Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Happy Easter!

 The Easter bunny visited our house and left some goodies for the boys and the babies! :)
 The very practical Easter bunny left new jammies, swimsuites, undies, and books for the boys! :)
 Love Charlie's face when he discovered the basketballs on his new jammies!
 We were even able to squeeze in some egg decorating before heading to Grandma's Marys for Easter lunch!
 Henry made some very beautiful eggs!
 Charlie's eggs were equally as beautiful . . . on one side! :)
 Parks family photo on Easter! :)
 Lots of play time was had at Grandma Mary's and Aunt Anne's!  The boys loved the egg hunt (Henry liked the coins, Charlie liked the eggs!) and singing bunnies!
We had an egg-cellent Easter day! :)

Mullenbach Easter

 We're usually able to get together the Saturday before Easter with the Mullenbach side and this year was no different!  We had a great time hosting! :)  Above are the "big" kids:  Brynn, Cara, Aubrey, Henry, & Nolan.
 And the "babies": Charlie & Emry
The "adult" table!  The kids are getting so much older . . . while we were finishing up our dinner, all the kids went into the basement and proceeded to go on the Easter Egg Hunt on their own (after Brynn tried her darnedest to get the kids to wait for the adults to come down . . . we eventually told her it was okay to find the eggs and she was SO relieved!!)
Annual bunny cake decorating!
Yummy!!  We had seven kids on quite the sugar high after this! :)


Oh Charlie!

 Your tongue definitely makes you concentrate harder, don't you know?!
"Neese!"

Brotherly Love

 The boys thought they were hilarious when Charlie was feeding Henry his cereal one morning! :)

Mommy & Henry date

 Henry and I went on a little date to see Owl Moon (one of his favorite books by Jane Yolen) at the Stages Theater! We had such a fun time!
We went with his cousins, of course!  Here are the cuties on the way to the theater! :)

Play Dough

 The boys helped me make play dough one morning.  They were excellent helpers at pouring the ingredients in and . . .
 . . . stirring it all together!
 But when it came time to turn the stove on, Henry helped Charlie move their chairs far away so "we don't get burned, mama."
 Love how the play dough progresses through these pics:
Nice and neat . . .
 . . . little bit messy . . .
 (we used Easter cookie cutters to play!)
 . . . to completely mixed up!  I'm sure their Auntie Jennie is cringing looking at this picture! :)

Duluth!

 As if we haven't had a cold enough spring around these parts, we decided to take a last-minute get away to Duluth!  We stayed at a water park hotel which the boys LOVED!!!  It took Charlie until our second jaunt to the pool to really enjoy it (he had to get used to all that water splashing around!) but we spent many-a-hour playing at the park!  It was a perfect few days away!

 Just call Charlie, David.  David Hasselhoff!
 We spent a morning at the aquarium.  Again, the boys loved it! 
 The fish were a huge hit, of course.
 And so were the boats!
 Their favorite part, by far, was watching two suba divers clean out a huge tank.  We have been playing "suba diver" at home ever since!
Charlie in all his messy glory while eating dinner one night . . . too bad it was post-bath!
And Henry being his silly self with a "pepper mustache"!
 
It was such a fun couple of days (minus our very long nights NOT sleeping!)!  I love little family get aways! :)
 
Highlights (beside the water fun!):
After a rough night of sleep and a busy morning at the aquirium, we were waiting patiently for our lunch to be served at a restaurant.  Charlie was tired and hungry and growing very impatient.  All of a sudden, he chucked his knife (yes, I was letting him play with a knife!) across the table just missing some people sitting across from us!  It was so ridiculious, it was hilarious (after we scolded him, Tom and I secretly laughed about it!).
Second highlight . . . as previously mentioned, bedtime does not go well any place but home.  Henry was "sleeping" on the other side of the bathroom wall on the "couch bed" with Tom.  Charlie was in his pack-n-play next to my bed.  Charlie would lay down and then pop his head up and scream, "MA!"  I'd reassure him that I was there and he'd lay back down.  He did this several times.  Then the peanut gallery from the other side of the wall started in.  Charlie would yell, "MA!" then we'd hear Henry yell, "DA!"  Eventually the screaming stopped and then I hear Charlie standing up again, place his baby doll on the edge of the pack-n-play and yell, "jump!" and then he'd toss baby doll into the bed.  Repeat several times.  I was just a-giggling- not sure if it was from lack of sleep or the actual humor of the situation! :)