grandma's here

grandma likes to come visit near my birthday to give us some free babysitting and celebrate with us. plus, she loves to eat in restaurants. so i picked her up from the airport, picked the boys up from school and headed to a restaurant where we ate way too much food.

grandma also loves chuck e. cheese. since she would only be here for the weekend, tonight was our best bet at it not being packed. grandma had already had a very long day after an early flight but she was game.

and then i had the best idea - we would drop grandma and the kids off at chuck e. cheese while matt and i went to have a dinner alone at the restaurant across the parking lot. perfect! the restaurant was pretty busy and told us that there was a 45 minute wait. instead of just waiting we went over to buy a gift card at the grocery store a short walk away. our table was ready when we got back. we had a wonderful, relaxing meal. and then we noticed the time - yikes! it was a school night so we quickly paid and headed back to get grandma and the kids. and then we realized that we hadn't paid with the gift card. oops. i guess we will have to go out again this weekend. love.

happy birthday to me!

ah, the weekday birthday of a mom. i did not have high hopes for today being very special since the kids had school and we had church tonight. but the day surprised me.

i got everyone off to school and then went to meet a friend at the ymca for walking and got my birthday t-shirt (they give you a shirt if you come in on your birthday). then home to shower and off to pick up the boys. i decided that we were going out for lunch. they made for great lunch dates.

shortly after we got home a friend stopped by to drop off some flowers for me - brightening my day.

matt surprised me by coming home a little early with lots of special treats! we were planning on eating a quick dinner out at one of my favorite restaurants before heading to church. (it is always closed on sundays when most special days are for me.) but matt went above and beyond coming home with the new vegan ben & jerry's, 'grown-up' root beer, balloons, gourmet cupcakes and gift cards. one gift card was for some new athletic shoes and the other, and most impressive, was for netflix. we subscribe to hulu and matt remembered that netflix is working on a gilmore girls reunion. i loved gilmore girls. and he remembered. he got the gift card so that i could watch the reunion. it might be the most loving gift he has ever given me.

and then we went to church where i worked on prepping for sunday while the kids went to their programming.

i don't think i could have planned a more special day. thank you to everyone who showered me with love. i am a lucky girl. love.

crazy hair

manning did this to his hair and was extremely pleased. he asked me for the picture. love.

manning tatoo

don't let the face fool you. manning was very proud of his name 'tattoo.' the face was just for the picture. love.

easter

we got home pretty late last night and i was exhausted, but there was lots to do for easter (personally and for church) before i could get into bed. and then i got up early and made some 'easter egg' pancakes. because i am crazy. and tired.

after a super busy morning at church i realized that we had not taken a picture of the whole family. since we were in the car, i got at least one of us dressed up.

the kids were all changed before i even got into the house. they were ready for baskets and an egg hunt! i had wanted to do a scavenger hunt again this year, but it was just too much last night. the kids didn't mind at all. the baskets were candy free since we don't let them eat it anyway. battery-operated toothbrushes were the biggest hit.

maddux has been asking for an umbrella for a very long time and was super excited!

and then i could finally exhale and start the process of unpacking. happy easter! the greatest joy of redemption. love.

cosi

we stayed in columbus last night (at our favorite hotel) so that we could go to cosi today. the kids were SO excited. about the hotel and a trip to cosi. there was a new (to us) exhibit at cosi today about traveling with legos. they could have stayed all day. there was even a little 'store' that was extremely tempting and we got a few birthday ideas. there were lots of landmarks from around the world built from legos and bins of legos for the kids to play with and race.

mason's favorite

and then we were off to see the rest of the museum. we even took in a "magic treehouse" planetarium show which was enjoyed by all (even if i had to close my eyes for a bit because of the spinning making me sick).

trying so hard to smile for his picture.

manning and me "under water"

the kids love lifting the car.

the lego art was pretty impressive. these are some of our favorites.

mason took this one for his teacher.

madelyn and daddy were asked to be part of a language study. they were asked to group colors into different numbers of groups. in some languages, there are only four words for colors where as we have hundreds in english. they are studying if the grouping is innate or cultural. it was interesting to think about and watch how they grouped the colors.

maddux (on a bike) racing daddy (running)

my birthday flower from maddux

dramatic madelyn

madelyn and manning shared an audio book on the way home.

when we were completely exhausted, we headed home. this was such a great trip. and now it was time to get ready for easter! love.