von Niederhausern Family

Our very fist blog post happens to be on Steve’s 30th birthday! So Happy birthday to the best father and husband around, and happy Earth Day to everyone else (as Steve would say). We celebrated today by going on a family birthday date to Chadders. The best thing was the purple warthog Ava drew on Steve’s birthday card. She said she wanted to draw an animal for him and then she had me spell warthog underneath it so he would know what is was. On Saturday we threw a suprise party for Steve at a gymnastics place near our house. It was so satisfying for me to see the shock on his face when we walked in and he saw Matt Croshaw jumping toward him yelling “Suprise!” I chose this venue because Steve is a big kid at heart and loves nothing more than to jump, twist, and flip. I know he will still love doing that in another 30 years. Happy Birthday Steve! We love you!

We can’t believe Ava already turned four! This has been an emotional milestone for Ava. Having the flu along with the stress of a big day created many ups and downs, so there were many tears mingled with the smiles today. While I was combing her hair to get her ready for her big family party she was crying away and I asked her what was wrong. She cried, “I just want to be three again.” After a waffle breakfast, Ava and Steve went skiing. Then we had a big party with the whole gang. One of the highlights of the party was Tim playing his guitar while Ava, Lauren, and Ellie danced around the room. After everyone went home, Steve built a huge blanket tent in the family room and we watched a movie and slept in it. Both Ava and Lauren fell asleep in the blanket tent with new bracelets on because Ava is such a kind and considerate sister. She is also our artist with Steve’s creative genes. We love her and can’t wait to see what this next year has in store.

Lauren thinks she is Dora. She has a bracelet from Grandma Morris that spells “Lauren” but when you ask Lauren what it spells she says “Dora.” So, for her birthday cake my amazing friend Amy helped me decorate a Dora cake for the occasion. Everything Dora stands for sums up the past year for Lauren: a very adventurous, loud, friendly, learning, exploring year. Lauren enjoyed all of the attention she got on her birthday, with all our extended family and some friends coming to celebrate with us. We love our Dora wannabe and can’t wait to see how she learns and grows this year.