Ziggy turns 5, Afternoon Tea, Bunny Race

What is better than a 5-year-old boy having his birthday? They are so cute. So happy. So wise about the ways of things. They know all about presents and cake, but they still find them infinitely exciting. I still remember little Sebby's fifth birthday (we went camping!…for the last time) and it seems like just a few weeks ago. Zig reminds me of Seb. Curious and clever, talkative and friendly. He doesn't wear hats ALL the time anymore, but he still loves dressing up and "being" whatever kind of man he's interested in lately: cabinet man, lawnmowing man, garbage truck man, window washing man, UPS man, vacuum truck man, and so on. And he still has his whole cast of imaginary friends: Bunny, Blue Doggy (he is so naughty, that Blue Doggy), Jonas, and a few others that only show up occasionally.

He got a (rather sad and limp) foxy balloon, since we're doing balloons this year. It had been left in the hot car overnight and was never quite the same again. But Ziggy liked it, anyway.

We went to a splash pad for Zig's "fun thing," since it was SUCH a hot day. 100 degrees on Sept 5th! Where are we, California? But the littlest kids all got cold anyway, and shivered their way around avoiding the sprinklers. I didn't get any pictures of Ziggy because he was clinging to my hand the whole time. Clementine was the most fascinated with the water, stepping into the spray and getting facefuls of it and then wobbling off alarmingly on the slippery ground. We all wanted to watch her. 

We made everyone stay and have fun for the requisite one hour, and then took pity on the shiverers and went home to open Ziggy's presents.

Daisy basically took care of Ziggy's presents this year. They were so good that I didn't feel like he needed much else! She had the idea to make him a little Amazon Delivery vest. He has a UPS Man outfit, but we couldn't find anything to buy for Amazon delivery, so Daisy went to my mom's house overnight one weekend and the two of them pieced a vest together with fabric my mom had. It turned out SO cute! Then Daisy crocheted a bunch of different-shaped "packages" for Ziggy to deliver, and made him an Amazon truck out of a cardboard box! (Actually UPS on one side, Amazon on the other.) I just ordered a little "scanner" (just a piece of wood with lights and switches on it) for Zig to scan his packages with when he dropped them off.

(Here's a drawing Ziggy made of a UPS man, a truck full of packages [with the driver's seat in the cab], and our house.)

Zig was pretty excited when he opened up the vest.

And he loved his truck, too.

Have you ever heard of such a good sister??

And a few other happenings:

Ziggy wasn't the only one who liked the delivery truck!

Here is Ziggy dressed up as Robin Hood. We watched the Disney version when we were learning about the Crusades for school, and Zig was fascinated with Robin Hood's bow and arrow. He promptly improvised a costume out of a bag and a stick with a string (I helped him tie it on). He used this bunny-ear hat (one ear pinned down) to be Robin's Hood hat with a feather in it. So cute!

Nutcracker auditions. I came to pick up the girls and the auditions were still going on, so I got to watch for a minute! That was fun.

Junie also got her first pointe shoes! I can't believe she and Daisy are both learning pointe now.

Gus standing sadly in a too-big bunny suit (with a mailbag?) instead of cleaning up his room

Drawing of some very regularly-spotted leopards by Ziggy

A kiss for Junie…or a bite!

Clementine found some little cymbals and walked around clashing them like one of those wind-up circus monkeys

The face of nervous anticipation during a game of "Don't Eat Pete"

I had a bunch of things on my mind that I wanted to have a good long talk with my girls about. I wanted it to be a bit of a special occasion but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to make it so. Then I found a place in Provo where you could go get Afternoon Tea, and I knew that was just the sort of thing the girls would love—especially if they got to dress up in fancy dresses! When I told them what the plan was, they begged me to do their hair too. It was all very exciting.

The afternoon tea place was cute, and we felt so fancy eating from the tiered tea tray! Little delicate savory sandwiches, and scones with jam, and pretty little desserts on top. And different kinds of hot chocolate and lemonade to drink if you didn't want actual tea. We loved it!

After we finished our tea, we weren't done talking yet, so we walked around the temple grounds and took pictures and talked some more.

Daisy and our temple were born at the same time. I helped at the Open House just a couple weeks before she was born, and I watched the Dedication (with her? I can't remember. Maybe I had to leave her home?) when she was just a brand-new little bundle.

Goldie made a little campsite one day on one side of the house. For a top-secret "do not enter" camp, she sure showed it to a lot of people. :)

Lots more race pictures. They all look the same, but I'll post some anyway because I like them. Seb and Malachi are so strong and fast! I love going to their races.

Nice clapping hand intruding in this picture (probably Sam's)

Seb won this race. Sadly it was one I missed, but another mom sent me this picture.

There are so many boys running these races. I always think it's funny looking across the starting lines. A sea of legs. Legs, legs, legs!

At this Spanish Fork race, I said to Sam, "Last year I saw a bunny in the little woods here. Let's walk over to where I saw it." Then I said a little sheepishly, "Of course, I know just because we saw one last year doesn't mean we'll see one this year." But then…

we did! A little white one! He seemed to be under the impression that he was camouflaged here.

Here he is doing a very good imitation of a rock. A bright, white rock.

We usually sing something as part of our morning devotional before school, and for some reason the kids have settled on these as the correct and appropriate places from which to sing. Maybe they like how their voices sound up against the glass? Anyway, it's very funny.

And last of all, a pretty sunshine girl under a pretty sunset sky!