house hunting

We decided to try to travel Space A to look for houses at the college town where we will be living next summer. Unfortunately the planes got grounded that we had hoped to go on so we had to leave a bit later than expected. It negated the chance of getting to grandparents, however it ended up working out better because Sara's parents came down and stayed with us. The kids were soooo happy not to look at houses after only 1 day of looking--it would have been quite a struggle to get them through the other 7 houses we looked at. After looking at 3 terrible houses we looked at 2 good ones then a few more that were in locations we weren't sure about (just farther away). After a lot of deliberation we went back and gave a house one more look and made a decision. Along the way the kids got to try out some parks and spend time teaching grandma some new games. After settling on a house we headed on to my sister's house and spent about 24 hours with her and her husband before heading back to Baltimore to try to fly back. Currently we're waiting to see if we will keep the seats we have (3, 4, 5, 6, 7 out of 7 available) on the plane ;-)

easter

We celebrated a rainy easter with an egg hunt and easter baskets. The night before Charlie said, "how does the easter bunny hop into the house?" Heather responded, "Well it's not actually a bunny--it's a person in a bunny costume." So close yet still so fun!! The egg hunt at the community center the day before Easter was quite fun. The little kids went first and Cameron was more interested in observing than picking up eggs. He did get some but mostly wanted to see what the other kids were going to do. Luckily there was lots of room for the kids to spread out and be their slow little selves...The big kids was another story. The outfield of the softball field was filled with eggs and the kids fanned out along the grass and mass chaos ensued when the "go" was given. Heather and Charlie held their own and got enough eggs to make them happy. Easter morning was rainy so eggs were hidden in the garage--which took the kids a while to find. They were pleased with their baskets and we spent a nice morning with everyone getting along. We shared Easter dinner at a friends house with some other families who didn't have spouses or were unaccompanied--it was a very nice time for all ending with a rousing game of cranium!

charie's birthday party

Although Charlie's birthday was the 30th we had his party with friends on April 3. Jeff called it the kids "fake birthday". Charlie wanted to have his Bakugan birthday at the bowling alley. Jeff and the kids did another piniata and we made a cake using charlie's bakugan as decorations. Charlie had 15 of his friends and neighbors come and create chaos at the bowling alley. When we got there conveniently there was another birthday party with similar age kids in the 3 lanes next to us--because we weren't enough chaos in our 3 lanes!! Charlie had a great time bowling and breaking the piniata which held strong once again.

Charlie turns 5

We continued our busy birthday month as charlie turned 5 on March 30. He had some friends come over in the morning to play until lunch. They had a good time being boys (5 year old boys apparently bring new language and gestures to being a boy which I hope to squelch!) and had a nice lunch and cupcakes together. Once Heather got home from school charlie got to open some of his presents which were numerous! He received some bakugon, books, power rangers and a transformer that only Jeff can transform. He went back outside and played with some friends until we had his chosen dinner of steak, broccoli, and tater tots (i forgot to get french fries for him..5 is a new fun age but we hope that charlie continues to be his sweet, giving, loving self and maybe can get a little less clumsy (he is hurt all the time!!)--but we love him anyway!!

more pictures on facebook

i posted more pictures on facebook because it's easier to upload. If anyone who reads this is not on facebook (i will be shocked!!) let me know if you want more pics and I'll get them to you ;-)

charlie's haircut

whew! Between Heather's birthday fun I forgot that Charlie got his hair cut (a lot!) I told Jeff when he left and kept saying "short" that I might cry when he came back but Charlie looks pretty cute with his new look. Different but cute!!

Heather's birthday party

Heather invited 15 of her closest friends and neighbors over for a party. Ideally the weather would have been nice and they would have played outside lots and lots, however it was not great so we started out inside. Filled with "ocean" activities we managed to keep the kids entertained and then let them out after cake to run around and get some of that sugar out of their system. The kids worked on some picture frame crafts, creating creatures from under the sea, pinning the tail on the dolphin and smashing a piniata. Oh yeah and dinner and cake were served also ;-). Jeff and the kids worked hard on a dolphin piniata which turned out REALLY cute and very sturdy. The kids all had lots of chances to break it before our friend helped it with some scissors and serious shaking. He also drew a nice dolphin for pinning the tail on (it was amazing how almost EVERY child was able to find that dolphin tail spot!! The cake was cute--dolphin that jeff drew and some birthday lingo (Really I did stuff for the party as well ;-). All the kids seemed to have a good time and Heather was allowed to have 3 girls spend the night. We borrowed a projector from a friend and the girls are watching a movie on the wall in the garage.