Avo and Uncle Ronny in charge for Easter Weekend - Part 3: Easter!

However, the best part of the weekend was Easter Sunday where the family gathered and the boys were in for a special surprise:

 

Family shot:

Aunt Suzee came by for the festivities:
 

The boys see something outside and he "hobbles" like someone they know:

As they walked out they kepot saying, "That's Uncle Ronnie!!"  His cover was blown out of the gate:

The Easter Bunny leaving more treats:

Noel decided to let check Ethan check things out first:

But once he saw that Ronnie had treats he was all in:
 

Ronnie enjoying a post-costume break:
 

Avo and Uncle Ronny in charge for Easter Weekend - Part 2: Dallas Aquarium!

Next up was a trip to the Dallas Aquarium.  For those of you that have never been, you start out in the jungle up top and work your way down until you're underwater looking at the underwater creatures:

 

Starting up top:

 

 

Looking at some monkeys:

 

 

 

The boys are captivated byt he underwater tunnel where the sharks swim overhead:

Hanging with Uncle Ronnie:

Avo and Uncle Ronny in charge for Easter Weekend (Part 1)

Catching up on some blogs we never got around to posting:

 

We're incredibly fortunate to have such a wide support structure around us . . . not only do the boys have a great appreciation for extended family and friends, said extended family and friends allow their Dad and Pai to maintain a pared down travel schedule, taking a couple of weekend trips per year on our own.

In celebration of Pai's birthday and our 3 year wedding anniversary, we headed to San Francisco over the long Easter weekend to enjoy some time with Kitty and Mike Burn.  Avo and Uncle Ronny stepped in to own the majority of the boys' workload for the weekend . . . this is the first of three posts covering their activities for the weekend.

First up, Noelly and Uncle Ronny having a mid-afternoon cuddle . . .

Cute pic of the boys, posing with their new "just my size" chairs, courtesy of Avo!

Ethan with one of the boys' favorite toys, their trusty fire truck:

Next up, a completely adorable picture of Avo and her grandsons . . . all three of them look so charming in this pic.

Last up, Uncle Ronny showing us just how difficult it is to chase after a couple of two year olds over consecutive days!

Ethan and Noel's Spring Class Party

It's hard to believe that the boys first full school year is coming to a close . . . seems like it was just a week ago that we were consoling a hysterical Noel after staying for only one hour on the first day.

Today was a spring party for all four Toddler classes . . . it was a party that we co-sponsored as part of the school's annual fund raising effort . . . fun day at the park with food, an easter egg hunt, and a portable petting zoo for the kids. Some great pics below

First up, a rare pic of the boys together (the event photographer painfully tried to get them to pose together), staring at the farm animals as the vendor set up.

Next up is an Ethan series . . . he absolutely loved holding the animals

(1) Chasing the guinea pigs around their container

(2) Holding the baby chicks . . . it was during this phase that he was convinced the baby chicks could "FLY!" So much so that he would hold them high and then drop them into their bucket hoping to see his theory in action.

(3) Look at that face, admiring the baby duck

(4) Here he is after picking up a soft brush (unassisted) and proceeding to gently brush each and every animal in the pen . . . here, he's covering the baby goat.







































































Next up is the Noel series . . . Noel was slightly more apprehensive around the animals, but he did just fine after some coaxing from Pai and Dad.

(1) and (2) A couple of pics of Noel's unabated joy in experiencing a baby duck.

(3) Noel and a classmate admiring the baby chick from afar.

(4) and (5) A hysterical set of pictures . . . first Noel followed the goose around the pen simply waving at it (from behind). After doing this for a couple of minutes, he literally belly-flopped on to the ground where he (unhappily??) began to pet the goose. Guess he thought it was better to be at eye level for this exercise.

Boys do the darndest things...

Adam Milam, reporting live. We just received images from South Versailles of not one, but TWO babies stuck in a cupboard. They're in good spirits and, in fact, appear to be enjoying the close quarters.





















We'll have an exclusive interview with them later today, so stay tuned for more news at 11.00!

Our first of many plumbing adventures....

Last night we realized the boys officially moved into a curious phase of cause and effect. An age old "If/Then" experiment, if you will. And they did...

We were getting ready for bath time and while Bruce got the boys' bath ready, I was in the other room getting PJs. No one was paying attention to the boys. Given it was so quiet, we should have known something was up.

I walked back into the bathroom and saw the boys at the toilet, giggling as Ethan flushed it. Naively, I assumed they were just fascinated with the flushing process. Their laughter raised to squeals of utter delight in correspondence with the rising water - this was no ordinary flush.

They ran to the bath tub to get more toys and dumped several more in. After about 30 minutes of trying to fish something out with a wire hanger, I gave up for the night.

Tonight, the toilet came off and after fishing around the business end of the toilet, we found the culprit - the nasal bulb they loathe so much!

Noel's Spring Semester at St. Alcuin . . .

Noel's teacher sends us pictures of him in class on a regular basis. Below are a few from the past couple of months:

He's quite the Renaissance Man...he cooks, he cleans, he's a lover of the arts:

Miscellaneous Pics - March, 2012

Just a few pics taken this past month that we wanted to share:

Can't believe we've gone from walking the boys to the boys walking the dogs:

Ethan climbing the dinosaur at the park:

Playing at Blake's in her bouncy house:

Taking the popcorn popper our for its first spin:

Ethan and Noel loving their lollipops:

Spring Break 2012 - Punta Mita - Days 5 & 6!

Sorry it's taken a bit longer than expected to put out the last post from our incredibly easy and enjoyable vacation to Punta Mita with the boys . . . the pics below are from teh last two full days of our trip, days 5 & 6:

First up, some pics of some well-earned alone time for Dad and Pai:

(1) A good shot (if you look really, really closely) of us giving paddle boarding our first attempt . . . Gina (our great Punta Mita nanny) hooked us up with some locals that delivered the boards to us and we made a solid 90 minute investment, clearly going much farther than we'd originally expected.

(2) & (3) Some great shots from one of our favorite spots, the Four Seasons lobby bar, which has a fantastic view of the nightly sunset. We made it a regular occurrence and had some lovely nights just relaxing before heading out to dinner.

Next up, some pics from our final day, taken at our local beach, just outside of our unit.

(1) First up, a perspective shot (taken by Gina) from our balcony, looking down at the pools and local beach surrounding our complex.

(2) A cute pic of Ethan and Noel playing with their favorite toy genre, the monster truck/dumptruck/garbage truck genre

(3) One of my favorite pics . . . Pai located a plethora of iguanas and lizards around the pool deck and would take each of the boys on a "iguana safari" each night . . . this is a pic of Noel's journey, who clearly took full advantage.








































Lastly, a great, great shot of the full Brigade in our last fleeting hours . . . such a great trip and one we'll look forward to repeating again next year!