Round and Round the Mulberry Bush

Given the horrible weather outside today (40s and rainy), it's hard to believe that Saturday was the nicest day we've had since last summer. High in the mid 70s, sunny, and just delightful. We tried to make the most of it by spending a good portion of the day outside. As an added bonus, we ended up being extra social as well! Yay for friends! Basically, we invited Brittany, Sarah and Brad over to grill for dinner, and then asked Mandy, Scott and Noah to join us. It was a truly wonderful evening of friends, food and fun. There was some hanging outside and playing while the grilling was going on, including the moving of some furniture by the wee ones.


After getting the chairs in just the right spot, they even managed to pose for a picture, complete with smiles!!
Once the grilling was done, we moved the party over to Mandy and Scott's lovely patio that Scott worked so hard on last summer. Since Mandy and Scott are moving soon to a bigger and better house, it was nice that we all got to enjoy the patio in nice weather. We had quite the feast and everyone dug in. Just to make your mouth water, we had... bison burgers, salmon, bratwursts (cheddar, stadium AND fresh brats with the fresh brats being deemed the 'good' brats), grilled asparagus and prosciutto, green salad, sweet potato fries, and fruit salad. YUM!!!

Check out the scene of food enjoyment....

Here are the Hanfords enjoying one of their last meals on the patio overlooking Lowes. :)


Everyone was in a good mood, feeling relaxed and happy. Even the kids were having a good time. Noah carefully picked out the pineapple and kiwi from the salad, leaving strawberries and grapes, while Hayden literally did the opposite. (Okay, so technically, Hayden did eat all the kinds of fruits, but the strawberries and grapes were the first to go. And then later on, she came back and ate a few of Noah's strawberries.) Noah even managed a few bites of bison burger, while Hayden tried some bratwurst. The adults enjoyed ALL the food and laughed a lot too. The kids could sense our good moods, and often laughed when the adults did even though I don't think they got the joke.

Can you tell Hayden is having a good time?!!

Of course, the adults wanted to linger at the table much longer than the kids, so we tried the experiment of just letting Hayden and Noah down and seeing if they would stay close, but otherwise entertain themselves. At the beginning, this worked fine. I think Hayden played with the buckles on her booster seat saying "seat buck, seat buck" over and over. Noah scooped up some loose gravel that was around and they both found small pieces of bricks to draw with in the sand. (perhaps not the safest items to play with, but it kept them occupied).

And then it happened. I don't really remember how. Hayden has been into running lately, and when Hayden and Noah meet up outside, often as everyone arrives home from work/school, they frequently take off around back together. But in this case, they stayed close and started to play chase around the set of cedar trees that separate our two yards. Somehow Sarah and Brad ended up at two posts on the loop - Sarah to tickle and delay Noah from catching Hayden too quickly (he has a nine month age advantage) and Brad to monitor the 3 stairs that the kids negotiated each time they went around the loop. And around the loop and around the loop and around the loop, etc. I wish we had counted because they probably ran around the trees AT LEAST 20 times, probably much more. I finally pulled out the camera to try and document. It was a game of chase, a test of endurance, and just plain toddler silliness (Noah ran into the wall one time because he didn't corner fast enough) all rolled into one. And the adults just watched and laughed and enjoyed the fun.

This first video shows you the "course" they were running. I apologize for the angle; I was enjoying being able to sit and watch too much to get up off my lazy bum and get a better view. But you can see Sarah's post with the tickling, and Brad by the stairs (sort of), and how they ran all the way around the trees. (just repeat ad nauseum to imagine how long this went on!) Note that Noah does catch up to Hayden (you can hear the parent voices in the background - just touch!) but neither one really care. Hayden just keeps on trucking and Noah runs to Sarah on purpose for more tickling.



This second video gives you a better view of the portion of the 'track' along the patio - plus, you can see how much fun the kids are having with Hayden's smile and Noah's giggling. They really kept this up for SO long. They did slow down a bit at the end, sort of huffing and puffing, but I think we had to step in to end it since it was time to wind down for bed time. I wonder how long they would have gone on if we hadn't stepped in?!!!



We had a truly wonderful evening. I don't think it could have been better - well, unless an ice cream truck had driven by giving out free ice cream for dessert. Oh, and maybe some awesome fireworks went off too. :) We are so lucky to have such great friends and neighbors. Hopefully we'll have more evenings like that over the summer, even if the Hanfords have to actually DRIVE to our house, instead of just walk out the door.

P.S. This little experience taught Hayden the word "fun." When we walked by the cedar trees the next day, I talked to her about how she and Noah had fun playing chase the night before. She agreed and reiterated in her own way what I said. And since then she has used the word fun several times, often when mentioning Noah, when talking to me. What a great way to learn the word FUN!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody!

I hope the Easter Bunny delivered lots of chocolate eggs and you were able to spend Easter with family on a sunshine and flower-filled day. We ended up having Easter in Richmond, Virginia in a hotel room with Poppop. One of my college friends (roommate, teammate, etc) had lost her father to cancer in March and her family scheduled a memorial service for him on the Saturday of Easter weekend. Though I didn't know him all that well (my main memory of him is a wonderfully touching father-daughter dance at her wedding, still brings tears to my eyes), I wanted to go to the service to support Amelia. Since Richmond is much closer than her current home of California (soon to be Oregon), and another college friend I hadn't seen in a couple years was also making the trip, we decided to make the drive down. As an added bonus, Richmond is south of State College, so we'd get to have some warmer weather, spring flowers and a visit from Poppop (Grandma had to work all day Saturday) for our Easter celebration.

We didn't end up taking all that many pictures for the weekend. Despite gathering with people we hadn't seen in a while, it just doesn't seem quite right to take pictures at a memorial service. Amelia did absolutely amazing with her organization of a wonderful slide show (set to music) of her dad's life and gave a heart-warming, tear-inducing speech. I gave her the biggest hug I could, but I know she's got a lot of healing ahead of her. Hayden didn't make it through much of the service (she did like the slide show, pointing out bikes and dogs) but luckily, the service was at the botanical gardens, so Jason had lots of space to let her wander around. And then during a reception afterwards, Hayden quickly warmed up to my college friends and spent most of the time running around, eating pretzels and strawberries, and giving out hugs and smiles. I think she was a well-needed distraction. She even managed to stay in decent spirits when we went back to Amelia's house for more food and socializing, despite it being right in the middle of naptime. She never did nap on Saturday, (5 minutes in the car on the way to dinner doesn't count), but somehow she survived and there was only a minor breakdown at bedtime. Admittedly it seemed bad at the time, but in retrospect, it wasn't all that bad.

Easter morning we enjoyed our second complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel and then headed back upstairs to stage a 28 egg hunt in the living room portion of our hotel room. (we had a lovely 2 room suite - a great find!). Twenty-eight eggs is a lot for a 21 month old in a small space but she made it through finding most of them, while only getting a little bit distracted along the way. I've included a video to showcase part of the fun. Please note the distraction and redirection, the egg dancing/shaking (gotta test what's inside), and the request for a "bite" of candy towards the end.



We also took a few regular photos to document, but it really wasn't the most festive Easter. No pretty dresses. No siblings/cousins to compete against in the egg hunt. No gorging on Easter candy. No church. But I'm very glad we came to support Amelia and to get to see Poppop. Hayden really enjoyed spending time with him. And lest you think, she's only an "in the moment" child, when we saw Poppop, she gave him a big hug, then stepped back and stared at him quizzically and asked, "grandma?" knowing he was missing someone. Very cute.

Not even furniture can stop her...

I don't think I want to eat this. (it's a Peep.)

Look at that knee bend, complete with a steadying hand.

The post-hunt spaceout. Note the chocolatey mouth.

Hayden shares an egg with Poppop.

A day without a nap makes for a sleepy toddler when packing up.
How soon can I nap in the car?

The family on Easter morning.

And as one final Easter video bonus, here's Hayden trying a peanut butter egg.



She's still trying to figure out peanut butter. She doesn't completely dislike it, but she doesn't always want to eat it. I think Poppop gets lots of grandpa points for accepting her mushy chocolate "offering" without complaint!