Weekend in review

I always plan on taking pictures when we have dinner parties but I never do. I planned on taking pictures of all the Easter food too but I didn't. I did take pictures of the desserts before everyone got here:

 And then I took a picture of the leftovers on Sunday to get an idea of our feast:

It was fun having a big group for Easter dinner; there ended up being 8 adults and 7 kids. After dinner the kids did an egg hunt in the backyard and then played for a couple hours while we all sat on the back porch visiting.

 Gavin enjoyed his "boid":

which, by the way, I got the idea for making here: http://www.whattoexpect.com/blogs/astudentatmamauniversity/easter-desserts-for-kids-ooey-gooey-chickie-nests

 The vegetables I planted a couple weeks ago are growing fast:

 our peach tree:

 the lettuce from seeds is sprouting:

 the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and stevia are growing crazy fast:

 this grape tomato plant in particular:

 pear tree:

 I think the only things that are not going to make it are the 2 rasberry bushes we planted. Someone keeps stomping on them:

 I realized I never posted the final result of all our hard work in our flower beds. Here it is:

 And in other news we have a new (to us) riding mower...

that doesn't work. Luckily it was free (actually free + $80 for a couple parts it needed). It was given to us by Jake's coworker Steve, who it was given to by another coworker named Steve. Steve #1 was given a better mower, so he gave this one to us, which worked the day he dropped it off. Jake thinks it has a bad starter. Luckily Steve #2 has a spare starter he's giving us, so hopefully it will be up and running soon.

Easter eggs

 You can tell you have a boy when he decorates his Easter eggs with fire trucks, rockets, and bikes:

 Gavin was enthusiastic about eating one of his eggs for breakfast. But he didn't like it. I asked him if he wanted me to cut it open so we could see what is inside. He replied, "trick or treats?" If only real eggs contained candy. Then I might actually be interested in raising chickens.

 Tomorrow night we're having a group of friends over for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt. I made these for dessert for the kids (and a few extra for the parents):

Action figures

Gavin has started really playing with action figures. This week he has spent several hours with his "bad guys" playing at the kitchen table: 

 One evening this week Gavin sat in this box watching cartoons. Notice the look of concern in the 2nd picture. Gavin is quite empathetic and can be moved almost to tears when told a story about something sad.

I love to see the temple...

The Atlanta LDS Temple has been closed for renovations for almost 2 years. The renovations are now done and the temple has been open for tours for a couple weeks before it is dedicated and closed off from the general public.

 Since most of the temple is normally closed off to children, this was a great opportunity for Gavin to get to see the inside. We went on our tour Wednesday. In preperation we had a family lesson on the temple geared toward Gavin on Tuesday afternoon. I taught a little lesson about the purpose of temples while Gavin looked at a slideshow of temples around the world (http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/). He then constructed a few temples of his own out of blocks.

His favorite was the Salt Lake Temple:

The tour on Wednesday was wonderful. We met up at the temple with our friends  Dale and Angela and their little boy Brayden. Also, it was our stake's (group of congregations in our area) day to volunteer at the temple, so we knew many of the people working at the open house, which added to the experience. The inside of the temple is even more beautiful than before. The ceilings and chandeliers were awesome. What stood out to me most was all the different pictures of Christ throughout the temple. There were pictures before, but I never really noticed them. Now the beautiful artwork really stands out. Gavin did a great job on the tour. He was a little reluctant to have shoe coverings put on him before entering but once he saw that his friend Brayden was wearing them he allowed it. Gavin was rather quiet throughout the tour. I enjoyed pointing out all the neat stuff for him to look at, like the mirrors and the ceilings. The only time I recall him talking at all was when we were in the room with the babtismal font - Gavin said "water!"

 Angela, Dale, and Brayden:

 Gavin and Brayden:

After the tour Angela and Brayden rode home with Gavin and I while Jake and Dale stayed to work at the temple. Their job was to man the water table in the refreshment tent, where everyone goes after the tour to eat a cookie and ask any questions they may have. Their shift was 4pm-8pm. In Jake's own words, he thought this was a "cake job," but soon found out it was harder than it looked. He ended up getting quite a bit of exercise, constantly switching out water jugs and filling water cups from a dispensor for hours. Luckily our good friend Sister Kozak was handing out cookies so at least Jake got a snack. 4300 people toured the temple that day, many during that last shift. That's a lot of cups. The tours ran late and Jake didn't end up leaving the temple until around 10pm, getting home right after midnight.

Also speaking of temples, I'm excited that one is being built right outside my home town of Liberty, Missouri. It's scheduled for completion sometime in 2012. Here are the details: http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/kansascity/

The Upside

There is an upside to having a kid with a speech delay. Thursday all 3 of us were at Publix grocry shopping. A thin, wrinkly old lady pushed her cart past us and said hi to Gavin. She had stringy hair pulled back in a pony tail and was a little hunched over too. Gavin pointed at her and said "MOMBIES!" a few times. He can't pronounce a "Z." I just played dumb and calmly said to him, "yah, she looks like a mommy doesn't she?" while the lady was in earshot.

Week in review

Gavin spent most of the day Sat the 2nd pushing his new bubble mower around the backyard:

 
 We have trees! We (mostly Jake) planted a fuji apple tree Thursday:

 and a peach tree:

 and I planted a little raised vegetable garden:

We were happy to discover we have real dirt in our backyard, not just all clay like at our old house. Since the holes were pretty easy to dig Jake went back to the nursery and picked up and planted a pear tree too.

   My mom and Aunt Jan visited Wed evening through Sun morning. Jan advised us through the tree/garden planting on Thursday, then we managed to get in some sight seeing Friday and Saturday. On Friday we visited the Air Force museum, then Lane's:

 and Grandma spoiled Gavin with a bunch of cars and trucks:

 On Saturday we visited the Georgia Music Hall of Fame:

 and Aunt Jan bought Gavin a souvenir: