Thursday, March 31, 2016

20 Months

Alexander is 20 months old.  Oh, we love him dearly.  He is so much fun - saying more words, walking and trying to run, climbing, playing games, pretending, playing inside and outside and just being a part of our every day fun.
He is adding words daily. He just added Anna, "KAAA" and "Ma" (Max) to his repetoire. He repeats commands and directions and follows simple directions.
Alex is our climber for sure.  He climbs on the windowsills and up the bookcases! He stands on tables to dance. He climbs the ladder to the top bunk and into Anna's bunk and pretends to go to sleep!

Music is his thing.  It does not matter if he hears humming from Max, the radio, or the girls singing - he dances to it all. He hums and sings his own songs.
Alexander loves being around Kate, Max and Anna.  Whether we are going on errands or just playing around the house or outside, he wants to be where they are.  He is very content when he is around the action. Kate is very sweet about helping him be involved.

We find him focused on activities for longer periods of time.  He loves the furniture in the girls critter house. He loves a chance to play with Max's legos and thinks it is hilarious to pop off lego people's hats and hair. He likes doing projects like painting, stickers, and coloring. He plays with cars, trains, blocks and sets up tea parties.

Outside, he wanders around doing this and that.  Mostly playing in the dirt, drawing with chalk, collecting leaves or nerf bullets in pails and following the kids around.  He tries to move on bikes and loves any opportunity to get on a plasma car with someone.

Alexander is so affectionate.  He loves his stuffed animals and cuddles with them in the car and when he goes to bed.  He gives us all lots of hugs and kisses all day long.  He snuggles with Kate or Anna when we have our evening show before bed.  He just had a lot of love to share!

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Kelly Park

I am so glad Shannon and Hadley are back for good!!!  We can always count on Shannon to organize a play date! Carin was a trooper and added two extra kids to her car.  It was a fun group of eight kids - 7 & under at Kelly Park! 

Backyard Therapy

The three amigos shared "the bug" last week. They all seemed to come out of it around the same time (on a sunny afternoon), so we celebrated with popsicles, painting bird houses and catching a butterfly (we let it go).  Home remedies are the best!

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Pullen Park

We made our second annual Monday after Easter visit to Pullen Park. We lucked out with absolutely gorgeous weather!!! Alexander was both excited and a little nervous about the carousel, super excited about the "choo-choo" and beyond thrilled to be driving a boat.  Anna could not get enough of the giant climbing pyramid. Kate and Max did it all and really enjoyed showing Alexander all their favorite parts of the park!


Monday, March 28, 2016

Thank You E.B.

Mr. E.B. surprised the kids with a super fun scavenger hunt around the house and to their Easter baskets! All the clues led to fun surprises that they could play with outside like chalk, bubbles, nets, caddies etc. The final hint led them to their Easter baskets filled with gifts that we played with all morning.  The Easter Bunny gobbled up all his treats left out by the kids and "signed" Max's autograph book with his paw print - AMAZING!


A special thanks to Mimi and Pop Pop for making the weekend extra special!

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Easter Brunch & Egg Hunt

Our annual Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt was absolutely magnificent! We had a wonderful crowd of friends and family and oodles of kids eager to play, eat and hunt for eggs! Thank you to the Mudd family for making this day such a huge success!


Thursday, March 24, 2016

Marbling Madness

We have been dying to do our Easter eggs this week.  To kick off the start of spring break we broke out the "Egg Marbling Kit". The kids had so much fun making the color solutions. Kate immediately tried to figure out the marbling technique by doing while Max and I tried to figure it out by reading directions... Kate's approach was the most successful!  Meanwhile, Alexander dunked his egg in every color multiple times over! Anna was careful and thoughtful as she followed Kate's lead.  We had men in the yard, spreading mulch and they were cracking up at our mess.  The kids were so proud of the end product that Peter could not even be mad about having to powerwash the patio when he got home from work - oops! It was a hilarious mess but we had a blast and the eggs are beautiful!