Basket of Books

This is how I discovered Maggie yesterday afternoon. She was sitting IN her book basket, taking in a few short stories before naptime.

Crash & Trash ~ April 15th

We have taken to calling our regular Tuesday play group "Crash & Trash" or C&TOT (Crash & Trash on Tuesdays). We are now bouncing among our four homes, and, each week, one home gets completely trashed when we all crash with our kids for a couple of hours. As our boys get closer to age three, the brawls are getting a little more common. But, they still look so cute when they all sit around the table together for lunch. There's no time to smile for the camera when there's food on the table! (clockwise: Ryan in red, John - aka: LJ, Ben, and Quinn)

Maggie's Party: April 12th

Maggie's 1st birthday party was a total success. This is the cake I made her. Green cake, pink frosting, cut in the shape of a flower (which you can hardly see), and green foam leaves stuck in the sides.

Maggie's first inclination was to pull the leaves out of the cake and poke herself in the eye with the pipe cleaners I used to plant them in it. It didn't stop her from enjoying another bite!


Maggie enjoyed her cake much more once we handed her a spoon. Ben enjoyed the chocolate cake he selected for everyone else to share. He loved this party hat so much that he wore it the entire day. He even came to our bedroom to wake us up the following morning wearing the hat! He looked so cute!

This is the only picture we got of the four of us the entire day.

Maggie got a quick bath after the cake, and she was ready to open some gifts. Ben and his cousins played upstairs (thankfully), so Maggie got the spotlight all to herself. She took the opportunity to shine. Smiled from ear to ear! Quite the little show-off!

Maggie's First Birthday, April 9th

This is how bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Maggie looked on the morning of her first birthday. Ready to greet the day!

She and Ben spent the day at daycare. Here they are in Ben's classroom, and this is Maggie playing with the Lego-letters outside of her classroom. Every kids LOVES those letters!

By the time we got the kids home from daycare at the end of the day, Maggie looked like she wasn't going to make it another minute! No cake or big celebration on her actual birthday. She did muster up enough energy to open one gift, a baby doll from Aunt Amy's family.

Wedding Reception~April 5th

Brian's cousin, Nikki, got married yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of the bride and groom. I guess that's what the hired photographer is for...

After months of cold, yucky weather, we finally had a beautiful day, especially for a wedding. Ben and Maggie attended the reception with us. Even without an afternoon nap, Maggie held out until 8:30. She even danced a few dances with Daddy.

Ben, on the other hand, was my little dance machine. His cousin, Lexi, really wanted him to dance with her. They looked so perfect together in their coordinating browns - like they were prom dates. But Ben didn't want much to do with poor Lexi. He was Mommy's dance partner!

(My back is paying for this move today!)

Ben's mixer

Last weekend, I thought I would try to get a little practice in on Maggie's birthday cake before I did the actual thing. Ben was so excited to help me in this endeavor. He LOVES cake! As I was getting out all the supplies, he asked, "Where's the big red thing?" Brian realized he was talking about the big electric mixer, and he said, "No, Ben. Mommy is just going to use the hand-mixer today." Ben said, "But we need two more things." We didn't know what he was talking about, but (as toddlers often just need to do things in their own way) we allowed him to fish around in the utensil drawer until he was satisfied that he had the two things he needed. He pulled out two whisks and held them up in each hand saying, "HERE'S THE HAND MIXER!" Brian and I were floored. Our jaws practically hit the counter top. We could just see the little gears a'turning in his head. Our little engineer, already thinking like one. Hand mixer: now, is that creative, or what?!