4/27 - Visit to St. Pete

The boys and I traveled down to St. Pete on easter day. They did great!! We made it just in time to eat our McDonald's at Papa's house. The boys were so excited to see him. Eli can even say papa now which is fun.

Nana came over on Monday morning and got to see the boys too. She brought some presents and entertained the boys for a while. Aiden and Eli thought they hit the jackpot with being able to see both nana and papa.

Nana got Eli some yellow sunglasses to match yellow crocs. He was pretty excited about them.

Aiden realized magical things can happen in the kitchen with papa.

Papa showed Aiden how to make orange juice. In the first picture, they are getting the oranges out of the fridge. Papa cut them open and showed Aiden how to do it. Since Aiden wasn't strong enough to push the orange down by himself, papa gave him some help. They had fresh orange juice on monday and tuesday and Aiden asked for it this morning.

On Monday afternoon, we met my sister and her boys up at my grandma's house. We visited for a short bit and then tried to get a few pictures. To get 5 boys to sit still for a picture is pretty difficult. During all the chaos, I got a really cute picture of my grandma and Eli. I absolutely love grandma's smile in this picture and Eli looking so cute.

We did manage to get a pretty good picture. Aiden didn't want to stand by us so he's a little off to the side.

After a few pictures, we headed off to Chuck-e-Cheese to celebrate dad's birthday. That was his idea and his choice. The boys had a blast. I think we all did. We sat in the Toddler Area so Eli could stay busy and hopefully contained.

Aiden is papa's little helper. He was watching/helping count out the coins so that everyone could get some. It was too cute to watch.

Aiden was a little too short to climb up in the hamster cage (that's what I call it and you probably know what I mean) so I showed him how to use the net to his advantage. I had to help him the first time up but after that, he realized he needed to put his toes in the net to give him a boost to make it. I was pretty excited for him.

Aiden did play a couple of games.

Eli visited with great grandma some. He actually did a great job of playing on the steps and slide in the toddler area and just roaming around a few rides in the area.

Grayson, the oldest of the cousins, was helping Aiden learn how to play air hockey. As you can somewhat see from this picture, Aiden was putting the disc in his own goal and Grayson was trying to stop him. It was too funny. We tried to tell him he wanted the disc to go in on the other side. Besides that minor error (which happened 5 times), he did great for his first time!

I showed Eli a game which had a helicopter flying around at the top. He was so excited. I don't even know what the game did but he went back a few times and pointed the helicopter out to me.

Chuck-e came by to say Happy Birthday to papa and give him his cake.

Eli was not so fond of the giant mouse. 

Aiden and Graham (1 week apart) helped papa blow out his candles.

Before we left, we got someone to take a group picture (with papa included). It turned out pretty good. It was past my boys bedtime so they were on the verge of a breakdown. We had a couple meltdowns but finished pretty good.

On Tuesday morning, nana came over and we all went to the park. Here is nana showing Aiden how to do the monkey bars. Aiden has his glasses on and it cracks me up.

Eli, my little thrill seeker, had a blast on the swings as usual. He likes to be pushed up really high and let go. After he swings once or twice he gets mad and wants to be pushed up really high again. He is starting to not like just swinging.

Papa showed Aiden a few weeks ago how to go down the fireman pole. Aiden, of course, wanted papa to help him again.

What was too funny though is when Aiden reached the bottom, he told papa it was his turn. Nana and I couldn't stop laughing. Papa was a trooper though and climbed up the ladder and also came down the fireman pole.

It was a fun morning at the park. The boys completely wore themselves out.

I had to include this last picture from the park because Eli in his sunglasses crack me up. He pretty much had them on the entire time.

Right after we got home from the park, papa showed Aiden how to cut up a pineapple. They made some orange juice right before and Aiden drank that as he watched papa cut the pineapple.

Papa was leaving to go to lunch and I got to snap a picture for Brad of the boys on the bike with their papa.

After papa left, we went back upstairs and nana played with Eli. I love this picture of nana swinging Eli around. They are both so happy!

In the afternoon, after papa got back, he showed Aiden how to cut up a cantaloupe.  For the first time ever, he ate it off the rind. Eli even got in the eating-from-the-rind action.

On Tuesday night, we went to my Aunt Becky and Uncle Bill's house. My cousin, Rachel (who took our awesome beach pics before Brad left), was also there. The boys found 2 awesome new toys - a cat toy ball with a bell in it. In this first picture of Rach and Aiden, Rach was teaching Aiden how to play soccer. Brad, cover yours ears or skip to the next sentence. Aiden was actually really good at it. It was a tiny ball and he was pretty accurate. Definitely a lefty which we've known though.

Rach also taught him to do a "thumbs up" and throw his arms up and say "goal!" I'm gonna work on the 'goal' thing with him.

Uncle Bill got to point out a squirrel to Aiden. Eli thought the blinds were cool toys so they had to move them up out of his reach. The boys went a little crazy before we left by running in circles and being silly. It was fun to watch Aiden just let go and be silly.

We got to take a final picture before we left for the evening.

I changed my plans at the last minute this morning and realized if I stayed at papa's house (he had to leave early and go to jury duty) that I would continue to put toys away every 2 minutes rather than cleaning up and packing. In short, we left and stopped by my mom's for about 45 min. She didn't really say bye last night and the boys wanted to see Bronco again. 

It was a great visit and the ride home was uneventful. I have lots of work to catch up on so that's what I'll be doing over the next 2 days.

4/25 - Coloring eggs & Easter

So I have some catching up to do and I'm going to date these according to approximately when they happened. On Saturday afternoon, Crystal came over to color easter eggs with us. I was just getting ready to re-plant our baby plants into bigger containers. We also planted basil. I have to keep them in my bathroom window so the cats don't eat them.

Crystal tried out the new camera and took some pictures of me playing around with the boys. I was playing with Eli and he was laughing and having such a good time that Aiden wanted me to do it to him to. I normally hold them by the thighs and balance them around for a bit. Aiden got nervous though and was holding on to my shirt.

I have never boiled eggs before so with the help of Crystal's egg timer, we boiled them. Aiden was very excited to color eggs. I have never done it without my mom so it was a new experience for me too.

Aiden was pretty patient and understood that the eggs had to stay in the cups for a while. We added some vinegar to make the colors extra bold. We had tried to use whisks to make it less messy but only certain whisks work because the color solution only goes so high. Also, you still have to get the egg out of the whisk. I think it would be great if we were doing multiple colors or tie-dying eggs though. Eli played with a cool whisk for a while and then didn't care about the eggs.

Eli got some attention from Crystal which he loved. He's a really lovable kid in generally but he gives extra loves to a handful of special people.

Aiden had lots of fun putting stickers and drawing on eggs with Crystal.

The easter bunny came and left some eggs in the living room on sunday morning. Aiden got about 14-16 and Eli got 2. Haha.  

They got a travel Thomas the train track and a small train. We set that up and they enjoyed it. We will be traveling alot over the next couple months so I figure it will come in good use.

Some of the eggs that were hidden had candy in them. They were sixlets. Eli bit through the first package and tried to eat them. Needless to say, after the eggs were opened, I quickly had to remove the candy so Eli wouldn't eat it all.

Thankfully church started later than normal on Sunday so we could enjoy a bit more of the morning together. I got the boys ready in their new easter outfits. They were so handsome. 

I thought things were going great until it was time to get in the van. Suddenly, my little men had a complete breakdown. I could already tell that Aiden wasn't near as excited about his outfit as I was. The wrists were too, he didn't want his shirt tucked in and he didn't want the top button on his shirt to be done so he could wear the tie. I tried to spare them as much as possible by waiting for the ties until we got to church.

We eventually made it to church and I got the boys ready. Watch the progression of pictures with Aiden and his clothes. I wish I had someone else to take pictures but I did the best I could.

Aiden hugging Eli is absolutely precious. I love it.

I did get a group shot of us (look at what's in Aiden's hand) by putting the camera on auto-timer on the floor of the van.

Eli was really tired and a little grumpy when I dropped him off. The majority of the kids in Aiden's 2-yr old class were moved to the 3-yr old this week so Aiden was taken back by all the new kids (visitors) and not starting out in his "normal" room. Many times one of the workers lets him go in to the playroom for a few minutes because since he's used to going there, if they meet in the sunday school room first (across the hall from each; about 3-4 steps), Aiden kinda freaks out since he's a creature of habit. Church service was great. There was an hour of worship (I love that part) and then a 45 min message. I did check on Aiden after about 5-10 minutes and they said food calmed him down. 

As we were leaving the nursery, a friend offered to take the picture with the colorful background (that's in nursery/2-yr old area). Aiden is a complete mess. Shirt untucked, tie gone, multiple buttons undone. I started laughing when I saw him. Someone else in the hall offered to take a family picture to make sure Brad had a picture. He's the downfall. In all these pictures, I'm bending down and you can't see the awesome dress I am wearing (and color coordinated with the boys). My friend Stephanie had a great dress.

We came home after church and ate some lunch. Eli napped and Aiden played and I got ready to go on our trip to St. Pete.