Easter Sunday

I loved our Easter Sunday. It was so low key, and so much fun. We walked to church, and both boys did just fine in their rooms in toddler town. Our friends from lifegroup were keeping Drake's room, and said he only cried 3 minutes. And didn't have any accidents! Yippee! The message from David Chadwick was amazing as always. And the music- well the production team outdid themselves as usual. We got a new worship leader a couple of months ago, and he is wonderful. I don't really know why they added another person, but he's been a great addition.

We walked back home, and showed the boys what all those toys in their Easter baskets were for. THE SANDBOX! It was and still is, a huge hit. They could both just play out there all day. While Daddy played with the boys, and got everything ready to dye eggs. Drake didn't understand quite why we were doing it, but it was still fun.

I got Eli down for a nap after lunch, and Daddy decided to lay down as well. I tried to put Drake down, but he just screamed. So I tried something new. I told him he could lay with me in Mommy and Daddy's bed, but he had to be SUPER quiet since Daddy was sleeping. Well, unbelievably, it worked. Next thing I knew, it was an hour later, and we were all waking up. That was one fabulous nap!

It was 3 pm by that point, and we still had a few good hours of sunlight. Time to make a quick decision, and the choo-choo won out. We decided to take the train uptown, and go for an early dinner. There is a pizza place where you can sit outside, and see the trains coming and going. Well, on the way down there Eric's dad called, and told him the Sabres (Buffalo hockey for all you southern folks) were on. It's playoff time. Anyways, the pizza place was nixed for a Wild Wing Cafe, b/c Eric knew they would have the game. The boys didn't mind, and Drake got some wings. You'll see in the pictures how much he loves them!

Drake was about to hop out he was so stinkin' excited.

Pointing up to the tracks!

What is it Drake?
A CHOO-CHOO!!!!!!

Not our choo-choo, but Drake was still thrilled.

You can't even see Drake beside Eric, but I can assure you they were having a large time.
He has his Daddy's Buffalo blood. The kid can kill a chicken wing.
That's not a chubby cheek. That's an entire wing shoved in his mouth.
Blurry, but still super cute.
Now, onto the egg dyeing part of our afternoon....
Drake loved it!
BIG thumbs up!
He took this one to the sandbox, but it "bwoke". Oh no. Tragedy.
We each had an egg! Drake's was the pale yellow, so you can hardly see his name. Tessa's actually came out the brightest. Maybe to brighten my day and give me hope that this process will hurry along?
Now, onto the sandbox pictures:-)
Eating sand. He quickly figured out after day 1 that it wasn't advised. Or tasty for that matter.


Daddy introducing his boys to the sandbox.

The boys

Let's mark this down in the history books. DRAKE IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!! I hope he doesn't regress now that I've typed this. Today was day three in underwear, and he's only had two accidents. Both were just a little bit of poop. He's getting there, and I'm thrilled!

Eli took his first step last week! He is getting braver and letting go of stuff, but only takes about one step before plopping down on his bottom. He's drooling like crazy, so I hope some teeth are about to pop through.

Drake has been super heavy with the hugs and kisses lately, and we are all eating it up.

Eli has a smile that lights up the space around him, and makes us all smile.

We are so blessed.

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday was our neighborhood's annual Easter egg hunt. And as fate would have it, I had to work. And Eric works every Saturday. Cue.....the rain! Yippee!!! Sunday was gorgeous, and it was rescheduled for 1pm. I headed down with Drake while Eli finished napping, and Eric brought him later. Drake totally got it this year, and came home with a basket full of eggs. They were full of jelly beans and stickers, and other little prizes. And Eli was happy just to chew on the empty plastic eggs. Enjoy some pictures!

Headed to the park!

The hunt was at 1pm, which is also Drake's naptime. He was tired, but trying not to let it show. I caught a glimpse of his nap-readiness on camera. He always rubs his ears.
The eggs were hidden around the playground. This is the little toddler section.
A little instruction....
and he had it down pat.

You can see the basket was filling up.

The loot!
Marley just had to go and show him that the eggs have jelly beans inside. He was in HEAVEN!

We love us some Marley! Aidan and a friend came too, but they were too busy hunting eggs to let me take a picture.
And I love me some Drakey! He was enjoying an easter cookie treat. All of this for only $1. I love that our neighborhood does stuff like this. You'll have to forgive my appearance. I'd been out for Mommy's night out on Saturday, and wasn't quite back to par during the hunt:-)
Yay! Look who woke up and came with Daddy! My little snuggle bug.


Family shot. Mommy and Daddy blinded by the sun, Eli stealing Drake's cup, and Drake trying to escape. Just the norm. I can't wait to see what our pictures will look like when we have all three kids finally together.

Lazy 5 Ranch

We went to Mooresville today, about 45 minutes away from us in South Charlotte. There is a fabulous place there called Lazy 5 ranch, where you can drive your car through a "safari". Quite cool, and you can buy buckets of food. The animals will put their entire heads in your car. As in, this Momma was emergently shutting the sunroof when Drake freaked. He loved the animals from afar, but kept saying "No no bite, no no bite" when they came near us. The biting chickens at my parents house have scarred him for life. Next time we go, we will plan it better. First off, take a picnic lunch to enjoy the rest of the ranch after the safari. They have a big playground, and more animals to pet/feed. Also, you can make reservations ahead of time to ride on big wagons, that are pulled by horses. So, you ride that through the safari rather than go in your car. We are totally doing that next time. Fran and I had a great time with the boys!

This is the llama that welcomed us. I think. Anyone know if that's a llama?

This is what we saw just waiting to get in the gate. One pig, one ostrich, and something I don't know what it is.
And then my camera battery died. Mommy fail. Switch to the iphone camera.
Zebras!
This zebra loved us. The mountain goat before him stole (right out of Fran's hands) our feed bucket, and this zebra got some. So then he snuggled with Fran to say thanks. I rolled up the window and said to keep the bucket stealing animals away from my kids. (In all seriousness, the animals are SO friendly. They are used to this all day, 6 days a week. They know to be nice if they want all the suckers with feed buckets to keep visiting.)
The rhino. He was so cute.

"Mommy, Look at those giraffes!"

Looka there.
Why, Hello handsome.
They looked a little menacing, all staring at us like that.
Drake loved standing on the center console and checking things out. He is the perfect height to just get his little head over the sunroof opening.

Week in Review

No pics, so I'll apologize in advance:-)

Another busy week around here, working and just livin' life.

Eric almost has the playset finished, and the boys are going to love it. They already love the swings and glider!

We have a fun birthday party tomorrow for the boys friend Reese- she is one, and we are excited to celebrate.

The possible gov't shutdown is freaking me out, b/c I'm worried it will slow down the processing of our application to immigration.

Drake is having his first sleep over tonight! He's stayed with grandparents before, but never with friends. He is over at Marley and Aidan's, and I miss him even though he is just across the street. At least my sweet baby is just across the hall in his crib.

I bought a some bedding for Tessa's room today. It's SO cute. I just want our sweet girl home.

The weather has been fabulous, and we are looking forward to a fun weekend outside!