Happy Birthday, Grandma!

We got together with the Kirkhams last weekend to celebrate Grandma's birthday and everyone enjoyed a nice dinner together.  

 

 

I think everyone enjoyed Lupe's sombrero as well!

 

 

When Alex started to get wiggly at the table, I gave him my camera and he snapped pictures of everyone.  We may need to work on his angles and keeping his hand still (and maybe alerting people to the fact he's taking pictures!) but overall I thought he did pretty well for a 3-year old.

Grandma

 

 

Aunt Amanda and Ben

 Amanda's friend Martin

Daddy

Mama (uh, NOT my best picture!)

And Grandpa's shirt

 Had to squeeze a self-portrait in there as well.

 We love being able to share special occasions with our families again.  After four years away we sure appreciate things like that now, especially since our kids are big enough to behave through (most of) an entire meal now.  Life is good.

Camera Hog

Alex's infatuation lately has been having his picture taken and taking pictures himself.  It started at the park one sunny day last week when I wanted a picture of him in his new shades.

The poses kept on coming, so I kept on taking pictures.

It went on for a while...

I'll spare you the other 40, but trust me, each one was unique and worth viewing a few dozen times by the model.

I took a few cute ones at the splash pad which was recently turned back on and we've had weather warm enough to enjoy it!

 
 I love that sweet baby gut...don't know how much longer it will be around because Alex is growing up and slimming down as well.

In the car, it was back to business and the priority of capturing this sweet face for posterity.  I introduced him to the self-portrait mode on my phone.

 He even figured out how to get his picture with Mickey from one of the apps.  Kids and technology amaze me.

At the bus stop the next day he needed some help getting a picture of his gum. Naturally, that turned into another photo shoot of 50 pictures.

Alex took the phone over again and got plenty of other interesting shots, mostly of bricks and grass and his knees, but a few interesting ones in the mix, too.

At Ben's t-ball game I was hoping to just get a shot of the blue mouth of my sweet snow cone lover, but we couldn't stop at one.

No more photographs, please.

The beauty of this addiction is that he spends a ton of time on my phone looking through all 800 pictures, most of which appeared in the last week.  I guess it's time to give the camera to Ben and see if he can do better!

Bad News Bears

I don't think this season is going to be a banner one for the Red Sox. Our coach is gone for 3 weeks and left no one in charge. We rarely have scheduled practice or a plan to warm up before the game. Last week I thought I was running late because we arrived 20 minutes before the game started and I expected to find lots of kids throwing balls and warming up. This is what I found on our side of the field (and after a few messages confirming the date and time were correct!):

And on the other side parents were filling up the bleachers and kids were out on the field getting ready.

About five minutes until game time, we finally had three kids and one dad.

The other team had a full roster, five dads, and a complete series of stretches and drills. Some of their spectators moved to our bleachers so they wouldn't be as crowded.

We finally ended up with seven players and three dads, just barely enough to limp through a game. I feel bad for Ben and the other kids to not have a great experience their first season of baseball, and I can't help but wonder if he would enjoy it more if there was a real sense of team spirit. It is what it is. At least he's getting some experience, right? And no matter what, Alex is always having a blast on the newly-replenished pile of dirt. This is where Ben would like to spend his time as well!

At home the silly kids are always finding fun things to do, especially with their friends over nearly every day.

Alex found an app on my phone to take his picture with Mickey and we've had some interesting creations. This one turned out pretty cute!

Egg Hunters

Happy Easter! Wishing everyone a joyous celebration of Jesus' resurrection. We have certainly enjoyed sharing the exciting news with the kids this year since they're getting old enough to understand that Easter is more than a bunny. But I still think what they've loved most about this holiday has been the egg hunts. We started off with one at the neighborhood clubhouse last week and it was packed!

This was the first time the kids had done it in a large group and they didn't fare well. I tried to encourage them to go fast but they only ended up with a handful of eggs each. Naturally, that brought out their competitive spirits later!

They each had egg hunts at school (both limited to a dozen eggs to keep it fair) and we went to a great party yesterday with Matt's coworker and the kids were chomping at the bit to fill up their baskets again.

On your mark....get set....GO!

These guys were SERIOUS. Alex screamed a few times when someone grabbed an egg before him but he definitely improved his speed. (sorry it's blurry...all these pictures are from my phone)

Our kids were the last ones there making sure every pile of hay had been overturned and every egg found. The rest of the day was spent with mouths full of candy and hands full of fun little toys they got in their eggs.

Later Ben gave me my own egg with this precious note. It says "I love you 100 miles, Ma". That made my weekend!

We've also been to more t-ball games and the laughs and sweet moments keep on coming. Ben and Michelle walked to one game hand in hand. Don't tell Alex, though, because he says Michelle is HIS girlfriend!

Look at this adorable catcher! He barely moved in all the gear but it was fun to watch.

The boys are both in gymnastics and loving it. Alex got promoted to the next class and he was so proud he smiled the entire class.

A classic Alex moment I never want to forget - He was acting up on the way into Lowe's yesterday and Matt threatened him with a time out. Alex responded, "Dad, if you put me in time out I'm going to cry really loud and hurt your ears." He certainly keeps us on our toes!