Visit from Grandma & Grandpa

We were all so happy to see my parents last weekend, and grateful that they came from Idaho to visit us.

We had a great time at the park

We visited the Springs Preserve and the Nevada History Museum

Grandma & Grandpa brought Nora a pretty new dress

The grown-ups had a great night out at Zarkana, a show by Cirque du Soleil

 We also visited the strip and saw the Bellagio Conservatory 

We ate some good food, celebrated my birthday, and Mom and I went shopping one afternoon while Nora and Grandpa napped. We had a wonderful time!

After Grandma and Grandpa left, Nora asked about them daily and we had this conversation several times:

Mother's Day, Anniversary, Commencement

May tends to be a month full of celebrations for us, which makes it very fun!

Mike and I celebrated our anniversary with our first Las Vegas night out on the town. (Let's be honest: we were home by 9. But it was still fantastic to get out!

Mike sent me these beautiful tulips to celebrate 7 years of wedded bliss.

And dessert at Cafe Bellagio included this lovely creme brulee.

We celebrated Mother's Day with some friends from the library by going to the conservatory at the Bellagio and seeing the seasonal flowers there. Nora's favorite part was watching the fish in the koi pond.

Yesterday I went to UNLV's commencement. I was thinking about my own college graduation 10 years ago and the last commencement I went to, which was my graduation from library school 5 years ago. I love celebrating new graduates! They've worked so hard and have so many interesting things ahead of them. 

Commencement selfie

Since the semester wrapped up at UNLV, the semester also concluded at UNLV preschool. Nora is moving on to a new class!

This giant owl is in the lending library at the preschool, and every day when we leave Nora says hi. Friday she wanted to hug the owl.

Petting zoo

One of Nora's friends from preschool had a birthday party that included a petting zoo. It was awesome! Seeing these animals up close was a pretty big thrill for our little girl.

Easter 2014

First, a little throw-back to Easter last year:

Check out the cheeks on that little baby! We lived in Laramie and visited Idaho, so she wore a sweater dress for Easter.

This year, we had lots of Easter fun in Las Vegas.

Yes, you can see a jelly bean in her mouth.

We had a wonderful Easter brunch with friends from the library:

And we had a very fun Easter egg hunt with my cousin and her family:

Nora was absolutely thrilled with her Easter basket.

She stopped and clapped for herself every time she found an egg and put it in the basket.

We also colored some eggs.

And feasted on a Honey Bunny from Great Harvest Bread.

Swimming, partying

We went to a fun baby shower yesterday for one of Michael's co-workers. It was a pool party! Nora loved splashing in the little pool and eating fruit. (Later she got some meat from the grill -- yummy!)

Discovery Children's Museum

Last weekend we made our first visit to Discovery Children's Museum. Nora's favorite part by far was Water World, which features all kinds of neat water works and a mini replica of the Hoover Dam.

Nora got to wear an awesome rain coat

She got to experiment with floating balls in the water

Do some splashing

And it was great fun!

Later we went to the park: