Liam's 3rd Birthday!

This is the first year that Liam actually seemed to notice and be interested in his birthday.  We talked about it coming up after Christmas and after his cousins arrived, and he mentioned having a party on a number of occasions.  We decided to try and have it as close to the actual day as possible, since usually we have to wait till people return from ski week.  But this year, with James leaving later, and cousins and friends around, we were able to have his party the day before.  We went simple, and just had crazy balloon, ball and mayhem run around time in the palestra at school for about an hour.  Afterwards we headed downstairs to the snack bar area and had pizza, salad, snacks and of course, his birthday "cake".  (we went with fruit tarts since berries were on the top of his list).  I think all the kids had a good time, and best of all, since campus was empty of it's usual inhabitants, the whole event was easy to pull of, and pretty stress free.  Nassim helped so much with food prep, but we picked up the pizzas from bellavista and so the biggest hassles were taken care of.  Here's who came:  Cassidy and Jamison, Oliver and Calvin, Stirling and Grayson, Gaia and Amadeo, and Leo, Lua and Ava (plus all the parents to go with the mentioned kids and us, of course!)  Here are some photos of the fun, though I wish there were more with all the kids.

Happy to crawl around in such an open space!

Birthday boy!

Calvin hanging out with Eowyn (he really likes her!)

People taking a breather

Singing happy birthday - it must have been really bad because Oliver's blocking his ears!

Liam getting first pick of the mini fruit tarts

Happily munching kids - Liam and Stirling

More eating! Miller boys, Shan, Nate and Amadeo

We held off giving Liam most of his presents until the actual day.  He did open a few things at the party, but on his birthday we gave him a new little piece to add to his train set.  He also got some lovely new clothes from Nass and co, and a race car lego set from Kat.  He got a fantastic new story book from Grandma Gail (that he's loving reading from every night!) as well, and from friends, a few toy animals, a great and challenging puzzle, and fishing game and some new markers.  That's one lucky kid, if you're asking me!  (oh, and a gift certificate from Gramma and Grampa which we haven't used yet!)

New Years Visitors!

In the few days after Christmas and before Nass and co visited we had a new mile stone for Eowyn.  She's now pulling herself up to standing on everything, but back then she would allow you to put her down in a standing position and would actually stay there for a few moments.  So I guess despite her being a little slower on moving, she's getting there anyway.  We also have one new tooth that's broken through in the last week or so.  Funny enough it's not one of the top front two, but rather the next one over on the left.  The other 3 on the top seem to be getting ready to come through too, but are definitely causing her some tough nights.  We definitely didn't have such a hard time with Liam and these teeth, but then he didn't get so many working through at once.

Funny Eowyn wearing Liam's undies on her head!

The first time standing and playing - we took out a new toy so she can really feel encouraged to practice!

Liam's approach to his 3rd birthday has been filled with even more crazy conversations and snippets.  I have the whole bones and surgery conversation recorded, but recently he also was talking to James, and he responded with "mmhhmm" to acknowledge hearing him.  This happened about 3 times when finally Liam just said: Daddy, mmhhmm is NOT enough.
No jokes.
Another funny and completely unprompted moment was when we were sitting at the table and he looked right at me and said: mummy, your eyes are magic!
Again, no jokes. I looked at James to try and grasp where he might have gotten that line from.  He has no idea.

Such a cute picture of the two of them - they laugh so much and have so much fun sometimes

Nassim and family arrived right on New Years Eve.  As parents of young kids none of us had ideas, or hopes even to do any celebrating.  I think we were just happy to hang out a bit together and head to bed at a reasonable time.  Since this was the last visit for them before heading to Canada, I felt like each moment and day was really precious.  We happened to luck out with some incredible weather while they were here (almost 70 degrees on a couple of days!) and so we had some chances to be outside as well.  Since we didn't have an easy way to get around with all 9 of us, we stuck close to home except for one day trip to Lucerne.  Truthfully it felt just fine with all of us, I think.

Lua walking in the last patch of snow in our square

Ava tries walking on the uneven surface (and does pretty well!)

Liam and Leo in the square

Our visit to Luzern was pretty decent.  We opted for the train so that people could move about as needed.  Poor Leo was a bit sick that day, but was so eager to still go, so he was a trouper.  The kids did really well on the two train rides (2hrs40mins each way).  They entertained each other, played little games, looked out the windows, and ate.  On the way back dinner made up a good portion of the trip.  We had a lovely lunch at hotel balance in Luzern and took a little walk around, and that pretty much was all we could squeeze into our day!

Lua and Liam on the train ride there

We arrived to sunshine (didn't last too long, but was lovely) -  a nice family picture

Not a great picture, but the family on the train ride home

It was so great to see the kids playing together.  This time round Liam and Lua would go off and play some imaginitive games together, and other times Leo and Liam would be playing train tracks or cars, and sometimes even all three would get into the same thing, which was fun.  Ava and Eowyn were more like the game wreckers I guess, but it was sweet to see them trying to get involved too, and also interacting together.  It amazes me how different Ava and Eowyn are, despite being just a month apart. I'm glad Eowyn isn't quite so eager to get moving, because Ava is one very busy little girl and I'd have a lot of running around to do if Eowyn was so quick to move and I had Liam!

Hanging out in the Living room

Baby time

Sweet Ava

We were so sad to see them all go, but so grateful for more more visit with them.  It was also so helpful to have them all here at least one of the nights and days that James was away for ski week.  It meant that I only had 2 nights and days till he was back.  But as is always the case with Nass, she also made sure they left everything so clean and neat that I barely had anything to do when they were gone.  Except cry of course!  I hope we can figure things out and be closer together sooner rather than later.