Visiting The Toledo Museum of Art

Today the boys and I visited the Toledo Museum of Art and I'm kicking myself for not coming here more often - this place is a gem! They have an awesome family center which consists of two rooms - one for playing and one for arts and crafts. In the arts and crafts room they have an area where kids can paint on their own and they also have different organized projects that change every week. Today, Colin got to make a horse and paint beads. He also painted a picture. Both boys enjoyed playing in the play room and I thought overall it was a really fun excursion, despite Eli screaming for probably 1/2 the trip...he was just a little tired and I think he wanted to paint too. This is definitely something we'll have to keep in mind for future rainy days.

Spring Crafts

Eli's morning nap is when I try to really get in some quality one-on-one time with Colin. Sometimes we do the usual playing, but sometimes we get creative. I'm actually surprised at how much Colin likes to do arts and crafts. He will often request to paint, color, or play with play-doh and recently he's been super excited about doing "special" crafts that I have to find directions for online (because this un-crafty mama does not come up with these things on my own). Over the last few weeks, we've worked on a few fun crafts - a caterpillar, butterflies, and creating our own colors. Colin especially seems to enjoy practicing cutting and experimenting with different tactile craft items like pom-poms, pipe cleaners, and of course, googly-eyes. Actually, I think he just likes saying "googly-eyes". Here's some of his creations.

Celebrating Earth

To celebrate Earth Day, the boys and I walked down to a park in our neighborhood and picked up trash. Eli helped out by not fussing and sitting patiently in the wagon and Colin did a great job of finding trash and bringing it back to the garbage bag. He surprised me by really getting into the task and was excited to tell Chris all about it when he came home from work.
Happy Earth Day!

Eli's Birthday Bash

Yesterday we celebrated Eli's 1st birthday with my and Chris' families. We were happy that so many people were able to come and help us celebrate our little Eli.

Eli was funny when he ate his cake, he barely tasted it and seemed distraught to have the gooey frosting all over his hands. I got him to smile once, but it wasn't because he was enjoying the treat. I can just pretend though, right? :)

It was fun watching Eli open his gifts. He did a good job ripping into the wrapping paper, but he also got some help opening from his big bro and some of his cousins.

We were also excited to be able to show off Eli's new trick - he can walk!

And after everyone left, he showed us an even newer trick - he can use chairs to climb onto other things. Man, are we in for it! 

Happy Birthday Eli!

Eli is1!

Our little Eli turned one today. I can't believe it! This year went by so quickly but at the same time it feels like he's been a part of our lives for so much longer than just a year. At one, Eli is very mischievious and hysterical. He loves to take things apart, climb, be chased, yell, and wrestle. Everything with this kid is loud. If he's happy, he howls with delight. If he's mad or upset, he screams. He's got a funny sense of humor and loves to play jokes on people. He also loves music, dancing and singing. Music can sometimes hype him up and get him excited and sometimes it can be very soothing and help to calm him down. He adores his big brother and I think he considers him his best friend. He has gotten super fast and keeps us on our toes. He puts everything in his mouth so we've had to be extremely diligent about what is left out that's within his reach. Just in the last 24 hours I have had to pull out of his mouth legos (regular-sized, not duplos), baby soap, wood chips, and grass. On a positive note, this obsession with putting things in his mouth has led him to try more new foods. I think I can officially say he will now eat more than cheese. In fact, he has recently tried and enjoyed cottage pie, chicken tortilla soup, and pizza. Woot! Our little man has 4 teeth with 2 more about to pop through, he started drinking whole milk today so I'm weaning him off his bottles of formula, and he's trying to communicate more, but most things still sound like "that" and "all done". He has his 1 year well child appointment tomorrow so I'll update his weight and height after that. His big party is on Saturday so I'll post pictures of that hopefully sometime this weekend.

Here are some pictures from today (well, the first one is from yesterday because I was so excited that he was eating something other than cheese for dinner). We enjoyed the beautiful day at the zoo and then our sweet boy proceded to completely refuse to nap for the rest of the day. I'll let it slide this one time since it was his birthday and he stayed in fairly good spirits. ;) Happy birthday, baby! We love you!

Yummy chicken and black beans!

Happy Birthday to me!

I think the poor kid was starving since Colin ate all his snacks.

Custom t-shirt courtesy of Baby Cake Designs.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Happy Birthday to an awesome daddy and a wonderful husband (just 2 days late)! Chris and I got to enjoy an afternoon at the movies (Clash of the Titans) while the kids played at a friend's house (thanks again, Jen!). Then we all enjoyed pizza and cake. Yum! Colin "helped" Chris blow out his candles by blowing them out before Chris was ready. The picture below is a posed shot. Whoops! I guess Colin had lots of practice this year and really perfected his blowing. Good to know that he can help Eli in few days.

Wishing you a fantastic year, sweetie!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! We had a great day today! The boys woke up and discovered the Easter Bunny had stopped by our house. Not only did he leave us some fun baskets, but he jumped up really high in our foyer to grab Colin's lost balloon and bring it back down for him. It was the first thing Colin noticed when he walked out of his room this morning. :) The Bunny brought us all candy and each boy got a book and a toy and Colin also got a fire truck shirt (he *loves* it!). After a big breakfast, the boys got to dive into Round 2 of Easter surprises. Grammy and Poppy gave each boy a cute Easter bag filled with goodies. Colin got more candy (I think we might be set until Christmas! :) ) and a Color Wonder Light-up kit. Eli got a very cute tactile book and both got sweet cards. After that, we finished getting ready for Aunt Kara and the kids to come over for lunch and the Easter egg hunt. Woo hoo! The kids had a blast and the weather was perfect for an outdoor hunt! Later that afternoon, Nana and Papa showed up as a surprise for Alex's birthday. He was thrilled! We all sang happy birthday and had cake. Yum! Colin was having so much fun, he hated to see everyone leave. After dinner he insisted that we keep playing for "just a little bit" because he wasn't tired at all and couldn't sleep. After I tucked him in, the kid was out before I reached the bottom of the stairs. Gotta love exercise!
I hope everyone else had a great day too!

Baskets

Goody bags from Grammy & Poppy

Silly kids, ready to start the hunt!

Posing with their finds

The two babies slept through all the excitement. Here they are, up and ready to play.

Brothers!

Alex, the birthday boy

Easter family portrait