g is for greta

What an Easter we had this year thanks to our friends and family! We started off with an Easter Egg hunt at the park on Saturday. It was freezing cold that day with drizzle in the air. Yuck. The kids didn’t seem to care.

After that (at the same park) was a Duck Parade that our friends the Fords invited us to. The kids dress up like ducks and march from the bottom of the park to the library at the top of the park. Corinne made her own costume. She was excited because she had never worn a mask before.

Mason wasn’t interested in dressing up. He just wanted the free rubber ducky. He picked a cowboy. Corinne got a fireman.

At the library were crafts (that we skipped) and a puppet show that had the kids giggling. It was fun. Afterwards was a 1st birthday party for our buddy Creed. FUN!

Sunday was Easter. It was nice to have Tony’s entire family in town at our home. The kids did well getting ready for church and having pictures taken.

Ethan made his rounds…

The kids did a scavenger hunt for their baskets after church and had Mason’s birthday presents to play with. It really was a great day.

-g.

I know Mason’s birthday was a few weeks ago, but we had to delay the celebration. His actual birthday was during the week so we had his choice of dinner and played at the playplace. Tony’s family came down on Saturday the 22nd to spend the night for Easter. We had planned on having cake after dinner, but Mason fell asleep at the table at the restaurant. Ugh! Instead, we did cake and presents on Sunday after lunch. He picked a blue racecar cake with the number 3 on it.

He got lots of fun presents that he plays with everyday. It’s always nice to have a change of toys.

Our little man is getting so big!

-g.

Corinne is really competitive lately and wants to win at everything she does. “I got up on my stool first! I win!” “I made my bed the fastest! I win!” etc. Last night the kids were sent upstairs to get their pjs on for bed. Mason had a good headstart and was a ringer to win. Corinne put a stop to that by pushing him out of the way. Tony was a witness to the altercation and the subsequent lie that she had not pushed her brother. (Her tall tales are a whole other post some other time. I have to focus for now.) Tony gave her a timeout and told her she was going straight to bed without brushing her teeth. Corinne freaked out! She started crying hysterically and screaming, “I have to brush my teeth! I’ll get cavities! Those aren’t good for you! PLEASE let me brush my teeth!” I was so proud of her. Obviously the pushing and fibbing weren’t good choices, but she won over my heart with that plea for good dental hygiene. I even put my book down and went upstairs to help.

-g.

I’ve been gone for the holiday and never got a chance to post these pictures. Here’s Mason when the blizzard hit:

Less than a week later, he was doing this:

(FYI–That’s my “new” van in the picture. I got it this fall and LOVE it. Never was much for minivans, but I am converted. Thank you, Toyota, for giving me comfort and luxury in a family vehicle. Anywho…)

Can you believe it? Now it teeters back and forth between cold and not-as-cold. Spring is coming, though. My daffodils are proof. They are on the rise!

-g.

Ethan keeps getting himself stuck. He loves to explore. Sometimes I can’t find him until he starts crying to be rescued.

I feel bad running for the camera when he is crying for help. I just can’t help myself.

-g.

Here’s another edition of Photos by Mason. He must have been feeling an appreciation for his toys.

I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t sure if the photographer was Mason or Corinne. The navy pants and socks in the last picture are what gave him away.

While we are on the subject of Mason, he recently got another Mickey Mouse hat. He loves these hats. His last one had both ears missing, and he was still wearing it like a beanie. I was trying to get a good picture of him in it and ended up with a string of pictures that document his range of emotions. All of these occurred within seconds of each other.

Normal Mason smile

Posed Mason smile (his 3 yr pictures are going to be interesting)

And the REAL Mason (pouty, angry, and overall distraught)

I love him no matter how crazy he is. The Mickey Mouse hat helps.

-g.

I know, I know. Ethan will be 8 months old in a mere 11 days, but I never got around to posting these pics. Better late than never.

He’s talking alot more now and smacking his lips like he’s blowing a kiss. I caught him mid-kiss in this one.

The drool coming from this kid is unreal. His shirt will get satuarated all the way down to the waistline. It’s digusting, but Ethan always looks cute. He keeps chewing on everything (thus this picture with his fingers in his mouth. I couldn’t get one with a smile. Only fingers) but still no teeth.

This week he started cruising along the coffee table and other furniture. CRAZINESS!!!! The kid is way too mobile. Here I was thinking he was so innocent and cute when he started standing up in his crib.

(note the saliva-soaked shirt)

We are in for it, folks.

-g.

Today Mason turned 3. He was pretty excited. We had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, pb & j for lunch, and mac & cheese is on the menu for dinner. After breakfast, we went to the playplace at the mall. The kids had a blast.

We are waiting to have cake and open presents on Saturday when some family can come to town. He gave me a present, though. He peed AND pooped on the potty today! I couldn’t be happier.

Love you, Mason!

-g.

So today Corinne decided she wanted to go with me to get Ethan out of his crib after his nap. He was standing up (one of his new tricks) staring at the door waiting for me. Corinne says, “Mom, he’s standing like a rockstar!” Now, hours later, she is walking around the house with her sunglasses on. It’s not sunny here. I wish. It’s a cloudy, rainy day. She must just be rockin’ it like a rockstar (to quote Her Coolness)!

-g.

Kids are silly. They come up with lots of games themselves which are always interesting and even, dare I judge, odd. Like right now. Corinne and Mason claim that the bath water is too hot. While they wait for it to cool down, they are “thinking.” Basically pacing back and forth with their hands on their hips. I don’t want to tell you how long this has kept them entertained and how funny they think they are for fear you’ll call for some sort of mental evaluation. As long as they are happy, I’m happy. However, they do love to play hide and seek with anyone, but Daddy especially.

I love when it’s Mason’s turn to count.

He keeps his eyes squished up the whole time and can count pretty high for an almost 3 year old.

The hiding places are always the same, but they are good about making it take awhile to find each other and then acting genuinely suprised when they do finally succeed.

Mason picked our closet this time.

Corinne was behind our bed.

In this game, Tony and Corinne teamed up. Not many places a 6′4″ man can hide in our house. He’s good at improvising.

Ethan’s game lately is to make new expressions. He’s cute regardless of how sad, angry, happy, etc he looks.

I would have to say, though, that Ethan’s favorite game of all time is “I’m going to rip your face off with my razor-sharp nails.” Poor Corinne was playing with him this particular time.

At least they aren’t rotting their brains watching tv all day right? (btw, that was last week during the blizzard. I’m not a supermom.)

-g.