Happy Birthday to Me!

     As a mom you start to focus on everyone else's birthday instead of your own and this year Hubby was supposed to have some work stuff to do and was going to miss my birthday. This didn't happen though because his schedule changed and so we had a nice dinner out even though the kids had already picked out a gift for me a few days prior (a stuffed Toothless from "How to Train your Dragon" and a Starbucks card), hubby showed up with some truffles and more Starbucks for me and I got to pick out a Pittsburgh Pirates Jersey since I had been wanting one.
     We had a cake and the kids sang to me at work which is always a blast! Some of the preschoolers also made me cards in the morning which was adorable!

Blowing out my candles!

Froggie having some of my cake!

Big Brother showing off his icing face!

     It was a great birthday and I have (less than) 365 days until I'm 30 - at some point once I'm feeling more caught up I will post my list of 30 things to do this year!

Egg Hunt Part One

     Next weekend is Easter, but this weekend we had a couple egg hunts to head out to. We started the day at the Egg Dash, which is the egg hunt sponsored by my employer. Last year was the first year we went but it has been a ton of fun. There are always bouncy houses set up along with games and face painting all to do before  the dash begins.

     The kids had a blast and got a TON of candy. On top of that it was a beautiful day in the middle of our gross weather.

Picking a sucker

Climbing the bouncy house

Look at all those eggs!

Eggs EVERYWHERE!

Ready to get some eggs

Froggie wasn't sure about it… 

And they're off

Finding some eggs

Filling up his bag

Check out all those eggs!

     After we headed back towards home we headed to the college campus and did another egg hunt there. Froggie got the hang of egg hunting pretty quickly and Big Brother is already a pro!

Big Brother and the bunny

Ready to get more eggs

Froggie and the bunny

waiting to go get some more eggs

Big Brother and his bucket

Froggie and her bucket

Mommy, Daddy, Big Brother Date Night

   It was a pretty last minute decision but we took Big Brother to the movies to see The Muppets Most Wanted. He was pretty excited and did well with the movie even though it was a pretty late showing for a 3 year old. He worked on his snack box and drank his blue icy. When the movie was done he wanted me to take his picture with some of the stand ups in the hallway. He got a little cranky at the end but it was a fun little date night for the three of us while Froggie stayed with my mom.

Holding our tickets

One of the Most Wanted

Captain America

Posing with Toothless

Visiting Daddy

     I had a dentist appointment today so afterwards we made a pit stop to visit Hubby in his office. The kids ran around and visited for a little bit before deciding that Hubby's desk was a nice place to hide and play. They didn't sit still for long but I thought it was adorable!

A nice little fort

Tumbling, Bunnies and Music… OH MY!

     We started out our Saturday as usual, we packed everyone up and headed to the Y for tumbling. This time around it has been a "parent free" class since kids were struggling to focus when their families were sitting against the wall. I popped in towards the end of his class to check on him after he fell off the bar, but as you can see he was just fine.

Back on the bar

Climbing

     Then we had a snack and headed off to play with some bunnies! Every year a local photographer welcomes some bunnies into the studio to take some pretty unique pictures for Easter. Both kids fell asleep on the way there but weren't too grumpy when the woke up, especially once they met Mr. Checkers! They had fun playing with the bunny and having their pictures taken. I'm not sure what Big Brother liked best, playing with Mr. Checkers or the big bunny cookie he got when it was time to go!

Yummy cookies!

     When we were done with pictures we weren't ready to head home just yet so we took the kids into our local music store. It had been a long time since I'd been in there and it looks quite a bit different but the kids were really excited. Big Brother and Froggie both loved looked at the drums. Froggie found a pair of bongos while Hubby set Big Brother up on an electronic drum set. He did surprisingly well and decided he wanted to take a pair of drumsticks home. Both kids also picked out a shaker shaped like an egg. 

     We've also been looking into enrolling Big Brother in lessons so that he can actually learn to play an instrument. He has such a love for music and all things creative so we toured the building and showed him some of the instruments that he would be able to play now. He showed some interest in the keyboards but it didn't last and he played with the drums for awhile. he was pretty interested in most of the brass instruments but they're a little too big for him at this point (and if he wants to learn later I still have trumpets and books from when I was in middle and high school). He seemed pretty interested in the violin and stated that he thought he would like to play one. So we filed that away and came home to show him some videos of kids and adults playing the violin. He still seemed pretty excited so I started looking into where he could take lessons. Nothing is set in stone and he may change his mind between now and this summer but it looks like he may be starting violin lessons in may!

Playing the bongos

playing on the set

concentrating

He loved it!

Welcome Back Daddy

     Hubby had been away for training for the last few days and the kids were so excited when he came home. They even climbed into his bag while he was unpacking - I think they were asking him to stay.

If you leave again please take us with you!

I'm NOT getting out!

Breakfast With Grandpa

     This morning (even with the time change!) we got up and headed out to breakfast with Hubby's dad.  We went to Big Brother's favorite restaurant - Cracker Barrel! The food was delicious and it was nice to spend some time out of the house after yesterday's lazy afternoon. The kids had a blast and ate a better breakfast than they normally do.

He stole my orange

Hubby and Big Brother

Froggie got a froggy

The Froggy

    After we were done at breakfast we went to the mall and let Big Brother blow off some steam playing in the play area at the mall while Froggie slept in the stroller. We picked up a few things while we were there, the most exciting of which was a small stash of Girl Scout cookies despite our attempts to not buy cookies this year.
     We wrapped our mall trip up with a stop into Build A Bear. Hubby absolutely hates this store but he wanted to see if Big Brother wanted to make a Spiderman bear. In true Big Brother fashion he decided that he didn't want the Spiderman bear but he wanted a My Little Pony. SO… we left with Rainbow Dash. He wanted the sound clip for her but we decided that it would drive us nuts so we just got the pony.

Making a pony

He was so excited

Rainbow Dash!

Picking a friend

riding on my back!

Welcome Back to the Wild

     Today was opening day of our local zoo! It's nice that the zoo is back open because it gives us another thing to add to our list of activities to do and it gets us back outside. It's been really cold again lately (isn't is supposed to be warming up?) and Hubby said that it was going to be too cold to go to opening day. I decided that it was warmer than it has been and we've been coped up too long so we packed extra blankets and dressed warmly and headed out. Hubby met us there when he was done working and my mom came with us as well.
     It actually wasn't too bad temperature wise and even though not all of the animals were out I'm glad we went and that the kids got to have some fun.

Happy Big Brother

Sleepy Froggie

Big Brother and grandma

up close and personal with the lion

up close and personal with the lion

up close and personal with the lion

Froggie wanted to see the lion too

all bundled up

the swans hanging out on the ice

Todd the 55 year old turtle

Big Brother checking out the turtle

Froggie the popcorn monster

Froggie the popcorn monster

our little family at the zoo

Happy Froggie

     Hubby and I also had a "date night". We don't go out often but friends of ours from the Navy had invited us to dinner and so we headed out to have dinner with them at a local Mexican restaurant and then after that some of us stopped by Menchies for dessert (it's a frozen yogurt bar!). It was nice to get out and socialize and not have to worry about how the kids were behaving and whether they were bored or not.