Easter - Also Known as Christmas in the Spring

I know! Can you believe it? This event JUST happened (a week ago) and I'm actually blogging about it. Yay me!

Our Easter was great and seriously hectic. We were the lucky ones to host the family (2nd year in a row) and there was much to be done beforehand. The Friday before it was good not only because that's what the calendar said but also because it came with surprises - a new dining room chandelier in the mail an new hardware for our kitchen cabinets. So here I was thinking, between all the errands, food prep and cleaning that needed to be done, I'd get those things installed too. Haha! Funny, right? My eyes are always bigger than my stomach...except with to do lists, not food. As always, I was far too expectant on what can get done so not much was. The dining fixture didn't go up (not only that, but it's back in it's original packaging waiting to be sent back) and the only hardware that went up were the "easy" cabinet pulls (ie the ones requiring no new holes being drilled or any other complicated maneuvering). However, we did get the boys' presents assembled and eggs filled for the big day. And, when guests arrived, there was a pretty clean house and food about ready to eat. So, it worked out.

The boys had a great time discovering their stash of gifts. On the one hand, I'm a little embarrassed with how much we gave them. It really was a mini Christmas. On the other hand, our gifts made sense in timing and we wanted to give them so we did. See, in New England, we have this thing called winter. It pretty much deems any outdoor activity without skis on your feet null and void for about 6 months of the year. That means it's pretty cruel to give a kid a bike and say "Merry Christmas....you can't use or touch this thing for a minimum of 4 months!" Dylan's birthday is more than half way to weather deemed inappropriate for outdoor again so, Easter ends up being a good time for those big outdoor toys like bikes and ride on cars. Guess what our kids got?

And, as on Christmas morning, we don't wait to go at it. It was throw the jackets on top of the pj's and go out to hunt for eggs with bed head. Dylan was really sweet showing Cade the ropes and leaving him eggs to find as well. Cade started by picking up eggs and them re-hiding them but soon got the gist of things and stored up some in his Easter bucket.

Ready for the Hunt!

After the bikes were given and the outdoor hunt finished, we took them to the garage for the big reveal - a new jeep! As you may recall, Cade got a (free) car for his birthday. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite grasp how to maneuver it himself yet and Dylan's too big for it. Plus, we don't really have easy\safe access to long stretches of flat pavement (that would be across our busy street). That's why we wanted to get the boys the jeep - Dylan can tote his brother around and they can traverse our yard with it. After jumping in and excitedly looking at it, they jumped out and seemed uninterested in it. Great. Well, at least I'll be able to have fun in it! I'm sure they'll love it when there's not so much else distracting away from it.

After we opened the eggs and dumped the candy in bowls, it was time for some major cleaning and cleaning up of ourselves. As we were so hectic that day, I completely failed in getting a sweet "boys dressed up for Easter shot." Mom fail. But, I promise they were dressed up and adorable. Take my word for it.

Our first guests to arrive were our friends that would be joining the family. They came early and were amazing\wonderful help in our preparations. (Thanks again, Eleni!) As Mike's family started piling in, we got to meet the newest family member, little Maggie who was born in December. Cade loves babies and gave her sweet kisses and pats on the head.

What a Cutie!

What came after was fast jumble of food, kids, running around the house (inside and out) and time with family\friends. We had a great day and I think everyone else did too.

Dylan, Cade and Justin

Maggie and Her Beautiful Mom, Leah
(Can you stand how cute that baby in a bunny hat is?!?)

By the Swings - Dylan, Cade, Me (Pushing), Isabella and Gustavo
In Front of the Swings - Justin and Ryan

Look! A Table Full of People!
Left Side - Davide, Robbie, Gustavo-Eleni-Isabella (barely seen)
Yep - That's both the boys in my lap for lunch at the end.
Right Side - Betsy, Tom, Jamie and Erik

And from the other end!
Left - Tom, Jamie, Erik, Ryan, Jessie
Right - Justin, Leah, Maggie, Davie, Rob and Eleni
Mike was the lucky guy taking these lovely pictures but I promise he was there too.

Another big holiday in the books at our house. Lots of memories getting made there, people. But, what's happening there is a whole lot of mess. Projects are underway and I hope to have some after pictures sooner rather than later.

Other Winter Stuff

I wanted to start this post by saying, "now that winter feels long gone around here" (I washed and put away our jackets a few weeks ago) but we got another quick dash of snow last week to remind us that spring is still subject to opinion. With the beautiful weather we've had the last few days though, I'm convinced spring is here to stay this time. In any case, lots of other stuff happened during this year's seemingly unendless winter and I've obviously not been great at blogging it. So, here's a quick recap on some other stuff that went on.

The cats seem to all be friends now. Despite a rough start, Luci and Pumpkin have (mostly) made peace. They've even been spotted snuggling from time to time. Only took about a year to get to that point.

Pumpkin, Luci and Cici

For those of you on facebook, you no doubt saw how seriously cute Dylan was in his ski gear. What you didn't really get to see was how hard he worked. He skied and\or took lessons on about 5 different occasions throughout the winter. He learned quite a bit and really worked hard (and pooped himself out) during his instruction time. He and I "skied" together a few times so that he could see how fun it is to go a little faster down a bigger hill. That consisted of me holding him tight from behind. A lot of work for me to show him the future fun he has in store but well worth it. I'm guessing by the end of the ski season next year, he'll be leaving me behind.

We have very much enjoyed our new NH place. Hard to believe that we've only owned it since September...it very much feels like home to us. We were happy to be able to have a couple of winter visitors up there to share in our fantastic view and our snowy fun. First we had the Hunt family up. Jess and I got to get some time away from the families for a jaunt on our snowshoes. Her boys got in some skiing and my boys got in some sledding\outdoor play time.

Snowy Snowshoeing - Jess and I

Pajama Boys
Sammy, Dylan, Max, Cade in Front
Obviously, something very mesmerizing was on the boob tube at the time.

Next up, we had a fun weekend at Loon mountain. I met a coworker who has a place up there. So not technically a visitor, but time with friends in the mountains. He and I did a guided snowshoeing trip on Loon Mountain while Dylan spent the day in ski school and Cade and Mike did some tot tubing.

I love this selfie of Dylan and I at the condo.

Cade Rockin the Headphones

Cade Tot Tubing

Views From Loon

Rodney and I

In Front of Loon Lake At the Top of Loon Mountain

Quick break from NH fun. I got a Mom's night out and did a paint party with some girls from work. We had a fun night and discovered our inner Picasso's.

Mike and I also threw an impromptu St. Patrick's Day party. Everyone brought some sort of green food and there was much ruckus with a million kids running around. Nothing like popping on Frozen to get them all to chill out for a little while.

Cade, Dylan, Wyatt, Mason, Hayden, Isabella, MacKenzie and Arden
(Only little one missing from this shot is Wyatt's little sister, Reagan.)

Back up to NH for our last winter weekend at the end of March, Mike's cousin, Erik, and his family joined us. As usual, we had a great time with them and the boys had a great time playing together.

Justin and Dylan Bonding Over IPad Time

Love this crazy boy!

Buzz Lightyear Loves Winter

Woohoo!

Cuties with Cute Smiles

Mike, Cade (have no idea why he is practically naked in this pic),
Jessie with Ryan, Justin and Erik

And to encourage Spring to come and stay around, I got a little haircut.

It Was Long....

And Now It's Not

Because it had been fairly long and I was ready for a change, I sucked it up and grew it out as much as I could to donate. I hate being wasteful and it's always good to do a good deed. That pony tail (actually a collection of 4 small ones) was mailed off for donation last week.

So, that's the rest of our winter in a nutshell. Spring is here and with it organization and construction projects. The next few weeks will be absolutely nutty with home projects. I am doing my best to do documentation along the way so that I can share the transformations.

Happy Spring Everyone!

Mimaw and Pipaw Were There Too

Somehow, I don't think I got 1 picture of my parents at Cade's birthday party. But, as always, they made the trip up for the big event.

Dylan was getting over his cold when they arrived and Cade was just starting up on his. I think Dylan was decent company to them but Cade definitely was not. He pretty much wanted to be held by a parent most of their trip here. Kind of stinky.

They managed to squeeze in some good moments with the boys. Their trip coincided with Dylan's preschool's Father's breakfast so my Dad got to go to that. Unfortunately, Dylan being out the prior week and some of that week with illness, he didn't feel well practiced for the performance and, well, didn't perform. At least it looked like he enjoyed having Dad AND Pipaw at the breakfast with him.

I apparently stunk at taking pictures of the grandparents with their grandkids during the week so most of these are borrowed from my Mom's camera. It being the beginning of February in Boston, they stuck mostly to indoor activities.

Pipaw and Cade
(In one of the rare moments Cade would let him hold him. Look how sad and unenergetic his poor, sick eyes look.)

This picture is more reflective of Cade's stat of happiness most of that week.

Pipaw and Dylan

Not a lot of snowfall for our standards, but the Texans were impressed.

Other than the birthday party, the only other event we were able to do with all of us (I was working and doing party prep most of the time) was to visit the newly rehabbed aquarium. The huge center tank had gone under a major under haul and this seemed a good enough time as any to check it out.

Penguins

Good Ol' Myrtle the Turtle

Ginormous Fish

Look - Mimaw was there too!

Watching a Diver

Touch and Feel Tank

It was a nice jaunt down to see the fish. My parents usually come for a week. This time, they decided to make their visit "just 5" days and somehow it seemed much shorter than that amount of time. Of course, when you're fitting in handling sick kids, still settling back from a vacation, working full time and preparing for a birthday party, I suppose any amount of time would have seemed quick.

To Infinity And Beyond!!!

After finally getting a post up about my dear little Cade turning two, here's a post about his birthday celebrations. We got back late January 26th from Cali so his actually birthday, the 27th, we had some small celebrations that we crammed in before and after I went to work.

My Babies Have Beautiful Eyes!

Opening Presents

Playing With His Presents

A New Car
(Kind of a cop out gift from us. A colleague actually gave this to our manager for Christmas as a joke. He passed it along to me since I had kids at the right age to actually use it. Freebie!)
Cade likes it but doesn't quite have a handle on using the gas pedal.

He did a great job blowing out his candles!

Unfortunately, later in the week the poor little guy got sick. He felt so lousy that we very seriously considered canceling his party. Fortunately or unfortunately, we hadn't invited many kid friends and most of those were unable to come anyway. The older cousins and family weren't scared off by the cooties. Thankfully, the evening before his party, he perked up a bit and was feeling better to be able to enjoy his party the next day.

Of course, our parties always have a theme. Cade LOVES Buzz Lightyear, so that's what we went with for his big 2 year old bash.

Alien Gift Bags

The Craft Table
The kids could make bracelets with star beads, decorate space themed magnets and find the alien in the goo.
Finding the alien in the goo was hands down the most popular activity.

As usual, my Mom did a bang up job on the cake!
Buzz with his rocket ship surrounded by alien cupcakes.

Marshmellow Exhaust

The Birthday Boy (Or is it Buzz Lightyear?)

The boys disappeared at some point and were find hanging out (reading a book I think) under the dining room table.
Jacob, Cade, Dylan and Corwin

Playing with the Alien Goo

Cade Decorating His Star

Happy Birthday, Cade!

A Pro With the Candles

He finally got to take Buzz off the cake (he'd been wanting to do that since the cake's completion the day before).

He enjoyed opening up toy story and Octonaut gifts.

Buzz Hat

Fits Me Too

It's pretty much the saddest thing in the world to see your kiddo sick. This is really the first experience we had had with Cade feeling so yucky. I was incredibly glad that 1) he was able to enjoy his party and 2) he was mostly back to his energetic, happy self again. It ended up being a good day.