We have an in-house confetti maker

And his name is Ansel:

Designing a Valentine's box

"Ollie, we've got to make your Valentine's box for Thursday," I say to Ollie Monday evening as we prep dinner. 

"Okay Mom, I know what I want to do."

And with that we had a internet-idea-free box, complete with Big Bird. I only helped with the red and orange paper and the blue arrow. 

I love watching Oliver come up with ideas and execute them. He is so original. Something I wasn't completely as a kid (which isn't bad, I liked what my siblings did and I followed suit and it worked for my personality so well).  I think as the oldest child you've really got to break out and be brave as you experience the unknown often. Ansel really learns a lot from his brother and I'm thankful I was able to learn so much from my siblings. I often think of my oldest brother. The sibling who had to do everything "first."  And I'm thankful he is such a great older brother. And how I have five more older siblings who enabled me to follow in their wake and succeed. 

I don't know how this post took this turn, it was just supposed to be about Oliver's awesome box. But there you have it. 

"I'm three!"

This past week Ansel turned three. He's such a fun kid to be around. The whole week he'd point to 2s and 3s in books and on papers and say, "I used to be this (pointing to 2) and now I'm this (pointing to 3)!"  The kid is so excited about getting bigger. As a parent it sure is fun to watch him grow. 

For his birthday we went to a trampoline park. Because Ollie got a bounce house for his birthday party, Ansel thought that he'd be having one too, 'cause, ya know, birthdays = bounce houses. In hopes that he wouldn't be bummed that there was no such thing happening, we tried this out. Success. Fun had by all!