Easter!

I Love Easter. Mostly for the candy. Really people, is there anything better than cadbury eggs? I'm not talking the mini eggs, I'm talking the full on creme eggs. I LOVE them. Yummmm.

We really did Easter right, we kicked off the Easter holiday with some friends at a park for some Easter crafts:

 Some playing:

 Some Easter egg hunting... look at this little guy. He knows what he's doing. Snatched a robin egg from one of the hidden eggs and is chowin down.

 Look at that loot!

And another craft day/easter hunt that my good friend Amie put on:

Owen was drunk on fun... as you can see below.

 Isn't she fantastic? The kids loved it.

We also dyed some easter eggs. Owen loved it while Tyler and I wondered if it's worth buying a dozen eggs just so Owen can drop and break them. It is... because he loves it. While he dyed the eggs, Collette ate them. This girl will eat anything.

What is Easter without Easter baskets? When the Easter Bunny comes to our place, he hides our Easter baskets around the house along with some eggs. I was super excited for Owen to hunt around the house for everything. He on the other hand, got super distracted as soon as he saw that there were toys and candy in the basket that the Easter Bunny had left for him and didn't want to search for anything else.

 There is no reason that I should be posting this picture but her little bum is just too cute not to.

 Lately the only way to get Owen to look at the camera is to make silly faces (oh except that he's not looking at the camera). They are both really good at it.

We also had a church dinner and Easter hunt on Easter Sunday. Owen scored some awesome sunglasses.

Something I didn't get a picture of... our family on Easter. I'm lame. Maybe this will make up for it. Seriously, anything cuter than Collette in bunny ears? I think not.

Somebody's Three!

It's this guy. 

Can you believe it? He's such a big boy. If you don't believe me you can ask him anytime and that's what he'll tell you. Either that or he'll tell you that he's Spiderman. Whatever... he's just a little stud.
When he woke up on his birthday, he ran into our room and Tyler and I broke into song. As soon as we finished, he looked at me and said "I don't really like that song." Which I was shocked by since all he could talk about the last few weeks was that he couldn't wait for his friends to sing happy birthday to him. Anyway he really warmed up to the song later in the day.
Our tradition is that you get to open gifts first thing in the morning.

Train Table... SUCCESS! (Thanks Katie for picking this up for me at 75% off!- It really pays to have friends that know their Target discount schedule)

Then we had some Birthday breakfast:

We had plans to do a party with all of his buddies on the beach. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, we had to change plans at the last minute, this time because of rain. No biggie though, we just invited everyone to our place to eat cupcakes and play. Since I didn't have anything really planned for an indoor party, I thought we could throw some old school games into the mix so the kids weren't bored.

We tried Duck Duck Goose and Red Light Green Light, key word here being TRIED. Three out of the ten kids actually got it. It lasted about ten minutes before I realized that mostly two and three year olds just want to eat sugar and play. We headed inside and got to the important stuff. Sang, ate some cupcakes, opened some gifts and then just ran around. Owen really loves his friends! He was in heaven.

There were a few people who couldn't be there for the party during the day so we decided to keep the celebration going all night long.
Before everyone came over, we had some birthday dinner. Three years later and his favorite meal is still spaghetti. Yumm.

Owen wanted a spiderman cake so I obliged. About five minutes into it, when I realized that my red frosting was actually purple, I called in reinforcements.
Tyler and Owen make a kick butt cake.

 Owen found the perfect placement for Spidey.

Even though the game thing wasn't what you would call a success
 in the morning, I still thought it would be a great idea to do something for the kids when they came over that night so we threw together an obstacle course.

 Some people were into it

But I was reminded once again that three year old children mostly just want to play. No obstacle course necessary.

It was a fantastic day full of good friends:

And this guy!

A few things about Owen at three:
1. He LOVES trains, superheros, cars, monster trucks and doing puzzles.
2. He loves to drawing, cutting, glueing, anything crafty and spends a good amount of time here:

3. He loves riding his bike and his car.
4. He loves Collette and is such a cute older brother. This is him toting her around the house in his little wagon.

5. He is still not too hyped on the whole wearing underwear thing. He'll go a few days wearing them, going the bathroom by himself and then decide he hates them and wants back in his diapers.
6. He is super independent and loves to do everything himself.
7. He loves to help, whether it's making food, bringing in garbage cans, cleaning the house, etc. I love having him around when I need to dust. He's totally into it and I'm not.
8. He's really been into his colors, numbers and letters lately. He'll tell me at least a few times a day how he knows all of his colors (he does) and his ABC's (he doesn't... but we're working on it).
9. He's a total boy. He loves to climb, wrestle, jump, etc.
10. He has a really good sense of humor already. The other day he was in the back seat of the car and I hear him say "Arrr Matey"  and he was cracking up so I look back and he had a sticker over his eye. He's always doing stuff that makes us laugh. He definitely takes after Tyler that way.

I know I say this all the time but this kid is amazing. I am loving this age and can't wait to see what this year brings us.
Happy birthday little dude!

Naples

We had some really good friends move away about a year and a half ago. First they moved to Arizona but then they ended up about an hour from us! We're so happy because now we actually get to see them from time to time. They've been to Ft. Laudy Daudy quite a few times and Tyler and I are horrible friends and hadn't been to see them since they moved back... until a few weekends ago. We decided to hop in the car and head west to spend the day in Naples with them. We should have gone long ago... it was so fantastic.

Collette was a big fan of the sand. She always is. Just sticks her face right in it and takes a mouthful. It's disgusting and she does it over and over. Am I a horrible mother for taking her back to the beach time and time again?

Oh man, isn't this such a great pic of my boys?

Sheree and Kim. Aren't my friends beautiful? For reals though. These ladies are fabulous.

 Owen's new favorite thing... being buried in the sand.

 Rob and his daughter Aubree (Collette's little buddy)

We also saw three dolphins swimming around. I was so excited about it but unfortunately, didn't get a picture. Bummer.
After the beach we headed to Rob and Sheree's to get cleaned up and give the girls some time to chase each other around the house. (Sheree, totally stole this from your blog, thanks for that)

R and S are great hosts because not only did they let everyone shower at their house so we wouldn't have to hang out all night in beach gear, they also took us to a really yummy restuarant.

Mmmmm... pizza. Yum.

Then they took us to this really cool store where everything changes color in the sun.

We loved it.

I just have to throw this one in because these little ladies are darling. Can't get enough.

Thanks for showing us such a great time R&S. Can't wait to hang again!