Hoppy Easter!

This is NOT going to be the post about our Easter shenanigans. I still have some resizing and thinking to do about that one - though we did have a splendid time. But I did want to send belated Easter wishes with the home "photo shoot" I did with Eliza for her 6 month birthday. This is reminiscent of Hayden's Santa baby shoot, but with much more pastel. :)

(This one's Hayden, in case you couldn't tell by the change of outfit...)

Can you believe our little Easter bunny is 6 months old?!!! And so freakin' cute!!! (I mean, I love bunny ears on just about anything, but Eliza really makes them adorable in my completely unbiased opinion.)





And like I said, bunny ears are just the greatest, whether on an extremely tolerant dog...a smiling (or yawning or screeching) baby...

or homemade ones on a two year old. Who, by the way, has recently made a habit of donning these bunny ears and hopping around the house singing "here comes Peter cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail." Makes me laugh just to think of it.

Anyway, I hope you had a happy Easter!
Happy Six Month Birthday to Eliza!
(yes, it was a couple weeks ago - we've been busy.)

April Heatwave

Sunny, high of 78 degrees - in State College PA in April. Sounds like an April Fool's Day joke right? But it wasn't! We have been having the most amazing spring weather. We took advantage of it by having a picnic outside in the new PSU arboretum with Brad, Sarah and Logan. Brad and Logan actually tried to meet us (me, H and E) at the park beforehand but baby naps and crowds of people kind of cut that part of the gorgeous day celebration short. Hayden was not quite sure how to deal with the hordes of kids and moms at one of our favorite local parks. We ended up walking away from the playground area (after a brief time on a swing) to let her climb on some boulders. But then Brad arrived and we headed into campus for lunch.

It was SO bright and sunny and wonderful. We had to break out the sunhats and sunscreen to protect delicate baby skin. I think this was the first time Eliza got to be outside without sleeves or socks! She seemed to like it but I was quite afraid of sunburn for her!Hayden loved the picnic and was good to tolerate both sunglasses and a sunhat. I like how she looks so adult, lifting up her shades to grab some food!

I think Sarah, Brad and Logan had a good time - though Logan was at risk for baby sunburn with his fair skin too! Good thing they had a cute hat for him - and sunscreen that they let us borrow!
After the picnic, Hayden did some exploring of the arboretum - first with Daddy "I want to go walk on the walls!" and then with Sarah.

And of course after exploring, we had to head over to celebrate the sunshine with ice cream. We learned our lesson from our last visit and just got one cone (of cookie dough) that we split between the three of us. It was plenty! Hayden and Sarah had an ice cream 'Cheers!' And Eliza fell asleep at the creamery, and even stayed passed out when we transferred her to the car seat.
It was a glorious day. We finished the day with a party for Amy to celebrate her defense! We even got to have another 'picnic' on the deck outside for dinner. Brittany took a great picture of us eating. And after starting out shy, and bumping her nose, Hayden ended up having a blast, running around and making everyone smile. She even managed to congratulate "Dr. Amy!"

And to think this was only Friday of Easter Weekend. There was lots more fun and good weather to come!

Spring Break 2010

Since Eliza is doing well entertaining herself on the floor for the moment, I thought I'd write just a bit more while I have the chance. This entry should probably come before the Saint Patrick's Day one, but oh well. No big deal.

Spring break was pretty low-key for us. We didn't go anywhere warm and sunny but we were lucky enough to have the weather get fairly warm. The snow finally melted away and we got to break out the flip flops, even if just for one day. It seemed hilarious to me that Hayden could be in flip flops, playing with the snow.


I celebrated my birthday - got to make any kind of cake I wanted. I went for basic yellow with chocolate buttercream frosting and a chocolate truffle filling. Hayden and Jason did the final decorations. :) Hayden picked out a yoga mat for me so we could do yoga together. We've already tried it out and it works great!



Eliza learned how to roll over and perfected her skills very quickly. Here are a couple pictures of one of the very first times she ever did it - we were downstairs hanging out by ourselves; luckily the camera was nearby!




Mom and Dad came up to visit - or I should say Grandma and Poppop. Hayden had a wonderful time with them. She loved showing them all her toys, telling them to read her books and just generally having two more people to bend to her little two year old will. They were good sports and everyone had a good time. Hayden also really loved that Dooley, the yellow lab, came to visit and showered her with love and fun.


Not quite the trip to the Florida Keys we took 4 years ago (4 years?!!!) but we had a nice time.
Now it's back to the grind...

Green

Happy Saint Patty's Day! In keeping with what seems to be a common theme, we dressed for the occasion - all in Green! Hayden was head-to-toe in green and Eliza was pretty close.
Jason and I were much more subdued, with only our tops fitting with the theme. Hayden had a good time with the green theme and was quite interested in the concept of pinching if you don't wear green. She wasn't actually interested in doing the pinching, just kind of worried about getting pinched. And also eager to point out who had green on and whether they might get pinched or not. I'm not sure she quite got the concept, but that's probably for the best.

And yes, it was early in the morning when we did our green photo shoot - notice the yawns! We're all still adjusting to the time change.

She did enjoy the green yogurt she had for snack (vanilla with green food coloring - we have also had blue and red yogurt since St. Patty's Day.) And Jason and I enjoyed our green chile and chicken casserole (with extra green salsa added in) and green guacamole. Yum!

St. Patrick's day was especially enjoyable this year because the weather was gorgeously sunny. I took the kids up to the park in the afternoon and both loved the swings. It was Eliza's first time in the swings and she thought it was great!

I also managed to capture her new trick - yoga!

She can roll over now and is getting so strong. She's started trying to lift her whole body off the ground, as well as roll over, scoot on her back and just generally move as much as possible. There have been a couple times that I've put her on her back on the floor, gotten distracted for a few minutes, and when I look back over at her, she's in a completely different place. It's almost time to put the baby gate back on the stairs! And this is only since she started rolling over on March 7th! We're in trouble now!

Ice Cream Galore

You might have noticed that we have a thing for ice cream, which makes us big fans of the Penn State creamery. In honor of my birthday (today), we went to the creamery yesterday to enjoy some chilly treats. While making our mouths happy, we also managed to solve two age-old questions. Do you get more ice cream in a cup or a cone? and Do you get more ice cream if you are cute?

Hayden selected a cone this time around and being in the birthday spirit, we indulged her. (In the past, she's only gotten to share with us.) She picked Peachy Paterno (after first saying strawberry, and then "green") and she got the biggest cone I have EVER seen at the Creamery. It was HUGE. My cone of cookies-n-cream was not quite as big and Jason's cup of Just Fudge wasn't even close. When we took off half of Hayden's to put it in a cup, it was just about as much as Jason had in his cup. Lucky for Jason, Hayden was willing to share! Thus we discovered that the cone is the way to go, especially near closing time, and if you are super cute, you get more!



Also, as you are looking at these pictures feel free to imagine the scene. We have ordered our flavors - Hayden is handed a GIGANTIC cone - while Jason is holding her. We also are then handed an almost gigantic cone for me, and Jason's cup. Jason is holding Hayden and ice cream. I have a stroller, eliza on my front, and we are needing to find a place to sit even though the creamery is packed. (who knew 5:15 pm on a Sunday was so busy for the creamery - all non-students since it's spring break?!!) It was a bit of ice cream chaos. We did manage to keep all cones upright, and find a table and then sit down to enjoy our treats. Yum!

And after we were done, Hayden enjoyed the multi-generational tradition of walking on the wall on campus. (I used to do that all the time at UNC with my dad!)

Go Heels!

Today is the last day of the regular season for the Tar Heels and thus is the day of the final showdown with Duke. Though the Tar Heels have struggled a bit this season, to say the least, we still wanted to get in the spirit today to maybe help them pull out a win. And with all of us dressed in our Carolina blue, I just had to take pictures.

GO HEELS!!!


Eliza got a few extra pictures taken because she can't say no and she is just so darn cute.
Look at Eliza's new trick - sitting up!

Mmm, my hands are delicious...


Cutie pie!
Rah Rah Carolina - lina, Rah Rah Carolina - lina, Rah Rah Carolina - GO TAR HEELS!

Addendum: Apparently 4 people dressed in light blue does not a win make this basketball season. Not even close. I think the headline read : Duke Routs Struggling Tarheels. Oh well. There's always next year.