Birthday Party

Since we were in Nebraska for The Artist's birthday, we held a party last weekend for him.  He had the great idea to have a progressive park party.  We invited a bunch of his friends to join us as we went to four of his favorite parks. 

The first one was fun - and nice and shady:

The second was was awesome, but in the full sun.  It lent itself to fun pictures, though:

Isn't this the coolest climbing structure ever?

We went to two more shady parks and ended up back at our house for pizza and air conditioning.  The Artist doesn't like cake, so he had popsicles after we sang him happy birthday.

Many thanks to all his friends who made his birthday special, and especially to EBY for driving the other van full of loud, hot, sweaty, amazing kids from adventure to adventure.

Pics

I am taking an online photography course from the awesome woman at www.AshleyAnnPhotography.com.  We got a new camera just before we went to meet Zoe, and I haven't begun to master it.  So today's post is all pictures, some using what I am learning, and some just for fun.

These last two were taken by Bryan but were too good not to include:

Family

We spent the last two days hanging around with family.  Zoe got to meet some new people, and so did mom and dad.

Cousin CP

Cousin KP

Z-Man got a special treat - a tractor ride with Grandpa on his restored John Deere.

Grandma Betty got to meet Zoe for the first time.  They liked each other a lot!

Zoe got really interested in daddy's watch:

I love how intent she gets when she's figuring things out.

There will be more family times over the next few days - we're looking forward to seeing everyone!

6 Months!

As of yesterday we have known Zoe for 6 months.  Can you believe it?  I can't - it's gone by so fast!

Sunday we spent the morning at church and then drove across Illinois and part of Iowa toward a family reunion.  No. 1 Son took some cool photos along the way - the extended sunset going West was gorgeous.

We didn't really celebrate our meeting day yesterday - we spent most of the day traveling.  We did stop for a while at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha to check it out.  They have some really great exhibits!

Zoe really enjoyed the fish especially - she's pretty cute too.

A New Look

Sweet Zoe's hair was getting pretty long, so Drama Queen and I decided it was time for her first haircut.  She had been shaved at least twice in China, but had never had a real cut before.  So off we went to our local salon.  Zoe wasn't too sure about the whole thing.

 Once she realized Mama was staying close, though, she was fine.

Silly Faces

Looking Adorable

Isn't she beautiful!!!

Birthdays!

We had two very special birthdays last week, so I thought I should share some photos.

The first birthday was Mr. Z-Man, who turned 8 years old.

He received several new Beyblades, making his battles even more fun.

He also got cards from his sweet grandparents with some money he was quite excited about.

One of his favorite gifts was a Krazy Kar, which is easier shown than explained:

Z-Man wanted a party at Monkey Island, so off we went after Tom Sawyer rehearsals with a bunch of his friends.

Unfortunately, he started feeling sick after a little while, and ended up sleeping on Daddy's lap.

Little miss Zoe had more fun than he did at his party, I'm afraid.

Which brings me to Zoe's 2nd birthday, her first home with us.  We had a quiet little party with our good friends, and she got to open her gifts.  She remembered how that worked from Christmas, and dug right in.  The first gift required some assembly - so The Man and his friend took it on, with a little help from the Birthday Girl.

Cousin Carly sent her a Ladybug Pillow Pet that she loves bouncing around on.

Zoe also got a new baby doll and some doll furniture:

Her favorite part was the baby shoes - she positively crooned over them.

Cake was interesting - she managed to blow the candles out pretty well.

But she wasn't so sure she wanted to eat it.  She preferred feeding it to her baby.

 It was a wonderful weekend of celebrations of two of the best kids in the world!