Whine and Laughter

St. Patty's Fun

We had Lauren's family for dinner on Sunday and celebrated St.Patty's Day with corned beef and cabbage and some good Irish humor. Rob got in the spirit with an appropriate hat for the occassion (and the wearer).

Amma and Ampa were good sports!

We had pictures taken with the kids today and took a few belated luck o' the Irish shots.

Ketchup Love

This is what happens when your 23 month old watches you put makeup on in the morning and then gets a plate with ketchup for his french fries.

Busy Week

We have had a busy week. Chris and I ventured to Albany, Georgia Friday morning for a whirlwind 36 hour visit to do a marathon and then turn around to come home. We paced two different finish times in the race - Chris was 3 hours 20 minutes and I was 3 hours 40 minutes. It was fun to have a group to run with and very inspiring to cross the line with people we had gotten to know and encouraged the whole time. It was blessedly foggy and cool Saturday morning and the sun didn't burn off the fog until the last hour of the race. Then we had all day Saturday to bask in the gorgeous, high 70 degree weather. The taste of Spring was just what we needy to perk up our dreary spirits. It's been a long, cold, dark winter of outdoor training.

I surprised Chris and the kids Monday with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. We picked Chris up at work and didn't tell him where we were going. Great Wolf is an indoor water park resort and it is like a gigantic log cabin. It was really fun and the kids didn't want to leave on Tuesday. But it was back to work for us both on Wednesday for the remainder of the week. We are ready for the weekend to recover from all of the fun!

Autumn loved the water slides and would go down them all day.

The wave pool was Joshua's favorite.

Silly Autumn - that's Joshua's swim diaper.

Breakfast in bed was fun!

The arcade was a treat (and the only way we could entice the kids to leave the waterpark!)

The Three Amigos

We had a fun weekend with Brooke visiting for 2 nights while Carolyn and Mike were away.
The video below can attest that there was lots of happy "screeching" and laughing, especially at mealtime.



Bathtime is a splash! They could be in the water for hours but I had to get a "hiney" shot first!



And they all got a little cabin fever so I bundled them up and we walked 1/2 mile to the park on Friday afternoon. They even climbed the ladders and went down the slides as the only other person in the park walking his dog looked at me like I was nuts with 3 kids. Sounded like a good idea at first...until we (I) had to walk home and the 20 mph winds that were at my back on the way there were now full blast head-on. But the kids were troopers and were snuggled under 7 different blankets so they were pretty toasty since it was a tropical 3o degrees (and that's not with wind chill). We all slept well that night!

Taste of Spring

We enjoyed a nice trip to Longwood Gardens on Monday with my Aunt Nancy and cousin, Kristen, Amma and Ampa, and Carolyn and Brooke. It was so refreshing to be inside the conservatory among all of the colorful and fragrant flowers. Made us feel like Spring isn't too far away!

The splashing water fountains were fun for the kids.

Brooke would have jumped right in if she had been allowed.

Joshua snuggled in with Ampa when he got sleepy.



Amma and Ampa had a nice time (and kept their coats and gloves on indoors, ha ha)

Our whole caravan!

And of course, the flowers! They were spectacular! Who knew my cheap Kodak digital could take such great shots?

Crayons

Crayons have been the newest craze in our house lately. Autumn has been obsessed with a couple of generic princess coloring books from the local dollar store and Joshua sees her coloring and wants to do the same thing. I love that they have fun doing such a simple pleasure. And I love the way Joshua holds the crayon and "scribbles" so intently.