To the park…

Here are a few pictures from our family park adventures this month…

One more cute picture of Henry (not at the park!)…

Xoxoxo

A month of celebrations…continued :)

So, yesterday I chronicled Charlotte’s birthday, but in April we also celebrated Mamie’s Birthday, Easter and Jessica’s Birthday, so I couldn’t neglect to share some pics of those events too!

April 21st was Mamie’s 57th Birthday…yup, she is rapidly approaching 60.  She looks good for her age :)  The kids and I actually spent the week out at Mamie and Poppy’s house because all of Charlotte’s classes were cancelled for Easter, so we were lucky enough to celebrate with her.* Charlotte and I made her a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing and peanut butter cups placed to look like a tennis ball…or baseball. Or just a very strange cake, I suppose.

Unfortunately, despite our high hopes, it wasn’t as good as we had expected…a bit too rich for our taste. I’m already trying to think of a way to “fix” that, because in theory, it doesn’t get much better than a chocolate and peanut butter cake. But, I digress…

Happy Birthday Mamie! We love you so much :)

We also celebrated Easter out East. The day before Easter, Jon and I took Charlotte to Southampton for what was supposed to be an egg hunt. We missed the egg hunt, but we did have some time to play at the new park (which Jon declared must be sponsored by “Southampton Pediatrics Orthopedists” after we witnessed kids going down left and right!)…and in a move that was totally out of character, Charlotte sat on the Easter bunny’s lap!!!! And I didn’t even have to bribe her, ha. Here is the proof…

She said he was “soft” and “so nice”. Jon asked if he said anything to her, and she looked at him with an exasperated look and said “no, daddy, bunnies can’t talk!”. Silly daddy.

On Saturday we also made Easter eggs, which was fun…unfortunately, Charlotte and I did it by ourselves, so I didn’t take any pics (I was busy making sure we didn’t end up with broken eggs and dye all over Mamie’s kitchen…you are welcome Mamie).  I also didn’t take any pictures of the kids’ Easter baskets or Charlotte looking for the eggs for some strange reason, so I am kind of disappointed about that. But I did get some good shots, so here are some of my favorites…

You might notice that there are more of Henry than of Charlotte, and there is a reason for that…Charlotte absolutely refused to look at the camera for most of the day! She wouldn’t even look in the same direction as the camera, haha. Clearly, we are going to have to work on that~

Oh, and I can’t forget Aunt Jessica…April 17th was Jessica’s 32nd birthday, and Charlotte made her a cute video:

Happy Birthday Aunt Jessica!

 

The night before Easter Jess, Dave, Ray, Jon and I went to Rumba for a late birthday celebration. We had great food, too many drinks, and lots of laughs…definitely a good time, although it made for a somewhat difficult Easter morning when Henry woke up at 6am! :)

SO…Happy Birthday Mamie, Happy Birthday Jess, and I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Xoxoxo

*Just an aside, but Charlotte told Mamie she wanted to go “on vacation” at Mamie & Poppy’s house because she “can relax, watch Marley & Me, eat oatmeal, and watch Poppy do magic”.  Apparently, she has a very stressful life at home :)

Charlotte’s 3rd Birthday

Although I am still having a hard time believing that we have a 3 year old (that always seemed so “adult” to me for some reason), Charlotte’s 3rd birthday was quite a few weeks ago now!  I feel like we have been all over the place since her birthday, but wanted to post some pictures from her fun birthday celebration with family and friends.

So excited to see her birthday loot!

Her gifts from Mommy, Daddy and Henry

Our birthday girl getting ready for her party

With Mamie and Poppy

The “Totnastics” gym at All American Gymnastics

All excited and ready for her guests to arrive! :)

And some shots of Charlotte and some guests…

These are the goodie bags Charlotte and I made for the kids…Owen and Jack Bodkin, Hari Sonitis, Sydney Kaufman, Ayla Kops, and Vincent Pavese were all there to celebrate with her!

The princess cupcakes Mamie made for Charlotte

Charlotte asked me to make her a “princess” cake this year…I went with the princess castle, and she was happy with the results :)

Here is the cake in progress…

And the final product!

The low point of the day happened right as everyone was eating (the catered food from Gino’s was yummy, by the way!)…Charlotte was sitting at the end of the table on a chair, I was over by the food, and Jon was about 2 ft. away from her. All of a sudden we just hear a loud thud, and hear Charlotte screaming. She literally fell from the chair, from her knees straight to her forehead. We think she just tried to move on the chair, and toppled over. Either way, it was horrible…I almost couldn’t breathe, I just had this horrible pit in my stomach for hours.  She was so incredibly lucky…if she had hit her nose or mouth or teeth, we would’ve ended up in the emergency room on her birthday. But thank God, she was okay…Jon and I took her outside to calm down for a bit, and then she was ready for cake.  Here is a picture taken just a few minutes after her fall (notice the purple welt on her forehead?)…

Unbelievably, she barely had a bruise the next day!

Anyway, after the party at the gym, we had a few people over to our house for what turned into an impromptu show by Charlotte! She had a great time opening presents, dancing and performing for the crowd. Here are a few pics of her performance :)

She also had a great time showing everyone her “new house”, and especially loved playing with Aunt Carmen down the basement! She found a new game; Charlotte rides Caroline. Caroline rides the surfboard. Carmen pushes.

 

So, that was basically a recap of Charlotte’s special day! We all had a great time (even though Mom and Dad had a minor heart attack when she fell!), and we are so thankful for all of our family and friends who were able to come and celebrate with us.  Charlotte is a lucky little girl! :)

Oh, and I should mention that we went to the pediatrician for her 3 year old well visit…Charlotte weighed-in at exactly 25 lbs, and 34.5”, which was right around the 5th percentile! YES, you read that correctly—Charlotte is finally back on the charts :)

Henry also had his check-up, and at 8 months, he was 18 lbs, 2 oz and 27.5”…so I think he will outweigh Charlotte in about 6 months.  It would probably be sooner if he weren’t constantly on the move…I swear, that child NEVER stays still! He is cruising all over the place, tearing into the toy boxes, getting into everything…he is getting much more steady on his feet, which makes me scared because I’m not ready for him to walk yet—he isn’t even 9 months old! :)

Okay, so that is about it for now. I will be back with some more pics from Mamie’s birthday and Easter soon!

Xoxoxo

For your viewing pleasure :)

Here are a few more videos that I uploaded…

This is one of my favorites…our little ham! It is kind of long, but I still find it very entertaining :) (April 2011)

 

Henry and Charlotte…and pink sunglasses :) (April 2011)

 

Henry on the move! (April 2011)

When Henry “dances”, it is more of a head-bang :)

Here are a few videos from Charlotte’s soccer class…she clearly didn’t feel like she needed to follow the rules and do what the other kids were doing! Daddy was there, so I think she was feeling her oats a bit :)

Soccer class (Feb 2011)

 

Soccer class (Feb 2011)

This is one of my favorites…it was taken at the end of Jan 2011, so Henry was almost 6 months old.

Henry laughing at daddy (Jan 2011)

 

And here are some older videos…

This one makes me cry :)

Charlotte meeting Henry (Aug 2010)

 

And another video from August…

Jon was making Charlotte laugh…such a silly daddy :) (Aug 2010)

 

Okay, I think that is all for the night! Off to upload about 68 more videos to Youtube :)

Xoxoxo