Party People

After Communion we invited friends and family over to celebrate! I'm so glad it was nice outside and people were able to enjoy the weather instead of all of us being stuffed inside the house!

Owen posed with his super tasty/yummy cake.

Paige had to leave the party for a bit to get dance pictures taken!

Some of the party people

Owen and Victor rolled the ball with Derek and the cuteness was overwhelming.

There was facepainting too!

Owen's Very First Communion

Owen made his First Communion over the weekend! He's worked really hard all year at PSR and some extra classes on Sunday to prepare for it so it was really exciting to see it happen. Also, he wore a suit and that made the whole thing extra adorable. The weather was beautiful so we were able to walk to the church and the kids were able play outside later in the day at the party (those pictures will be in another post).

Paige walked ahead of us the whole way.

This isn't a great picture but it was such a cute moment. The priest had all the kids stand on the pews  and look out while we clapped for them. They were all so proud!

This was my favorite picture of Owen!

Fairy Toast

In other parts of the world here exists a breakfast food called "fairy bread."  It is white bread slathered with butter and then covered with a ton of flavored sprinkles. These are not just regular American flavorless sprinkles. Or the internet has successfully brainwashed me into thinking they're different...regardless, we needed to try this! We opted to toast our bread because I thought it might help the sprinkles stick to the bread a little better. I was skeptical with my first bite but by my second I thought it was delicious. Pat nailed its appeal when he pointed out that it tastes like a chocolate frosted donut! Yum! We'll be having more of this soon. Especially since we have a large box of special sprinkles:)

Earth Day!

We celebrated Earth Day on our walk to school by picking up litter! We got excited when we found trash to pick up but when we saw how much we had collected by the end it was a little depressing. A lot of people passed us on their way to work and school and I'm hoping we inspired some of them to do something great for the environment!

Extra Special Party

We're usually pretty casual about birthday celebrations for the adults. Cake, presents and that's about it I think. But this was an extra special milestone birthday for Lisa so we needed a theme! Princess Bride of course! There was goblet-decorating, crown and mask-wearing and movie-watching! Also, all sorts of fantastic food, of course. Happy Birthday Lisa!

Paige and Friends

Zoo!

We took our first warm(ish)-weather trip to the zoo last weekend with some friends! It was a beautiful, sunny day so there was quite a crowd in attendance but the zoo is spacious enough that it didn't really bother us too much. The only real damper on the visit was the penguins. We were so excited to see the new penguin exhibit but the penguins looked miserable in their tiny habitat that it you sort of just felt sorry for them. Dear zoo, get those penguins home! In the meantime, check out these adorable kids.

Easter!

Enough about me. Let's go back in time and talk about Easter. Owen was up first and we coaxed Paige awake as soon as she started stirring. They found their baskets and ate lots of candy before we got ready for church. Owen was shocked that he had to dress up even though I had made a point of telling him the day before. We let him take off his suit and put on a polo when we got home and he was so relieved!). Paige was comfy in her dress all day! Later, we headed out to visit with family. The kids got to go on a special hunt with clues to find even more Easter baskets!

A book about explorers! (oh, and some candy)

A book about explorers! (oh, and some bunny ears)

Paige took the clue-reading portion of the day very seriously

Found!

1/3 of a 1/2

Long before I knew my appendix needed to be removed, I signed up to run a half marathon. It was one I'd never done before and I was pretty excited about it (I almost put the word "stoked" there, does that give you the general feeling?). That whole appendix thing really derailed my training and I thought about going for it anyway, even up to the afternoon of the day before. In the end, and for a number of reasons, I didn't do it. I went out on my own and did 4.5 miles though, and that's no small feat when I think about how I was feeling about a month ago. I also stopped to take this picture before I headed home. The river is brown and there are no leaves on the trees but the sun was out and the water was sparkling! Good enough for me:)

Hockey Hockey

I've already posted two or three times about hockey games so I wasn't planning on mentioning this one but our seats were the closest we've ever been and we had so much fun that I sort of didn't have a choice. Paige entered a coloring contest and all the entrants got four free tickets so we really have her to thank!

We were right behind the opposing team!

This is where the opposing team came onto the ice. The kids hung out here so they could give them high fives. Apparently we're not very loyal to the home team...

We were close enough to see the action but it's still fun to watch the big screen. Also, we finally saw ourselves on the screen thanks to the people behind us and their "Happy Easter" sign! 

Birthday!

Paige's party was the weekend before her birthday so we still had some celebrating to do when her birthday finally rolled around. She had a really busy day between library story time in the morning, an Easter celebration at preschool and dance class but I think Paige loved all the attention she was getting! She chose Jimmy John's for dinner and then we went home (finally!) and enjoyed some cupcakes while she opened presents.

The crowd at story time was small but not this small. Where did everyone go for my picture?

I wasn't able to go but a friend took this picture of Paige at her preschool party

Dinner!

She's so old now that you can't even see the individual candles. 

Party Time!

We had Paige's birthday party the day after Pat's birthday (sorry Pat!). She told us a year ago that she wanted a Frozen theme for her 5th birthday and she did not waver from that decision. I didn't do as much planning/crafting for this party as I have for ones in the past (because-appendix) but I thought everything turned out great. We kept the food simple and bought some Frozen decorations. One of our friends offered her amazing face-painting skills and another brought some "snowballs" for the kids to throw at each other. 

5!

Paige and Owen read some books while they waited for the guests to arrive

5 still!

Discussing face painting strategy

Cousins and Aunts and a Grandma!

The cake! We used the same method for the "ice" walls  as we did for Owen's campfire cake (coincidentally, that cake was for Owen's 5th birthday!) 

Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday Paige!

One!

Two!

Three!

Four!

Five!