Birthdays and Easter

Our Evie girl turned 7 in April and had an epic extended birthday - a girls trip followed by Easter celebrations followed by a party at Grammer's followed by her actual birthday!  

I am 7!

Evie asked to do Frankenmuth again instead of having a party, so I picked her and her buddy up from school and surprised them with a fun night!

Lunch at Big Boy

Happy girl!

Still prefers the hot tub!

Ride or die

Putt putt held their attention for like 10 minutes

Tic-Tac-Toe showdown

A birthday to remember

We got home on Friday and quickly realized the boiling 3 dozen eggs for the Easter bunny would be pretty difficult in our laundry room "kitchen," so we headed to the Donoghue's to dye eggs!  Grandma to the rescue!

To dye for

Evie's all about quantity, Maggie is about perfection

On holy Saturday we went to Amy and Rex's to celebrate Easter with the Donoghue side of the family.  Lovely to see everyone!

Cousin cuddles

Maggie loves this little one

Aunt Jane got to meet baby Jane!

Grandma made a funny bunny birthday cake!

Grandbabies!

We had a lovely Easter with just our little family.  The Easter bunny found some clever hiding spots in the new house and we went to church afterward.

Typical picture of these three

Family!

The girls were psyched to get more slime - ugh

Checking her loot

Ben was excited to have some playdough

We did an impromptu dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's
to end the day

Grandma chalked some bunny ears for Ben

On the following Monday, we celebrated Easter at my Mom and Dad's because my brother John was in town for a couple days!  It was great to see him and our nieces and nephews!  Evie got even more birthday glory and cake!  I did a terrible job getting photos though...

Happy birthday, Evie!

So happy

Evie got to spend the night with me as requested for her birthday, and got donuts in bed for breakfast.  Jamie spent a few hours setting up her desk and lighted unicorn gifts while we slept - pretty similar to Maggie's birthday, but that's what she wanted!  She got to open some gifts before we hustled off to school.  Jamie took her to his drawing class that evening, and she got to do some cool projects along with his students.

Unhealthy start to the day

Jamie made a light-up unicorn cutout and painted some 
rainbows in her room!

She was so excited to have her own desk!

Arting with the adults - Jamie's students
brought her cake and treats!

Conquered her Lego gifts and has been playing with them ever since

Later in the week was Jamie's birthday!  He worked a half day, then spent the afternoon at the ballpark with his dad hoping to see Miggy make his 3,000th hit.  It didn't happen, but we were lucky enough to be there to see it the following Saturday with our kiddos instead!

Father and son

Not today...

Happy birthday, Daddy!

The twins got together later in the week to celebrate!

Taking the family to the Tigers game was so much fun!  We got to see history, spend some time together, ride the ferris wheel and enjoy some sunshine!

Ferris Wheel (Ben was worried at first)

Eat 'em up, Tigers!

It took us a minute to get over there, so it was 3,001 hits by then!

Sporting their cool new caps

Ben still loves Mickey!

Tough girls

What a cutie

This past weekend was Claire's first communion!  The girls had soccer and piano commitments, so Ben was my date to the festivities.

God bless Claire!

Grammer and Ben, playing games at brunch

Jamie organized a group of 16 to go to the DCFC game later that day.  Andy came in from New York because the we were playing the NY Red Bulls, but mostly for a fun guys weekend!

Smoky

Good to see these two!

Jamie's teacher crew

Andy!

The guys

Buds

Some others:

Evie's team!

Grabbing some ice cream at our old spot

Dental checkup!

There's a road job one block over - Ben is thrilled!

Spring is Springing

We've had lots of fun outings over the past weeks both as a family and as a couple!  We continue to live in orderly chaos while our kitchen and floors get done, but things are progressing well and we will hopefully have a functional kitchen in 2ish weeks!

Family snuggle!
(in our bed because there's nowhere else to go)

This past weekend we went to our neighborhood spring block party.  It was a little cold, but that didn't stop the kids from having fun at the egg hunt!  Lots of good food and friends!

Our neighborhood has a lot of young kiddos!

They provided bunny ears (Ben was already prepared)!

Jamie did face painting for the kids

Soccer is back in session this spring.  Both girls are staying with their teams, and I'm continuing to help coach Maggie's team.

First game!

Friday was Opening Day for the Tigers!  Jamie and I decided to get tickets this year, and we had so much fun!  We dropped the kids at school and then headed downtown for brunch with Pat and Donna, then garage beers, then the game, then Founders for their 25th anniversary... it was a rollicking good time (and we paid for it the next day, ha ha)!

Super exciting game with a last-minute win!

Brunch crew!

mmm bloody mary's

We found Jay and Sarah at the stadium!

We had our floors finished last week, and did not realize that the fumes would be so intense!  We had to vacate the house, and thankfully my very patient and kind parents housed us for three nights!  The kids loved it (mom does not make pancakes in the morning like Grammer and Pops do!).  Ben asked to go back when we finally went home!

Getting ready for bed at Grammer's

We went for a walk and Maggie found her
peaceful place near a stormwater detention pond

Evie is obsessed with this headband - 
channeling Carole Baskin?

Aunt Amy took Maggie and Evie to Build-a-Bear for their birthday gifts! They had a blast with their aunt and cousins!

Build-a-Bear

Cuddles back at Grandma's

Jane is such a joyful baby!

Some others:

Maggie felt sick last week, so she went to school
with Daddy (he was on break) - made a masterpiece

Lunch at the zoo

The penguins are back!

Dinner with her girlfriend

Went to a free viewing of Sonic the Hedgehog - which had
lots of crazy free perks, including sweet face painting

They have a future in pirating

Love this little smush face!

Went to visit Will and Kim at their new house in Michigan!

Here's a little diddy from Ben:

House of Dust

Um life is crazy, barely keeping up - can't wait for the end of the school year!  Kids are great though!

Why stress?

Our big kitchen remodel kicked off earlier this month!  Since we were tearing down a wall, we let the kids draw all over it.  I have no idea what the story is... something about a cat president, working at city hall, with the planets above?   Then we let them "try" to hammer holes in the wall.  

Art

We turned our laundry room into a makeshift kitchen, and are trying to function with our front room as a play room, eating area, homework area and pretty much anything else that comes up... it's chaotic and messy, but we're used to our new routines.

Before

After demo, new (unfinished) wood floors placed

Hoping that things will be done by the end of April... but I'm keeping my expectations low!

In other news, Ben sleeps in a big boy bed!  He fell out the first night, but seems to have the hang of it now.  He still doesn't quite understand that he can get out of bed on his own, and still waits for us in the morning.  I'm ok with that!   We also had his 3-year checkup this week, and the office staff was just tickled with Ben.  He handled everything like a champ, and is super healthy and on-track!

Evie helped him test it out

Ben often likes to finish the fruit bowl at dinner

We had a fun family date night this weekend, did some projects at the art studio and then a yummy dinner.  We literally sat down and ate a peaceful dinner with all three kids. In public.  This is a milestone.

Painting away!

Ben painted for like 10 minutes, then decided
his toy trucks were more interesting

My little perfectionist

Evie was the "Star Swimmer" at school last week, and one day she had to show a talent to the class.  She wanted to do piano or hoverboarding, so her teacher suggested we send in a video.  I did a video of her playing piano.  Then Jamie had to one-up me.

Here's a few others:

Evie's best bud at school - sleepover!

Cuddles after a long day
(black eye from soccer, no drama to share)

Pile of kids

Sloth life

Happiest outdoors

This girl will cuddle any chance she gets

Courtesy of Jamie's student