Happy 4th of July

We wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!

Today Steve and I spent the day tiling our backsplash in the kitchen-whoohoo what 4th of July fun! We did manage to cook out tonight and then spent some time with the boys doing fireworks in our driveway. The boys had a great time-I thought they would be scared but they weren't! I am having to get used to the fact fireworks are legal here and they even sell them year round. Our neighbors put on quite a show-this made me a little nervous because the sparks were flying over our trees and our house, but all ended well and we got to see some pretty amazing backyard fireworks. Tomorrow we will head to "Riverfest" to see real fireworks.

Steve and the boys with SPARKLERS!

Steve found three foot long SPARKLERS and the boys loved playing with them!

Grayson could not stop smiling!

I told Steve tonight that at some point he will have to explain the "real" meaning of Independence Day to them and not that it is just about shooting fireworks and grilling! We hope everyone enjoyed their day.

Happy Birthday Hayden

HAPPY 4TH BIRTDAY HAYDEN!!!!

It is hard to believe that Hayden is 4 years old. I know a lot has happened in the last four years but I still feel like time has flown by. He is such a mature little boy and we are having more and more fun everyday. Hayden has been attending My Gym since October and has told me that he wanted to have his party there. So in January we booked his party and the planning began. Hayden gets into planning his party more than some adults-He knew he wanted a Buzz Lightyear party. He was very specific in picking out his theme, birthday cake, and invitiations. Hayden loves parties! I wonder where he gets that from?
Hayden blowing out birthday candles.

Hayden loved the attention he received for his birthday!

Hayden got to have his own parade at the party. The staff at My Gym walked him around in a wagon and he had the parade wave down pat!

Grayson and others being a "table".

There is nothing like Texas Star here in CT, so I was worried that I would never be able to find someone to do Hayden's cake. But it turned out sooooo good. The top was chocolate fudge with a mousse filling and the bottom was white chocolate cake with a white chocolate filling. I was REALLY impressed-oh yeah and the baker delivered it to my home which was excellent since the day of Hayden's birthday we had multiple events!

Hayden's birthday party at school!

Kid City Museum

Grandma and Papa were also able to come spend some time with us before Hayden's birthday. We enjoyed going to Kid City with them. http://www.kidcitymuseum.com/welcome.html
The boys had so much fun playing with both sets of grandparents.


Aquarium area

Grayson playing in dinosaur land!

Papa North and Hayden

Mystic Seaport

My parents came to spend the week before Hayden's birthday with us. We had so much fun and enjoyed them being here. We did an activity everyday with them and really took advantage of having them here with us. One day we went to Mystic Seaport www.mysticseaport.org/
It was a museum tha that has a lot of large old ships. The boys were able to walk on the ships and explore. They were able to go underneath and see where people slept and ate. Ever since we visited the Seaport, Hayden has been saying he wants bunk beds now!
One of the old boats!

Enjoying our time together.

Hayden being the captain.

Circus Fun

We had so much fun going to the circus for Mother's Day. Both boys enjoyed themselves and all of the adults had fun too.


Hayden with clown nose-that lights up!!

These are the days I love staying home with the boys!

Imagine my surprise when I walked into pick Hayden up from school and this is what I found. . .


After my initial shock-I calmed myself down from what I knew was going to be messy-I was excited about the fun Hayden was having. For the last several weeks Hayden has had an imaginary friend-Sulley (from Monster's Inc.). Sulley goes most everywhere with us and we have been using it to our advantage, if Hayden won't do something we tell him that Sulley is doing it and it works well! On this day-he was no longer Hayden-he became Sulley and acted "in character" all day! I had so much fun playing with him and enjoying this moment.

It was a beautiful day outside today. Our friend Luke came over and we got to enjoy a picnic lunch and play outside. The boys have so much fun together. We spent all afternoon outside enjoying the warm weather!

New York City Here we Come!

I got to drive thru New York on Friday. Steve decided he would take the day off and we would go check out a granite place in New Jersey. I decided I would drive and let him handle the boys. Well. . .I didn't know I would be driving in the Bronx and in Manhattan to get there. It was so neat-the Bronx really does look like it does in the movies. We saw all kinds of high rise apartments and each of them had their own park with people outside playing basketball! Traffic was horrible but I still want to go back! It didn't take us that long to get to New York but I still think next time we will take the train in. The granite place in New Jersey was well worth the trip-we are getting new granite for our kitchen and bathroom this week!!

Henry

Henry throwing snowballs!

Hayden and Henry blowing bubbles!

Everyone who knows me knows how special this child is to me. I was so thankful to Chad for bringing Henry over on Easter. The boys got to spend time together and we got to spend time with Chad. Thanks Chad!

Easter

Hayden and Logan decorating Easter Eggs.
Christmas morning. . . oh wait it is Easter morning. The Easter Bunny and my Mother in law went crazy! The boys had so much fun.

The Easter Bunny brought Rocket to Grayson and that is all he cared about. Grayson would not participate in the Easter Egg hunt or any other acitivities for the day.

Hayden riding his Buzz scooter---but he keeps asking daddy where daddy's scooter is!

Grandpa and Hayden pretending to eat fish in a teepee at the Children's Museum.

Papa was teaching all three boys the alphabet in the old school house.

Grandma's birthday and Easter were fun. Steve and I volunteered to paint some of his parents house and we had fun doing that. There were multiple funny moments! We had fun playing with cousin Logan and seeing how big he is getting.

Kalahari

This is how excited we were to finally arrive at Kalahari!!
Hayden learning to bowl.

The Easter Bunny coming to tuck everyone in!

Steve and Hayden coming down the blue slide!!

Part of the water park!

One day standing outside of preschool my friend Monica told me about this wonderful place called Kalahari. . . I had no idea what she was talking about but she started getting all excited. I rushed home and checked it out http://kalahariresort.com/hub/ and found out that it would be on the way to see Grandma and Papa for Easter. We booked a room and now this is my new FAVORITE PLACE! Seriously, it was wonderful. The indoor waterpark was huge, Hayden learned to bowl, the boys got to play in the arcade, the Easter Bunny came to read the boys a bedtime story and tuck them into bed. I am ready to go back!