Party time

 For Jake's 31st birthday I couldn't help but think of Baskin Robbins.  So we had a little ice cream party with a few families from our church.  It turned out to be a beautiful day which was perfect for all the kids to run around outside.  Sadly, I didn't take anymore pictures.

 Happy Birthday to the guy who is my every flavor ;)

 And somebody is excited for another birthday in just a few days!

 We signed Tommy up for Tee ball this spring and it has been so fun.  I loved buying his new baseball cleats and seeing him run in them "as fast as a cheetah" and then he loves to wear his baseball hat to preschool.  So far he is really loving it.  He's definitely the smallest on the team.  Super cute!  The youngest too...I think he made the deadline by just a few days.

Supportive fans

Katelyn loves our sandwich kiss.  Rachel was standing right there so I had her snap the picture.

 He just hit the ball...I love this boy!

 Speaking of hitting...so we found out the gender of our baby.  We wanted to do something fun and something that involved the kids.  Jake came up with the idea of doing a pinata (he wanted the anticipation to be drawn out).  The ultrasound technician wrote down the gender and put it in an envelope.  We took that envelope, some candy and a pinata to Jake's coworker and had him fill it with either blue or pink candy.  I think the butterfly was appropriate for the butterflies that were in my stomach all day.  I couldn't even eat dinner, I was so anxious!  The kids had an absolute blast with it.

 And out popped PINK candy.  We will be having another girl!  It came as a shock to me...I thought (as did most everyone else) that I was having a boy. 

Tommy was a little bummed.  After the candy came out he said, "There are too many girls in this family!" and "I'm pretty sure there was blue candy in that pinata."  He's a good brother though and a good sport, he's still excited for the baby to come.

This new girl has a lot to live up to though.  Seriously, can you get any cuter??

Easter

For Easter this year we had the rare treat of having lots of family with us.  We had an extra 5 adults and 3 kids sleep at our house for one night.  It was fun!!  Although whoever slept on the love seat sofa may not agree :)  I was hoping to have time the day before to go grocery shopping for Easter dinner but didn't get a chance to because of traffic.  Luckily, there ended up being LOTS of leftover food from the reception and we were able to use that for dinner, and practically lived off of it the rest of the week.  I did however, manage to make my grandma's delicious orange rolls before we left for DC and froze them.  They were a big hit.  My Easter can go without ham and potatoes, but it is not the same without orange rolls.

Eager for the hunt...can't you tell

 Isa was SO good about sharing her eggs with Katelyn

 Careful...it's overflowing! (I love Natalie in the background)

 Kate found a plastic lemon.  Crazy what you can find in the backyard after a full winter.

 We played a little game to even it all out...

 but Kate didn't care.  She was just happy to get started with the few she had.

 Kinder Eggs!!!

 My adorable niece Tori!

 Dying eggs

 I loved Bryn's idea of doing half and half, it turned out so pretty

 This boy was a little outnumbered with all the girls, but he didn't seem to mind too much.  He played fabulously with Isa.

 Indian Bob bedtime story with Pop

 One night we attempted a campout/sleepover...it failed.

 the next night we tried a "late" over...it also didn't go so well.  Oh well, at least they had plenty of time to play during the day.

 We took the family into town for our famous Princeton campus tour with some Bent Spoon ice cream.  (Does anybody else have kids that love collecting garbage?)

 Is that a secret handshake with Pop?

 I love this picture of Grammie getting a good angle.  Can't wait to see that picture :)

 Cruising "campus" (for some reason Tommy really loves that word)

Our visitors slowly trickled out as the week went on.  We loved every minute of it and I really would do it all again tomorrow.  Thanks again to Steve for getting married out East.  And I can't wait to see everyone again for the family reunion next month.

Wedding in Washington DC

 For our spring break we headed down to DC for Jake's brother Steve's wedding.  We started the trip off with a visit to the zoo.  The last time we went to a zoo was over two years ago.  I think Kate was a month old.  So this was her first experience, and it did not disappoint...plus, you can't beat the price (I LOVE DC!)

 

 The sea otters were so personable.  We pointed out to Tommy how they flip in the water, to which he replies, "Yeah, I can swim like that."

 

As always, climbing

  Rachel spotted the cotton candy and insisted she spend her very own money to buy it (because Jake and I refused).  She was SO excited, and the best part of it all was that she was willing to use more of her money to get Tommy and Kate some too.

 The lion was a highlight of our visit.  He must have been hungry because he was pacing back and forth and letting out a good loud "ROAR."  It was really awesome.

 Another favorite was getting up close with the orangutans.  Kate tried to share some of her pretzels...he wasn't interested.

 We went downtown with the whole Herway crew and saw the monuments.  I wasn't to good about taking pictures.  There were plenty of shutters going off so I'm hoping to get me some of those ;)  ;)
Plus, it was really quite cold.  We were a little bummed that we missed the cherry blossoms this year.

 Inspired by Benjamin

 Jed to the rescue!  Tommy think he's invincible.  I can't remember if he was thinking he could jump that or what, but he's crazy

 

 Lots of cousin time!

 The big day!  Steve and Felicia tied the knot.  It was an incredible ceremony.

 I love this picture...I don't know whose hand it is, but I love Tommy's guilty face.

 Can this count as our Easter picture?  I forgot to get a picture Easter morning before church.

 Two peas in a pod.  These girls got along famously.  I'm trying to think the last time they saw each other...maybe two years ago, and they picked up playing as if they saw each other yesterday.

 After an unanticipated grueling day in the car with lots of traffic and getting lost, we finally made it to northern NJ for the reception

 This girl was a dancing queen!  She can be shy and hesitant to go to people sometimes, but something about that music, brought her right out of her shell.

 The kids had an absolute blast!  Rachel surprised me with some gangam style?  Boy I feel like an old fashioned parent sometimes.  They went strong well into the late hours. 

You would think with all that energy output, way past bedtime, the hour long drive home in the dark would have put them to sleep.  But no, sugar can do some amazing things.  We were even one minute from home when Kate decided to let it all out.