Easter

We headed down to Pinehurst for Easter, so the kids got to dye Easter eggs! We tried to encourage Hannah and Landon to just use stickers, which worked for a while, but then they both decided using the dye was way more fun. Needless to say, egg dying abruptly ended at that point (when dye went everywhere)! :)

 Uncle Kevin was unfortunately not there because he was in Africa for work. He is always the one who leads the egg dying activity because he loves it himself! The kids of course asked about him a hundred times, so we thought we'd let him know we were all thinking about him!

Our extended family from Ohio and Charlotte, NC always come for Easter too, which is so much fun! The boys got special Easter gifts from them, and this was a huge hit!

Our cousin Michelle, and my two sisters are (were) all pregnant, so of course we had to get a picture. Due from left to right: July 19, June 5 and May 5 (although her little one made her appearance 3 weeks early)! Stay tuned to meet our new niece!

 I made a vegan chocolate cake for dessert the night before Easter, so Landon was beyond excited! This is definitely a special treat for him, and one he doesn't get too often.

On Easter morning, the kids woke up super excited to see what the Easter Bunny brought them. It is a tradition in our family that the Easter baskets are always hidden, so they had a great time searching for them. They each got to find 4! Several days prior  I heard Grady strategizing with Landon where they should go first to look for their baskets. And of course the first place they all went was.....Popeye's closet! For some reason this is their favorite place to play. Poor Popeye has to pick up his clothes about ten times a day when they visit though!

A special Hello Kitty umbrella from the Easter Bunny!

This is the one thing Landon asked for from the Easter Bunny - a big Jessie from Toy Story.

After finding and opening Easter baskets, we headed over to the Pinehurst Hotel for the Easter egg hunt before going to church. Grady loved the Easter Bunny, and as you can see went right in for a huge hug! It's amazing what a couple of years will do.... Grady was always nervous in situations like this, but recently he has become much more confident, which is great to see!

Landon was a different story...

This egg hunt is for the 5 and under crowd, so the "hidden" eggs were really just laying all over the grass.

Me and my pregnant sisters. :)

Mimi, Popeye and the grandkids (3 and counting!)!

A picture of most of the family.....minus Ma, Michelle, Justin and Kevin.

As always, we had a great time! It's so nice that everyone still makes it a priority to get together twice a year (Easter and Thanksgiving). My aunt, uncle and cousin from Ohio could only stay in NC for a couple days due to my cousin's college schedule, but they still made the trip! All in all, a great Easter!

Pre-Easter Fun...

Kelly, Louis and Hannah came up to NC a week before Easter to spend some extra time with everyone since Kelly will no longer be able to travel after this point (because she is almost due with child #2). The kids always have a great time together, and their arrival is anticipated in our house for weeks! One of our favorite places to go with the boys is the lake at Fearrington Village. The boys could spend hours throwing sticks and rocks into the water and just playing in the grass, so we figured Hannah would probably enjoy it too! There is never anyone there (aside from an occasional dog walker), so they have the whole lake/grassy area to themselves.

A couple of months ago Grady went on a field trip with his preschool class to the planetarium, and the whole class took a CH bus to campus. I chaperoned the trip, and Grady (and all the kids) were so excited about the bus ride! So, I figured it was something he would enjoy doing again, so we all took the bus to campus to have lunch with Brandon.

Hannah was a little nervous at first because the bus was so loud, but after a few minutes she really liked it too!

I just had to include this picture of Landon poking Louis. For some reason Landon loves doing this lately - to anyone! He thinks it's hilarious to go up to someone (people he knows, not strangers) and poke them. Then he runs away and laughs hysterically! And he'll do it when you least expect it!

It was a beautiful day, and the kids loved playing at the Old Well!

And of course we had to go to Locopops!

Prior to this, we went to register Grady for kindergarten!  And yes, I could burst into tears just thinking about it. I know he's ready and will enjoy it, but it's still hard letting go. :(

Oak Island!

In late March we had the opportunity to go to Oak Island to stay at Jerri's (one of my college roomies) new beach house. Thanks Jerri! :) It  was beautiful, and we had a great time catching up with Jerri and Deborah (one of my other college roomies) and her family.

We are at a point now where the boys are pretty self sufficient at the beach. They could literally spend all day playing in the water and sand. Grady used to be a little nervous about the ocean, but now he seems to have no fear at all and just runs right in!

I think this picture is so funny because Grady is pouring water down Landon's back....this is the type of thing they do to each other all day long at the beach!

The boys had a great time with Julia (Deborah's/Jon's daughter)!

We reminded Landon that he can't date until he's much older. :)

We walked down to a pier, and the boys got a lesson on fishing from some friendly guys.

While we were at the beach, Brandon and I also celebrated our 6 year anniversary! :)

March Madness!

We had a really busy March and have been out of town every single weekend (with the exception of the first weekend), which has why it has taken me so long to catch up on the blog! :) While we've been going non-stop, it was definitely a fun month!

Before writing about our adventures, I just have to post this picture. One morning I asked the boys to clean up the playroom (which is a request they hear quite often!) while I was doing the dishes. All of a sudden I realized it was quiet (which usually means they are getting into some sort of trouble), so I walked into the living room and found them here...

The funniest part is that when I walked into the room and asked them what they were doing (and why they weren't cleaning up) Landon said, "We're taking a break because we're tired." And yes, his hands were up behind his head just like that. (So, of course I grabbed my camera.)

The first weekend in March we took the boys to see The Lorax. Believe it or not, but this was the first movie Grady has ever seen in an actual movie theater. For a couple of years he was extremely sensitive to loud noises, so we never felt he would truly enjoy going to a movie; however, this year he seems to have gotten over that, and since The Lorax is one of their favorite books, it seemed the perfect time to go. Grady was in complete awe through the whole movie, and Landon made it through most of it, although Brandon spent the last bit walking with him in the lobby.  Here they are before the movie...

A few days later we left for Florida! This was another fairly spontaneous trip to Vero Beach, but we figure we won't have this luxury next year once Grady is in kindergarten. We made the 10+ hour car trip and stayed for five nights....the trip is surprisingly pretty easy, although this time we dealt with the non-stop "When are we going to be there?" from both of them. That's to be expected I guess though! While we were there we of course enjoyed some time at the beach...

Another highlight of the trip was bowling! And the cutest part was that Hannah and Landon even got little bowling shoes....

Grady absolutely loves to bowl and gets super excited even if he doesn't knock any pins down...it's pretty cute!

Landon loves the idea of new things, but often times is a little hesitant at first. About half way through the game, he finally tried it and really liked it! Here is Louis giving him some pointers...

Hannah loves to bowl and on several different occasions decided to pick up random (and very heavy!) bowling balls and move them from place to place. Luckily, she made it through with no broken toes! :)

We had a special trip planned to the zoo on our last day, but unfortunately it rained! We weren't sure if it was going to last all day, so we headed in the direction of the zoo only to realize it was definitely going to rain ALL day. Ugh. After making some calls from the car, we found a small reptile farm that was primarily indoors, so we decided to go there. I don't think any of us were all that thrilled about seeing reptiles (aka snakes), but we tried to be positive and make the best of it. As you can see in this picture below, Brandon loved looking at the snakes.... :) 

And here is our little nephew (due June 5th!) enjoying the snakes. Kelly is right at the 30-week mark and doing great. Can't wait to meet the little guy! :)

The highlight of the reptile farm was that a few times a day they had a "venom extracting show." This place actually sells the venom to pharmaceutical companies for anti-venom, so we got to see how it is extracted. It became instantly clear why the man doing this was missing a finger. :)Thankfully the demonstration was done behind glass, although the guy doing it informed us that there were lots of poisonous snakes on the farm just roaming around (because they just naturally exist in FL everywhere). Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but luckily we escaped with no sightings or bites. Before the show, they brought out a komodo dragon, and the boys surprisingly loved it!

Afterwards, we made a quick stop to Downtown Disney, which is really great because little kids actually think they are at Disney World (and it's free!). Ha! Grady was in heaven because we went to stores which featured Mr. Potato Head, legos and Toy Story! :)