Happy Easter!!

What a weekend! This has been an incredibly eventful weekend. I will start with Saturday...Karl and Jon surprised Louise and I with a birthday day at the spa. We got pampered for over 5 hours with a facial, manicure, pedicure, body scrub, massage and lunch. Both Louise and I had never done anything like this so it was a new and fun experience. We decided we will celebrate the start of every new decade this way. Too bad we will have to wait another 10 years! After the spa and shower we came home to a surprise party! The boys had been planning a party for us for over a month. The goal was to get people who we hadn't seen in a long time to come. Unfortunately it was a holiday weekend so limited people were able to attend. There was about 25-30 people, mostly family and it was a great time! Karl made games including "guess the twin" where people had to guess who was who from baby pictures and 1978 Jeopardy. The picture of all the boys on the couch are all Luke's cousins!
Erin is staying until Thursday and Jeanette stayed until this afternoon. We all went to church this morning with my parents, Jon, and Louise. It was nice to be with so much family on Easter. Clark played the bells in all 3 church services! The Easter Bunny came to our house last night and left eggs in the back yard for Matt and Micah. Matt had fun collecting eggs with help from Grandma and Erin. We had Easter dinner at my parents house. Amazingly the Easter Bunny also visited them!
We had a great weekend! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family! Enjoy the pictures. I only have a couple hours left of being in my 20s...30 here I come!!!

The Birthday Artist

Matt's birthday went well. He got a lot of great toys and cloths. I made him an Elmo cake which turned out cute despite the weird mouth! Matt liked it and that is what really counts! He really liked blowing out his candle and singing "Happy Birthday." He has been walking around the house singing and saying "happy birthday Matt and happy birthday Mommy." He also loves to carry around a candle and pretend to blow it out.My sister got Matt an easel and he is quite the painter! Feel free to put in your order for a "Matt original." He will be happy to paint you one and I am happy to send it!
Our amazing little Micah is starting to get the hang of sitting. He can sit momentarily with assistance from the Boppy. He does great in the Bumbo seat and loves to sit and play with his toys. No rolling yet. Why roll when you can sit and check out what your big brother is doing?

Kidspace

We had a little birthday party for Matt today at Kidspace in Pasadena. Our friends Michelle and her boys, Anthony and Nicholas and Dawn and her two kids, Myra and Max joined us. We caravaned down leaving Lancaster at 9:15! That is almost a record for us to get out of the house that early! Kidspace is great for kids age 2-5. There are different outdoor and indoor play areas. There are also some age appropriate science exhibits. One of Matt's favorites is a live bee colony behind glass.
I made Elmo cupcakes for Matt to share with the other kids. I think they turned out pretty good although I asked the kids who the cupcake looked like and nobody said anything!
We adopted two caterpillars today at Kidspace. Matt and Micah each got one. Matt named his caterpillar Eyes and I told him he could help Micah name his. They come with an instruction booklet on how to care for them until they turn into a butterfly. In a week or so we will have to make a butterfly bungalow out of a shoe box. Matt has memorized The Very Hungry Caterpillar book and loves it. He hasn't made the connection with his adopted caterpillar yet but we have at least 2 weeks before it will become a butterfly so maybe he will get it. One of the friends we went with today has adopted caterpillars the past few years and said it is really cool to have the kids let the butterfly go in the backyard. I'll post pictures of our butterfly release in a few weeks, if this works!!
Tomorrow my brother has his last solo and ensemble competition. Karl and I will take turns listening to him play and watching the kids. In the evening we are having a little party for Matt. Something else is going on tomorrow too.....Oh, our anniversary!! Happy anniversary Karl, Love you!!!

Early Birthday in Vegas

We went to Vegas this weekend. The drive on Friday night was a piece of cake...yesterday coming home was a different story! It was a great weekend though and well worth the crying, whining and complaining on the way home! We celebrated Matt's birthday early with Grandpa and Grandma Bennett. Matt even blew out his candles with a little help from Grandma. Matt LOVES cupcakes! I have big plans to make him an Elmo cake for his birthday on Sat. I'll post pictures. Karl and I got out for a few good runs and we went out to the Bellagio after the boys went to sleep on Saturday night. We looked at the gardens and ate crepes. It should have been a really fun date but we were both so tired!! It was nice to get out for awhile though.
Matt was so excited on Friday (3/7) to go see Grandpa and Grandma. He fell asleep in the morning on a pile of his books then was too hyped up to take a nap in the afternoon. Poor mom!! We went for a hike this morning at the Desert Preserve which is a couple miles from our house. Matt and Micah are so tired from the exciting weekend and being outside this morning they have been napping (in their beds) for the past 3 hours!!

Boys like to play!

Micah laughs more and more. He is very ticklish and we caught him laughing on camera. Here is the video.

Micah also likes to put all his fingers in his mouth.

Karl got a new pair of running shoes yesterday and Matt couldn't wait to try them on. Here he is.

Giraffe PJs

Thanks for the pajamas Grandpa and Grandma Stutelberg!! Don't we look cute?
We are spending the day indoors and having a lazy Sunday afternoon! The weather took a turn for the worse and it is too windy and cold to play outside. We had planned to go sledding today but the weather on the mountain is too windy. Hopefully we will get up there before the snow is gone.