the night before easter

this was more of an easter weekend in our household.  friday night, we let the kids open their easter goodies that had arrived from their grandparents.  gramma d & mark sent a package full of candy (which will likely be consumed in secrecy by yours truly), books and dvds and the ever-popular stickers.  the flanagan's sent a fiver to each child that jack excitedly deposited into their piggy banks.  and, great granddad and grandma shirley sent cards, as seen below.  thank you, kind family!

  

 opening easter cards from grandparents

 stickers in a card?  bonus.

 babies playing together is THE best.

 beautiful girl

it's incredible the difference a year can make.  last year, jack really was not into the egg dyeing process.  it was more of a hassle keeping his tiny fingers out of the dye than actual fun being had.  but this year?  totally into it.  jackie loved the red dye, and if it had been up to him, all our eggs would have been single colored.  with lots of sprinkles.  ben and i took turns with the small white crayon and the task of turning the eggs so as to have full color coverage.  while i enjoy all aspects of preparing and decorating, i do not consume; that's benji's job.  however, with him gone the day after easter, i was left with a colorful, stinky refrigerator.  it's a crack up (no pun intended) the things we do out of tradition, rather than necessity.  to me, it's a huge waste of poultry, but to jackie, it was an evening full of smiles and fun times.  and really, the list is never ending when it comes to making your babes smile.  

dylan the spectator

stickers look better on noses

DING!

as much of an athlete as i was growing up, i would never push sports, or any activity for that matter, on either of my children.  i would never be that parent living out my own lost dreams on jack or dylan.  but.  what i will do is buy them the toys that i sooo wanted but didn't have!

my neighbor had this fisher price parking garage.  my love for the dinging elevator is ridiculous.  i love the teeny gas pump and the speed at which the cars zoom down the ramp.  crazy-nostalgia.  so when i saw this on ebay, i jumped on it.  the shipping alone was more than it cost, but when it comes to seeing your child smile (or making yourself smile), can you really put a price on that?!

 can you imagine 3 jacks loose on the street?

 sweet, sickly boy

little people

did you have these when you were little?  fisher price little people?  my mother, bless her, packed in her suitcase my tudor house from when i was a little bitty .  talk about nostalgia.  (i may or may not have played with it before allowing jack.)  just recently, this has been THE toy for the kids.  they love it.  jack likes the autos, naturally.  and just like when i was little, dylan gravitates toward the baby.  every.  time.  in the morning, i open up the house, and next thing i know, she's pulling on my sweatpants with one hand and clutching the baby in the other.  ben recently held up two people: one being the baby, the other being the mommy... baby wins out every time.  love her.  oh, her birthday pictures?  take note.

is it silly to say they just don't make 'em like they used to?  seriously.  and i know this because i've recently been on ebay to purchase more little people, and i'm not the only crazy going after these classic toys.  i lost a bid for the sesame street brownstone with all the people/muppets, including mr. hooper, susan and gordon.  my top bid was $30... what did it go for?  93 fat ones.  for reals.  but, i have managed to add another tudor house to our collection.  super cute yellow one.  jack, of course, likes this one now.  "it's my favrit, mama."  we are also checking our mail regularly because the parking garage was also a winning bid for this mama.  (shout out to my moms for doing the actual bidding, as i was out and about!  rookie ebay mistake, always check ending times!)
    

 she dropped this little boy in that tube for over 5 minutes.  

completely fascinated.

 of course the red head is running things! 

jackie's already learned.

new vehicles

 franklin (muppet) and grandma!

 this has to be jack... right?

the first of many

let's say good bye to the bedroom, living room and kitchen shots and leap into the outdoors!  even if our grass does look like saw dust right now...

our goals for the weekend were to hike the butte and clean up the garage and shop pad.  because jackman was ill, we couldn't do the butte, but we did manage to get out and go for walks on saturday and sunday morning.  i love walking with my babies, even more with the husband but even more than that, doing it all while walking to get coffee!  our local coffee shop is just down the road, less than 2 miles away.  so what a great way to get exercise; then not feeling so bad about consuming 200 calories or so.  i love me an iced latte.

after our walk on sunday, jack was feeling well enough to play.  he got a new scooter a few weeks ago and to date, has been garage-bound.  perfect day to try it out on our walkway.  dylan was extremely happy to walk around outside.  and just like a toddler, always looking for her next meal, found some grass and sticks to munch on.  beanie was content to sneak in a lick or three on the kids, ben flew a kite, and i captured it all.  just the way it should be.  

perfect weekend.  blue skies, six clouds (yes, we counted), slight breeze, surrounded by the ones you love.  yep.  perfect weekend.

mmm, stick

 this could have ended badly...

 dada showing jb how to fly his kite

 uh oh, dada!  oh, no!

 i'm walking outside!  yay!

 completely tickled by the bulldog's presence

 let us not forget the first baby of the home...