It takes a village...

They say it takes a village to raise a child...well, it also takes a village to get a picture of a group of children!  Picture this....6 mommies, 6 daddies, 2 grandma's, 2 grandpa's, and 1 great-grandma plus 9 children under the age of 4!  We had a fabulous time hunting for Easter eggs in an absolutely beautiful location!  We decided to get a group shot of the kiddos...all hands were on deck for this mission!!!

Let's dump the eggs out of the basket...

OK, everyone sit down...

Are we ready???

Is anyone looking at the camera?

Wait, don't leave yet...

Where's Jack???

almost there...

close...

Happy Easter 2012!!!

You should have seen us!!!  The "paparazzi" lined up trying to get all of the kids to look in the same direction at once!  Eventually, we made it work and I think we all had such a great time!!!  Special THANK YOU to the Amber and Jim for hosting all of us!  Check out how awesome our backdrop was for today's festivities...

Not too shabby!!!

Happy Easter!!!

 

St. Patrick's Day

This weekend seemed to go by so incredibly fast.  I am pretty sure that being outside so much with the warmer temperatures will make time fly!  We were really excited to go to the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Newport mainly because we had heard so much about it.  It didn't disappoint!  There was a great crowd early in the day...don't get me wrong there were your typical drunks at 11 am on St. Patrick's Day...but aside from that it was a nice family oriented crowd.  I was initially worried about Aiden's attention span considering the estimated parade time was 2 hours but he had a blast.  We found a nice spot on the curb and had a perfect front row view!!

The Start of the parade...

OC's...poor guys!!!

wearing his beads...

creepy looking leprechaun

Enjoying the parade from the front row!

Daddy snuggles!

Leif's favorite moment...this guy followed the horses and cleaned up their poop!!!

After the parade Aiden kept saying "I want to see the parade again"...unfortunately I do not have that power haha!  

I find that as I get older, you know because I am so old, I have less tolerance for drunk people acting ignorant.  As we were walking downtown we saw many, many drunk people.  With out fail I would say to myself...

"Lord I hope I was never that ignorant"

WHOOPS...

 

Sesame Street Live...

Last weekend we took Aiden to Providence to see Sesame Street Live!  Those who know my boy know that he loves Elmo so we were hoping that he would really enjoy this performance.  Aiden is a typical 2 year old in the sense that he doesn't like to sit still for long.  We attempted the movies once and he lasted about 25 minutes.  We were nervous that he may not sit through the whole show and we were right.  He didn't sit...he stood up, danced, clapped, waved his arms, sang along and blew kisses to the characters.  He LOVED it!  This was our first experience at a children's show and boy were there a ton of distractions.  Most of the distractions were screaming children...not screaming as in "woohoo, we love Elmo" but screaming as in "please stop torturing me with these huge puppets and get me out of here".  But for the most part the Providence Performing Arts center was filled with excited children and it just so happened that we sat right in front of the MOST excited adult EVER!!!  WOW...this lady was getting into it.  She gets an A+ for extreme audience participation!  Not only did the show last almost 90 minutes but there was also an intermission...we thought for sure that would be the demise of our excited boy but again, we were wrong.
Aiden talked about sesame street for 2 weeks leading up to the show and now the first thing he tells people is "I saw sesaseee (Sesame) Street". I guess it was money well spent...

Before the show...

Mesmerized by the show...

Enjoying some popcorn...

Intermission...

Nice swimsuit Abby...

Snow Days...

I am almost 2 weeks behind on this post...story of my life!!!
Two weeks ago we had 7 inches of snow here in Newport, RI.  Coming from Charleston, S.C. we were pretty excited about the thought of frolicking in the snow.  The flurries started late Friday evening and I was so giddy I wanted to wake my sleeping baby.  I know I know, never wake a sleeping baby...so I waited!!!  On Saturday morning Aiden was so excited.  He kept saying "look Mommy, it's sowing (snowing)"  I think the "n" got lost in the excitement!  Once we had the proper attire...I am pretty sure ballet flats wouldn't work in the snow so I had to get some real snow boots...we were ready to play!

I had visions of a 20 minute dressing session for about 5 minutes of play.  Much to my surprise, Aiden last a little less than an hour.  We had so much fun!  I think his favorite part was being pulled around the backyard on the sled!  The picture below is my favorite on so many levels...I am running around the yard in 7 inches of snow, Buddy is running around the yard, Aiden is laughing hysterically while laying on the sled, and he is still holding his water gun in his hand.

And of course, pretty white snow makes for a great photo op....

Once we were all worn out from the snow...we needed to warm up and relax...sounds like the perfect time for some yummy hot chocolate...

The snow was gone by Monday and we were OK with that!  On Tuesday while walking to the car after school, Aiden noticed a snow drift.  "Look Mommy, It "sowed""  I guess he wasn't quite ready for it to melt away yet!!!

Another first...

The video above is an example of just one of the great moments of being a mom!  Although I am not a fan of cold weather and the Northern "hospitality" (or lack thereof)...I must say that the experiences Aiden will encounter will be worth our 6 month stay here in frigid RI.  So although I miss Charleston, I am thankful for this chilly night and for the fun of taking my little man ice skating!

For my own documentation here is how the night went down...
Aiden saw the rink and said "what's that?"
I said "It's an ice skating rink"
Aiden: "I want to go dere (there)"
Me: "OK but if we go over there you have to put on ice skates"
Aiden: "OK"
We paid for just Mommy and Aiden to skate...but the nice man at the skate rental INSISTED that Daddy skate for FREE!!!  Guess you have to chance breaking your ankle and getting rolled back a class Daddy (that is Navy talk for those of you confused)
We were all laced up and we hit the ice...Aiden LOVED it...in the video you can see him let go of me and try to go on his own...after a few minutes they cleared the rink for the big truck to come on and smooth out the ice...and that was the end of Aiden's desire to skate!  His new desire?  Finding that ice truck after it left the rink!!!  OH to be 2 again!!!  We never found that sneaky little truck and for the next 20 minutes we carried Aiden around the rink!

Tonight, I am grateful for this first in his life...my little boy has adapted to each and every change and new experience I have thrown at him...I KNOW that I am so blessed...he is my world and tonight my world was amazed by a pair of ice skates and an ice rink smoothing truck ( I am sure there is a more technical name for it) and I was amazed by the youthful innocence and pure excitement radiated from my 2 year old!

PS.. sorry for the blurry video...Hubby was skating backwards and trying to video, therefore he neglected to focus!  ( I think he should stick to Nuclear Engineering)