Spring Has Sprung

As has been the tradition for the past several years, we kicked off the official start of spring with David and Jenny and their brood. The weather was nice enough for the kids to play outside, for all of us to eat outside, and to have a bonfire later in the evening.

Cute kiddos (4 of the 5) tending to the flower bed...Katie is Ava's little sidekick:
Aidan and Katie were on a little date:
The kids (and when I say kids, I mean Sean and David too) had lots of fun seeing how far they could launch the Stomp Rockets. Sean was the launcher, David loaded it up, and the little bits happily retrieved the rockets:

Ava wanted to prove she could still squeeze her lanky self into the Cozy Coupe:
Ava and Ian wrote love letters to each other in sidewalk chalk. Below is Ava's message - allow me to translate, "I love you. Nothing is going to break us apart". Are you kidding me? We have always joked about those two getting married in the future, but we are beginning to think it might actually happen!
Ava took her first stab at riding a bike sans training wheels:
And what good is a bonfire without toasting marshmallows?
The happy couple:
Me and my two favorite guys:We had sooo much fun, stayed up entirely too late, and we are looking forward to a summer full of these get togethers with one of our favorite families!

St. Patrick's "Dayte"

(Pronounced "date")

This year on St. Patrick's Day, Sean and I were very lucky to be able to spend the entire day together - kid free! That's why I call this our St. Patrick's "Dayte".

We drove the kids up to my parents' who very graciously offered to watch the kids for the whole day and to also have them spend the night. We didn't do anything too exciting after we dropped the kids off, but it's always nice to run certain errands without the kids in tow. Some of these errands include: spring clothes shopping for the kids and shopping for a new washer.

After we ran our few errands, we grabbed lunch and headed back towards our house. The afternoon/evening/night part of our dayte was hanging out at a local Irish Pub to celebrate - billed as the largest St. Patrick's Day party in the city. The party started at 7am for "kegs and eggs", had some of the best local cover bands playing all day long, drinks, and huge party tents. We got there around 3:30 and stayed until around midnight. Lots of dancing, singing, drinking, and celebrating with our friends Chris, Megan, and Ryan.

Sean looking happy drinking a beer and listening to "Zanna-Doo":

The band was FANTASTIC! Played great music ranging from "Bust a Move" to "Bobby McGee":
Here we are sporting the sweet St. Paddy's t-shirts Sean found for us online:
Megan and I hanging out later that night listening to "The Flying Toasters" perform. Another great band that we actually got to see perform at a different tavern with Chris and Megan a couple St. Patrick's Days ago:
Chris and Megan. The hat and wig were a bit silly, but actually very helpful as they allowed us to easily spot Chris in the crowd of about 5,000 as he was returning from a beer run:
The boys towards the end of the night looking pretty happy:
And to finish the night off, we were all a bit hungry, so we headed to Red Robin. Here I am doing my best Lady Liberty:

Movin' Up the Property Ladder

On a recent Costco trip, we scored a sweet cranberry juice box to lug our stuff home in. Once we got home and unloaded, we set the box by the patio door to take it to the trash the next time we went outside. Once Gobi set his eyes on it, we had to move to Plan B.

Gobi climbed in it and peered out at us, and the kids said, "It's Gobi's house!" We couldn't let him take refuge in just a cranberry juice box, so we decided to make it a more appropriate dwelling:


Old man Gobi saying, "You kids get off my lawn!"

Circus

This weekend we took the kids to their first circus - and by kids, I'm included in that bucket because as far as I can remember, I've never been to the circus (at least not recent enough for me to recall). This was a way to celebrate Ava's first official report card - which was FANTASTIC - and a great run of Aidan making good choices at home and at school.
They didn't get freaked out by the clowns, much to our surprise. I think if they would have come any closer than this, it might have been a different story:
One of the kids' favorite acts was the aerialists:
And of course Aidan's top favorite - the tigers:

Intermission meant a cotton candy treat (they devoured the bag in less than 5 minutes):
These elephants were pretty impressive (and so was their poop):

The kids lasted the entire 2 1/2 hour show, which was very impressive to us. The kids had a blast and it was so fun to just observe the wonderment in their faces :)