Celebrating: Easter and Olivia's Birthday

 On Good Friday, Pat had the day off and we had Jim and Mary over for lunch to celebrate Easter with them since we were going to Michigan Saturday morning. Namma surprised the kiddies with bunnies and candies all in their favorite colors.

We had homemade pizzas and salad and the kids even let us eat the cookies they had made while they were off for Spring Break earlier this week. 

The weather was nice enough and the kids got to play outside on their scooters for a bit too.

Saturday morning, we left for Michigan to Mom and Dad's. It only takes about 2 1/2 hours now to make the trip. We prepped all the headphones with batteries and had some movies from the library all ready for the van. Ryan slept almost the whole way with his new bunny, White Bunny...

When we got to Mom and Dad's, we ate lunch, the kids played outside a little picking up big sticks in the yard and exploring. Dad and Pat took advantage of the decent weather and played nine holes at Marywood. When they got back we went to Nina's Taqueria for some delicious fajitas, enchiladas, and nachos-yum! Even though Ryan said "I HATE Mexican," he liked it anyway. Hannah and Josh liked it too. They especially liked the Mooville ice cream that Papa got too to bring home. 

On Easter Sunday, the fam all came over for lunch at Mom and Dad's. It was great to see everybody and share good food and visit. The sun came out and it was nice enough for the kids to play outside climbing trees, tossing the football, and of course to have the Easter egg hunt!! Nana had it all set to go, complete with Mazin' Hamsters for all! Everybody had a great time.

After the Easter celebrations, we celebrated Olivia's birthday!! She was so cute and patient from the cake to the gift opening! Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Spring Break

We stayed home this year on the kids' Spring Break, so we planned some play dates for all this time off. The boys got to go to a friend from the bus's house to play while Hannah had an extra long Brownie's meeting on Tuesday. On Wednesday, our friend's from Aurora, the Mitchell's came over for lunch and to play together. 

They had lots of fun together after not seeing each other for a while since it's so hard to get together now that they all have school. 

On Thursday, we met up with some more of our friends to go bowling and go out to lunch at Subway. For bowling, it was girls vs. boys and the girls took the boys and finished first too! Ryan only made it through the 6th frame, but fun was had by all anyway :)

Coloring Easter Eggs

After much begging, we finally colored our eggs tonight to transform them into pretty Easter ones! It's funny how much easier it gets every year as the kids get older and more independent and capable. They all got creative and here are the results...

Scootin' Boys

Since it's been so cold lately, the kiddies are getting their exercise inside. Pat cleared the way for them to ride their scooters in the basement, so that's what they've been doing pretty much every day after school. Hannah isn't in this video, but she's usually in on it too. I guess we're making lemonade from lemons. :) Come on Spring!!!

Happy Birthday to "Namma!"

We celebrated Mary Ellen's birthday a couple weeks ago, but I've been a terrible blogger lately as you can see. (at least I changed the date on the post to be for the actual day it happed-lol) Jimmy, Rachel, Lily, Sam, Jim, Mary Ellen, and our fam all went out to dinner at Julianni's. After dinner we went back to Jimmy and Rachel's to sing and have cake for Namma. Lily was really excited to play with her cousins too. We had a mini dance party in her room with her disco lights. Lily is talking so much more and Sam is getting so big! They are adorable. Han, Josh and Ryan love playing together too, and fighting over who will get to hold Sam, of course. It was a fun evening.

Deck the Halls