Easter

Easter morning,

{a bit earlier than I wanted to be up} 

 

4 excited kids waiting to see what the Easter bunny brought...

This was our first Easter in the new house...

which meant lots of brand new hiding places for the eggs!

I'm pretty sure the kids found all but one egg...

 

Our 1st attempt at group sibling photos before church...

And a 2nd attempt for a decent picutre at Grandma's house after church...

 I think the individuals pictures turned out much better than the group ones.

 

I found Maura and Tatum passing time at Grandma's waiting for the Egg hunt to start...

 

 Finally...egg hunt time!!!

 Maura is a pro...

I need to teach Audra "Easter egg hunt photo etiquette"...

you must look at the camera while grabbing your egg :)

 

After 15 years of egg hunts Riley has this down!

 



Aidan struggled to find his last egg,

which was hidden underneath the rock with his name on it in grandma's flower bed.

Poor Aidan, all the uncles strive to make his eggs the hardest to find!

March stuff

Same-old..same-old happening around here...

nothing new and exciting to report,

but that's probably a good thing!

 

This post will be a hodge-podge of random events from this month...

 

March 13th:  Riley's Special Olympics swim meet

Yep, Riley is still participating in swimming from January-April,

much to his dismay.

Crazy kid...seems to think it would be just fine to sit around and play video games all weekend long.

Unfortunately for him, this mama insists he get out and move his body every once in a while (i.e. for one hour every Sunday afternoon...at a nice, warm indoor pool)-- Mean mama !

 

 

It was a long day at the natatorium for these two little ones...

March 17th:  St. Patrick's Day
In this house we love to dress up festively and eat festive meals on St. Patrick's day.
I'll share pictures of my adorable "Irish twin" girls...
but I'll spare you the creepy pics of our green meal.

Egg Hunt:  March 19th

Cousins Tatum and Teagan joined us at a big indoor Easter Egg hunt.

  This is the only picture I got of my girls together...

 

Audra was not in the mood for picture taking,

and Maura was forcing a smile waiting to see if Audra would cooperate!

 

Maura and Tatum

Maura and Teagan

Maura and Tatum got matching face painting done:

a baptism-birthday bash with cousins

Our busy week of "celebrating" finished off with an even busier weekend of celebrations...

My brother and his family have been visiting for the weekend

and

today was a TRIPLE party...

a Valentine's Day-2nd Birthday-Baptism

My pretty girls all dressed up for the big party:

The first event of the day was my neice, Teagan's baptism:

Followed by her big sister, Tatum's 2nd birthday party:

My girls (and all the other kids) loved the Koi pond at the restaurant

Just about every other minute of the weekend was spent having

fun with their cousins!

Lexy, Maura, Audra and Brianna

 My girls loved being entertained {and spoiled} by their big girl cousins!  

Audra was in heaven being carried around all day and getting endless piggyback rides too!

Maura was sooo excited for cousin sleepovers:

We went to a bounce house place,

had a pizza party,

made the most delicious cake pops and chocolate covered strawberries,

and

enjoyed an unusual family tradition...

Feasting on tator-tot casserole for Valentine's day dinner!

Two years ago my brother and his family were here visiting on Valentine's Day weekend,

and as we were all gathered waiting for my niece Tatum to be born we made a dinner honoring her nick-name...Tator-tot casserole.

So it has become a strange little family tradition.

Chinese New Year...and more!

This week there was something to celebrate almost everyday...

Sunday:
We celebrated Chinese New Year at home with my sister and her family.
We had a pre-Super Bowl meal of Chinese take-out.
Followed by a yummy dessert of chocolate covered fortune cookies!

Monday:
On the official first day of the 15 day long Chinese New Year holiday...
Audra wore a qi pao to school and brought little treat bags to give to her friends.


I forgot to get a picture of my pretty little lady before she went to school,
so I was excited when her teacher sent me a text with this picture:

Because it was the first day of the "Year of the Monkey"
the word of the day at school was "monkey".

Tuesday:

100th Day of School

This one didn't require too much prep from mommy (thank goodness!),
our only pre-celebration task was to collect 100 "things" for Audra to share/show to her classmates.
So we 100 cheerios on string as a necklace.

Thursday:

 Valentine's Day party at school

This school celebration required much more prep than the 100th day of school.
There were Valentines to write out and candy treat bags to fill.
(Audra and Maura each have nearly 30 classmates!)

But most importantly...
there were adorable outfits to coordinate!

 This week was also:
Feeding Tube Awareness Week

Last year I wrote a big post about the impact feeding tubes have had on our family.

This year I'll simply say...

I am grateful for the healthy place that feeding tubes have brought both of my daughters too!

Maura circa 2008

Audra circa last night!

Packing on the pounds while she sleeps :)