terry and I got the cake ready. Nathan turned 30 that day! Sad, we are getting old.

My mom.

Terry's folks.

My dad and Jesse.

We didn't have a 3 to make 30 for Nathan so we went for the next closest number; a 4! HA! And of course the 2 was for Ezra.

He successfully blew out the candles. I was surprised.

Waiting for their cake or rhubarb dessert.

We've been trying to get him to feed himself. He was more than willing with something as yummy as cake. He's come a long way since last year when he wouldn't eat any of the cake and freaked out because his hands got dirty.

Nom nom nom.

Noah took this accidental photo of an escaping piece of Nathan's cake. So funny!

Present time. This was a little car from Shari and Jesse to go with the track he would be getting.

He doesn't need much so I told my mom to just get Mary Poppins. The kids loved it when we rented it during the May blizzard.

Terry's folks got him this sand scooper. What an original idea!

And there's the track. I wanted a smaller one but since it was on sale for really cheap and Terry loved it, we got it. We knew Ezra would love it and he certainly does.