Happy Easter!

Our Easter weekend started off with my Mom's group's 2nd annual egg hunt at a local park. As you can see, the boys were excited to get started.

Lucas caught on right away and happily filled his basket (compliments of Aunt Sharon, thanks!)

Noah was more into getting at what was inside and happily munched on the various snacks he found.
After the hunt, we drove to Grandma & Grandpa's in San Jose. The boys had fun watching and operating Grandpa's model train (which he brought back out for them since it was such a big hit at Christmas). They also had fun exploring their Easter baskets on Sunday morning.

Easter Eggs

On Wed the boys and I dyed eggs. Lucas was excited about making yellow eggs and Noah pink eggs (these seem to be their favorite colors at the moment and I am just glad they are different from each other :)) Lucas was reluctant at first, but once he saw me spoon the dye over the egg he caught on and was very meticulous as usually and got upset if a drop of dye landed on the paper.

And here is Noah who quickly put as many eggs into each cup (including those already dyed) and didn't seem to mind that the color got on the paper or his hands. Though he wasn't too happy when once we had finished and washed hands and his hands were still blue. Luckily his bath later that night got rid of the last of it.

Fun Playing

With the great weather we have continued to play outside a lot. The boys really like dirt and helped us plant some vegetables. Lucas really likes to water as you can see below.

A few days ago, the Lucas re-discovered his pony and Noah soon followed and they and had fun dragging them all over the house. Of course they insisted on putting them right next to each other. Some may say this is brotherly love, some that it is parallel play, personally, I think they just do it to annoy the heck out of each other, but that is just Mom's intuition.

Coloring

One of the boys latest favorite activities is coloring with crayons. They are actually quite good at sticking to paper and we have have had only a few incidences of other objects being scribbled on. They usually color on the coffee table, but were inspired the other day to stand on their stools at the easel (though they don't need to stand on them to reach the paper) and were actually very good sharers by going to different sides versus fighting to be on the same side :)

Fire Station Visit

One of the excited things about no longer working is being able to re-connect with the Mom's group I was involved with prior to going back to work. They have weekly playgroups on wed and today's activity was a visit to a local fire station followed by playing at a nearby park.
The boys enjoyed looking at the fire trucks, though I could not pursuade them to sit in it to get a picture. Oh well, they also really enjoyed looking at the kitchen with the 4 recliners in it.

Happy Valentine's & Fun Outside

The boys and I spent Valentine's Day on our own since German was in Portland on a business trip for several nights. We celebrated with heart shaped pizzas I made and cupcakes we had made together. We were very lucky to have a break in the rainy/dreary Feb weather over President's Day weekend and spent lots of time out in our backyard (though the dreay weather has now returned :(). The boys had fun helping Dad fix some sprinklers and running up and down the hills that frame our backyard. They aslo once again enjoyed playing with the beans we had set up for their birthday party.


The last piece of big news is that I have decided to leave Intel and be a full time Mom. Even just working 3 days a week was getting too challenging with the 2 little ones so German & I decided this was the best plan for our family for now. My last day is next Tues, 2/26 so I have been very busy training my replacement and looking into new daycare/preschool programs since we are planning on keeping the boys in some sort of program on T/Th so they will still have all the learning and interaction that they are used to mand I'll have time to get stuff done around the house.

Happy 2nd Birthday!!!!!!!!!!

We celebrated the boys 2nd birthday with what was orginally going to be a small gathering but ended up being a lively party of about 20 adults and 20 kids/babies. We lucked out on the wetaher this year and were able to take the masses outside. The boys enjoyed their train cakes which Mom put together with the help of Gramdma & Grandpa and Grandma's cake decorating book from 1973 saved from my childhood.
We filled our outdoor water table with pinto beans which was a huge hit with the kids, maybe too big of a hit as the beans ended up all over the backyard leading to a clean up effort the next day.
The boys definitley understand the concept of opening presents. They also have a new found love of saying and singing happy birthday leading to many sessions where Mom has to sing happy birthday to them, Mama, Dada, blankie, bear, monkey raf, etc, etc, etc :)

All in all it was a great celebration with friends & family that none of us will soon forget :)