Spring Weekend and a Final Four!

We had a really great weekend. It was full of Spring Season fun!

Friday night a few MOPS friends came over and we had a great evening chatting. Matt took the babies and Mario upstairs and they watched the basketball games.

Well, Matt watched the games while the babies went crazy playing in our room--mostly in Mario's kennel...

Again, too crazy of a game for me to watch that night. We had the late game so the babies were in bed by the time KU came on. Not sure how they stayed asleep with all of Matt's yelling? Somehow the Jayhawks pulled that game off too...

The next morning our school had their Spring Party. There was an Easter Egg Hunt with it and the babies had a blast through it all. We were ready with our Easter Baskets...

Not totally sure how they'd do "hunting", Camryn surprised us and instantly took to it. I quickly showed her to put an egg in the basket and off she went. She overflowed her basket then started putting more in Cole's. Cole got the concept and all, but just didn't see how it was worth the effort to go hunting for all the eggs he could. Especially once he discovered after picking up the 2nd one, that the eggs had candy in them. His main purpose was just to actually pry out and eat all the candy in the eggs. Once he'd finish candy in one, he'd then pick up a couple more and continue that way. Meanwhile, Cam kept cruising around the lawn gathering all she could.






...Notice Cole's basket tossed off to the side as he works on prying an egg open to get to the good stuff...


The Easter Bunny was there too! But both babies were pretty timid around him. Cam was the braver of the two. By "braver", I mean she got kind of close to the Easter Bunny as long as Matt was right next to her. This is the closest she got. But then as we walked to a different area she excitedly waved and said "bye bye" to the bunny.
It was time to play! It was fun watching them in their school environment and seeing them with all their fun things they play with at school. It also made us realize we need to step up our game in the outdoor toys department at home! Wonder what the Easter Bunny will bring us???


Got to take some fun pics with my little Easter bunnies...

Notice how Cam isn't really ever separated from her Easter Basket? She was either clutching onto it, or kept a close eye on it when she needed both hands.



After our party we had lunch out on our patio. We've been able to do that most all of last week thanks to some AWESOME weather we've been having!
We were able to convince her to leave her basket downstairs as long as she could take a few Easter eggs up to bed with her for her nap...
Later we went and had pictures taken with baby chicks (those pictures are further down). Afterwards we went to On the Border (of course!) since we were all still in good spirits. Loving chips and salsa...
Cole was dancing while enjoying his chips and salsa!
Afterwards we went to Target and among too many other things we always end up getting there, Matt picked out some cool shades for Cole.
Here are some of our favorite shots from our pictures with the baby chicks!




Already having a great weekend, it got even BETTER when the Jayhawks won a GREAT game sending them to the FINAL FOUR Sunday!!! Again, I couldn't really watch this game either, but we always get a good sense of how the game is going thanks to Matt's yelling. With about 5 minutes left in the game I felt pretty comfortable with our lead so all four of us ended up cheering our Jayhawks into the Final Four together!

Some More Milestones

We're starting our 2nd full week in our new class at school! We're now officially in the Toddler Room and I hear that Cam and Cole are doing GREAT in there. It's a whole new grown-up world there, making Momma realize they're growing up despite the fact they're still my little babies. They play outside more, they sit at a table (not in a high chair of any kind) with other kids and use utensils every time to eat their meals and snacks, they have reading time in the "library", and one of the biggest surprises to me is that they take their naps on little cots! Open cots--and they stay put there and take a nap...????! That's unthinkable to me. Their teachers say they do good and mind them well while taking naps on their cots there. At home, these babies will most definitely be staying behind bars in their cribs as long as I can get away with it! They're both talking a lot in their new room and I hear that Camryn talks a TON to her teachers and basically anyone that will listen. (Shocker.--said extremely sarcastically)

Today I signed Camryn's first accident report at school. Matt's only signed a report one other time right when we started going there for the tiniest scratch on one of Cole's fingers. I'd say this is a bit more than a tiny scratch. I even got a call from her teacher for it! She was playing with one of the toy cars outside and played a little too hard and fast, taking quite a tumble. She's got a scrape on her forehead accompanied by a few more little scrapes going down the side of her face. They said she only cried for about 30 seconds at the most--then kept wiggling away from them as they cleaned her up to go right back to that same toy and play again. Good to know it didn't scare her at all...! This is the best pic I could get--any closer and she runs away from me. (The usual reaction whenever I get the camera out to take a picture of either of them anytime!)

Also today Cole reached a big milestone (well, at least it is in our little world). He's now FORWARD-FACING in a new, BIGGER car seat!!! Finally. The poor boy was practically busting out of his infant rear-facing car seat--the one we've had since they passed their car seat tests in the NICU. Camryn is still a little too small to be comfortably (and kind of legally) forward-facing in a bigger car seat. Hopefully in the next month or so she'll hit that weight requirement. Until then, they can look at each other in opposite directions--and I'm sure she'll continue to take off and play with the cup holder that came with Cole's new seat. Doesn't he look like such a big boy, all grown-up and handsome in his new big boy seat? He's pretty proud in it...

March Madness Fun

We love having visitors!!!

As previously mentioned, Aunt Cheryl was kind enough to fly with me and the monkeys back home to Colorado. Why not make an extended trip out of it??! And she did indeed bring some warmth with her. It was only really cold the first day we got back, after that it was mostly 70's--and has stayed that way up until today. I was hoping it would just continue to stay warm, but I'm told March can be full of weather that's all over the place. I'll hope it doesn't snow much more and decides to stay in the 70s sooner than later!

I'm so happy Cheryl came, we had such a great time. Among lots of good hanging out time, we got to go see American Idiot at the last minute with Jennifer and crew. WOW! It was so good. We all met up at a fun place called The Corner Office and enjoyed yummy martini's before the show. My favorite was rimmed with grape kool-aid. Seriously.

Earlier that same day Mario and I were out enjoying the sunshine playing ball. The good news is he caught the ball (somehow??). The bad news is he ran right into a wooden post on our swing set in order to make the amazing catch. Aunt Cheryl went with us as I took my baby boy to our new Vet for the first time. It was a great experience and they checked him out superbly. Just a bad scratch right below his eye and a small abrasion on his actual eye. After a weeks worth of ointment, his eye now looks so much better. Here is a picture of it the day after his run in with the swing set. Poor Bubby Boy. It didn't seem to ever bother him though. In fact, he was so unbelievably good at the vet while they checked out his eye in all kinds of details. I'm glad it's healing well. And glad Aunt Cheryl was here to accompany us to the vet and help with the ointment application while she was here!
This is the kind of hairdo you sport when Daddy puts you to bed the night before with your pigtails still intact. As Cheryl so perfectly described it: Flock of Seagulls

A couple weekends ago was our MOPS Family Fun Night. Since Matt was out for the count with sickness, Cheryl and the babies and I went as our own "family of four". It was a fun time. Cheryl is always so good with her camera and has more pictures. Here's a couple she sent me. A popular treat (with my babies) were the cake pops. Camryn was being her moody self that we get to experience all to often lately (that's why we love her, right?!), but put a cake pop in the girl's hand and things are instantly right and happy in her world...

We reluctantly had to say goodbye to Aunt Cheryl. But more company was coming the next day, so that made her departure a little more bearable to get through. Before our next crew arrived we spent a lot of our day outside. Check out my little Jayhawks. Grandpa found these Baby Jay hats for them at KU--they love wearing them. But they also like to take them off so they can actually, physically point to Baby Jay and proclaim "Caw Cawk" (or something like that, meaning "Jayhawk")!
The next evening Uncle Robby arrived. It was like no time was ever lost since they last saw him. From the moment he got here they would go right to him and during the whole week he was here "Gonkle" or "Gockle" (aka "Uncle") was constantly said! The morning after Robby got here we then went to go pick up Aunt Nora from the airport! We're ecstatic they both chose to spend their Spring Breaks with us, we had such a great time!! We had a great time walking around in Golden the first day, and then fun in our backyard while Nora grilled out for us. (Did I mention HOW GORGEOUS and WARM the weather has been???!) The next day was Uncle Robby's birthday. What better way to spend it then going to the ZOO???!! We had a fantastic time there, even despite the fact a lot of attractions were still under construction---like the elephants--the MAIN animal we wanted to see! (As well as the penguins and some of the monkeys). But we really did have a great time, it was a beautiful, fun day. We can't wait to go to the zoo again.
There were lots of geese that roamed the zoo freely. Because we could be so interactive, they were definitely our favorite thing that day. Whenever we'd see them walking around, Camryn would giggle and "quack" back at them (close enough to ducks, right?). Cole would give loud, excited screams and then "quack" back at them too.

Looking up at the monkey swinging above and in front of us...
There was a little play area near the giraffes where Cole and Cam could get out and run around freely. That's also where we all picked a spot on a bench and had some lunch we brought. Cole soon discovered we were right by the giraffes (one of our favorites we saw) and watched them over the fence while we had our lunch.
FUN FUN time at the zoo!
That same night we got to have Manda come babysit and us adults all went out to a nice dinner downtown for Robby's birthday. It was so yummy and fun in all kinds of ways!



Classic picture. (Although neither of them were there, Robby and Nora decided to do a little reenactment of one of the last times some of my family was at The Capital Grille--and started a bit of a fire...)

Over the weekend we got to see Jennifer, Jim, Maya, Cooper and Grammy! We all got to watch the basketball games together. Jennifer, Nora and I celebrated St. Patrick's a day early...
Here's my crazy Jayhawk family all glued to the TV hoping hoping hoping Missouri would LOSE their game---and they DID!!!
Nora and I snuck out for a little bit that evening-before the KU game-to meet up with a friend of Nora's from College. It was really fun to go see them. And we went to The Corner Office again, I definitely enjoyed that same martini with the grape kool-aid on the rim.
Back at home we're all still watching the games again. As we were watching the KU game, it was very clear that Mario really just wanted to be part of the Hendrick family!
The next morning we sadly had to say goodbye to Aunt Nora. We're so happy she came to visit us, we can't wait for her to come back!
Later that night the babies took their spots in what has become a favorite basketball watching position for them--in one of their portable changing tables...?? Whatever works. Cam prefers to read a book while the games are on. Cole, of course, intently pays attention to the "boo ball" being played on TV.

It's always fun to sit in "Gonkle's" lap and have reading times.
They also share a love of apples with Gonkle. Camryn has actually eaten a good part of an apple full out--biting into a whole one--as Aunt Cheryl witnessed. Fearing scary choking, we go for the "cut-up kind with the skin cut off" version of apples when at home. Uncle Robby was good to constantly give out apple bites.
Watching the (super stressful and crazy) KU Game last night before bed. They've assumed their positions properly again...

I couldn't take that game. Halfway through the 1st half the babies and I went up to have baths. After they went to bed from there, I continued to avoid the game. It's amazing how much I can get done when I'm doing all I can to avoid a stressful KU game! I got a good sense of how it all went based on the constant yells from Matt and Robby through the whole game. I was content with just watching the highlights after I knew we got the win. I will go ahead and fully admit that I'm a fan of the regular season--NOT the biggest March Madness fan. It's way too stressful. Not healthy for me!
We were super sad when Uncle Robby left today. We're so happy he came out to visit and also can't wait for him to come back again soon!!!! After we dropped him off at the airport I got quite a medley of "Gonkle Gonkle Gonkle" most of the way home from the backseat...