Triple Party!

The title of this post could also have been: A Gazillion Pictures. 

While Mom and Katy were in town we decided to throw a little birthday party for my girls (if you remember my kids have three birthdays in two days) with my mom's family. We don't all see each other too often and it was really fun to get together. We met at the park across from my house and had a great time together. My mom and Lucy made this awesome Rapunzel cake ( Lucy cracked the eggs, stirred the batter and licked the bowl and my mom did everything else.)

The babies had a riot. I bought these little matching onesies on clearance when they were about two months old. At the time I wasn't sure I'd survive their first birthday:)

We sat around and visited, played frisbee, at pizza, played at the park and gave kids rides in the wagon.

After dinner we had a pinata. Lucy and I made this pinata together and had a great time doing it. I was planning on printing out the Wanted poster of Flynn Rider for two sides of it, but when I tried I was completely out of ink. I sketched this out instead. I have almost no artistic ability so I was pretty proud of the result:)

 

When I asked Lucy to pose with the pinata and frying pan I got this shot:

 

Everyone got a turn,although the little kids used this bat rather than the pan. We went through each child twice before Uncle Steve had to demolish it.

We brought out the highchairs so the babies could have their first bites of cake. After a bit of uncertainty Lydia got into it. Joyce hated everyone looking at her and screamed into Danny's shoulder until he picked her up. Could my girls be any more different?:)

Lucy put on her own makeup for the event.  I guess she has seen Becca filling in her blonde eyebrows.

My favorite shot of the night:

Joyce did end up loving the cake, just on her own terms.

People kindly brought my girls presents. Lyd was still going at the cake so Joyce was my special helper. They got some cute outfits, books and a great set of blocks.

This bag was so big we put them inside. Most of the pictures I have hide Lydia because she immediately sat down and played with the surrounding tissue paper.

I almost deleted this picture as soon as I saw my face. Don't you love the overly-expressive-fake-enthusiasm on my face? It was an awesome present but nothing warrants that face!

Sarah and Ruby became good friends. I think Sarah took Ruby up the stairs to the twisty slide a hundred times. We are so lucky to have nice cousins.

 

 

Easter

I love Easter. I love hiding and hunting for eggs (although we typically forget about the Bunny part), I love the special matching dresses and bows, I love the big meal, and I love going to church on such an important day. While hunting for eggs this year I was reminded of last year on Easter Sunday. We had a hurried egg hunt with Lucy in our living room as I didn my last minute hospital packing. I was being induced at 8:30 AM. I spent the day watching a Say Yes to the Dress marathon and texting family updates on my progress. Just before midnight I had delivered two babies. It was awesome, but hardly "eastery".  This year my whole family was here and we had a wonderful time enjoying Easter traditions together.
Here is the whole gang going outside to hunt for eggs.

 The babies hunted for eggs on their blanket. They loved playing with them like maracas.

 Ruby found the trickiest egg!

 Ruby loves the babies and is incredibly sweet and gentle with them. It is crazy to me that these three girls are only about seven months apart, pretty soon all three will be about the same developmentally.

We spent the rest of the day eating (the Lion House rolls with raspberry honey butter was the favorite) and relaxing outside together.

Visitors part 2

When we announced that we were moving to UT for the year, my mom announced that she would see her grandchildren at least once every six weeks. She has a full time job so that isn't an easy promise.  So far she has managed to make it happen, and somehow more frequently then she expected. This week she drove out with my dad and sister Katy.  They arrived last Saturday and we had a fun Easter at my house. Dad had to leave on Monday but Mom and Katy enjoyed there spring break here. We had a wonderful time.  

It was a gorgeous weekend so we spent most of it outside at our park. When they arrived we were ready for them:

 Ruby is just learning to talk but she definitely knows how to say "Ba ba". She worships her Grandpa Greg and always wanted to be with him.

 With all the grandkids-they're getting to be quite an armful.

 We took Lucy's training wheels off this weekend and Grandpa Greg was able to help her a bit.

 It looked so fun the dads gave Ruby and Joyce a try.

 The little kids' favorite thing was our wagon.

That was just the first day! Easter and party posts to come:)

Thanksgiving Point

 This year Becca and I both got Thanksgiving Point passes so we have a fun place to hang out. It is just about halfway between our houses so we don't have to drive an hour to see each other. This week is spring break so we have met up with Becca and Ruby almost every day. On Wednesday we went to Thanksgiving Point for the first time. We went to the farm and the children's garden and had a great time. Lucy LOVED riding on a horse. She got off and stated that it was totally different from a carousel.

 We saw farm animals, touched a few (very few) and went on a hay ride.

 The babies looked at animals from this position.

 Then at the garden we had a fun picnic and followed the big girls around.

 We asked Ruby for kisses, and she even gave them away to the statues.

Visitors

Lucy was really sad to leave California, but one bright spot on the horizon was that she would see Grandma and Grandpa Leininger again in only a week. They came into town for a weekend conference and we got to see them for a few hours one morning. We go to show Babba our house and walk around our neighborhood and eat a delicious breakfast at Eggs int he City.  Grandma surprised with their birthday presents-and they got to open them one month early!

Lydia in her pretty new skirt.

Joyce

Lucy got a new outfit for Sarah. She was thrilled-Sarah is her new favorite thing. (don't worry, she hasn't replaced Lamby though)