Easter Weekend Celebrations

Happy Easter everyone! 

I hope you took time this weekend to celebrate the renewal of this wonderful new season. 

We started our weekend by welcoming our cousins in town for a few hours on Friday afternoon. It had been almost a year since we had seen them and they were able to sneak in a visit in between waiting for flights out of an Air Force base heading to Hawaii for vacation. Cullen and Bennett were so happy to have them around!

 You might remember from last summer, that C and B are 2 of 7 grandsons, ages 6 and under, on Kev's family's side. That means Baby Boy is going to be #8. Total chaos.

We are looking forward to another longer visit with Beth, Josh and the boys on the back end of their trip!

 On Saturday, we did a whole lot of nothing. 

(Oh, except talk to my little sister in law who got engaged!! We are so happy for you Kate and Ev and can't wait to get home to celebrate with you!) 

We stayed in PJs til 10:30, let the boys relax and watch TV, went to Target and Old Navy, took 3 hour long naps, dyed Easter eggs, ate dinner, put the boys to bed and caught up on the DVR. How's that for a lazy day?

At first B was a little confused by the egg dying because he is used to baking with me and I always let him crack the egg on the side of the bowl and tell him not to let the shell get in. He could not figure out why we just wanted him to put a full egg into a cup. Once he realized they turned colors, he was pretty into it.

 Cullen loved it though, he was so excited to make green eggs. We have come a long way since our first egg dying experience where I let C use his hands and they were stained for days. (If you click on that link, you will also see C at B's current age and me all preggo faced with B...time flies.)

C wanted to leave a note for the Easter Bunny to let him know that we made the prettiest eggs in California.

 Sunday morning we woke up to one Easter basket for two boys. I don't go too overboard with things, we keep it pretty traditional around here: chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, a book and such. B was particularly thrilled with his new baby bunny. 

 Then we were off to Mass at the chapel on post. Normally we go to Carmel Mission, but on holidays it is so busy, so the smaller chapel was a great option. Cullen has had a lot of questions at Mass lately and today during the Gospel he kept whispering "But Mommy, where'd Jesus go? Why did he leave his towels there? Why was there a big rock? How did they move it?" 

 They actually had an Easter Egg hunt afterwards, so the boys were pretty excited to take part. 

 And here is the coordinating seersucker and sweater vest ensembles. 

Amazing, right?

 For Easter Dinner, we had a party in the neighborhood. We normally do tailgate events, and this time we decided to dress it up a bit. We set long tables and a few of us our brought out our dining room chairs so we could all sit together. 

I seriously failed as a blogger by not taking more pictures. The food was delicious, the kids were cute, Joe's prayer before dinner was wonderful and despite a week long call for rain, we lucked up with a beautiful, sunny Monterey day. 

My next neighbors better like to tailgate or I am going to be really sad.

 The last event of the day was another Easter Egg hunt. Somehow I came up with 100 eggs to hide, and I am pretty sure these six did not find them all. 

The birds will likely be enjoying jelly beans for days.

 Hope your weekend was wonderful as well.

Collages of Sleeping Children

On our vacation this past week, it was the first time we didn't exactly plan our activities around the boys' nap schedules. We knew it would be a busy few days and instead of cutting our time short anywhere, we decided to go with the flow and count on the boys to just fall asleep when they needed it.

It worked.

 Please note Bennett's creepy open eyed nap above and the actual drool pouring down the side of Cullen's mouth.

The duel nap.

 Bennett rocking the stroller nap. C, minutes after he told us he definitely wasn't tired at all.

Although it was nice to be flexible during the day, we are happy to be home and back on schedule.

Oh, Just About 20 Reasons Why I Love San Diego

Terrified Toddler and Tired Twosomes

My favorite picture of our entire Disney trip? Bennet and Mickey.  

Cracks me up every time.

We headed back down to Disneyland to the main park on Friday morning around 10 and began navigating our way through the big park. We hit the iconic tea cups first.

 And then took them on the Alice in Wonderland ride. Note to parents of sensitive little ones: DON'T go on this ride! Both boys were terrified and refused to go through any other ride that involved a tunnel for most of the day. Alice in Wonderland characters are really scary when unfamiliar....whooops.

So we skipped the rest of Fantasyland and spent some time in Mickey's Toon Town.

 We ended up only staying until early afternoon, and I just didn't take a lot of pictures. The park was very crowded and the boys were pretty tired, so we let them each pick out a souvenir and decided to go back to the house for a relaxing night in and early bedtimes.

B picked a ball. This should surprise no one. 

 The boys spent the afternoon on the couch, eating mac n cheese and watching Monster Inc. Best vacation ever.

 Saturday morning, we took our time cleaning up and checking out of the house and didn't get to the park until 1. We knew we planned on going back that night, so we just had a casual day trying to avoid crowds. C did a little dancing in Tomorrowland

 And got mad when the train took us through a tunnel, since after all, we promised no more tunnels.

 B loved the shaky bridge on the Pirate Island

 And they got lollipops (two this time)

 Our last ride was the jungle cruise and B was over it all and ready for a nap.

We checked into our hotel that afternoon and took it easy for a few hours.

 I love this picture. Could they be any cuter/exhausted? 

Then it was back to the Adventure Park for one last hurrah. Cullen thought it was awesome that we were out and about at nighttime.

 B just wanted to go back to bed. 

 Cars Land was by far our favorite attraction.

 Debating fireworks or bed...bed won.

 This was the first time we have all stayed in one room in a hotel and B's first night not in a crib. I came from brushing my teeth and found them propped up chatting about their day and C giving B tips on how to sleep like a big boy. 

Melt my heart.

On Sunday morning we arrived in San Diego for a few more days of our last big California vacation. 

I think Monday will involve a lot of napping.

And in case we aren't instagram friends (@katedaffodils) you might not have seen that Sunday was Kev and my 6th wedding anniversary. I can't believe that much time has passed already, but also can't picture my life without him in it. 

Happy Anniversary Kev, you are the best husband in the entire world. I can't wait to see what else life has in store for us!