Cinco De Mayo

It's always a fiesta here for Cinco De Mayo. Not that we really need an excuse to get together with friends and have a good time.

The kids loved making their own pinatas, but had more fun breaking them open and gathering up the loot.



Avery has had lots of practice playing baseball with Ethan so she knew just what to do.






A fiesta wouldn't be the same without a tissue paper flower for mom. The boys carefully picked out each color circle to create the perfect flower for mama.

Ethan remembered and really looked forward to the sopapillas. He was even more excited to have one covered in fresh strawberry jam he and Avery made the week before.

We had a great time creating and partying, but the most fun...just spending time with our new little friends in our own backyard.

I Looked Out The Window And What Did I See?

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!

Avery has recently loved singing. Ring Around The Rosie, Do As I'm Doing, and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes are among her most favorites, but she recently learned Popcorn Popping and couldn't help but have Ethan and I lead her in about 20 verses of it.

In order to make a little more out our day and save our sanity from singing the kids
and I pulled out our Family Cookbook, our popcorn popper, and whipped up a batch of strawberry popcorn balls.


It was so fun to make a mess with the kids and they were thrilled to get to squish the gooey popcorn into balls.



We made a mess, lots of yummy treats and lots of friends as we packaged up our goodies and took them around the neighborhood!

Fire Hydrants

On our way home the other day Ethan and I saw the fire department opening the fire hydrants in our neighborhood. They opened the 3 main valves and flushed out the system to make sure they were working properly. I noticed the first one at the church down the street, but by the time we got in view they had turned off the water.

Ethan was sad, but not sure what he had missed so it was ok...until we pulled into our driveway and there was the fireman ready to open our hydrant. We quickly ran out to the curb grateful Avery was blissfully sleeping in the car in the garage so we could be fast.

We arrived just in time to witness the whole thing. He opened the valves and the water squirted clear across the street. There was so much water pressure the neighbor's bark was blown all over the grass. After turning off the water supply the fireman headed across the street to clean up. Ethan grabbed his rake and ran over to help.

The fireman was so impressed he told Ethan he owed him something special for his service and asked where we lived.

Not 5 minutes later what comes down the street, but the largest fire engine ever with horns honking and lights flashing...just for Ethan! They stopped in front of the house and Fireman Kevin jumped out and loaded Ethan in to the cab.

He let Ethan pick from a prize box. He chose a sucker, fireman's badge sticker, and a firefighter emblem eraser. He was pretty pleased with his choices and felt great about getting such a special surprise just for digging in the dirt.

We were all pretty amazed the firemen would spoil a 4 year old like that. It was a big day at our house! Thanks Fireman Kevin and Fireman Bruce!

Consequences

What do you get when your 2 year old learns she can stretch her leg over the side of her crib and carefully let herself down to the floor skipping nap time???




Dinner Entertainment!

Farm Country

In a moment of quick thinking, change of plans, the train museum is closed, Jenn and I loaded the kids back up and headed over to Farm Country.

Ethan loves farm country. He was so eager to feed all the animals. He giggled as the goats, sheep and llamas tickled his outstretched palm full of corn kernels.


Avery on the other hand was terrified of the animals and didn't want anything to do with feeding them. As a matter of fact she didn't want me to have anything to do with feeding them either. She warmed up to them slightly and blew them kisses from the safety of the other side of the fence and sidewalk.


The kids were spoiled with a pony ride, wagon ride and all the corn they could feed. Thanks for a fun day friends!

Easter Excitement

We had a great Easter this year. I mean we always go a little overboard, but this year will be hard to top.

We started Easter weekend with a 5,000 egg hunt. The master association for our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt at the park just above our house the Saturday before Easter. It was amazing. The hills were covered in eggs and yet with all the kids present they were cleaned up in less than 5 minutes. Ethan got his fair share and then some. He loved every second of it.

They had an earlier hunt in a smaller area for the younger crowd. I was glad. It gave Avery a safe place to figure out what this hunting was all about. She got the hang of it quickly and joined in on the big kids hunt.

Bob and I got in to the holiday spirit and loaded up a bunch of eggs. We also picked up a few great gifts for the kiddos. The Easter Bunny helped us hide them around the house for the early morning hunt.

I loved watching the kids' eyes light up each time they found an egg. And it was priceless when Avery found her "pesent." I knew she would love it...a Princess Cinderella doll. It made my day to see her and hear her squeal of delight when she finally got her "rincess" open and out of the box.

Ethan knew one of his gifts just from the shape of the box, but he was still excited to unwrap his Hex Bug and RC Motorcycle.

These kids were spoiled already and we still had one big hunt left. Bob's family always has a great stash of eggs.

The kids loved hunting eggs with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma and granddad. We filled our baskets more than once. What fun!

Ethan and Avery were sad to see the fun end so on Monday they helped me reload a bunch of eggs and the two of them had 5 more hunting adventures in our yard. The fun never stops here!

While Dad Was Away...

Mom and the kids did play! Since Daddy was gone for 6 days the kids and I planned as many fun things as we could fit in...

The first day we took an hour drive to the Aerospace Museum with our friends next door. Jenn and Allie are always up for an adventure. We couldn't get over just how many airplanes they fit into 1 museum and were even more amazed at how many were outside. Too bad there was 6 inches of snow covering the ground and more coming down...we'd have really explored the field.

We tried out a new bounce house-Monkey Island with some friends. It was great. Ethan, Hunter and Sophie loved jumping, bouncing, sliding and monkeying around.


Avery on the other hand wasn't too sure about bouncing, but loved to sit on the pony. After about an hour she warmed up to the whole jumping idea and she and Soph tackled the Princess Castle.


We reconnected with some old friends. Since Craig, Mindy, Matthew and Felicity moved south and we moved north we don't get to see them as much as we'd like. We dedicated an entire day to play! We even had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. It was good practice for the many more to come.

After days of playing hard and going to bed late we were ready for a quite day and just played at the park near our house. The kids had so much fun I'm not sure why I worried so much about entertaining them.