Look Who's 2!

Our sweet precious baby boy is 2 years old today! I'm having a very hard time believing it. It seems just like yesterday when we were bringing him home from the hospital. And yet at the same time, I can't remember life before him. Now he is a vivacious, busy, opinionated, smart, lovable little 2 year old. So here's to the Terrific Twos!...looking forward to another fabulous year of growing and learning! We love you to the moon and back J! XOXO

We aren't officially celebrating Jack's birthday until the 25th of April with a party, but we wanted to make the real day special too! That was until we lost power for 2 full days! Here is how it went...

We greeted Jack in his room in the a.m. with a rendition of "Happy Birthday" and two cameras in his face. He wasn't exactly sure what to think. (We lost power about 20 minutes after this.)

Jack and I went to the neighborhood bakery to choose a very special Birthday cupcake for dinner. We came home with a bunny cookie and 6 bunny cupcakes. The only problem was that Jack didn't understand the phrases "after lunch and after dinner". Don't let this lunch picture fool you--the previous 35 minutes included a full out tantrum and refusal to eat lunch. "Don't want to...bunny cookie" meaning "I don't want to eat lunch, I want my cookie". (note the tear stained eyes) After a very long lunch, I finally won....kind of. Jack ate/picked at his lunch and then was given his bunny cookie. After that, all was well. I'm not sure if this behavior was due to 'just being 2' or the power outage. I'm hoping for the latter.

A couple books by the light of the window before nap time... once the storm passed it was a very dreary day.

So the plan was that Jack get his BIG birthday present on the 13th, his real birthday. The present was a new play set right in his backyard. Clay and I spent days researching this, choosing the play set, choosing the colors and then choosing the day of installation. We settled on Jack's special day since his party is 2 weeks later. Unfortunately, you can't use tools to assemble a play set if you don't have power. The guys from PlayNation spent a couple of hours in our backyard waiting for the power to come back on. Jack spent a lot of time looking out the window hoping and wishing the men would "fix it". Little did any of us know that it was going to be 2 full days later. So much for the special birthday treat!

I had these glorious intentions of a yummy home cooked birthday dinner for Jack. But, with no power, we headed out for pizza instead (per Jack's request). I'm sure that didn't bother him a bit:) We did make it home in time for a tiny bit of daylight to sing Jack Happy Birthday and eat cupcakes by candle light. I think this is one Birthday we will never forget!

Easter Greetings

From our Family to Yours...

Hunting Season

Eggs, that is! We had an "egg-cellent" weekend of Egg hunts and pre-Easter fun. We started off Friday with an Egg Hunt at Jack's school. The eggs were hidden around the playground and the kids took the eggs to one central basket...great idea! Then the teachers divied them up into the tot's bunny bags. Jack could not contain himself when we got home as he looked into his bag to check out his loot. Unfortunately for him I had already emptied all the eggs of the sweet treats. Don't judge--trust me he would have tried to eat the whole bag and not given up. It was a battle I was not in the mood to fight 30 minutes before nap time. He still had fun opening empty eggs and a few of them even surprised him with toys inside.

On Sunday, we attended Sophia's 2nd Birthday Party which was another Easter Egg Hunt complete with a visit from the Easter Bunny. We had perfect weather for the hunt and Jack surprised me with actually showing interest in the giant bunny. Quite a change from last years bunny visit and this years Santa trip. Well Jack learned from Friday's hunt that he better get the candy while he can. Instead of dropping his eggs in the pail, he opened each one as he found it. Empty eggs went into the bucket and candy went into his mouth. Leave it to my sly guy to figure that one out. Needless to say after Easter candy and birthday cupcakes we took our little bunny home with a bit of a sugar high. If you can believe it we also had the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt at 4pm that afternoon too. However Jack was snoozing, so we decided to let him sleep the sugar off. Maybe next year.

So much Easter fun and Easter is still a week away. How will we ever top this weekend on the actual day?

Pre-school Easter Egg Hunt. Jack was so surprised when he walked outside and saw Mommy standing on his playground to join in the hunt. Ahhh..so sweet!

Jack took his eggs to the basket just like he was instructed to do.

Hmmm...I don't really have to leave them in there...do I?

Post Egg Hunt play!

Sophia's 2nd Birthday Party and Egg Hunt. (Excuse the Crocs--he insisted)

His first found egg and Jack is already on the ground trying to open it.

And what does he find inside....a "lollitop"!

Hey, this is easier if Daddy holds the basket and I just walk around and open eggs.

Jack's Easter Bunny encounter started with a hand shake...

evolved into a sideways hug...

and ended with a kiss!

Sophia, the Birthday Girl and Jack's very bestest friend! Happy Birthday sweet girl! We had an "egg-cellent" time!

Little Swinger

Ever since Daddy came home with a Tee Ball set for Jack, it has become an after dinner ritual. After a few swings it's off to bath and bed. Clay has pronounced that Jack might be "a natural" and we need to get some video footage. Ha! I think he is just a proud Daddy and I think Jack just likes anything that expels energy. Regardless, it has been keeping both of my boys entertained around here. We finally got some video footage a couple days ago as our neighbors were coming over to visit. Jack will do anything to put on a show for an audience. So I present our "Little Swinger" in honor of the start of spring and baseball season...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com