Easter Egg Fun

We have been having fun celebrating Easter. I bought a bunch of Easter eggs a couple weeks ago and they have been the toy of choice everyday. They are a 101 ways to play with Easter eggs. Here are a couple we have discovered.
1. At first we put them in a big box and the kids pretended they were taking a bath in them. They would "wash" each other in eggs, so cute. And Davey was o cute, he would splash in them like it was water.
2. Then there was always the dumping them out of the box and throwing them all over the house fun. I think I picked up those eggs a thousand times. ahem
3. We had a contest of who could launch the egg the farthest with their mouth. Mama had the clear advantage on that game. But they didn't care, it was always an up roar of laughter as soon as the egg flew from my mouth.
4. We hung the eggs on the bush in our front yard. I think Abbey felt like she was decorating a Christmas tree all over again. But the Easter egg bush has been a hit. I have seen several people walking by take pictures of it.
5. And then there was the o so creative swimming pool idea. Abbey's imagination is in high gear lately so when we picked up some swim goggles at the store from the summer she came up with this idea one rainy morning.
I am sure the kids will continue to find new ways to play to with the eggs this week. But if you have any more ideas leave a comment.

O Christmas Time

I know it is totally ridiculous I am posting Christmas stuff in February but I just have to.

First we packed in our Christmas fun with local festivities...

We went to the Victorian Christmas Lights in Paso Robles. It is 12 blocks of houses lite up with Christmas lights and all kinds of fun stations to stop at along the way: live nativity scenes, random people sings Christmas songs or at least their version of Christmas songs, free Starbucks, roasting marshmallows, free cookies, cake , hot coco, live music. And there was even actors acting out the Grinch and Ebeneser Scrooge and a real snow to sled down. Kevin and I love it. Abbey however was so tired she slept in the stroller the whole time, the first and probably the last time she will do that. And Davey slept in the baby carrier so it was almost like Kevin and I were on a date.
We had to ride the holiday Carousel in the Mission Plaza.
taking walks downtown to get some treats

When we head to Tucson to visit family and friends for a couple days.

This is my Grandma Carol and my Aunt Linda in the picture. I love this picture of my grandma and Dave, it is so represents how my grandma loves being with the kids and they love her. Abbey was leading grandma by the hand around her own house tell her all the things she needed to see. So cute!
And here is my strong Italian grandpa, we call him Poppy.
I cry every time I leave my grandparents, they mean so much to me. Our visits are too short and too far between.

The last night in Tucson we had party with all our college friends. And boy was that fun! We had the party at our best friends the William family in their beautiful Victorian (I think) house and we had fine food from Brooklyn Pizza (my favorite!). It was simple and fun, we laughed a lot and kids were running around every where.
After all that we headed to Prescott AZ for the grand finale Christmas celebration with Kevin parents. Sadly Davey was so sick the whole time we were there but it didn't stop him from learning how to sit up on his own on Christmas day.Feed the neighbor horses some carrots.Decorated the treeI always try to knit with Kevin's grandma. She is a knitting guru and the best teacher. Christmas morning!! This was the first year Abbey really understood opening presents and she had so much fun. Dave just tried to eat all the wrapping paper. That kid is crazy about paper.
And to celebrate the reason for the season we made a birthday cake for Jesus.

Valentine's Party

I have never been into celebrating valentine's day. Kevin and I don't buy big gifts for each other and we usually stay in for dinner. But this year I was excited to have a party for the kids. What really got me excited was thinking about celebrating God's love for us. Besides the fact the decorating with red and pink and hearts is beautiful, kids exchanging cards is priceless and the sweets are awesome.

Some yummy snacks. These are peanut butter and jelly stars and hearts.
A couple crafts: we made heart necklaces. But Calvin wore his in boy fashion.
We also made some crayon melts. First you shave crayons then sprinkle the shaving on wax paper then cover with another piece of wax paper. The next step is the fun part. Take a iron and run it over the wax paper and you get this cool tye dye effect. The kids love it! You can cut shapes out too. We made heart and taped them to the widow. They look great with the sun shining through.Valentine bags
Giving of Valentine's
Receiving the Valentines
My little cupid! Isn't he so cute? The funny thing is that I didn't even need to undress him for the picture. I think we crawled around wearing only his diaper the whole party. seriously who has time to dress their kids. We were just too busy having fun!!

You may have noticed that I have been neglecting my blog for months and I am sad because so many fun things have happened since December. That is why I have decided to post some very outdated events now and then. So don't be surprised if you see a Christmas post next.

Christmas Time is Here

We started decorating the day after Thanksgiving for Christmas. I would have posted sooner but with Kevin gone in East Asia for a week and me alone with the kiddos we were in survival mode around here. And now that Kevin is home we are in full swing celebrating this Christmas season. We try to go to as many the local holiday festivals as we can, which I'll post about soon.
As we were decorating the house, Abbey decided to decorate herself. She is constantly making us laugh.
It was the first year Abbey was able to help decorate the tree. A couple ornaments were broken along the way but our favorites are still in tack. My favorites are the old fashions glass ornaments from Kevin's mom. Kevin likes the silly ones, such as a sheep that says "Fleece navidad". And Abbey loves all the snowmen. I think we have 5 or 6 snowmen that she plays with. She carries them with her where were she goes, she lines them up from biggest to smallest, she has them talk to each other, and they each have a role: one is a mama, a daddy and the babies. I love watching her make up stories and play pretend. So what are your favorite ornaments on your tree?

Happy Turkey Day

know it has been a week since Thanksgiving but I had to share. Our holiday was a mix of high and lows. Our high was celebrating Thanksgiving a couple days early with Kevin's sister Denise.
As you can see Davey was a fan of his 1st Thanksgiving.
We had fun making an apple pie. Abbey loved sprinkling the flour on the dough. I of course made the pie for my mom's recipe and the result was heaven on a plate (thanks mom).
The low was Abbey getting the stomach flu. We had just been to a conference the weekend before where the stomach flu was going around. It was just the worst seeing her so sick but I loved snuggling in the rocking chair as she slept in my arms in between puking. Kevin and I were up all night with her but thankfully the worst was over by morning. So we spent the rest of the week taking it easy: watch Finding Nemo and Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, fed the ducks at Lopez Lake, napping and we decorated for Christmas (more on that tomorrow).

Trick-or-Treat

We had a lot of treats this weekend and I am not just talking about our obscene candy consumption. Our good friends Ricky and Cara Williams came to visit this weekend with their adorable kids; Clair and little Ricky. It was also Kevin 34th birthday and Abbey went Trick or Treating for the first time. What a fun weekend!

Our wonderful friends the Williams who travel every year to come for Kevin's birthday. We love them!
Clair and Abbey playing at the park after the SLO kids costume parade at downtown farmers market.
Abbey twirling in her Dorothy costume. She LOVES her Dorothy costume. She literally lived in it all week, twirling where ever she went.
Carving pumkins.
Of course we had to have a Dora pumpkin.
And last night we went trick or treating with some friends.The kids had such great costumes: from left to right Steward is a monkey, Abbey is Dorothy, Davey is an elephant, Wyatt is a garbage man (don't you love his trash bin that his dad made for him:) and little Huck is a hamburger. Such cute kids!!
The first house: I think both Kevin and I had this moment as Abbey was walking up to the first door of, wow she is growing up fast.
Davey said if I can't have candy I'm gonna sleep.
brother and sister picture. We're thinking maybe next year we'll dress them up as lambs and we will be shepherds, since they are the little Lamb kids.
What did you dress up as for Halloween?

East Coast Christmas

After Hawaii we made our way to the other side of the country. First we stopped in Michigan to see my brother Sam graduate Farris State College. We are all so proud of you Sam!
After the graduation we hit the road for the 10 hour drive to Lockport, NY for Christmas with the Marotta family. Every time we go to New York we eat like kings so I wasn't surprised when my doctor said at my prenatal visit this past week I had gain a couple extra pounds. We ate the best buffalo wings (you know Buffalo, NY is where chicken wings where invented), my mom's amazing coffee cake, seafood, prime rib, and authentic Italian bread, meat and cheeses. My parents go all out and now I need to go all out with exercising.

We also did some winter activities with Abbey that was so fun. We went sledding a couple times. Yes that is my brother being crazy in the background.
And we built a huge snowman, as you can see we used all the snow in the yard. Luckily we had two strong men, my dad and Kevin to lift the 100lb body and head .
Abbey was so in love with her snowman that she had to give him hugs and kisses. So cute.
It was a fun to be with family and for Abbey to being with her Uncle and grandparents. Especially since she was in a phase of saying "I love you Papa", "I love you Gaga (grandma)", and "I love you Sa (Sam)". What a sweet kid and what a sweet visit.

Hawaii Christmas

We are just getting back to normal around here from all of our traveling during the Christmas break. Our first destination was a wonderful vacation from Kevin's parents and sister to Kauai. It was beautiful, relaxing, and a lot of fun with family. We were in the water everyday, Abbey lived in her bathing suit and her floaty ducky thing.

This is Abbey chasing a wild chicken. They are everywhere on the island of Kauai. It is crazy to be in a parking lot for walmart and see wild chickens crossing your path. But i know what you are thinking (or at least my dad), man that girl has a Olympic runners stride on her. We have Abbey on a strict running schedule everyday to develop that natural speed of hers. Just Kidding. But that girl does love to run.
We went to the north shore one day and tried to go to this secluded natural ocean pool that happens at low tide. It is call Queens Bath. I had heard it was beautiful but dangerous at high tide. After making the mile hike to the ocean we arrive at this sign showing the total deaths in the area; 29! Needless to say we were getting nervous so the women stayed where it was safe as the men (Kevin and his dad) went to check things out. They headed out on this cliff walk with crashing big waves and I was nervous. By the time they returned, 20 minutes later I was not happy because I had started thinking the worst. see picture below (me with angry face and Abbey crying).
After that we headed to some safer waters. This is us with Kevin's sister Denise at the gorgeous north shore.
We did so many fun things...We ate a lot of shaved ice. This is so delicious with macadamia nut ice cream. yum.
We danced!
We played on a hammock in a beautiful place.
We swam with beached sea turtles.
And of course we played on the beach.
Thanks Lamb parents and Denise for an amazing vacation!