Easter Eggs from Papa

Our next door neighbors, the Kleffner's, are so good to us.  They are our adopted grandparents here in Moscow, so we call them NanaJo and Papa.  Papa made some special easter eggs for the kids this year.  The only way the kids would eat them was if I took pictures first. 

It's Always Fun When Grandpa Comes

My Dad came for a quick visit last weekend.  It was so good to see him!  We went out to Vassar Meadows on Saturday to do a little shooting, eating, and having fun. 

Grandpa brought Anne a couple of early birthday presents.  A pink .22, some pink "ears", and Nana sent her a pink jacket.  She got some private shooting lessons from Grandpa and did great.  Doesn't she look so grown up?

Annie was kind enough to let the other girls have a try with her new gun.

Stephen didn't care to try out the pink rifle.  He wanted to try using the scope instead.

We brought lots of food with us, including marshmallows for roasting. 

There were millions of lady bugs hiding out.  This just shows one little clump of them.  There were bunches like this all over the place!

  It was pretty cloudy and even rained a time or two.  It was pretty exciting when the sun would come out!

We all had such a fun time.  Grandpa took lots of great pictures.  Thanks for sharing these Dad!

Naomi is 5!

Way back in February Naomi turned 5!  She loves being five and feeling a little more grown up!

12 things we love about Naomi at this age:
1.  Naomi taught herself to tie her own shoes.
2.  She loves doing hair, make-up (lip gloss), and nails for herself and other people.  She loves to "make them look fancy."
3.  Naomi is very sure that she has a loose tooth.  Right here.

4.  Naomi plays with her best friend Julia almost every day.

5.  She really wants to catch a fairy.  

6.  Naomi likes to create salads all by herself.  And they are usually pretty good!

7.  Naomi is very talkative and noisy at home, but hardly says a word when other people are around unless she is very comfortable with them.

8.  She loves to sing and learns primary songs really quick.

9.  Naomi still loves monkeys.

10.  Naomi loves to visit our neighbors, the Kleffener's. 

11.  She likes to draw really small pictures. 

12.  Naomi's favorite job to do around the house is to vacuum the stairs with the dust buster.  She does awesome work!

While looking for pictures of Naomi to add to this post, I found these and just had to include them.  This was at Easter time I think so Naomi would have been around 2 months old.  Uncle Ben was holding her and smiling and talking to her and she loved it and smiled and smiled. 

Then he laughed a big deep laugh and...

Her face was and still is very, very expressive.