Happy Birthday to Me

April 12th was my thirty something'th birthday.  Ok 34, but I'm not really counting anymore.  My guys made me a delicious breakfast...bacon and cheese omelets, mine and Wes' with avocado, english muffins and fruit salad.  I even got the "you are special today" plate!  

After breakfast and a little nap for Cora, we headed to the beach to walk in the sand and enjoy being together.

It was such a beautiful day!

When Wes and Cora went down for afternoon naps, I headed out for a pedicure and did a little shopping at TJMaxx (you can't shop for bargains with kids in tow :)

Michael made me corn chowder and restaurant salad (we call it that because it has a ton of stuff in it-just like you would get in a restaurant...only way better!) for dinner.  And he also made me this cake...and I have to say that it looks a little sad, but it tasted amazing -chocolate cake with chocolate orange ganache filling plus orange buttercream frosting! Unfortunately I have to take responsibility for it's droopiness, I got out the wrong cake pans so it stuck and then I thought I was helping by frosting the cake when the frosting needed to set up in the fridge first.  Oh well, Wes still enjoyed decorating it for me!

As a gift Michael got me tickets to see Million Dollar Quartet at the Performing Arts Center!  It's a musical based on the famous recording session that Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Cark Perkins did together.  Can't wait!  Thanks to everyone for the birthday love!

Discovery Science Center!

My friend Carrie has season passes to the Discovery Science Center and on April 11th, she and Brayden and Tyler invited us to join them!  It was spring break and pretty crowded, but the boys still got to see and touch and do pretty much everything they wanted.  This was Wes' first time here and he definitely enjoyed himself.  I think it would probably take about a dozen trips to really check out all the fun things they have for the kids!

Here's Wes playing with light-up stars and learning about constellations...

...Brayden planting flower shapes... 

 ...the boys scanning things in the "garage"...

 ...there was a special hockey exhibit, so here's Wes driving a Zamboni...

 ...the boys playing Race to Recycle...

 (this was such a cute game...a conveyor belt brings around different types of recyclables so the kids can sort out the different types waste: household, green, hazardous, cans and bottles, etc.  I don't think the boys quite got the point, but they had fun picking up all the trash and throwing it in the recycling bin.

 ...checking out the planetarium...

 ...and here we all are having a lunch break...

...an attempt at getting a nice pic of the boys together. Impossible...

...and I borrowed this picture from Carrie's blog, but here's Wes, Brayden and I taking a turn on the giant slide.  Carrie has some great pictures here too.  Thanks again for inviting us, we had a blast!

After Easter Crafting

Here's one more post related to Easter and then I'm moving on!  My goal used to be to make sure my blog posts were in the same month that the activity occurred, but I'm lowering my expectations of myself and just hoping that I get to posting them at all!  Ok, rant done, here's Wes crafting :)

Since the boys dyed a dozen eggs each when we went to Auntie Chrissy's house a while ago I've been eating egg salad a lot, especially since I'm the only one in the house who will eat egg salad.  I have big hopes for Cora...anyway I saw a post on Pinterest about saving the dyed egg shells and smashing them up really small and using them sort of like glitter.  I would link the pin, but I'm behind and it was really cute and you'll see our finished product down below and it's nowhere near as cute.  But I remember doing this as a kid so we had to try it.

 I let Wes crack a few eggs and smash the shells...

 ...then the next day after they had dried we headed outside to make our egg shell drawing.  Cora is loving her ExerSaucer by the way, we are thankful to Sarah for the hand-me-down!

 This kid loves glue so I think he would have been just fine if the project involved just squeezing the bottle, but he humored me and sprinkled on the egg shells.  (The pinterest pin had the glue in cute bunny and easter egg shapes, ours was more abstract art)

His finished art!  Glad we did the project outside...egg shells everywhere!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  

Up from the grave He arose, with a might triumph o'er his foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever, with his saints to reigh.  He arose! He arose! Halleluja! Christ arose! 

Definitely one of my favorite Easter songs, and we are so blessed to celebrate our risen Lord.

Before we headed to church, Wes woke up to find we had been visited by the Easter bunny!

You might remember this post from two years ago when the Easter bunny also visited (last year the "Easter Bunny" had morning sickness and decided to pass on making tracks at our house - though when I reread my post from last year, that bunny was obviously feeling well enough to make pies.  Hmm, I think the Easter bunny better rethink their priorities! :)

Another note about the bunny tracks, two years ago I used flour and water to make the them, which was very effective, only I had made them all the way up our walk way and left them there for over a week. (we don't use our front walk often, so I kind of forgot about them). Anyway, I thought they would just spray off with the hose, but...no such luck.  Two weeks and a tough bristle brush later and they were finally off.  So this year I used tempera paint and only did them inside the house.  They wiped right up with a baby wipe, thank you very much Easter bunny!

How did the Easter Bunny know Wes has been asking for squirt guns for weeks now??  And I must admit that I did not purchase for Cora any of the items in her Easter basket...they were all gifts she received before she was born, but is just now ready for.  So if you see something you gave her, thanks again!

Michael had gone back to work Easter morning, so he was bummed to missed the fun.  But after enjoying our Easter baskets and a quick breakfast of oatmeal, we headed to church where they had a special program for the kids which included a donut and juice and a video.  Wes was in heaven!  Then afterwards we headed to Grammy's house for lunch and an Easter egg hunt.

Wes made a bee line for the animal crackers next to his Easter basket.  Always about the food!  And then the hunt began:

Grammy hid lots of eggs in pretty obvious places, but for some reason he had to check under the couch, just to make sure he didn't miss any!

Inside the eggs were jelly beans and Reese's eggs.  Wes kept shoving jelly beans in his mouth and passing on the chocolate, which worked out perfect for me because Reese's are my favorite!

Sharing an egg with Auntie MoMo

I can't believe I couldn't get a single good picture of the two of them together!  I do love this one though, he truly loves his sister!

Here's Wes opening his Easter basket from Grammy and Grandpa.

Playdough tools!

Cora hasn't quite warmed up to Uncle Chris yet, she seems to be a little bit of a mamma's girl.

Wes stayed at Grammy's house Easter night (I was so thankful not to have to deal with the sugar low!) and Cora got a few minutes to herself to check out her Easter basket and the bunny tracks.

Happy Easter friends and family!