A Few More Pictures

And someone had a very special third birthday while she was here:) Happy Birthday Clem!!!!

Our Week In Review...

We had a GORGEOUS week in New Jersey-the weather was amazing for the first official day of spring to arrive!!! We spent TONS of time outside. I have a feeling that as the weather warms up, we will be rotating our time between the backyard, parks, and soon the pool!!!!

Monday morning started very early as I woke up at 5:30 to get my sister and family to the airport:( I was home before the rest of the family was even out of bed. After Chris headed off to work, we had a quick breakfast before we headed out for a jog with the double stroller early in the morning! I huffed and puffed pushing many pounds and we ended up at the community center, in time for music class. After our fun time at music, we headed to the gymnasium for some play time with our buddies for the morning. The kids had so much fun before we parted ways and headed home for lunch and naps! Shortly after we arrived home, I could NOT find Andrew's lovey. It turned into a complete disaster as he just LOVES his little doggie. I finally cuddled him to sleep and while he was sleeping, I searched the web and called several toy stores in NJ and NYC to see if anyone carried the specific lovey, no luck. Chris put our Amazon prime membership to use in a two day express order on Amazon hoping that it may arrive early. Since nap time didn'tt last long and the weather was gorgeous in the afternoon, we headed to our neighborhood park for lots of playtime hoping to wear these kids out. After baths, I put Andrew to bed and he cried and cried and cried. I tried lots of alternatives to fill the shoes of his little lovey but he would just throw them at me. Finally, at 8:00, I saw a little piece of his lovey peeking out of one of the craft boxes and quickly ran it up to him where he immediately stopped crying and fell right to sleep-it's amazing how much he loves that thing!

Aiden headed off to school on Tuesday morning while Andrew had his first babysitter, that was not related to us!!!! I'm hoping to do parent/child swim lessons in a few weeks with Aiden before summer arrives, but I have to find a babysitter to watch Andrew while I take Aiden. One of my friends down the street also has the same dilemma so we found a babysitter that is willing to watch our two little ones, while we take the two big kids to swim lessons. So I headed over to my friend's house, met the babysitter, and reluctantly left Andrew for the first time! I didn't even know what to do with myself not having either child on a weekday, but I headed out for a quick run while I anxiously awaited to see how Andrew was doing. The hour flew by fast and I headed back to him up and he did great-no tears and was happy as can be when I picked him up!!!! So it looks as if we will be starting swim lessons with Aiden in a few weeks and Andrew will be taken care of by a wonderful babysitter;) After picking him up, we did a quick run by the grocery store before picking Aiden up from school. Again, we had another gorgeous day so we headed to the park for some playtime and lunch! This park was a first for us, but it is right by some train tracks, and we saw THREE choo-choos go by. It made my kids' day and Aiden still is telling people about the time at the park when he saw three freight trains go by! After naps, we headed down towards the neighbors for some playtime, had a quick dinner, and picked Daddy up at the train station. It was a BUSY day!

We couldn't wait to head back to the library on Wednesday for story time after not being able to go for so long! We enjoyed some stories about spring and were even given some sunflower seeds to plant ourselves (although honestly they are still sitting in my purse to do!). Our neighbors invited us over for some playtime and lunch after library, which after a BIG three year old meltdown, we finally made it there and played like sweet little angels! After naps, we headed for a little walk towards downtown for some donuts before heading to the park for more playtime:) We love park weather, can you tell?!?!

Aiden had another day of school on Thursday, while I hosted Andrew's playgroup at our house! It was fun to catch up with the other moms after our vacation, but there must have been something in the air because the kids were WILD and once we parted ways, our house was a complete disaster!!!!!!!!!! We ran a few short errands after school that required the kids to stay in the car (the best errands there are-drive thru pharmacy, vacuuming the car) before heading home for lunch! Our big three year old decided on no naps for the day, but I can't complain because he played wonderfully while I was trying to get things done around the house. Since I was one exhausted mommy, we spent our afternoon playing around the backyard until it was time to pick Chris up from the train and he even came home before 6:30! Due to no naps and some major teething, the boys were in bed quite early and I headed off to do some swimming at night:)

I have to say that we enjoyed having Chris work from home on Friday-it has been SO long! While Andrew took his morning nap, Aiden played like crazy around the house while I quickly tackled massive laundry and lots of other cleaning!!!!! We headed to a park in the morning to play with some friends and I even treated Aiden to some ice cream on the way home!! After naps, Aiden wanted to play in the basement, but this boy and I headed outside to enjoy the sunshine!!!

I love watching Andrew play outside! He has SOOOO much fun:) We ended our day with some grilling out, baths, and another day of early bedtime while I headed off to a much-needed girls/craft night and Chris got some much-needed basketball on the couch time!

Cousin Craziness...

We spent an entire week with cousins, Clem and Tal, along with my sister Jen! She came to visit on her spring break and it was ONE wild time:) Four kids, three and under, in our house for a WHOLE week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were blessed with beautiful weather, which meant we spent a lot of time in the backyard. Somehow, taking four kids out of the house altogether at the same time, was not appealing to any of the adults! Lots of playing, snack times, and a few meltdowns later...we survived:)

Look at these two cutie pies...

Getting ready to head out for a run with me...

I was cleaning up in my room while Andrew was napping and I peeked into Aiden's room and this is what I found, so cute...

Digging for worms...

Made for two...

Loving that Meme was at our house...

Doing some sidewalk chalk...

Catching up on some Mickey Mouse...

Going out to take the dogs on a walk...

Aren't these two cute?!?!

Thanks Jen for a crazy fun visit and we hope to see you all soon! Thanks Meme for joining the chaos and keeping my household in order;)

Wild Times at Jack's House

We had a wild time at my sister's house on the way to/from North Carolina!!! It's great fun to see Aiden and Jack interact now as they are getting older...let's just say we had some wild moments:)

So much fun at the Raleigh Children's Museum...

Our trip to Meme's house...

After our wonderful time in the mountains with Grandpa, we headed a few hours east to see Meme!!! The weather was gorgeous in Cary and we couldn't get enough of playing outside in the sunshine and warm weather. Look, no more coats:)...

Meme had to work the first day that we were visiting so we had a nice lazy breakfast before we headed to school to see her classroom. Can you see the oatmeal remnants on this sweet boy's face?????

Andrew fell in love with the guinea pig and couldn't get enough of this critter. He really loves animals...it was funny because Aiden wanted Oreo to stay in the cage while Andrew kept wanting Oreo out and about. How different these two can be sometimes...

When we left Meme's school, we took a quick pit stop at the park on the way home. We needed to run some of their energy out...

After naps, we headed over to have dinner with my Grandma Snow at a cafeteria near her house. I have to admit that it was not one of my favorite parenting moments (lots of traveling, short naps=worn out kids which means disasters out to dinner). I have no idea what my poor grandma thought as I was too busy picking up thrown food, chasing the rug rats, and trying to get a few bites down these not so happy children's mouths. We parted ways with Grandma quickly and headed home for a much needed bedtime!

We spent the next day playing around the house and running errands with Meme (Look who's shared their iPod with their little brother). One of their highlights of the day was riding the choo-choo express all around the mall-nothing makes these boys happier!

The best part of the day was that Daddy arrived at night in order to join our little trip away from home. He was very anxious to see these boys after a long busy season...and they were very excited to see him!

The next couple days, we spent some time catching up on things around the house. I was trying to help my mom get a few things organized which was helpful as Chris could help with the kids while we could get a few things done. We also enjoyed some quiet shopping time while Chris headed to the park for a few hours with the boys...a win-win situation! This little boy who was very happy to see his Daddy was also very excited about this new outfit. He picked out these shorts and shirt by himself and carried the bag throughout the entire mall. When we arrived home, he rushed to change into his new outfit! He has already worn it several times with this nice spring weather! I think I have a little prepster on my hands (I don't think he got it from me as I could live in sweatpants!). And I love, love, love his new shoes that I got him, some Toms. He had these race car Vans that were hand-me-downs from some friends that he is insistent on wearing everywhere. Not only are they too big, but they are getting VERY dirty. This child is very picky about his shoes and finally, we got him to buy these adorable shoes, which also fit snug and are easy to put on.

I would have to say that most of our vacation was great!!! But there is always some hard parts of traveling with two little kids...the hardest being sleep! Aiden takes forever to put to sleep when we are not at home. It really drives me nuts night after night, but I try to be patient as I know he just gets anxious in the new surroundings. And Andrew, my usually great sleeper, went to bed great but woke up several nights screaming like crazy. Enough to make me pull him in to bed with me, which NEVER happens! But I guess I can say I enjoyed a little extra snuggle time with my very active 15 month old!