Refresher

Remember these little Munchkins?

(Yes, Mom, I know you're so excited to finally see pictures up!)

These are the same two who have been growing like crazy and occupying all of our time. Not like I mind, of course, but GEEZ, slow down!

In the early part of the fall, Elaina learned to ride a 2- wheel bicycle all by herself. After weeks of the training wheels barely touching the ground on her bike, she felt that she was ready to take a spin sans extra wheels. With only a few slight steady, starts from her dad, she was off like a flash and didn't turn back.
As for this little guy, he is pure speed on his scooter. He rides his 2 wheel scooter like it's his job! The first few weeks of the winter season were tough on Lincoln. With each passing day, the weather grew colder and he became more bitter about not being able to go outside to ride his scooter. It was pure torture for us to hurry him inside from the cold weather only to leave his scooter alone, without a rider for days on end. Eric has caved a few times, bundling the kids up and taking them out on clear days and letting them enjoy some time to zip around the driveway for a short while. Even if the weather was in the low 40's. And this girl... oh yeah! This big girl started Pre-K at school! Elaina goes 3 half days during the week and absolutely loves being in school. Her enthusiasm hasn't wavered in the months since school began. In my telephone conference with her teacher last week, she reported that Elaina is one of her brightest students in the class (of 10) and very social and friendly. The teachers have been impressed with her language skills and memory. Pre-K has been an excellent experience for Elaina, but it leaves this 4 year-old beat by the end of the school day. Oh, the hectic life of a preschooler!

This picture of Lincoln pretty much says it all. He's so cute and SO mischievous!!! This boy is stealth! The 2's have hit Lincoln in just about every stereotypical fashion. He has begun hitting, yelling, pushing, kicking and having a hard time learning to share. Yep... our boy is 2. VERY, VERY 2. But seriously, when he flashes that Sweetheart Smile... OH, how I melt! God I love this little StinkerBoy!

Four is fun age for a girl. Elaina continues to be into all things Girly. The more girly, the better. The best part is, she wants to do as much stuff with her mommy as she does her daddy. This is the same girl who demands to wear a dress every day no matter what the day holds. In the same moment, she is also the child asking her dad when he's going to take her hunting and when they can go camping together. She loves everything sparkly and glittery, yet she asked to see the groundhog her dad shot - just to see what a dead groundhog looks like. Not grossed out or anything. Just - "Oh." "Daddy could we go get Slurpees?"

And this My Friends, is what my blog is all about.

Because everyone needs a starting point...

Even if it's to restart a project for the 4th or even 5th time.

The good news; I'm energized. I'm refreshed. I want to renew my blog! (and get my Lovely, Well-Meaning Family off my back over Blog Guilt!)

I'm not going to spend a moment longer dwelling on why I have taken such a long hiatus from blogging other than to say that it's a blog worth saving!

My fresh approach: tidbits.

Yep. Tidbits of our lives. As they happen. I'm not the best writer, nor am I the most witty, but my kids and some of our daily occurrences are well worth noting and a blog is just the spot for all of that. Of course it always has been, but I'm considering this my written permission slip for "quantity performance" over "quality." It's a recession People; it's time for cutting back!

Join me in a toast: "Long Live THE BLOG!!"

Cheers!!

Dropping by...

So it's become pretty clear to me that blogging is most definitely taking a back seat in our lives these days. I don't even feel the need to make excuses any more, let alone, empty promises. Now, if someone were to offer a couple extra hours in my day or help me find a way to never tire, well then, bring it on!

Since it's been a month since my last entry, I'm happy to report that Elaina's "bad spell" ended just as abruptly and swiftly as it started. Our sweet, little darling is back to normal. While I'm on the topic of Elaina, one more thing that has changed is that our baby has started school in a Pre-K program. She has wanted to go to school for the past year and a half so this is like her dream come true. I'm more than pleased that she loves school and along with that, I'm very glad that it's only 3 days a week. We've come to realize that on the days she has school, she is worn out. I mean, BEAT! When I arrive home, I've often been finding her laying on the sofa, zombified in front of the TV, too tired to even acknowledge me. When we make plans for Friday evening (another school day) she does everything in her power to stay awake, alert and pretend to not be tired even though her eyes become all starey when she idles for longer than 2 minutes. The good thing is that she loves school and we've gotten good reports from her teachers.

With all of the talk about Elaina, how about that little brother of hers? My little Lincoln Man! OhMyGoodness! That little guy has begun talking up a storm! I thought it would never happen! He was certainly taking his time in the language arts department. Along about August, he began putting words together and expressing that he was actually getting something out of the words he's been using and hearing. Every single day, he picks up more words, shows more personality and even a sense of humor. Up until this point, he's always been a little reserved to the more-serious side and quick to react when things don't go as planned for his little self. This is still the case, but the reassuring part is that by and by, some of his quick-to-react fits are gradually improving with the help of him learning to communicate. We're all happy about that!

And since I'm spilling all the beans about my kids' behavior, let's talk about Lincoln and hitting. Oh, that child is SO 2! His "thing" has become hitting. Swatting rather, since he just swings his little arm from side to side until he hits what he's been aiming for in his path. This, I cannot stand. It seems that every single day he is hitting someone; even if he's generally happy-ish, he makes it a point to give someone a whack, quite possibly just to see their reaction. I don't know how to explain that. With a variety of tactics in place, we're getting through each day with fewer and fewer instances, but hitting still seems to rank pretty high on cool-things-to-do-to-upset-your-family.

Other than that, life here is pretty good. Our days are busy, our children are loved and we're all very blessed to have happiness each day. With every hurdle I face throughout the day, I continuously remind myself, "Work hard, play hard." And that's exactly what we've been doing!

NOT part of the Fairy Tale

See this little Cheezer?

This is the same little Cheezer that I live for. I adore. I share my heart with and pour every ounce of love into. My sweet Elaina.

Without warning, without explanation and without cause, this sweet, darling daughter of mine has warped into an absolute brat. Did I really just call my child a "brat?" This time : YES.

I'm not sure if the planets are out of alignment, maybe the air is a little too thick or maybe I'm just due for some cruel twist of fate. Whatever the case might be, Elaina has been bad. Like B-A-D bad.

It wasn't even a slow progression either. Along about 3 weeks ago, we had been running in a crazy-typical-busy-but-structured fashion and her behavior seemed to indicate that she was overly tired and needed a break. We slowed down, made earlier bedtimes and exhausted every bit of patience with her to see her through her rough patch. Every day that following seemed to amplify more misbehaving and more attitude. While I don't know every one's view on spanking kids, (and this is not the time nor place for a full justification or debate) but the only thing that seemed to slow her down, get her attention and curb her behavior was a firm swat on her bottom. She's gotten more swats in three weeks than she's had in her lifetime. She's already told me that she likes going to time-out and staring her in the eye (with a firm grasp on her arm) and sternly explaining the necessity to STOP her bout-of-crazy, eventually became ineffective.

To try to better explain what exactly it is that we've had such problems with is likely vast and ever changing. Basically, it's the fact that she has been taking deliberate actions to intentionally defy and disobey us and do things that she already knows are wrong. And that she seems to take such pleasure in knowing that she is being defiant. And then does more. All this with the added bonus of a teenage-sized attitude. If she's seemingly run out of leads to get in trouble, then she turns on Lincoln and SQUEEZES him and hugs him so hard or plays with him so rough that she thinks she ought NOT to get into trouble because she "is just loving him."

I can't even begin to explain what a toll this has taken on me. Each day I wake up believing that it will be a fresh start and then I get more of the same and sometimes even before work which is just GREAT! I have been missing my sweet daughter and it has torn me up that she has been acting so crazy. Each night I lay in bed with her and we try to talk about her day and the things that make us happy. I've talked to her, encouraged her and praised her. Sometimes I can just about my see my words slipping right out of her ears as she convinces me that the "good Elaina" will soon come back.

As of tonight, I'm happy (blessed) (overjoyed) (proud) (excited) to report that Elaina seems to be on an upswing. The past three nights have been successful without incident and without attitude. Thank you Sweet Jesus! In turn, I have done my share of praising her and reminding her of all of things she is doing right and how much I love her nice words. And how much I have missed her sweet self. I'm not sure what kind of crazy she had going on but I am more than relieved to see us all on the other side and that she seems to have literally snapped back into the little girl I know and love so much.

Is this what you would call growing pains? If so, I'd like to order the antidote right now. Monthly installments, please.

Anyone for a little June?

This is how I felt about most of the month of June. It was a fun ride with lots of smiles, but a little bit blurry and it went by fast.

The most outstanding event which occurred in June was that our daytime babysitter went on a week long vacation. And why would that be significant to us, you may wonder? It's because we filled her position with temporary, out-of-towners to watch our kids during the day. Grandparents!

My parents were willing to come to stay with us for the better part of the week to watch the kids during the day so that Eric and I didn't have to use all of our vacation to be at home with nothing planned. From what I understand, they had a pretty good time and Lincoln made it pretty clear that he is my dad's biggest fan. He began to call my mom "Eema" which suited her just fine as he finally gave the person changing his dirty diapers some well deserved recognition.

It was during this same week that we happened to have our pre-scheduled dental check up for Eric and myself and Elaina's first visit to sit in the dentists' chair. The first thought to cross my mind was how unfair it seemed to leave my parents on duty all day long strapped with a kid (kids) while we were gone until the better part of the evening. (we were scheduled after work and our dentist's office is an hour away) The more practical side of me began to think of what a great experience this could turn out to be for Elaina with her first trip to the dentist and a special date night with just both of her parents and herself. In the end, all of our appointments turned out well and we rounded out our day with a trip to Build-a-Bear, a restaurant and an ice cream cone. Lincoln managed at home just fine.

During my parents' stint as full time babysitters, my mom and dad also filled the role as part-time help with household projects. My mom was a huge help with our laundry and making dinner while my dad joined Eric with more outdoor projects than I can list.

And just in case it's worth my while, (for posterity of course) I should also like to mention that I made a full fledged effort to get the kids pictures taken at the portrait studio. On the day we arrived, they said that they had our appointment scheduled for the day before. (they were wrong) The blame fell on the shoulders of a new worker and so we rescheduled to an even better time slot for the following weekend. Come picture day (again) Elaina was still sporting a scuffed up scab above her right eyebrow and I refused to consent to her idea of letting her wear a band-aid to cover it up. Lincoln, being otherwise healthy, woke up that same day with a persistent fever. Picture appointment cancelled. Oh, and after about 4 days of Lincoln being mostly miserable with a fever and loss of appetite, Elaina came down with the same, only hers involved vomit. So there. No 2 year old and 4 year old pictures yet.

This too...

Maybe I failed to also mention that Elaina has spent a good part of her summer months growing. While I wasn't aware that a steady diet of hot dogs, salami, cheese, bread, yogurt, pudding and cookies will make you grow, Elaina somehow found a way around the rules. Her hair is also on board with the growing trend. When her hair is wet and brushed straight, it hangs to the middle of her bottom. Her body is growing sturdy and she's really taking on the shape of a school-aged kid.

I think she is going to be a little upset that they don't allow princess dresses as part of the regular school dress code.

BLING

I'm realizing that a summary of the month of May wouldn't be complete without mentioning Elaina's new bling. Girlfriend got her ears pierced! It had been something that we had discussed and even though she wasn't nagging with eagerness, she never changed her mind letting us know that she didn't want to. Much to my pleasure and surprise, it was a mere coincidence that she chose her birthstone ruby studs as her starter earrings. I hesitated to tell her too many details about the quick procedure they were about to perform, and so with two store workers and two quick snaps of the piercing guns, my baby girl now has earrings.

She cried a little out of pain and the fact that no one had ever hurt her so intentionally before. We celebrated her triumph and milestone with a $4 cookie and hugs. And the minute I turned to really look at her with her ears all blazing red and her sparkling, ruby stones gleaming, I wondered what I just let happen to my BABY! And then I began to cry.

And May went on...

Have you ever had so many things going on in your life at the same time that you begin to see those "things" as hurdles to cross before moving onto the next one? That would pretty much sum up my feelings toward the month of May. Of course, the biggest, best and my favorite event of all was celebrating Lincoln's birthday. Oh, my little guy and how he has grown and changed in such a short period of time. I could just eat him up. But there's plenty more about Lincoln still to come. Let's talk about May for now.

The weekend following Lincoln's birthday I flew to Florida by myself to be in one of my best friend's wedding. I served as the Matron-of-Honor and I'm pleased to report that I did my reading during the ceremony without flaw, without being nervous and without passing out. (which DID fuel my stress level immensely as I truly believed that at least one of them Would actually happen to me) By the way, the ceremony took place at a gorgeous hotel, outside, in 90 degree heat. God bless them; the sun fell directly on the groomsmen in their tuxedos and not one of them passed out! It was a good day. The wedding was gorgeous, my visit was fun but I can't even begin to tell you how much I missed my babies. This was the very first time I've ever spent a night away from both of them. Minutes felt like hours until my plane landed and I drove myself home. Hugging and squeezing them in my arms is the best feeling in the world, how could that ever get old?

*Hurdle #2 : Success!

The days continued to fly by and believe it or not, Memorial Day weekend was already upon us. Along with some of our closest friends, we've begun a tradition of them traveling to our house for Memorial Day weekend. My girlfriend and I are garage sale junkies and there is an awesome annual allotment garage sale scheduled for the same weekend. The better part is that her parents live there which provides us with a free lunch and convenient potty breaks at their house. The dads have a pre-arranged "Daddy Day" which gives them charge of 5 kids under the age of 7. As for next year, Daddy Day will incorporate child number 6, once my friend delivers their new addition this winter. The dads take the kids to a great playground/amusement park which is somewhat near our house, while my friend Beth and I load my truck with great steals and treasures. Dinner always follows at our favorite local pizza place and we always end up eating mountains of S'mores that same night. I guess there's something to be said for tradition.

The following weekend was my last Bunco/Girls night since we decided to break for the summer months. I never really know how much I need a day or evening or even an hour to myself until I get one. Playing Bunco with my girlfriends has been so much fun for me. It's a true break from any thinking, planning and acting like a grown up. It's not that I don't treasure the time I spend with my husband and kids, but girls' night doesn't require for me to tell anyone to finish their food, wash their hands, stop pushing their brother in the babydoll stroller, etc.... what a welcome stress-buster to have to look forward to each month. And now, we've been on a break. At least the month was coming to a close anyhow.

And that was May.

Out of the Gate

Remember these little faces?

These are the faces of the same little munchkin grinners that have kept us so busy all summer long. Although I've not been blogging, I sure haven't missed a beat with my camera in hand just ready to flood my blog pages with pictures.

I've spent the past 30 minutes logging all of the pictures I plan to post from the past couple months. Without exaggeration, I have taken close to 300 pictures since the middle of May. So, even though my blogging hasn't been up to par, I have the filler content just waiting in the wings, ready to overtake my pages here.

Thanks to my family and friends who have commented on my last post, I think that I have actually come up with a plan of attack to begin making up for lost time. I'll get there slowly. It doesn't look like the dust and cobwebs in our house are going anywhere any time soon. Let the blogging resume!

Rekindling the Romance

Well, hi there!

Remember me?

Um yeah, well, where do I begin?

I feel like a 7 foot freshman trying to make friends at a new high school. In May.

I guess that after a little impromptu blog hiatus, I need to start again sometime. (I've missed writing and I've missed your kind comments. I haven't missed 1:00 a.m. bedtimes and the feeling of commitment that I sometimes attach to blogging.) The problem that faces me now is where to begin to make up lost time?

An explanation for my absence? (there is none)

Jump right back into blogging like time has stood still? (I'm pretty sure that if you've come back to visit, you've noticed that almost 2 months are not accounted for)

Call off work for 2 weeks straight and send the kids to the babysitter's house to begin to start from where I left off? (not enough vacation time)

Back date my posts? Because if I'm blogging purely for the sake of posterity, in a year from now, the fact that I skipped out on 2 months could be our little secret. (the beauty of blog editing)

Pretend that we spent the past couple months at Graceland and met Elvis at a diner and we've been hanging out with him ever since. (because that could happen to anyone)

So, if anyone has stumbled back here still checking for a pulse, feel free to offer your grand insight and helpful suggestions on where I should begin to account for almost 2 months of sheer craziness, living each day to the fullest while writing about it all has taken an unfortunate back seat. And I'll be sure to tell Elvis how nice y'all are.

Good to see you back My Friends!

Lincoln Turned 2

It's really been too long my dear blog buddies. My parents have been griping at me to "post some pictures of our grandkids! We miss seeing them!" (Bonus points if you used a pretend mom-voice when you read that!) Blogger barely recognizes my log-in. And my picture file is nearly bursting at the seems. BUT! In the midst of this crazy month, my precious baby boy celebrated his second birthday and is making his making his debut as a terrific 2 year old.

With an early May birthday (May 7) I'm pretty sure that Lincoln's birthday will likely collide on a Mother's Day weekend more often than not. My in-laws were kind enough to host Lincoln's birthday party at their house this year, which just happened to go hand in hand with celebrating Mother's day as well.

The weather was perfect, the food excellent and the company couldn't be matched. Lincoln's second birthday party was a success.

Here are some of the highlights of our day:

My birthday boy waiting for the party to begin!


Great-Grandma W. and Elaina look summery fresh in their coincidental red and white gingham.

Elaina just "happened" to get a new princess dress to replace her tattered blue Cinderella dress.

Aunt Cindy thought of everything and supplied the bounce house to help counteract the affects of the cake and ice cream on my rascally children.

This is the truck that did my boy in. It was attached to the top of a gift and once Lincoln got his hands on his new wheels, as far as he was concerned, his birthday was complete. It was only present #2. No more were necessary or even remembered.

Along with Elaina's generous help, she and I had to finish unwrapping Lincoln's gifts and tried to entice him into noticing something more than just his truck. Hello one-track-mind

-child! Lincoln's cake theme ended up being Sesame Street this year. Aside from cars, trucks and everything else with wheels, letters and numbers seem to fascinate my little guy and he does seem to enjoy the show as a whole. Let me not fail to mention that little boy party themed decor is minimal at best.

The cake was the only thing that distracted him from his new truck. Gotta love a kid who's willing to take the first taste for his guests, right?

Happy Birthday my sweet son. I'm so excited to see what age 2 has in store for us. I love you Lincoln Todd.

And my list keeps growing...

I just knew that May would be like this. To say that I've been busy would be an understatement. May is kicking my butt and we're only halfway through the month!

The worst part is that I don't even foresee a break for (serious) blogging until the end of the month and there's so much to catch up on. This past weekend we celebrated Lincoln's 2nd birthday and Mother's Day together. Not to be out done, Elaina got her ears pierced. I still need to post pictures of the kids' cute new bathroom. And there is just no time. NO TIME!!

As I'm stealing away some time here to whine, I should be preparing for my weekend trip (alone) to Florida to be in my friend's wedding. I should be googling something about what to say at the reception as it is my job to give a toast to the new bride and groom. At some point I should be confirming my flight itinerary. It would be a really good idea to figure out what summer dresses fit me AND that I like from last year because other than my peony colored bridesmaid dress, I'm clueless about what I'm going to wear. And shoes! Aack! Shoes!! And since I'm leaving Eric to run the show around here, it would be nice if I could at least make sure that he's not left with mountains of laundry. (READ: ME being stuck with EVEN MORE laundry when I get home) and my baskets of laundry could use a little ironing by now. My head is hurting with anxiety and I feel like my allergies are acting up with this crazy weather. OH! And I really didn't mean to take all this time just to complain, but there's more. Really. The weekend after I get home, is Memorial Day and we're hosting our friends (family of 5) for the entire weekend and there is CLEANING to do. With 9 people moving about the house for 3 days straight, it surely helps when things are in order and the dust bunnies and cobwebs are history.

So. WOW. That's my month. Maybe you can stop back when the crazy lady is no longer behind the keyboard and not complaining. I promise that there will be a flood of pictures one day soon and stories upon stories of what May was all about. Until then, I think I need to go dust off the suitcase.

Behold!

I've likely mentioned before what great friends and neighbors we have in this little town of ours. And being friendly in return, we just couldn't expect our neighbors to drop their plans on a whim, on the most beautiful days that this year has brought to us and expect for them to work on our swingset in the hot sun on their days off. And so we waited. And waited. Patiently as you can see. This is how our driveway looked for an entire week until Eric was able to pull together some help to get this mammoth secured in our yard.

Judging from the pictures, our 80 degree days have dropped by about 15 degrees and given way to overcast skies, but still nothing to keep our kids from enjoying THIS!!!

Although it's a little hard to tell from the picture, there is a rope ladder to the right platform and an opening to the left which accommodates a slide. The unfortunate part is that the slide is just a little too big for our yard to contain. It slides the kids right onto the the driveway. oops. But how about that for a FREE swingset!!??? We're going to look into buying a curved slide to attach on but in the meantime, Eric is going to have to do a little detail work on fencing or blocking off the unused openings. It seems that a certain fearless boy child is very much into learning to jump right now which doesn't bode well for this nervous mother or his barely 3 foot structure versus the 6 foot drop to the ground.

Let summertime resume!

Monkey Business

Okay, really? It seems like I was just here writing a little something last night and a whole week has passed already.

I'm here to report the highlight of this past week is that we got a whale of a deal on a PLAY SET for the kids!! Woot! I had been secretly wanting one for the kids but I thought Eric would veto my idea since our backyard space is minimal to say the least. What do you expect when you live in a (very) small town on a main street? A smallish yard, that's what. When Eric presented the idea of a play set, well I had to bite my tongue to not seem overly eager in letting him know that I had thought of that first and of course, it was a great idea!!

We slowly began pricing swing set/ play structures to learn that $600 affords you a rather modest one. We're not asking for an Olympic sized play set, but we wanted more than a set of swings attached to a couple rungs of wood. While neither of us were particularly eager to dump a cool $600, I began to ask around and talk to some people at work. Within a weeks time, a friend of mine came up with a friend of a friend whose kids had outgrown theirs and just wanted it GONE from their backyard. My friend jumped on the case, brought us pictures, Eric checked it out and as of yesterday, we're the proud new owners of an enormous backyard play set!! The best part of all? FREE!!! Oh YES!! Free is a beautiful thing when it comes to saving $600! And it's awesome! So, what if it does eat up MOST of our backyard? So what if the kids can climb to the upper lever fort and peek into our neighbors yards and windows? It's a pretty cool structure and recycling at it's best. Hello and Happy Earth Week!

As for pictures? Well, Eric had anticipated having a couple buddies over today to help, but when a fire call interrupted his afternoon and the temperature peaked at a stiffling 85 degrees; well, let's just say that no one was coming knocking on our door, just asking to help in the sweltering sun. The weather forecast isn't looking quite so intense for the remainder of this week and a completed play set may just be in our future, sooner than later. That will put an end to Elaina asking 76 times a day if her new "tree fort" is ready for her to go swing yet. The bad part is that I am nearly as giddy as her to see this new behemoth all set up and ready for it's new life with our kids!

Sunday Chronicles

It seems like my blogging pattern has been unimpressive to say the least. As a happy medium, I've decided that until I can reach full capacity of blogging or our life slows down even a little bit, I'm going to settle with a commitment to reserving enough time each Sunday night to wrap up our week and posting. If by chance I get a light week night, well, consider that "bonus" blogging.

The fortunate part of this past week has been that there is just not too much going on. That's good. No, that's great! It's not to say that we haven't been busy, it's just that Eric has been home early every night, we've had no evening commitments and our week has run pretty smoothly. Typical week. Good week!

So, while I'm not sure about everyone else's "typical" week, but let me tell you a little bit about our evenings in our typical week.

As far as I'm concerned, the evening starts when the work day ends and everyone is at home. Eric generally picks up the kids at 4:00 and I get home from work at 5. I change my clothes as fast as I can to begin dinner so we can eat promptly at 6:00 before a certain little boy loses touch with himself and his stomach begins to eat at his backbone. At least to hear him yelling as he's trying to climb into his highchair, one might suspect is the case.

Dinner and clean up can sometimes take up to an hour and Eric and I work together to get things cleared as quickly as possible to get on with our night. During our clean up time, the kids get about 20 minutes of "free roam." This is generally their time to wind down, watch tv, play with toys or play games on the computer. Every other night is bath night and they are still a fine age that they can bathe together without incident. Once they get jammied up and their hair dry, we've taken to hosting a dance party in our bedroom for the kids to romp around. Eric pulls a few favorite songs from the "music on demand" channels and Elaina and Lincoln hold hands and dance and swing each other around. And yes, it IS pretty much the cutest thing ever! After a few songs, we rotate nights to put each kid to bed and after 2 books per kid, it is down time. Our bedtime routine is pretty consistent each night and the kids know what to expect. The only setback to the whole game plan is that Elaina still likes for someone to lay with her for "just 3 minutes, pleeeassse." And I'll be darned if that innocent request of 3 minutes hasn't lasted an hour or more before I peel myself off of her covers. And so goes our typical evening.

Easter: In all of it's glory

Let me just begin by saying that this Easter weekend was fun, exciting, happy, full, busy and great. In a nutshell, perfect.

For the past few years, Eric and I have decided that hosting Easter for our family (anyone who is able) is something we enjoy doing and hope to make a tradition. Part of having a big house is wanting to have the people you love the most come to fill it up. And this weekend was proof that we did just that. My parents, Eric's parents and Greg, Kate and Colin came to town for the weekend to celebrate Easter together and also a belated celebration of "Kate's" birthday.

When our weekend was all said and done and our guests parted ways, we were left with a fridge full of delicious leftovers, a floor full of Easter grass and a camera loaded with happy memories. So many great pictures in fact, I've taken it upon myself to dole them out here for you with prestigious award captions attached to each. Without further ado, here is our weekend in pictures:

Prettiest Birthday Girl: "Kate"Best Use of Air Quotes: Kate (just read the writing on her "cake") Most Apt to Initiate a Cavity from Abundant Sweetness: Lincoln wins over a double helping of spice cake and ice cream

Perseverance Award: Kate in her most notable performance as a willing artist, held hostage in my bathroom with constant interruptions and people of all sizes looking over her shoulder. We have all learned that the kids' bathroom maximum people capacity is approximately 8, provided they are all standing. The great reveal of this room will be noted in a future post once all accessories have been put in place.

Most Notable Quote of the Weekend: Kate with: "Colin, I never knew who would teach you about guns, but I never would have thought it would be your cousin, Elaina with her pink gun."

Endurance Award: Lincoln; this veteran driver of almost 2 seasons withstands driving conditions in almost any climate. It looks the driver in the other lane has completely lost sight of her car, but Lincoln is going strong and continued his race long after his captive audience left the stands. Only his dedicated race team of Grandma and Grandpa W. stayed with him to help avoid racer's rage leaving the track. Most Team Unity: Greg and Colin; they worked together collecting the great loot that the Easter Bunny left out for them, while carefully avoiding the land mines in the grass left by the Easter dogs. Best Disguise: I don't even know who that is but she deserves an award for looking cute and producing three of her secret agents to conspire with her.

Child in Most Need of a Shopping Cart: Elaina; this Lightweight Champion enjoyed collecting her treasures so much that she didn't want to put them down for even a second. You never know when that sneaky Easter Bunny could come back and snatch all of her great finds. (I'm such a proud mom!) Most Daring Attempt: Colin; take note of this adolescent Brown's fan (by default of his parents) touching the holy grail of Steelers collectibles and not growing athletic talent on the spot.

Best Pose: Elaina; as I asked her to turn and show me her Easter basket, she pivoted, popped her elbow back and showed me her stuff! Oh how this girl makes me laugh!

Most Likely to Melt his Mother's Heart: Lincoln; after our family left and Elaina, Lincoln and I shared some quality nap time, Lincoln pulled out his new Car book and began to read to himself.

And with that, our awards ceremony must come to a close. An honorable mention should also go to Kate for posting a great recap of our weekend on over at her blog as she shares more details on how our Easter egg hunt almost didn't happen and how "Kate" came to be. Here's hoping everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend while remembering the reason for the season.