Birthday Boy

Will isn't actually 2 until Wednesday, but we celebrated a little already on Sunday afternoon with our family and 3 families from church. We just ordered pizza, the kids played outside and we had cupcakes. A low key celebration, but we all had a great time.

After we ate, Will stayed under the picnic table in his "house" for a long time...

Since Aubrey is four, I guess Will thinks he's turning 4, too. Anytime I ask him his age lately, he says, "I'm warf", while holding up two fingers. Yeah, that's how he says four. Here's how he counts to 5: "yun, do, free, warf, wife". He really does have a lot of clear speech and talks a lot, but his counting cracks me up. I'm actually loving all the baby talk he has left and will let him be little as long as I can. Happy Almost 2nd Birthday, Will! I am amazed by God's creativity every time I look at you!

Just Life

Will saying, "cheese" again at church on Easter. Don't remind me that he'll be 2 next week, I'm still in denial! We aren't having a big friend party this year because we're leaving for Disney World the day after he turns two. We're already starting to get everything packed for our week in Florida. We get to see our friends, the Pavys, for the first 3 nights and then Gigi is flying from TX for the second half of our stay -- we can't wait!

A & W love to pull beach towels out of the linen closet and have picnics all over the house. This one was right before bath time, hence Will in a diaper only.

Will playing with his Automoblox, favorite toy of both Will & Daddy.

Boxes are still a hit around here!

Aubrey has been using this big piece of card board from an outdoor table we bought for puppet shows galore.

This was on the way to church on Easter -- somehow I forgot to take more "Easter clothes" pictures.

Maggie Moo's had free ice cream last week on tax day -- we're always fans of free stuff, especially ice cream! Aubrey had vanilla with sprinkles and Will had "brown i neem".

Biker shorts, a ballet skirt, red patten leather mary janes and a flower head band -- just one of Aubrey's daily dress-up ensembles.

Children's Book List

Thanks to my good friend, Annamarie, I've started using this book list to request books online for me to pick up at the library. I get bored of reading the same books over and over, so I like having this list to give me some new ideas of quality children's literature. This list is for ages 4-8. This list comes from Five in a Row, which is literature based homeschooling curriculum. We have another whole year before Aubrey enters kindergarten and we still don't know if we'll do public, private or homeschooling. We'll see which path God leads us with school, but in the mean time, we'll be reading these good books. Thanks again, AM, for sharing!

Christ Is Risen!

We had a lovely Easter Sunday celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior! We went to church in the morning, came home for a quick lunch and naps, and then went to some of our friend's house from church for a big Easter dinner. There were 8 adults and 8 kids, it was a full house!

The kids had another fun egg hunt after dinner.

Will loved picking out all the eggs that looked like soccer, basket balls and baseballs -- he's all boy for sure!

When Will sees a camera lately, his new thing is to make the biggest smile he possibly can. It doesn't always look like his genuine smile, but I still think it's cute...

I have missed the TX bluebonnets this spring, but have loved to see all the Cherry Blossoms here. It still doesn't feel like spring here -- it actually snowed last week one day! But we've had a few spring like days and are starting to see some blooms, so I'm hoping that spring is near. We are ready to play outside after a long winter!

Checking out (& hugging) their Easter baskets before church.

Aubrey and her little friend, Linnea.

The boys.

D.C.

Friday, we headed into D.C. to do some sight seeing. Here's the whole gang at the Lincoln Memorial.

Aubrey in a tree.

I like how Robert & Will are both pointing up at the Washington monument.

Standing on the Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Monument and Capital building behind me. It was a beautiful day in D.C. on Friday -- the weather said it was supposed to be in the 50s and raining, but thankfully it was sunny and almost 70.

The kids were pretty worn out from all the driving, parking and walking around the city. We got them a popsicle from a vendor to occupy them for a while.

At the Arlington Cemetery.

The girls finished their popsicles in the car and then promptly passed out for the remainder of the drive home.

Despite all of us being tired from a long day in D.C. and Aubrey & Will having a major bedtime meltdown that night, we had a great visit with the Ellistons. We got to just hang out at home on Thursday afternoon and let the kids play. The girls played dress-up a lot and they all bounced in the moon jump together. We went out to eat Thursday night in the town center down the street and also got to visit Friday night and Saturday morning before they went back to Austin. It was so fun to see how much Caroline has grown since we moved last summer and to catch up with Keith & Lauren. We're really hoping to make a trip to Austin in August and look forward to meeting baby boy Elliston, who is due on July 4th. Thanks so much for making the trip out here!

Sweet Caroline

Our good friends from Austin, the Ellistons, came to visit this weekend! Keith had a business trip in Baltimore on Thursday, so Lauren & Caroline came along and visited for a couple days. While the daddies worked on Thursday, Lauren and I took the kids to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. As you can tell, Aubrey and Caroline hit it off right away -- they hadn't seen each since we moved last summer.

They held hands the whole day and also in their car seats on the drive home!

It was spring break here for a lot of schools, so the aquarium was really crowded. We also didn't know that you couldn't bring strollers, so we had our hands full! They still had fun though and loved watching the dolphins -- they spent a good amount of time squeaking like dolphins and then giggling at each other after each squeak...

It kinda looks like they're dangling over the water here, but of course there is a window behind them. We stopped for a snack break looking out on Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Dying Eggs

Aubrey has been asking me for weeks when we could dye eggs -- She was so excited when I said yes today!

Robert being silly, of course, and trying to eat one of her eggs.

Concentrating on which stickers to choose.

A happy girl!

Bunny Breakfast

This morning our neighborhood had a pancake breakfast with a visit from the Easter bunny. Will was obviously less thrilled to have has picture taken with the bunny.

Once again, Will trying to squirm away.

"Cheese!"

Watching a little magic show with her friends.

Enjoying their pancakes, fruit and hot chocolate!

Thursday afternoon at Aubrey's neighborhood play group, they had a little egg hunt after their playtime.

Chloe, Madison & Aubrey showing off their eggs!