Oz is 3!

On April 5th Austin turned 3.  It's so hard to believe that my baby is that old!  He is full of life, busy, physical, good at saying please and thank you, a great helper, loves to help run errands, loves to DIG and anything related, really good at pretending and pretty good at playing by himself for a little while, loves Zach, a good eater, is completely potty trained- even at night, is usually a great sleeper, has a good sense of humor, likes to pretend to be a baby but is also very proud of being a big boy, loves books and Trio blocks, and loves nursery.

My parents were going to be out of town on his actual birthday, so we celebrated a little early with them.  We have had a lot going on so we tried to keep it simple.

 

The boys helped me make the cake.  They had fun crushing the oreos to make the "dirt."  Austin requested a "tocolate" cake with "prinkles" on top and diggers.  He specifically wanted a post hole digger, but an excavator and front loader had to do.

 We ate Chick Fil A at home (we planned on a picnic at a park, but it was getting cold and blustery), then had the cake.  It was definately not the perfect cake (see how crooked and shmoopy it is?  that's a word right?) but Austin was happy and that's what matters (and it least it tasted yummy!).  When we were decorating it he decided he wanted a bulldozer on it too and smooshed it into the side of the cake before I realized what was going on.  Oh well!

 He got to open his presents from Nana and Papa and was particularly excited about the Trio blocks.

On Austin's actual birthday morning I surprised him with some balloons.  We let him open his presents after breakfast and he was thrilled.

 

That morning we went to Purple Park, a really fun park that is nearby, but we don't usually go to.  It was a beautiful day!

 Serving me "food"



 

 

 

We had a great time then headed home for lunch and took Zach to school.  I took Austin to the mall for a frozen yogurt treat, and we got to watch a building by the mall getting torn down by huge excavators.  Score!  We picked Zach up from school and walked to soccer practice and had more playground time.  Then we headed to Chuck E Cheese with our friends the Westers.  Cal took the boys there once when I was out of town, and Oz has been wanting to go back since.  I was not as excited about it, but it was a super easy way to celebrate!  The kids all had tons of fun.

To end the day we sang to him and had cupcakes.  It turned out to be a busy day and they fell asleep really fast that night!   

 

Happy Birthday sweet Oz!  We love you!

 



Brudder

Picking up Zach from school in the afternoon is a bit of a hassle because it is kind of crazy and there is not much parking and the parking lot has a terrible layout...  But I have found that I like it because of how the boys react to each other.  Without fail these two run into each others arms (sometimes yelling each other's names) and give each other a big hug.  Austin is always excited to see Zach coming out the door to us, and Zach is always excited to see Oz.

 

It makes my heart melt every time.

 

I'm sure glad these two have each other.

 



Snow!

We have had a ton of snow storms this spring.  I must say that I am fully ready for the snow to change into rain and warm days.  But also as the snow is falling outside tonight I'm grateful for the moisture that we so needed this year.  The boys have had some fun playing in the snow, here are some pictures from various storms...

 

 

A giant snow fort in the front yard.

 

Another storm:  the boys helping to shovel the snow with a neighbor friend.



Another storm:  the boys and I made a snowman after school.  The face kept falling off because it was too warm.  Zach wanted a 4 ball snowman.

 

Yet another storm.  "Hi Mom!"

 

Cal and the boys made a huge snow cave in the backyard.  They made walls then crossed wood over it and put a tarp on it.  The boys thought it was fun to be inside.

 

You can kind of see it on the right.  It was a pentagon.

 

 

And many more WET spring storms that we haven't ventured out into too much.  Last week we got at least 15 inches! 

 

Tradition

On our last day in Moab we went out to breakfast with Calvin and Calli, then packed up our things and checked out.  They had to head out but we had the day to play before spending the night in Glenwood Springs on the way home.  We picked up some sandwiches and had a nice picnic at Balanced Rock.  We had plans for more hiking but ultimately decided that the boys just needed some more play time. 

 

An old Roper tradition is rolling Easter eggs down the sand dunes.  My Dad's Dad's family would get together every Easter (still do?) at the sand dunes in Utah near Delta.  We would dig big trenches and build jumps and race our eggs down and see who's would break.  Since it was Easter and there was no shortage of sand, we decided to give it a try.  We dyed eggs the night before and took them to Sand Dune Arch, where the boys were dying to go back to anyway.  There wasn't much of a hill there and the sand was too dry to make much of a trench, but we did some rolling anyway.  Tradition!

There were far fewer people there than the other day, so it was pretty peaceful.

 

Strong boys!

Big jump! 

(he jumped from where his right hand is)

 

 

Goodbye red rocks, until next time!

Moab II

The second day we hiked to Landscape Arch in the morning.

 

Landscape Arch is the biggest arch.  It had a big piece fall off a couple of years ago that made it even bigger, so now this is about as close as you can get. 

The boys were powered by M&M's when needed.

That afternoon we headed up to Courthouse Wash just outside of Moab to look for some petroglyphs that Calli had read about.  They were supposed to be pretty close so we started off on what was supposed to be a quick little walk.  We ended up going quite a ways looking for the elusive petroglyphs.  We didn't find them and realized later that we went the wrong way.  But we got a nice hike in a really beautiful quiet canyon!