Easter 2014

We hosted Easter on Holy Saturday for Shawn's family and then went to Easter Mass and brunch with my family on Easter.  I cooked dinner that night and we finally got around to dyeing eggs!  The kids had a ball playing with their cousins Saturday.  It's a lot of work to host, but it's fun to see the kids all together.

Front of the Line

I know I should be writing an Easter post.  BUT I had to bump this post ahead of Easter.  I know Jesus rose from the dead and all, BUT I wouldn't be posting about that anyway.  The Easter post will be beautiful pictures of my adorable kids collecting eggs on Easter.  And for now, this trumps Easter.

Brian lost ANOTHER TOOTH!  AND.....he didn't swallow it! 

Can you feel the excitement?!

Kind of gross, but he insisted I share this picture with you all :)

He just discovered that it was loose last night and he apparently has the wiggling down now because he lost it during dinner tonight.  He completely refused to eat anything crunchy all day.  Ha!  He was being very careful during dinner and about midway through, he retrieved it from his mouth and announced that it had come out!  He was BEAMING!  And I was so glad that mom, dad, Jon and Teri were all here for the occasion!

Another Road Trip

Didn't think I'd agree to one so soon, huh?  Well my wonderful, gracious friends agreed to re-route our planned Holy Thursday meetup to avoid the horrific traffic we encountered en-route to Archie's therefore, we jumped back in the car and headed out.  Brian had school, so it was just the girls.  We met up with Jennie and Jack and had a ball playing outside and inside!

Archie's

Last week we made the long trek to visit Archie.  Archie is my Dad's mom, and the kids' great grandmother.  She is 92 years old. 

I was incredibly nervous about how the kids would do on a 6.5 hour drive.  As it turned out there was a ridiculous 20 mile stretch of construction which coupled with enough potty breaks for a newly potty trained red head we all know and love made for 9.5 hour drive. 

The kids did AWESOME!  I am not sure Pappy...recently renamed Pap (by that same red head) would agree with my assessment, but all in all, they did really well.  Brian has entered the "are we there yet?" stage and of course there were the many, many potty breaks, but there were no tears and minimal complaining, so I would say they did pretty great!

In addition to Archie, we got to see (great) Aunt Beth, (great) Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mike, my cousins Andrew and Matt and my mom's cousins Tom and Ann.  The kids adjusted so well and interacted with everyone as if they see them all time...which isn't the case at all, it had been just over two years. 

We spent quite a bit of time at a local park and the kids had a BLAST playing with Andrew.  He was so great with them and they ate it up! 

The ride home was much shorter (THANK THE LORD) and the kids did well.  Lilah fell asleep not far from home, so we had to deal with one potty accident, but one isn't bad.  We even drove under the Blue Angels performing!  Brian was super intrigued!

To say that Archie enjoyed Lilah would be the understatement of the century.

Brian and Archie got along too.  He is showing her a story he wrote in the car.

He is attempting to show off his missing tooth in this picture.

Mom's cousin Ann reading a story to the kiddos.  They adored her!

 

Pappy couldn't figure out how yogurt got all over his pants!

Had to do this for Cynthia :)

Doesn't she look ginormous in this pic?

Lilah kissing Archie's rear.

Archie's reaction to the rear kissing.

Selfie

Quite possibly the best selfie ever taken...

This was taken after we arrived home from our trip to Archie's.  Brian got the mustaches in his gift bag of surprises from Nana (AKA bribes to get back in the car after stops and to behave int the car)!

Andddd...he ate it.

The tooth.  It came out at lunch today.  Brian was so excited that he swallowed it.  We searched his cheese and crackers.  We searched his smoothie yogurt drink.  No tooth.  It's in his belly.

He started to get upset, and I quickly said, "it's okay buddy.  Happens all the time with the first tooth.   Lots of kids don't know what it feels like to have a tooth come out and they swallow it.  We will write a not to the tooth fairy and explain the whole thing."  He thought about it for a minute and then said, "MOM!  It will come out in my POOP!" 

Yep, then there's that. 

His note to the tooth fairy went something like this...

Dear Miss Tooth Fairy,

My tooth fell out while I was eating lunch.  It's in my belly.  Please leave me money.  I love you.

Love,
Brian

And I would post a whole face pic, but that nose was just full of boogers, so I cropped it out!  Ick! 

I'm Not Sure I'm Ready

Two MAJOR milestones have occurred in less than twenty-four hours.

1. Brian was bumped from Kindergarten to FIRST GRADE sight words at school.  He has mastered all FIFTY Kindergarten words, so they moved him right along.  Sigh.  But, seriously?  How awesome is that!?

2. BRIAN HAS A LOOSE TOOTH.

He's gone from this....

to this...

In.The.Blink.Of.An.EYE.