field trip

I was lucky enough to get a coveted chaperone spot for Aiden's field trip to Cherry Hill. They combined science and social studies looking at the history of the old farm and all the simple machines they used.

band

Fürst Try debuted at the Spring Fling!  It rained so they moved them into the cafeteria, but they rocked it out. The boys were pumped to dance and J even called us up there to sing with him (usually my kryptonite of shy, but Keaton's enthusiasm was contagious)

rocky

Rocky and his mini face painted raccoon buddy cruising around the school's annual Spring Fling!  The big hammer game was right outside of Keaton's classroom ;)  It's fun to see the building transformed into a big playground, but it was too bad there wasn't a spring, sunny day.  

games

Thumbs up to fun games and chocolate fountains!

bounce

The velcro wall was a definite highlight!  The epic brother jousting battle that ended in Aiden throwing himself off the side with the weight of the jousting stick... so Keaton, who could barely hold the heavy stick, triumphed!

easter morning

Easter morning homemade monkey bread (thanks Lizzie!) and baskets full of fun from the Easter bunny! (Thanks G&P!)

egg decorating

Perfect rainbow eggs, jive 3D glasses, and dye rollers!  So much fun decorating in superhero garbage bags flapping in the wind ;)

easter

These smiley guys with silly putty and lotsa big cousin love - Thanks Henrichs for the really fun easter baskets!

best hunt

We reprised the egg hunt by stuffing tons of our own eggs (this time the ratio was 42 eggs per kid!) This time they had plenty of time running back and forth looking for the lucky eggs for some extra quarters and one filled with a $10 bill!

hunt?

We invaded a very crowded, under egged hunt with the cousin buddies!  The weather was picking up and it actually rained as the event ended.  But before that there were many tears, since we estimate that there was about 2-3 eggs per kid... Most kids got zero...  The youngest group was the most out of control with tons of parents and kids in a tiny space.  I recorded these hysterical expressions...  During Aiden's hunt it was so crowded. they were colliding with each other and one kid actually jumped over another not happy girl's head.  The Brennan brothers had the run to the back first method and managed to get some eggs  - they shared all the orange ones with Cam.

OH tidbits

Lotsa play time - cruising in the mini truck and bubbles!  Cheek cuddles and my sister's hair commercial hair cut ;)

more OH smiles

More smiley guys - Aussie cheese fries wins the smiley guy award!  

beach

After a quick visit in OH (we'd be back!), we left the boys to be spoiled with the grandparents and cousin buddies - forever thanks! - to take off for Maui!  J was officially in HI for a conference and I was lucky to have so much of his time.  It seems that eating with animals is a HI trend for us.  Chickens and exotic looking birds being adorable seated next to me.  Both on our honeymoon and here we had breakfast with kitty cats.  I had such a beautiful view knitting next to the beach.  We both were excited to get new koa wood rings to remember such a beautiful trip.  We are so grateful to my folks or taking care of the boys and spoiling them all week.  My sister made sure to send me cute photos of the cousin buddies. 

We stayed right on the Black Rock beach.  There were people cliff jumping and a nightly cliff torch and jump every evening at sunset.  

flowery

So, so many beautiful flowers in HI - so many that looked like fake plants, or made me think that those manufacturing the "fake" looking flowers at the craft store are actually doing a remarkably accurate job.

sailing

Such a beautiful sail through sunset... Just as we were commenting on how high the sail had to go, it got caught and one of the crew members had to be hoisted up to fix it (while waving in the wind and waves) - some action to a very nice sail with delicious pesto goat cheese salad.  Who knew that HI has delicious goat cheese?!

zip

Flying through Maui!

luau

J likes to say that theses photos of me jumping are me in my "natural state." I agree!  This luau started when I looked out from our balcony over the crackling fire just as the sun rose.  They wrapped the pig and you could smell it all day long (good thing I'm not a vegetarian).  Continuing a somewhat surprising trend, J and a few others were picked to go up and copy some luau moves up on stage in front of hundreds of people. They said that men would luau for their beloveds as a gift - and oh boy, this was my kind of gift - loved that!

HI tidbits

Such a beautiful week... It's possible that the view from breakfast won't be topped.The Sheraton upgrade was totally worth it... I don't have a photo, but one of the highlights was the bean bag chairs that float in the pool!  

up country

Bouncing around the Maui up country checking out their outrageously good donuts (Komoda in Makawao, an old HI cowboy town)

cousins

All the cousin buddies in the saaaaaaame place!  Practically on one couch!  Squeeeee

before

TAP, tap, taaaaap, is this thing on?!  Who knows what happened, but the blog broke!  It's been acting testy for months and I essentially can't do it from my phone anymore - big sad face...  but this time it would just freeze up and close at random.... and wouldn't publish any of these funny guys smiles and adventures.  I was informed by my internet help searches that blogs are dead, and no one at google cares about the blogger platform anymore... and it sounded all crazy to me because this is my record of their childhood...and they can't be old enough for a whole technology platform to go by way of the dinosaurs. But it appears that it's still holding on by a thread and/or someone came back from vacation and fixed my poor little blog.

So many moons ago we shared some April birthday smiles with this fun crew and this very smiley 8 month old waiting for his turn for some cake this summer. I laughed more that night than I had in a long time - miss them!

would you rather

Swapping in these questions which were asked to Aiden earlier - since I wanted to ask Keaton the Xmas questions back in December ;)

Would you rather be a great big giant, or a little tiny person that can fit in my hand?  A little tiny person that can fit in your hand because than I wouldn't have to walk, but could I go to school because would I be big enough to pick up the pencils?  Or would I be scared of the big kids? 

Would you rather be hairy all over or completely bald? No hair at all because I wouldn't want to be so hairy that it covers up my face.

Would you rather forget who you were or who everyone else was? Who I was since because I'd still know my friends even if I didn't know who I am.

Would you rather always lose or never play? Always lose because then I'd still be able to play!

Would you rather only be able to whisper or only be able to shout? Only be able to whisper because then at my school I'd be the best person and I'd never even be heard. 

Would you rather be a giant hamster or a tiny rhino? Giant hamster because I could say I'm the giant hamster selling cookies for everyone!

hiya

We had 21 kids ready to go and there were some serious hiyaaaas!  Birthday boy Keaton got to break two boards at two different times and then everyone got to break their own board to take home.  Pretty cool moves!

birthday six

Another birthday bash full of favorites! Keaton wanted to have it at one of the same spots we had Aiden's 8th birthday, but he wanted "Knight Ninjas" and a castle cake. Check out that sweet thank you hug to daddy for the fun cake!  He was very pumped to cut it with the real samurai sword!

west

A big perk of living in this area is friends that have really cool jobs. Our friend has worked in the West Wing and EEOB for many years, so he gave us an insider tour. We got to see the Oval Office and the Roosevelt Room up close.  The boys will tell you that they used the bathroom where the president does.  They don't allow photos in the coolest spots, but we could in the press room.

business plan

Aiden's big quarter project was to write a business plan and present it.  He created the Awesomeness which are exciting bookmarks we won't lose that keep your book binding safe.  He folded the corner characters and wove the softies. The goal was to aim to earn at least $100 dollars and his projections put him a little higher, so he came up with the idea to donate the rest to charity.