Playdate at the park

Today we had one of our first park play dates of spring. We met our friends Gena, Tyler, Chase, Michelle and Aidan and walked to the park for a picnic play date. Alyssa and Aidan chose to ride their scooters to the park and did a great job. It was a hot, sunny day and at 80 degrees I wasn't sure if they would make it there, play for a while and make it back, but they did!! We went to a toddler park and the little boys had a great time together! The moms, too, had a good time since all of the equipment was designed for little people we were able to relax and visit!

Tyler

Aidan

Jaden

Jaden and Tyler playing together

Sparkly teeth

Alyssa's first trip to the dentist went a lot smoother than I had originally thought. The 2 days prior to the appointment she was very scared and was determined not to go! After a few days of talking to her about the dentist, we headed to the appointment. She did so good from the minute we walked into the office. She listened, more than cooperated, got to hold the "sucker" all by herself and ended the trip with a new toothbrush and toothpaste. She was so proud of herself for getting her teeth cleaned and said, "mama, the dentist lady is nice, it's not scary. Look at all my new sparkly teeth!"

And the Easter Bunny arrived.....3 times!

The Easter bunny was fabulous to the kids this year! A little too fabulous I must say so myself! Alyssa was overjoyed and in total excitement when she came down the stairs and ran to the back door to check on the carrots. Lots of bites taken out, and only small pieces of carrot left! "He really did eat it mama and dada!" She began to search the house to locate the baskets. She thoroughly enjoyed her foot tall chocolate bunny and basket with treats. Unfortunately, Jaden my sleeper inner, wasn't awake yet for all of this excitement and Alyssa was having a very difficult time waiting for Jaden to wake up to open his basket. Daddy cooked breakfast and Alyssa patiently waited for Jaden while she sneaked a few pieces of candy. Jaden finally made it and didn't care much about the basket until he opened it and spotted the jelly beans at the bottom! "More, more, more, more....." is about all we heard from him all morning!

All of the family arrived at our house later that morning for an Easter egg hunt in our backyard! Papa, Uncle Wayne and Andy did a good job hiding the DOZENS of filled eggs around the backyard. The older kids all had a blast but Jaden wasn't really sure about why picking up eggs was so much fun.........until he accidentally opened up one and there was candy inside! Needless to say, he filled his bucket quickly after that!

Grandma and Papa arrived with an Easter basket full of goodies, as well as did Nanny and Opa! 3 baskets each for the kids, plus filled eggs = sweet tooth disaster and 2 kids on a sugar high!

After the egg hunt, we headed over to Grandma and Papa's house for Easter brunch. What a delicious lunch. We are so blessed to have the opportunity for our kids to grow up with such a large family and the most thoughtful, wonderful grandparents! Thanks everyone for a great Easter!

"This is the biggest chocolate bunny I never seen!" --Alyssa

Taking a bite out of the bunny before breakfast!

Playing the harmonica she got from Nanny

opening Easter basket #2!

Jaden with basket #3

Not sure about all this stuff!

I love this chocolate bunny! --Jaden

I'm ready for the egg hunt

Taking things away from Alyssa! That's what brothers are for.......

Playing the harmonica again.......

Jaden found a lollipop during the egg hunt!

Alyssa won't open her eyes to see the bunny on the grill! (Papa has told the older nieces for years that he sets a trap, catches the Easter bunny and grills it -- Alyssa wasn't thrilled!)

The night before

Before we went to bed the kids put out carrots for the Easter bunny! I tried to put out long, unpeeled carrots with the greens on top, but I was scolded by Alyssa who said, "Mama, you have to peel all the carrots and take the yucky parts off! The Easter bunny doesn't like those!" So, I preceded to 'groom' the carrots a bit and we made it outside to set them out. Alyssa chose the backyard in hopes that the bunny would remember to put out eggs for an Easter egg hunt!

'Egg'cellent Fun!

Aunt Christina, Uncle Wayne, Hayley, Lilyanne and Brayden are still in town for the week, so we decided to make some little Easter treats and color eggs together. We made our way to Grandma and Papa's on Saturday to have fun and get a few things ready for our Easter brunch on Sunday. The kids had a blast and even Jaden was able to get in on the fun!

Coloring eggs with 5 kids 10 and under can be a bit challenging, but we did it! Only 2 cups of colored dye were spilled, Alyssa ended up with a blue leg, and I'm sure Grandma's grout is a pretty shade of blue-yellow, but everyone had a great time and we ended up with a rainbow full of colored eggs!

Ive also been trying to do some sort of Holiday themed food item with Alyssa. Since we were running low on time today, we made Easter egg chocolate dipped rice krispie treats and rice krispie treat baskets full of grass and candy! They turned out so cute!

Jaden, Alyssa & Daddy

Alyssa coloring her eggs!

Alyssa preparing the dye

Jaden coloring his eggs! (read online about putting the egg into a wire wisk for the little ones so that it doesn't fall out -- worked great!)

Patiently waiting for her eggs to be done

Concentrating on writing her name!

Lilyanne

Alyssa's name - she wrote it all by herself!

Long gone....

So February and March have passed us by, and if you follow, you already know I have been unsuccessful at keeping up with the blog the last few months! Between work, visitors, multiple play dates and most importantly, Alyssa's ever-so expanding social calendar, I haven't had time to just sit down and write. I will usually do this in the evenings, however lately, sleep has over taken the blogging at night! There is no possible way to try to catch up, so I thought I would do a few short posts of pictures from February and March to capture the craziness of the last few months!

Random pics from Feb

Because I lacked February postings, here are a few pictures from the month ~

Alyssa and her friends having a Valentine's Day Party that we hosted

Chocolate dipped marshmallows for the party

Treat boxes Alyssa and I made

Alyssa and Aidan at another friends' Valentine's Day party

Alyssa being silly at a birthday party

Funny glasses!

Alyssa and Jaden on the glass coffee table - we have since removed it from the living room!

This is what Jaden thinks of medicine cups

Valentine's day breakfast

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tourist for a day

It's always so great when someone comes in to town for a visit and we get to play tourists for a day! It's probably been over a year since we've been down to the strip. My cousin Vincent and Suzi were in town from Florida over the weekend and we had the opportunity to go see some new sites that were recently built. We walked through the new shops at the Planet Hollywood and dined on some "Phish Food" ice cream at Hagen Daaz. Then we enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather and walked across to the new City Center plaza! After that we headed back to the Wynn where we had a delicious dinner buffet! Alyssa and Jaden were so good and had a we all had a great time with Vinny & Suzi!

Suzi, Vinny & Alyssa eating Hagen Daaz

Jaden loved his ice cream, too!

Alyssa making water tornadoes

Alyssa said she had to pose on these beautiful stairs!