Girl time

We had a pretty quiet weekend around the house.  Jamie spent most of it at work getting ready for his annual student art show, so I spent a lot of quality time with the girls.

Acting very mature at the art show

Evie had her two-year checkup last week.  Everything looks good, and she's 28.5lb and 35" tall!  She was really angry about getting a shot, but quickly recovered!

Showing me her boo boo for the 1,253,502th time

Growing up fast!

Evie and Maggie have had fun playing dress-up with Evie’s new costumes.  They’re all too small for Maggie, but she finds a way to squeeze into them!

Snow White

Still working on that princess thing

An expert in all things princess

Going for a stroll together

 The girls like to help me cook from time to time, Maggie especially.  Evie likes to help too, but often ends up nibbling on whatever is on the counter!

Sous chefs

Also my taste-testers

Birthdays!!

Evie turned 2 last week and Jamie turned one year older (I won’t depress him with the number).  It was a week of celebrations!

Coping with the concept of aging

On Wednesday we celebrated Evie’s birthday with our little family.  Jamie was off from work, so they all met me for lunch at our pizza spot.  Later we gave Evie her gifts - her favorites seemed to be a caterpillar tunnel and a stool that Jamie painted for her.

Hanging at City Hall 

Cutest lunch dates

Working hard to make a cake

Still a little sick and frightened of our singing

Present time!

Special stool from Daddy

Maggie was definitely jealous, but did a pretty good job being a positive sister for the day.  At one point she whimpered (trying to hold back tears), “can we change my birthday?  It will be too cold on my birthday.”  I told her that her birthday was one of the best days of our lives and I would never change it, even if I could.  That seemed to help a bit.

Jamie made this awesome beanbag toss
for Evie's birthday

Testing it out... Maggie is not the most coordinated kid...

On Friday we celebrated Jamie and Amy’s birthday with dinner at Fishbones and cake at the house.  Maggie was super awesome at the restaurant, I hardly had to watch her.  Evie… well, she’s 2, so it was a bit more effort to keep her happy.

Hanging out after dinner

A little help from the kids

You gonna eat that, Grandpa?

Jamie made this corn-hole set for Amy's gift

Saturday we had the family over for Evie’s birthday party.  The weather was great, and it was awesome to see all the kids playing together.  Evie was so cute when we sang “Happy Birthday,” alternating between joy and suspicion.

Make a wish!

Jamie's former student made this cute cake!

Presents!

Disrupting his artist flow

Big kids

Girls table

Happy Birthday to me!

Singing our loooooooong birthday song

Let them eat cake

Nothing makes Evie smile like an M&M

Super Grandma!

Playing dress up

I feel fabulous darling!

Just going for an afternoon drive

Jammin with the birthday girl

Sarah loved singing into the mic... and eating it...

Mayhem!

Maggie finally learned how to drive her little car (she always used to make Luke shuttle her around), and Evie got her own little four-wheeler which she loved.  

Evie got a t-ball set for her birthday, so Jamie had fun teaching the girls.

Watch out!

Easter 2017

We had a subdued Easter this year - Evie ran a fever all weekend long, so Jamie and I took turns staying home with her.  She's doing well now thankfully!

Easter Bunny at daycare - as expected,
Evie is not impressed.

We attempted to color eggs using the "cool whip" approach... they turned out pretty pale and lame, but playing with fluffy cool whip was fun!  Luckily we had the regular dye cups, so half of the eggs turned out good!

Swirling the egg

Saturday we did brunch at my parents' house, and the kids had a great time hunting for eggs and playing together.  We got to see Zach and Katy which was really nice!

Decorating eggs with Grandma - markers and stickers are
way cleaner than dye!

Trying to hug a very busy Sarah

Outta my way!  

It was so beautiful outside that we took off Maggie's
tights and she stomped around barefoot with Luke

Somehow Sarah managed to get three bags of eggs...
she's a sly one

Sunday morning the girls looked for eggs and their baskets.  Maggie's favorite gift was her Moana lego set, and Evie's favorite gift was a pair of pink rain boots.  We all went to church together later that morning and then Evie crashed for the rest of the day.  Maggie was thrilled to be wearing her "special yellow dress," which I think reminded her of princess Belle.  Maggie loved seeing her cousins on the Donoghue side afterward!

Pretty sure I could have give her empty plastic
eggs and she would have been thrilled

Cash money!

A great way to keep a toddler occupied

Jamie's student needed a kid photo for a class assignment,
I just love Evie's little face in the foreground

Classic expressions

Family

Hangin with cousin Will

Not a care in the world

Searching for eggs with Will

Jamie and his Dad went to the last Pistons game at the Palace last week.  Everyone is pretty excited about the new stadium in Detroit, but I know Jamie has a lot of memories at the Palace and is a little sad to see the Pistons move.

Shooting hoops after the game

George Blaha!

Today is Evie's last day to be 1 - had to take a picture of her right before bedtime:

It's almost my birthday!

Some others:

Fevers give the cutest rosy cheeks

At the library with Grandpa

Coloring session

Perhaps one of my favorite photos ever taken.
Ridin dirty.

SEE you next week!