dots

Kusama is 88 years old and has voluntarily lived in a psychiatric facility in Japan for the last 30 years. Her latest obsession is polka dots which she's incorporated into her soft tendril work.  Aiden thought everything looked like Kracken arms...

obliterate

At the end of the exhibit, they give you a sticker sheet to add to the obliteration room which started as completely white everything.  It was so interesting to see at nearly maximum coverage as the exhibit closes this week.  There were so many pockets of concentrated stickers which was interesting.  Aiden enjoyed actually playing the piano.

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!