Happy Birthday, Dylan!

We celebrated our nephew Dylan's 3rd Birthday in Albany on Saturday. It was a fun gathering, especially for all of the cousins (7 + one on the way for the Greens)!
The younger kids had a lot of fun on the stairs.
Ethan actually spent most of the evening going up & down the stairs over and over again. (:

Here's Dylan blowing out his candles! The cake was really yummy!!

Present Time!
He got lots of new clothes and some fun toys, too. He was definitely more interested in the toys, but he needed new clothes because he is growing so much and getting so tall (:

Here is Lydia showing us some moves that she learned in her cheer leading class.

And Ronan showing his moves....a handstand!

Uncle Brad playing with Griffin.

My guys petting Kira (:

We all had a lot of fun celebrating Dylan's special day! Ronan was so very sad when it was time to leave, but we managed to say our goodbyes without too much trauma (:

Fun with Cousins

Here are some final pictures from this week:

Playtime with the Greens is always fun! Ethan and Macey have a lot of cool toys, so my kids were very entertained and enjoyed a change of scenery.

Ronan is singing in the Elmo microphone...just making up songs (:

Ronan and Ethan
And these pictures were from when we got back to the Henry's house after going to the Wildlife Safari. The kids were all taking turns playing in Finn's toy car. Griffin and Finley were enjoying some "diaper time" after being cooped up in a car all day.

Wildlife Safari (100th Post!)

We finished off Spring Break with a trip to the Wildlife Safari with Katrina and Finley! We used to live near Winston before moving to Eugene (almost 20 years ago!), so we would go to the Wildlife Safari all the time. I remembered a lot of landmarks as we were driving there...the place we used to go for ice cream, our old church, and my friend's grandma's house. (:

We squeezed all three car seats in our car.

We started out by visiting the village where they had a little petting zoo and other animal displays to look at. Poor little Griffin got head- butted in the tummy by a goat ): He hardly reacted, but I felt bad for him...and later, Katrina and I couldn't stop giggling about it. Sad!

Katrina and Finley

Finn and Griffin looking at the donkey or miniature horse...I'm not really sure.

Ronan trying to get as close to the animals as he possibly could without actually being in their cage!

Next we got back in the car to drive through the "wild". Katrina and I were both hoping that an ostrich would come right up to our car so the kids could get the true Wildlife Safari experience....and one did!

A brown bear checking us out! We were instructed not to stop in the bear cage and to keep our windows up, because they are very curious (:

The buffalo were in and along side the road. It was cool to see them so close up! We lucked out with seeing some of the animals up close, but we couldn't really see the elephants, the tigers, or the monkeys. They must have been sleeping or trying to stay dry.

The kids really enjoyed seeing so many wild animals! Ronan was at the perfect age for it, but Finn and Griffin seemed to have fun too. They were high enough in their car seats to be able to see well, so they both were making animal noises and trying to talk about what they saw. Griffin was "mooing" most of the time, because that is his favorite animal noise and a lot of the animals must have looked like cows to him (:

Katrina took a lot more pictures since I was driving, so I will share some of her pictures soon.

Fun Adventure

My good friend, Kelly, and I had been talking about to doing something fun during Spring Break to get our boys out of the house. She suggested going to OMSI in Portland, and after we both went back and forth on whether or not we were feeling up for the drive, we decided to go for it. She traded cars with her mother-in-law so that we could all ride together, which turned out to be so great. Ronan and John sat in the back and they talked & played the whole way. Their little conversations were so cute, and Kelly & I got to talk a lot, too!

Here is Griffin, Eli, and Ronan getting ready to go into the museum.

John and Ronan by the giant dinosaur!
This was definitely the highlight for Ronan. He and John are both really into dinosaurs right now, so it was perfect timing for us to go when they had this exhibit! Griffin thought they were pretty cool, too, so that was fun to see (:

Kelly, John, and Eli checking out the dinosaurs.

There was a big 3-D wooden dinosaur puzzle in a sand pit where the kids could dig for bones to complete the puzzle. There was also an area with dinosaur puppets and books for younger kids to play with. We were really impressed with the diverse range activities throughout OMSI.

Griffin (16 months) and Eli (11 months) playing in the forest.

The kids and I in front of the museum. That dinosaur was so big we couldn't get all of it in the picture!

Such good buddies (:

Griffin wanted to join the big boys for a picture (: He's pointing at the big dinosaur...so cool!

We left after spending over 3 hours in the museum!
All four boys fell asleep in no time, and Kelly & I enjoyed getting to talk all the way home (: We were both so glad that we went, and we were amazed at how well the kids did. It actually felt relaxing and easy, which we weren't expecting!

Spring Break Begins

On Monday we met up with my parents and the Chase cousins at the Meadowlark playground (a.k.a. Tyler's playground). I've been trying to think of some fun things to do this week so we wouldn't be bored just staying at home, so this was a good way to start off the break! My kids love being outside, even when it's cold out, and they love playing with their cousins.

The tire swing was a big hit!

Even Griffin wanted to ride on it...all by himself!

The oldest cousin and the youngest playing together.
Griffin having fun on the bouncy bridge!

Sadie teaching Ronan all about hopscotch.
Papa and Cohen swinging together.

Easter Sunday

We woke up early on Easter morning and made it to church for the 9:00 service. Our church did something different this year...instead of Pastor Steve preaching the message, a drama group performed a play called the Twelve Angry Jurors. It was written and directed by someone who goes to our church, and all of the actors did a really great job.

Ronan came out of his Sunday School class telling us all about the Easter story. "The people were really sad on Easter because Jesus died on the cross", he said. I asked, "Did Jesus stay dead?" and he answered, "No! He rose from the dead and came out of the toon." (: It is pretty cool hearing all that from a "three and a halfer" - as he calls himself. All day he wore a key chain attached to his shirt that said "New Life in Jesus". He was very proud of it. (:

Ronan and Griffin holding hands at church (:

After church we went to my parent's house with the Chases for lunch. The Henrys are in Texas visiting their friends, and Erik is in Seattle working at Crystal Mountain (filming a reality TV show of the Ski Patrol...while snowboarding!). We missed having the whole family together!

Griffin napped while Tyler, Sadie, Cohen, and Ronan did an Easter egg hunt. For more of those pictures check out the photo album on the left side of the page (:

Our Family Photo

Ronan was not thrilled about being in the family picture, but we managed to get a somewhat decent picture of all of us (:

Next we went to join Josh's parents, his grandparents, and the Greens in their Easter gathering. The kids had fun playing together. It is pretty crazy having three 16 month old kids toddling around! They are all walking, climbing, and talking more & more each day (: We missed having the Creager family there, but hopefully we'll all get together soon.

Josh's grandparents are downsizing so that they can move into an apartment here in Eugene, so they brought some treasures from their house to give to all of us...including some Tinker Toys! Ronan loved playing with them and figuring out how to build with them. After awhile, though, we found Ronan cuddled up with Grandpa watching a movie in the guest room (: He was worn out from a long day of Easter excitement (without a nap)!

Music to Papa's Ears

The drum set is back up at my parent's house, so there has been a lot of drummin' going on! Papa loves helping the kids play the drums, and it definitely brings him JOY that they all like to play! Maybe one (or more) of them will continue to play as they get older (:

Here are some shots of the kids taking turns on the drums:

Easter Eggs!

The kids and I went to Memaw and Papa's house today to decorate eggs for Easter. Sadie and Cohen were there too, so we had four very excited kids under the age of 4 1/2 trying to get their hands on the eggs! My parents are always so great at involving the grandkids in projects....even messy ones (: There were only minor spills and I think only one cracked egg, so it actually went pretty well! Even Griffin was determined to decorate an egg. I gave him an egg thinking he would either throw it or try to eat it, but he reached out to put it in a cup of dye...with a little splash (: He must have been paying attention to what the other kids were doing.

In this picture you can see Ronan's blue hand. It is slowly fading after several washings (:

Cohen and Memaw working on their eggs. Cohen wasn't feeling very well, but he still worked hard on his share of the eggs (:

Sadie focusing on her yellow egg.

Afterwards Ronan and Sadie did a few practice runs of hiding candy eggs for each other to find. They are ready for Sunday!

Happy Easter!