weekend 'o spring

Spring is here. We had a mega BBQ/playdate with five babies under under 18 months (with Aiden being the oldest). It smelled like bbq kabobs, strawberries, and popsicles. Cannot go wrong with that combination! We originally started at the playground where Aiden is quickly becoming a regular. He knows his way around those ramps, and unfortunately the kids over 4 years old don't like to always stay on their side (which is awesome and J couldn't even resist trying it out) so he got slammed to the ground by some girl being chased by her "monster" father. Oh well, life goes on even with a little bite of the tongue. And, of course, we had our first Del's frozen lemonade of the season to help bring him back to the land of happy babies. I didn't have my camera, but that kept my hands free to catch the giggling baby and then later feed him some kabob. You get the picture. Although it might be hard to imagine the five little ones nicely playing with a big batch of crayons (one ten days younger than Aiden, one 15 mo, two 14 months - all mobile is the key). Although "nicely playing" may be an overstatement if you're a crayon that doesn't like to get stomped on and occasionally munched when the many parents simutaneously looked away.
Sunday I went to a baby shower while J and A went to the Children's Museum (which Aiden continues to looove, despite the huge talking head that he was scared of this time). It was so fun to see all the new baby gear and the new clothing lines... It's amazing how quickly things change. I was obsessed with this cute little handknit giraffe sweater and matching hat (the little dangly legs - oh goodness so cute - I hardly know what I would do if it was spit up on though) and the awesome quilt she received. I made my second diaper cake eva, and I think I'm getting better based on the fact that I didn't burn through a whole bag of rubberbands this time (my trick was to put a chip and dip server underneath).
I'm taking this RISD design class with some Talented people (intentional capital T) and I had some catching up to do on the class assignments I missed while on vacation. Aiden was trying to help scribble on/destroy the perspective study that J worked hard to help me on (what a sweet smart husband because I'm not sure I could've figured it out on my own - seriously it was complicated - see above - then I had to paint this with different tones of grey paint! Reminder: I'm a photographer). I'm almost caught up, but I'm thinking of not taking my next class until the fall.

In the mean time, I will continue my art appreciation of the Aiden series ;)
What patience our nanny has, eh? Nanny cuts it for him, so that he can scribble and hang.
Spring colors looks an awful lot like fall colors, don't they?
Shape stickers!
Smudgy shamrock handprints!
Stars from space week!
He loves to stomp around like a Dino especially with paint on his tootsies.