Happy, happy birthday, Max!!

Max's Easter egg hunt birthday party was tons of fun. We watched the weather closely all week, hoping that Saturday would be a nice enough day to be outside. And luckily it was, at least for a little while. It was a bit windy, and kind of cool, but nothing a jacket couldn't handle.

The kids had a good time hunting for eggs. I stuffed about 250 eggs with candy, toys, and money, and prayed that we would have enough for the 10 kids there. Well, if you want to know how many eggs are enough, apparently 25 eggs per kid is too many. Most of the kids got tired of searching before all the eggs were found, and instead just wanted to open however many they had to see what surprise was inside. We had three golden eggs with certificates inside that let the lucky child pick a special prize - a kite, DVD's or markers. We didn't announce that the golden eggs existed, but once the first was found, it became quite the hunt to find the other two.

My wonderful mother made Max's birthday cakes, and they were spectacular. Everyone ooh'd and aah'd. And of course they were also quite tasty.

It's always so much fun to watch a child on their first birthday to see how they will handle their cake. Ellie wasn't much of a fan of getting too messy, and we had to force her hands into her cake. Max, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of the chocolate goodness. He had it everywhere...in his hair, in his eyes, up his nose, and in his ears. His ears were a result of him talking on his cake "phone," which you can see in one of the pictures below. He pretends that anything that is roughly the size of a cell phone is actually a phone and will put it to his ear and say "hello." Especially when someone else eggs him on and keeps repeating "hello" to him, which Jason decided to do. It was adorable and hilarious, but not so funny when I had to clean him up.

And, of course, Max raked in the presents...too many presents. We're very lucky and blessed to have many loving family members and friends that are very good to my children. We are very happy that so many of them were able to join us for Max's special day.

Little Mister is 1-year-old!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

I can't believe Max is a year old already. The last year has flown by. It seems to have gone by much faster than Ellie's first year, which I'm sure is a function of having 2 kids and a busier household.

We're so thankful to have such a sweet, happy, funny boy. Mr. Adventurous keeps us on our toes with his climbing and exploring, and he brings tons of joy into our family. He's developing quite a personality and is already doing tricks and trying to make us laugh. He loves a binkie, some milk, and a good snuggle with mom or dad (and we love those snuggles just as much). He lights up around Ellie and adores Lucy -- in fact he says "Luce" and "Sis" but not "Mom" or "Dad". I treasure every moment and love you to pieces, Buddy!

Gigi invited us over for dinner since she was going to be out of town for Max's birthday party over the weekend. There was singing and dancing (on Ellie's part), crying (on Max's part), and balloons - I'd say that's a normal birthday party for a 1-year-old. Stay tuned for how the actual b-day party turns out.

Let's Talk...

Ellie loves her babies and has become quite motherly, as you can see from the picture above. Her maternal instinct extends to her brother as well.

Case in point - I was in the other room and Ellie yelled to me, "Mom, Max is on the stairs." (It's a constant struggle in our house to barricade the stairs and the tv from his little fingers). I knew she'd try to pick him up or pull him off the stairs, so I yelled back to her to be gentle while I made my way to them. But before I could get there, I heard this little lecture from Miss Sass...

"Hey Bud, come here. Let's talk 'bout this. Come on, we need to talk 'bout this. Why you get on the stairs. You know you not 'posed to be there. Let's talk about this. You gotta listen to me. You're gonna get hurt. Let's talk 'bout this."

Nope, Max doesn't stand a chance.

Just Because...

Nothing special to report right now. I just wanted to show some cute pics of Mr. Man, my happy, funny boy. I can't believe he'll be one-year-old in a week...where has the last year gone?