An excellent Easter

We had a great Easter (I resisted titling the post "an eggcellent Easter"), and I took so many photos that I had a lot of trouble narrowing them down for this post. So I sort of didn't. You've been warned :) (sorry, not sorry).


Thanks for everyone's opinion on Lorelai's dress. I chose this one because it went better with the cardi and tights she had to wear because it was a bit chilly. I think I'll put her in the other dress for Mother's day or something. :)





Since our house/yard was in no condition for guests, we headed to Adam's parents house where we met up with Adam's sister and her son Isaiah, my mom and my sister and her kids, Shaun and Raina. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm so beyond thankful that we can all celebrate together and Adam and I don't have to split time or have to choose one family over another on holiday gatherings like this. I love my family.



The cousins: Shaun, Isaiah, Aidan, Logan, Lorelai, Raina. The LOVE getting together.


Yay! Finally got some good pics of Grandma and Grandpa with all of the kids!


I wish I had gotten some of my mom with the boys...

The kids hunted for eggs, naturally. And the weather even cooperated! It was chilly compared to what we're used to for Easter (about 60*), but the heavy rain overnight cleared and the sun came out.



There were scattered thundershowers later in the day, but they moved through pretty quickly and didn't get in the way of the kids' fun too much. And thanks to the ridiculously awesome wrap-around porch, we could even enjoy rain the fresh air while we waited for the storm to pass.



In fact, while they were waiting for the rain to clear, the boys played some cards. Aidan and Logan tried to hustle Grandma, I think! Logan was very proud of the $.95 he won.



There was also some really yummy food, as usual. The kids all sat together and I couldn't help but think about how big Lorelai looked, sitting at the table with the "big kids" all by herself. No booster seat or bib, and regular plate/silverware. She ate unsupervised and finished everything. She's growing up so fast. Sniff. And for the record, my mouth is still watering thinking about the brownie sundae my mother-in-law made. Lorelai hopped from lap to lap begging for bites. Smart girl :)



I'm so glad we got some good photos of the five of us. It's rare, and a lot of times I forget to take these types of posed photos. Candids are great and I typically prefer them, but I find that unless I think to gather everyone for a posed photo, they just don't happen, which is sad. Because it usually means I'm not in many of the pics.



But boom. I was there. See? :) And I even wore my new favorite Target dress, even though the informal family gathering totally didn't call for it. But if Lorelai can wear a pretty Easter dress, so can I. So there.



And that concludes the massive Easter photo dump, even though there are still a ton of great photos still sitting on my external hard drive, probably never to be seen again...sigh.

3rd annual Easter egg treasure hunt

I'm still sorting through/editing the hundreds of photos I took on Easter (my hat's off to all of my bloggy friends who already have their Easter posts up!) but in the meantime, I wanted to share what I (for the Easter Bunny, of course!) came up with for our 3rd annual Easter egg treasure hunt.

Last week I confessed that I waited until the very last minute and worried I wouldn't be able to put the clues together in time, but somehow I made it happen. Some of them are really lame because I suck at rhyming and I didn't have a lot of time, but I don't think it mattered one bit to the kids. They loved it and even talked about how excited they were that Lorelai would be able to do it with them this year. They were SO good with letting her "help" with the clues.



Anyway, here's the note they woke up to, first thing in the morning.

Good Morning, AIDAN, LOGAN and LORELAI!

Are you ready for an Easter Egg Treasure Hunt? Well get to hoppin'!

Yay, it’s rhyme time!

“Where's the treasure?” you may ask.

You must find it, that’s the task!

Is it here? Is it there?

You must look everywhere!

Look for your first clue in the thing that Daddy packs for a trip to someplace with warm weather. Don't go alone, work together (all three of you!) ☺

Clue #1 (in daddy’s suitcase): Look for your next clue where you'd fry up some fake bacon or bake a pretend cake. The timer is on, don't be late!

Clue #2 (play kitchen): Shhh, speak not a word. Just look for a clue near a green bird.

Clue #3 (on the mantle): Where does grandma rest her head? Maybe you'll find a clue instead!

Clue #4 (guest bed): Color, draw, or maybe stencil? Look for your next clue with the writing utensils.

Clue #5 (desk drawer): Read a book here, or rock to sleep. But find your clue, before you do!

Clue#6 (Lorelai’s chair): Are you hungry? Well don't get a snack. Find your clue there, then you can go back.

Clue #7 (pantry): Look for a clue where you can see the weather, or maybe look out at a bird with a feather!

Clue #8 (dining room window): Where do the biggest clothes hang? You don’t have to measure. This is where you’ll find your treasure.

And here's the treasure they found in our closet.



Nothing too overboard. A few sweet treats (jelly beans, cadbury eggs and peeps are in the eggs) and the boys  each got a Skylander, while Lorelai got a pair of shoes and two tops.

Maybe I should go ahead and confess that I've already eaten most of Lorelai's candy, plus some of Logan's. He busted me today, and I straight up lied. Bad mommy! But they were at Grandma and Grandpa's last night for another sleepover, and the Cadbury eggs were calling my name. I know they would have shared if I had asked--they're really good about it, actually. I'll just have to open up the last bag and replace the ones I took. No harm done, right?!

I also confess that I LOVE this tradition, and I dread the year they outgrow it. But I'm going to have to start getting creative with the clues and the hiding places, because there are only so many rhymes I can come up! Maybe something like a puzzle with the clues next year? Whatever I do, I can't procrastinate again! :)

And one more confession, while I'm at it: I went to the store to get egg dye, and walked out of the store without egg dye. But the #momfail doesn't stop there. I thought I had a whole carton of eggs...but turns out we only had three. So we had to improvise. I used sharpie on mine, Aidan used sharpie and marker on his, and we used food coloring on Logan's, and just added those three to the batch we did last year.



Lorelai still has yet to decorate a single egg, but she did get to try her hand at watercolor painting. So I didn't totally get it together for Easter this year after all...

Linking up with Heather and Megan:

PS: Past treasure hunts are here and here.

Gone fishin'

Aidan and Logan are on break from school, so Grandma and Grandpa took the opportunity to have them over for a highly anticipated sleepover last week. Those are always the best kinds of sleepovers, because they get spoiled rotten. It's no wonder they ask to go over there on a regular basis. Man, do those kids love their grandparents and the feeling is mutual for sure. :)


Left: with Grandma at Logan's pre-k graduation, June 2012. Right: with Grandpa, Easter 2009.

Logan has been wanting to go fishing for a while now, and Grandpa even got him a fishing pole for Christmas. With the luck of good weather on their side, they were finally able to put the new pole to good use on their very first fishing fishing trip!

It sounds like they had an absolute blast on their day out. Aidan caught a huge catfish and a small bass, and Logan reeled in a couple of small bass as well. They even baited their own hooks with worms. They talked about the fun the had from the minute they got home to the minute they went to bed. They couldn't even pick a favorite thing about their day because it was all just so awesome for them.

I'm so glad they had this opportunity. I told them they were so lucky to be able to spend such quality time with their grandparents and they'd cherish these memories forever.

I'm also glad the grandparents were the ones to volunteer for fishing duty. I mean, I was a fishing pro (ha!) back in the day, and I may have even hooked my own worms...but to be honest, the thought of touching worms and giant catfish kind of gives me the creeps now. Clearly I've lost my edge :)

And because I don't have any pictures of the boys fishing (you can tell the grandparents aren't bloggers because they were having too much fun to take pictures, ha!), I'll leave you with this evidence of my fishing prowess back in the day. And this wasn't even the time I caught a huge trout with my Mickey Mouse fishing pole when I was 5. I only brag because my parents tell me they didn't catch a single thing. Ha!


True story: this um...lovely (?) picture is currently *still* hanging on my mom's refrigerator. I was maybe 10 or so? With an awesome sense of style, clearly. #throwback

Question: were Mickey Mouse fishing poles the "it" thing back in the 80s or something? Did anyone else have one? Adam told me he had one as well, but it met an untimely end in the ocean. Or maybe we were soul mates before we knew it based on our mutual love for our Mickey Mouse fishing poles? Ha!


Linking up with:

Worth repeating

As the Supreme Court hears cases this week regarding gay marriage, I thought it was appropriate to re-post some of my thoughts on the subject. The excerpt below is from this post I wrote in September 2011.

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I don't like the thought of a world where my kids are told who they're allowed to love. Obviously I have no idea whether my kids will be gay, but if they are, I just want them to have every happiness they deserve. Simple as that. I don't want them or anyone else who's gay to feel like a second class citizen. Adam and I are teaching our children to have compassion and accept all people equally. To not be bullies, to not make fun of people, to not call people names, to not judge people. Yet that's exactly what these conservative lawmakers are doing.

I don't care what you say, I will NEVER understand how a gay couple getting married in any way threatens my marriage. Was it Howard Stern who first said this? Not sure, but I totally agreed when I saw it going around as one of those viral Facebook statuses. "So let me get this straight... Larry King is getting his 8th divorce, Elizabeth Taylor is possibly getting married for a 9th time, Britney Spears had a 55 hour marriage. Jesse James and Tiger Woods are screwing EVERYTHING, yet the idea of same-sex marriage is going to destroy the institution of marriage?? Really?"

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I sincerely hope that the outcome of the Supreme Court hearings turns the tides on the gay marriage debate and begins to pave the way to equality for all. Love is love and ALL Americans deserve equal treatment under the law.

PS: You can find more of my posts on this subject here and here.

I totally dropped the ball on Easter

Time for another round of mommy confessions. This time, I have to confess that I haven't even given a second thought to Easter until like right now. I think I've had a mental block that it's coming up, and I blame the stupid &@#!% cold weather. To me, Easter=Spring, and it most definitely doesn't feel like spring here in central NC. This time last year, my daffodils were in bloom and we were rocking the t-shirts (thanks, Timehop app for rubbing it in, ha!). At least we don't have snow like so many others, but this is not Easter weather.

So this is where I start to freak out. I don't have a single thing for the baskets, haven't stuffed plastic eggs for Lorelai's party at school this week, haven't bought dye or even planned any time to decorate eggs, haven't thought up clues for the annual Easter morning egg treasure hunt...Oh my. And honestly, my work schedule is so busy this week I'm not sure if I'll have time to run out and shop. I really don't know what I'm going to do and I'm so mad at myself for not planning ahead.

And we literally just now (as I'm typing--Adam's on the phone) figured out who's hosting dinner. Thankfully, Adam's parents volunteered this year because as much as I loved having it at our house last year, right now our house is a total sty and our yard is a complete overgrown mess with not a flower in sight. So bad.

Andplusalso? Which dress am I going to choose for Lorelai to wear? Gah!


If only this were my biggest dilemma right now... Sigh. But at least we already have a dress for her, thanks to hand-me-downs from my sister!


I need to seriously get my butt in gear. Not cool, Becky. This is one of the holidays for the memory books (in my mind) so I want to make it special and memorable with lovely traditions and good family memories.

Linking up with Heather and Megan:

$20 in my pocket...

The boys have been loving listening to Thrift Shop by Macklemore every time it comes on the radio. Lorelai even randomly says "20 dollars in my pocket, Mommy." It's really cute--I just hope they never realize what colorful adjective he uses (that obviously gets bleeped out on radio play) to describe how awesome it is...:)

So they were pretty amused when I told them that I went thrift shopping and got some stuff for them with $20 in my pocket. $15.55, to be exact. I got 2 pairs of jeans for Aidan and a pair of shorts for Lorelai. But best of all? I scored this sleeping bag for $8!


It's so thick and nice, and extra long...and reversible!

The boys each have a sleeping bag they've had out recently since a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's, so finding this was perfect timing. Now Lorelai has one of her own and they don't have to share. She was so excited to play in it, she could hardly wait for it to get out of the wash. They set up their bags for a mini "slumber party" during story time tonight, and we're already planning another one for the morning.



Goodwill for the win! (Again and again.)

PS: I'm pretty sure Macklemore made thrifting cool. There was a tween shopping with her mom, and a group of high school boys were leaving as I got there.

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The other injuries

While we've never had an ER visit for any of the kids up until this weekend, it's not quite accurate to say that we've been accident-free up until then.

In July 2009 when Logan was 3.5, he somehow fell off a bike and into the bike petal at daycare and basically had a puncture wound right next to his eye. The director called me in a panic because she just assumed he needed stitches and just knew I'd need to get him to a doctor right away. It was gross and scary because it was a gaping wound so close to his eye, so I admit to freaking out a little lot.



I took him straight to urgent care where they cleaned him up, but they almost sent us to the ER for stitches, since urgent care doesn't do the sedation required on pediatric patients when stitches are required. Fortunately, they were able to use dermabond (lots and lots of it) to close the wound, so our ER bullet was dodged that time.

Almost a year later when Aidan was in kindergarten, he was playing outside and gashed his scalp open on a nail (or something??) underneath the playset. His teacher called me in a panic because she couldn't get it to stop bleeding. By the time I got there, the bleeding had mostly subsided and I got him right to urgent care where he got two staples in his head to close the gash. After the incident with Logan, I wasn't quite as freaked out over this wound, since Aidan was a bit older, not super upset about it, and I just know that scalps tend to bleed a lot even on fairly minor wounds. Calm Mommy award goes to me on that one. :) It still turned my stomach to look at it, though.

But Lorelai still wins the dubious prize for causing the biggest parental freakout (I guess she wins that award x2 if you count the pregnancy scare I had...little stinker!) because of the nature of her injury and the unknown that's involved with head injuries. As much as I cringe to think about blood, etc., I'll take a superficial wound over possible brain damage any day.

But note to the universe: that is most definitely NOT a request for more injuries. Let's see if we can go at least another 2.5 years before we see another ER or urgent care. I need time to replenish my insurance health fund after what I'm sure will be a large ER bill...

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