Easter Weekend

Rob and I both had a 3 day weekend for Easter. Rob had Good Friday off as a holiday and I used a vacation day. We didn't have plans but spent some time running errands. I hit up the Promenade (all by myself!!) in search of a new outfit for the Maroon 5 concert. I found a few things at Macy's. Later on, we all went to Babies R Us to look for a new carseat for Mason. He is getting so big and is outgrowing his infant carrier. He's heavy too so it's been a pain lugging that thing around. We were going to buy 2 new convertible carseats (one for each of our cars) but decided to upgrade Leah to a big girl booster seat/car seat instead. We'll just pass down her seats to Mason. It all worked out nicely. We also stopped at Toys R Us and bought the kids a wagon. We've been wanting to get one for awhile and they were all on sale. I'm happy with the one we ended up getting. The kids l.o.v.e. it!

I LOVE this little guy. He is so stinkin cute!

New wagon!

Saturday we had Easter plans with my family. My brother, SIL, nieces and dad were all going to come over for lunch. I had a little Easter egg hunt planned for the girls. My brother called me that morning and told me my niece Annabelle was sick so my sister-in-law Sarah had to stay home with her. Leah was crushed. She was so excited that her cousin was going to come over so she was bummed when I told her that she had to stay home. My brother and niece Alyssa still came by with my Dad. We had a nice lunch and hung out. My brother brought some Easter treats for the kids. After a few hours everyone went home. We felt bad for Leah that she didn't get to do the egg hunt with her cousin. We still decided to do it for her anyways. Rob placed all the eggs in the front yard. We plopped Mason in the grass and Leah had a blast collecting all of the eggs. She was pretty happy! Some eggs had candy and others had money! It was fun watching her.

My sweet kids 

Leah! 

Mason and cousin Alyssa

Lamb Cake from my Dad 

Bunny Treats from the bakery

Getting ready to head outside for the Easter Egg hunt 

Looking for eggs 

So fun! 

Mom - look at all my eggs! 

Hey, there's one! 

Sharing eggs with baby brother! 

Is this a hat?! 

Wait!!! Where did everyone go?! 

Oh - there you are! 

Candy loot! 

Cash too!

Later on in the evening, we decided to color eggs. I made 2 dozen eggs and got everything for Leah. She is at a good age and was really into dying the eggs. She did a great job! She was careful and at tentative to her eggs. She even asked to taste one and to my surprise - she actually liked it! Both of the kids were tired and ended up going to bed pretty early. Luckily that gave the Easter bunny plenty of time to get things ready for the next day!

So fun! 

Mase watching from the sidelines!

Being so careful! 

Trying a hard boiled egg for the first time! 

Finished product! 

Brother and Sister love before heading to bed!

On Sunday morning, Leah woke up and was super excited to run downstairs to see if the Easter bunny came. To her excitement, he did!! He left baskets, treats and other goodies for them! Leah was in heaven. She noticed that there were eggs hidden around the house so she had fun gathering them. By 8:30 am she was on a sugar overload!

Look Mom - he came! 

Bunny Mason! 

Bunny Leah!

The Easter Bunny found these cute baskets on Etsy 

All of the Easter goodies

We didn't have any plans for the day so we decided to hit up the zoo! We got there around 10:00. It was a little chilly but not too bad. The zoo was pretty empty! We brought our new wagon and the kids had a great time. We went and saw the dolphin show. Towards the end, Leah got in one of her moods and kept telling us she wanted to go home. We were hoping it would pass, but she was pretty cranky. By then, she had ruined the fun and we decided it was time to go. We were going to grab lunch but Leah was pretty clear that she didn't want to do that either. We just came home and enjoyed the afternoon as family.

Trip the zoo! 

He is such a happy guy! 

Watering the flowers 

Waiting for the dolphin show to start 

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!

Family Day at the Circus

A few weeks ago on the way to daycare, Leah heard a commercial on the radio for the circus (I wasn't quite paying attention to it). As soon as she heard it, she immediately decided that we had to go. I didn't even know there was a circus anywhere around here. She must have asked me 5 times if we could go. When I got home from work that day, I googled it to find out where it was. It was a smaller show at the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates. They actually had a promotion going on for a buy one get one free deal. I was able to get 4 tickets for a reasonable price. They turned out to be in the front row too so we were pretty excited.

This past Sunday, the big day finally arrived. Leah told everyone that she was going to circus. I haven't been to a circus in years and wasn't quite sure what to expect. Overall, it was fun. Leah had a good time. Everything is rid...ic...ulosuly priced! All of the kids had these flashing, glowing, light sticks. Leah had to have one too. $15 gone. At the next stop she begged me for cotton candy (which she has never had before). She took one bite and told me it was gross and she didn't like it. Glad I spent $6 on it for her! :) We also got some food which was just crazy expensive. The show was pretty long. After almost 2 hours, they broke for an intermission. Both kids were still doing great, but we decided to head home to avoid the crowds getting out of there. I am glad the kids had fun!

Easter Pictures

I was not on the ball this year and was too late to schedule Easter mini's with the photographer we used for our Christmas mini's. By the time I reached out, all of the open slots were filled. My friend had just had family pictures taken by a different photographer and told me that she was doing Easter mini's too. I contacted her and was able to schedule an appointment. I always have high expectations for how they will turn out and am always usually let down. Mason did great and was smiling away - even though not all of the pictures captured that. Leah was pretty uncooperative. She was SOO shy and just wanted me to hold her. I was pretty disappointed in her behavior. It wasn't until the very end that she warmed up. We are going to do family pictures over the summer, so hopefully everyone gets their act together by then!

Well - here are all of the pictures....the good and the bad!

Typical Leah fashion...being shy and biting her nails.

St. Patrick's Day Fun

This year St. Paddy's Day fell on a Sunday. We had made plans to go celebrate with all of our friends that afternoon. It's been a pretty long time since we've gotten out without kids, so we were definitely excited! We met for lunch and drinks at Black Finn in Naperville. We had a large group and it was lots of fun to see everyone! We were all so festive in our green 'gear' and were able to enjoy some green beer! After lunch we walked over to Quigley's which was definitely more crowded than the first stop. We only stayed until 5:00 pm. I didn't want to keep my cousin with the kids too long. We had such a great time and hope we can do it again next year!

Mason Turns 8 Months!

My little monster Mason is 8 months old!! He is getting soooo big! I can’t believe in just a few months he is going to be one years old! Woah! This past month has been an exciting one for Mase Man. He finally is sitting up all by himself! It took him awhile to get here, but he is doing it. He has gotten so much better with his coordination skills too. He can now also successfully pick up little pieces of food and put it in his mouth. Before, he was like an ogre using his whole hand to grab at things. He couldn’t get the concept of using his two fingers to pick things up and move it to his mouth. He has it nailed now! He eats puffs like a champ (which is a huge improvement from last month) and has also tried yogurt melts, small pieces of pasta, cut up chicken nuggies and bread. He can’t get enough of that stuff. He seems to want the bottle less and the ‘real’ food more. He only has 3 bottles a day. The rest of the time it is cereal, fruits, veggies, and mum mums. We are slowly going to introduce other foods to him too. I’ve tried giving him a sippy cup and he did pretty good with it.

Mason is a big little dude, probably topping the scales around 20 pounds. We bought him a walker last weekend and his little feet don’t touch the ground yet (and it is on the lowest setting). He likes sitting in the walker and playing with the activity center. Leah loves to push him all around the house. He is starting to put weight on his legs and will stand when we hold his hands. He loves laying on the floor and grabbing his feet. He giggles and smiles all the time. Baby giggles are the best. He is wearing 9-12 month size clothes, but still wears a size 3 diaper. He continues to babble and says mamamama, dadadadada, babababa and other variations. Leah swears that he says her name, but I think it might be a little too early for that. He has learned to 'click' his tongue and does it often. If you do it to him, he does it back to you with a huge smile on his face. It makes me laugh.

I can say I am truly lucky how great of a sleeper Mason is. He has been going down even earlier now (around 7:15 pm) and sleeps for a good 11+ hours. He has been teething lately, but it hasn’t bothered his sleep schedule. He likes to be all snuggled up in his bed with his blankie (which makes me nervous sometimes).

The kids will be back into their regular routine soon. My daycare’s maternity leave is coming to an end!

Mason is 8 months old!

My little guy eating Chicken Nuggies for the first time 

So happy! 

Sitting up like a pro! 

Wearing his first pair of shoes!