Easter!

'Twas the night before Easter...." and we went over to my brother and sister-in-law's house for a nice dinner with them and my dad & step-mom.  We had lots of fun, lots of yummy food, and lots of laughs....

A cool new soccer ball in his Easter basket from Grandpa & Grandma Jill - This was right before the soccer game was moved to the backyard

Ayden loves Matthew & Dominique's dogs.  Sometimes too much. Daisy isn't always fast enough to run away when he picks her up and carries her around...poor thing!

A little Super Mario Brothers Wii  - (which is very very hard to play with four players)

Easter Morning!!!

Someone went downstairs to look for his basket before his mom could grab the camera to get the "ooh, what did I get" shot.  Someone's mom may or may  not have re-assembled the basket to get a picture.  I think that explains the look.

Thanks to the Easter Bunny, we now have a Zsu Zsu pet.  I don't think he will be getting any friends anytime soon though.

Ready for church - the only time I can get him to look at the camera is if he is posing with something....Now if I could figure out a way to get a real smile.

more Easter Gifts...

Thank you Grandma!

Ready to hunt some eggs!

this was right before he took a header off the hammock!

And this is what happens when a four-year-old puts his egg in his pocket and doesn't tell anyone for a few hours.  On the way home, he kept complaining about "something stinky" and we had no idea what he was talking about.  Then, a few minutes later, he was saying that he was sad that his egg was cracked.  When we asked which egg he was talking about, he said, "the one in my pocket."  I didn't actually believe him until we got home.  He was kind of freaking out because he said he couldn't get it out because it was "too yucky."  Luckily we have daddy for all the jobs that are "too yucky"!

Happy Easter!!!

Easter eggs and more

We had a fun day today getting ready for Easter.  Grandma and Aunt Dominique came over and we dyed eggs, frosted cupcakes, and made some cute Easter-ey sugar cookies.  The kitchen was a huge mess when we finished, but it was worth it!

Ayden didn't understand why he couldn't dip all of the eggs in all of the colors - he said he would be fine with all brown eggs...

the lovely fake smile

decent attempt at a picute

I had to include this one - I don't think I even want to know what he is thinking at this point...



A few of the finished eggs!



sprinkles for the cupcakes

I think this was right after he said, "is it my turn yet?"

Yes - it's your turn!

 I guess I didn't get any pictures of the cookie making, I was too busy keeping my kid from eating dough and licking the frosting off all of the knives!

Daddy's Little Helper

Most of the time, Ayden loves hleping out around the house, especially if it's something that is new to him.  He was super excited and interested to help Ken replace a part in his truck in an attempt to fix something that was wrong. (obviously I really know a lot about cars!). 

Showing off his new skills

mechanic's crack!

His best trick was showing me that Ken taught him how to check the oil level.  I don't think I even know how to do that! He looked so old standng there "working" on the truck!

Ayden insisted I take a picture of his and daddy's dirty hands!

Spring has Sprung

...and no one is more excited than Ayden.  Well, I'm pretty excited about it too, especially because Ayden asks to go play in the backyard every day when we get home. I love that he is old enough that he can play in the backyard and I can watch him while I make dinner.  He would spend all evening every day out there playing and getting dirty if we let him!

A hose, a dump truck, and some stairs....what more do you need?

an attempt to get a picture with his eyes open

The cheezy smile that I'm getting every time I get my camera out...he wanted to pose with Muck



And then there's the sand/dirt/mud pit



and another cheezy smile...ugh

Ken's Birthday

...Was a few weeks ago.  I'm just now getting around to blogging it.  We've been busy!!

We treated Ken to blueberry pancakes, sausage, and eggs for his birthday and before we were even done eating, Ayden had gone to get his gift.  Ayden insisted on using this Christmas bag for Ken's present and was very proud he had wrapped it himself!

 A larger gift....a new fire pit!

Ayden wanted to put it together immediately!

All finished - a happy boy and his happy daddy!

The last few weeks...

....have been full of rain and bad weather!  Even though today is the first day of spring, we are still waiting for our spring-like weather.  In the meantime, we have been trying to find fun indoor activities - like building a tent!

Daddy helping out!

what a cutie pie

 



He spent a whole ten minutes in there playing his leapster before moving on to something else!

 March is a big birthday month in our family. My mom, sister-in-law Dominique, and Ken all have birthdays bout a week apart in March.  This year we decided to have one party to celebrate all three birthdays.  We had tons of fun!



I even set the table with the good dishes!



Yummy desserts





Ayden helping Grandma open her presents



Dominique & Ken

Singing...



Valentine's Festivities

 We started out our Day Before Valentine's Day with some heart-shaped pancakes.  Knowing that we have no time for such things on weekdays, Sunday was the perfect day to make them.  They were delicious and we even had some left over for Ayden's breakfast on Valentine's morning!

Ayden wrote his name on his Valentine cards for the first time.  It took him f-o-r-e-v-e-r to write his name 12 times.

On a side note, why don't I ever think to have Ayden put on real clothes or at least matching pajamas when I take pictures of him on the weekends?  While I am ok with admitting that he wears his pjs almost all day on Saturdays when we don't have anywhere to go, someday, someone will look at these pictures and wonder if he ever wore real (or matching) clothes!

I was treated to a basket full of goodies from my two favorite guys.  Ayden helped pick out the things he though I liked (socks?!?).  But somebody remembered wine, so it was all good!

After breakfast, Ayden and I got started on the treats for his class. I got the idea for chocolate-dipped strawberry marshmallows here.  They were so fun and easy!  Ayden helped for about the first five of them, then moved on.

All finished!

 I decided to put them in cellophane bags rather than sending them all to school on a plate.  I thought I'd give his teacher the option of sending them home rather than the kids eating more sugar at school.  Ayden taped each bag to a card all by himself!

My little ham

 Monday afternoon Ayden had swimming lessons, so we need a quick and easy (but still yummy & special) dinner.  I decided heart-shaped mini pizzas would be perfect....and they were!

 

Ready to eat!!

We did chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert and I ended up using all of the chocolate I got from my students during the day....it made some delicious fondue! 

Whose idea was it to give the four year old a sharp metal stick?

My two valentines!