After the kids settled down from the exciting morning of breakfast/church/egg gathering, they both took long naps and gave us a break in the day at the same time. It’s only taken 15 months to get them both on the same nap schedule. Then we headed down to Gilbert for a family gathering of grandparents, great grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Jello was a big hit with both kids:
And then we headed outside to play with toys and hunt eggs.
A new ball is always a great thing – both boys love to play with any type of ball. This one had a good bounce to it and they threw it around for a while.
The hunting commenced:
Everyone had a grand time, and our little Scamp fell asleep in the car on the way home. I think the whole family was pretty worn out!
Today it’s back to our regular schedule. School in the morning, naps, playing outside in the afternoon. The weather has been perfect and the kids are really enjoying it – they better not get used to it though, because soon enough it will be too hot to leave the air conditioning!
So getting our camera back has made us all a bit photo happy. From last night to this morning I took 45 pictures – I have pared them down here, but as The Man noted, none of our readers will complain about too many pictures. So we will begin with coloring eggs last night. Unfortunately our poor little tired Scamp was in bed for the event, but Doc took up the slack for him.
As you can see, he had a great time with the eggs. We even took a video of the process, and it is incredibly long, so only click on it if you have time.
This morning we got up bright and early and went to our favorite new breakfast place, Over Easy. The excitement was too much for Doc, and after several warnings he ended up in time out:
No surprise to us, he has been testing his boundaries quite a bit lately. His brother was happy to sit in his chair and drink some milk:
Afterwards we headed off to 9 o’clock Mass – possibly the most crowded church service of the season outside of Christmas Eve. At the beginning, everyone was calm:
but as time wore on, we needed some diversions:
and then, unfortunately, complete removal from the situation:
Of course Easter Mass was over an hour long, and the boys don’t have much of an attention span. Once we arrived home they were back on their game and ready to collect the eggs left by the Easter Bunny.
Ok, so he doesn’t look too thrilled. Maybe he was hot – it is 90 degrees here today. But they both perservered:
Being one year old means needing some assistance, and much pointing ensued regarding the locations of the eggs:
So far this has been a great Easter for everyone – both kids took naps at the same time, and we were able to relax and read the paper while they slept. Soon we’re off to another family gathering for more egg hunting, eating, and photo opportunities. It’s good to have a camera again!
We were supposed to go up North this weekend with our neighbors, but due to various ailments we opted to stay home. It's just as well, because all of the lakes up there are frozen over. Instead we all headed down to Tempe Town Lake to catch fish. About halfway there, I looked back to find this:
Scamp, asleep, clutching pretzels. He is transitioning from two naps a day to one, and some days it doesn't work so well. So he and I sat in the car for almost an hour while everyone went down and got set up.
Luckily we didn't miss much. Except a lot of casting.
Just as we arrived, The Man caught a trout. I must be good fishing luck.
The kids were interested in the slimy fish, but since we were throwing them back we couldn't keep him out very long.
A few minutes later our neighbor caught another trout.
Everyone posed for a photo with the second fish before he went back in the water:
After fishing we went down the block to have dinner. The kids love playing in the driveway.
Another neighbor brought by some costumes, and the bigger boys enjoyed getting into character.
That's Sponge Bob and Patrick, in case you aren't up on your children's programing.
It was a great day, and reminded me again why we moved here.
Tomorrow is Easter. We hope the Easter Bunny comes to visit and hide our eggs!
Welcome to our new blog, Stopping At Two. Since my boys are now 3 and 1, I constantly get asked if I am going to try for a girl. The answer from both sides of the parenting equation is a resounding NO THANK YOU. This is already more than we can handle, and trying for a girl would only get us another boy, given the statistics. The name of this blog will hopefully ward off any further questions from well-wishers all around.
In order to maintain a little bit of anonymity online, I will not be using the real names of our family. I will, however, be using photos. I'm not sure how much this will help, but having a restricted blog did not work for me, so hopefully by leaving our names off I can forgo the restrictions.
Now we will get to the most important part of my posting - the photos. Our neighborhood was lucky enough to be visited by Spiderman last week. The occasion? Our oldest boy is finally potty trained - yay for us. 3 years and 4 months after birth, he finally learned how to use the bathroom like a regular person. So of course, Spiderman had to come visit him to tell him what a great job he was doing. It is impossible to describe how much this little boy loves Spiderman, but these photos hopefully tell it all:
Upon his arrival
As he approached
The boys of the 'hood.
So much is going on in our little family. I will be back with updates once I can think of appropriate names for everyone.
Jack and Nicholas live with their parents in Phoenix, Arizona. They both spend a good part of their day devising ways to keep the staff busy. The staff, of course, consisting of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and neighbors.
