Birthday for the Best Dad!!

APRIL 17th-

HAPPY BIRTHDAY  DAD!

Happy Birthday Kevin!!

You are truly the best dad ever, thanks for all the time you spend with us, playing ball, laughing, wrestling, teaching us about life. 

We love you so much!

We had alot of fun on your birthday.  It was fun for all of us to go to the ball field and hit.  You are the best pitcher.  It was funny watching mommy try to hit.  She wasn't very good was she?

Thanks for teaching us so much about baseball, we love playing with you and we love that you are our coach this year.

The burgers on the grill were a great dinner and it was fun eating outside. 

The ice cream cake was yummy.

We told mom she should have gotten you the mini pillow pet instead of that fire pit, but she didn't listen to us. 

We hope you had as much fun on  your birthday as we did.

Love you to the moon and back.

Happy Birthday Big Guy!

Easter

Easter snuck up on me as usual.  I dont know why that happens every year. But I always feel like I am running around the night before getting basket goodies and prepping. 

 We finally dyed eggs on Good Friday.  Our friends came over with their kiddos and we all had a great dinner, crab cakes, salmon, lobster mac and cheese.  So yummy.  The kids then happily dyed eggs without much of a mess, which was a first for us!

 We hosted Easter this year.  We wanted to be together with Grammom and Poppy since this is our first holiday without Meem.  It has definitely been hard. I find myself starting to dial her number on my car ride home from work, which is when we used to chat several times a week.  It is just surreal to me not to have her around or to hear her voice over the phone. 

Easter morning was filled with an egg hunt in the house. I had a slight panic attack when they couldnt find the last one. I had visions of smelling a rotten egg in weeks to come!  Thankfully I remmebered the great hiding spot I placed that elusive egg and all was well!

 This is the first year Maks doesn't believe in the Bunny.  Which really didn't bum me out, I am not a fan of the Easter Bunny, frankly a life sized bunny always freaked me out a bit.  I know I will be so bummed when they stop believing in Santa.  I dont want to lose that magic of Christmas!

 Anyway, we planned a nice low key Easter. Grammom and Poppy came up for dinner along with JoJo. Unfortunately Granny was sick and could not make it up. We missed her.

 The boys were happy she sent up her easter eggs filled with coins.  They always loved going down her house to do an egg hunt there.  So, we had 2 extra egg hunts that afternoon.

 Since I forgot to hide eggs outside the night before (thanks Maks for pointing that out many times), I hid the outback and then Kevin hid Granny's eggs inside.  They had a blast running around looking for eggs. 

They loved the special easter presents JoJo brought with her too.  Have I mentioned how spoiled this guys are?

 Dinner was very good, ham and all the fixins.  We all stuffed ourselves for sure. I know I was on serious carb overload!!

 I managed to get in some nice shots of the boys and family pics before they completely ruined their outfits.  But they wouldn't be boys if they didn't have dirt on them somewhere!

 It was a gorgeous day, sitting outside enjoying the sunshine and I know Meem was looking down smiling on her little guys!

 For dessert we enjoyed another yummy creation from Jenny Cakes.  The boys fought over the peeps and the egg. Normally I would fight for a peep, but I prefer them soft and fresh. The boys like them a little harder.  I was laughing as I had read an article the week prior on how people prefer their Peeps.

 After dinner, Kevin and the boys had some swing set fun.  Nothing like spinning 30 miles an hr with a full belly!

 Of course the boys think it is the best!

 Why do I buy white anything with these two?

 But they are cute under the dirt and grime.

 They both love to climb.  Sometimes I can't watch. 

 Maks has the best balance, though like me he isn't a huge fan of heights.  SO he is a lot more cautious than Alek.

Both boys have recovered nicely from their early spring injuries.  Maks' eyebrow healed up nicely, just a tiny scar.  Alek got his splint off his finger.  He only has to wear it to bed and while playing baseball.  He was so happy to finally have it off!

He also had his 8 yr old well visit.  He hit 60 pounds for weight and was 53.25 for height. He continues his long and lean streak.  I had picked him up a little early from school for his appointment and as we were headed to docs office, the school nurse had call me.  Alek had told me he fell on school playground while playing kickball.  According to the nurse, he was knocked over and fell backwards hitting his head. She said she had been concerned because he said his eyes felt funny.  Great!  Just what he needs!  Anyway he got dizzy while they were taking his BP.  So of course they doc wound up doing a neuro exam. Concluded he had a mild concussion but no need to get a CT scan. 

BOYS!!! 

(see, they do clean up well!)

I am hoping the remainder of April is quiet and uneventful, injury wise that is!!

Baseball is in full swing, practices going well.  Maks is improving alot with his catching and he continues to entertain us on the field. I am not sure Coach Daddy and Coach Dennis appreciate his antics, but from the sidelines it is fun to watch.  Alek loves his baseball and he does amaze me with his skills.  He takes whatever daddy throws his way. 

We can't wait for the first game, to see our Reds in action!!

March

Have no idea where March went, but apparently it is now April!
March frankly was a blur, lots of birthday activity for Alek, school work and finishing up basketball. Then with Meem passing it has been kind of a haze. I keep picking up the phone to call her and then I remember. Definitely feeling a bit lost without her.

ON a happier note, we had Alek's kid party with all his school buddies and girlfriends. It was at the Montco Sports Perfomance Center and it was a blast. They kept the kids going non stop.

These ropes were the biggest hit, the kids had a blast, though Maks was a little unsure about them. Maks loved all the gym equipment though, he has some serious strength!!

It was another great celebration of all that is Alek. I love parties where I dont have to clean up or cook!! Wewere very happy with this place and the kids slept great that night!

Alek's present from us was tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters. Wewatched the preview online and they were excited!

Since Maks was coming along I bought tickets in the club boxes, mainly for the ease of the bathroom.

Maks will have to go the bathroom a hundred times if we are at a sporting event or restaurant. It is just a given. So I a finally learning to choose locations convienient to bathrooms!
And he went 6 times while we were there.

It was a lot of fun. I haven't been to one since I was in high school and Kevin had never gone.

They are so entertaining. The boys were engrossed. Even Maks.

Alek talked Kevin into buying him a basketball there, so he was extra excited to bring that home.

The week of Alek had finally come to an end and Maks is now focused on what to do for his birthday, which is only 7 months away!

Kevin and I enjoyed a night away in Philly with our friends for St. Patty's day. It was alot of fun, but pretty crowded downtown. We had fun bar hopping, but sadly as pathetic as we are in our 40's now, were all back at the hotel by 8:15, with the word LOSER imprinted across our foreheads.

But truly it was really nice to sleep in!

Thanks to Pop and NOni for coming up and hanging out with the boys.

The end of March brought the school fundraiser I had been working on for a year. It was a lot of planning and alot of headaches, ,mainly from the crazy woman who is our H&S president.

But we pulled it off, an Adult's Social.

It was a fun night with food, drinks, basket raffles, DJ and Silent Auction. And the best was we made $6700 for our school. We think that is a record for our school for a one time event, so we patted ourselves on the back multiple times for our success and our not going ballistic on the H&S president. Now that it is over, I keep thinking I am forgetting something, I have nothing to do at night now once the kids go to sleep, no more emails, planning and prepping. I am kind of enjoying it!

Baseball is starting up. We got permission to have Maks on Alek's team and move him up from T-Ball. Kevin is coaching, so it will be great to have them both in one place/one field! We had one practice in the freezin drizzle last weekend, so I am looking forward to watching the kids in the sunny weather this week. Thankfully Maks is fitting into Alek's cleats from 2 years ago and thankfully Maks still gets excited about hand me downs and doesn't get upset that Alek gets new stuff. So I took Alek to get new cleats. This kids feet are killing me, he is now in a 5 1/2! Flippers for feet, just like his daddy!

Maks has lost two teeth this month and the second one is literally lost, can't find it, have to write a note to the toothfairy. Apparently a boy in his class lost his tooth and since Maks is Maks, he worked on his loose one for hours and until it came out, with lots of blood, he caused quite the scene! So they couldn't find his tooth. He is pretty impressed with himself.

Report cards came out and all is good. They both love math and Maks was noted to be advanced and I was told by both his teachers they are so impressed with his math skills, they have been challenging him with extra work. Alek continues to do great in math and reading. He is slacking a little bit in the writing. It is not his favorite thing to do, so he doesn't put his best effort forth, so we are working on that. He does like to journal, so we have used story cubes and he enjoys that.

We are proud of both of them and hope they continue to enjoy learning and school!!

Hard to believe April and Easter are upon us, but it makes me happy knowing my favorite season of Summer is right around the corner!