Happy Birthday Ricky!

Happy Birthday To my wonderful hubby, RICKY!  Since I am babysitting all day, he decided to work. I don't blame him at all! I hope I can still make his day great so he can enjoy his birthday!  I love reasons to celebrate!   

 

Life has gotten crazy, but not too bad! Just busy most of the time. I started babysitting 2 weeks ago for two families. One is my little Jack and his baby sister, Cadence. They are both really good kids and I love them like my own. The other family I met at the beginning of the school year. The boy, Nathan is in Dylan's kindergarten class and his sister, Megan, is in 1st grade. I am only watching them before and after school until school is out. I have really enjoyed getting to know these wonderful kids. I am on week 3, an so far everything has been going very well. I haven't been stressed about it and the kids are doing great. My kids are waking up earlier now that there are friends here to play with. We are trying to adjust our schedule by getting to bed a little earlier. We are getting used to having the kids around the house, so it's been fun. Lunch time is a little different putting 5 plates together for kids. 

It seems to be the hardest for Dylan right now, but it may be also that he just started soccer, too. He is doing great in soccer. I love seeing him so excited about it. The very first practice he said that he didn't want to play soccer, he wanted to play baseball. I don't know where that came from as he hasn't ever played any sports. I told him that we would try soccer this year since I had already signed him up and he said ok. During the first practice, the coach was making the kids run back and forth for warm ups. Dylan came running over to me for a drink and again told me that he didn't like it. I told him to get back out there and by the end, he was enjoying himself. I think it might have been because it is all new to him. Ricky is enjoying working with him on his soccer skills. I am hoping that someday Ricky will be able to coach Dylan's team.

Surfer baby, no more

Yesterday was a sad day. Ethan went from this:To this:

I don't like it at all. I can't wait for it to grow back, not as long as it was, but longer than this. I miss his little curls already. He just doesn't look like my little Ethan anymore.
Last week, he had his 2 year check up. Here are his new stats:
Height: 34.84 inches
Weight: 29 lbs.
Head Circumference: 51.1 cm.
He still has a big head and is about average for height and weight. Now that his hair is short, you can really tell that he has a big head!

Happy Easter!

We were planning on staying home for Easter this year since we just got back from vacation, but I guess other plans had to be made! Saturday morning we were invited to one of Lauren's friend's house for a brunch and egg hunt. It was so much fun to socialize and the kids had a blast. Some friends that used to live here were visiting, so we got to catch up with them. They ended up spending the afternoon with us, which was great fun!Dylan had his first soccer game Saturday at 2:15. Ethan decided to make us late by playing in the bathroom. Let's just leave it at that. The other teams were running late, so we ended up being there before the game started. Dylan did great and we had a blast watching them play. The kids are still learning, so they kick the ball any way they can, or they play in the goalie box. Some of them ran next to the ball, but never kicked it. Too cute! I think we are going to enjoy watching the games this season!After the game, we decided to clean out the van. I needed the sixth seat in there to pick up kids from kindergarten. I started babysitting this week for 2 families, 2 kids each. One family is a kindergartener and 1st grader before and after school (7-8:30 and 12-5 for one and 4-5 for the other) and the other family is a 2 year old, Jack, and his baby sister, 2 months old. Yesterday was my first day with all of them, and it went really well. The baby slept for over 3 hours! I will say it is very different having 6 children in my car!

Once the van was all ready for the week, Dylan and Lauren colored Easter eggs. They had a great time and... Ethan could have cared less. Fun times!
Sunday morning, we had a little egg hunt with baskets at home with some boiled eggs and blueberry donuts. We then headed to my parent's house for some Easter fun with the grandparents and cousins. My mom made some biscuits and gravy for brunch, which was very yummy. After all the fun, we headed over to Zionsville for church with Kris and Joanna's family. They blessed baby Colin, so we were happy to spend some time with them. The kids also enjoyed spending time with the other grandparents and cousins, too! After church, we went back to my parent's house for dinner. It wouldn't be Easter without ham and potatoes! My sister and family left, and Ricky wanted to play Settlers, so we stayed until after 9! Ethan fell asleep watching a movie, but the other 2 were wide awake. Busy weekend, but so much fun!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!
Ethan was trying so hard to get the plastic eggs from Ricky. It was so cute and hilarious! We had a great time laughing as Ethan would get one egg and run as fast as he could away from Ricky!
Of course, I forgot my camera, so I am waiting on others to get family pictures to us!
On a side note, Dylan woke up sick this morning. This was his first sick day from school this year! He is doing fine, now, but a long morning for the rest of us!

Tortola, BVI (March 25)

The first morning on the cruise, we got to sleep in until 9! We met my parents for breakfast at the Reflections, the sit down restaurant. The food was excellent and you could order anything that you wanted! I got a pineapple pancake and a ham and cheese omelet. The fruit was delicious! We booked excursions for each day, but they started at different times on each island. This one didn't start until noon. On the island, there were tons of little tents set up with locals selling souvenirs. The locals love to barter, so you make sure to get the best deal on what you want. If you start to walk away, they would offer you a lower price. It was very interesting! I only got a magnet, but it was really fun to meet the locals. Ricky and I had to be back at the port at noon, so we headed back. We were swimming with the dolphins! We met a guy who took our tickets and gave us a wristband. Then we waited for a taxi bus to take us to the Dolphin Discovery place. I bought a waterproof camera to take pictures, but they wouldn't let us take it in the water with us. Bummer! We sat thorough a little video about dolphins and then they took us in the water. We were in a little cove of the ocean! How cool! We walked down into the water where they had a platform across the side. We were all lined up on the platform and we got to meet Calypso, the dolphin we were swimming with. We each got to play ball with him, dance with him and kiss him. It was AMAZING! I have wanted to do this my whole life, and what a place to do it! I got to hold him in my arms and pet him. It was one of the best days of my life!

I did buy a picture from them, it was $25 for a 5x7, OUCH! Since this was my first time away from the ship, I didn't take much cash with us and I didn't have a credit card with us. What was I thinking? They said that they would meet me by the ship to get my money and bring the picture. We waited for at least 30 minutes for the taxi to take us back, and then I ran up to my room to get cash. I went back to the dock to wait for the guy to come with my picture. I sat there for over an hour! It was such a long hour, but I absolutely love the picture I got! 

When I finally got back to the room, it was time to take a shower and get ready for dinner. It was formal night, so we had to get all dressed up for dinner. We also got our pictures taken in the lobby. It was really cool to see the professional photographers all over the ship taking pictures of everyone!

After dinner, we went to the comedian show "Two Funny Guys," Mario and Daniel. They were pretty funny and Ricky and I enjoyed the show. Ricky's mom ordered drinks every night at the show, so we enjoyed a strawberry pina colada with the show. Thanks! After the show, we went outside to play shuffle board. I had never played before and it was really fun. All 8 of us go to take turns and play. After the game, we headed up to the cafe to enjoy some brownies and then we all sat and chatted. It was a wonderful day in the Caribbean!What a fun day!

Happy 2nd Birthday Ethan!

Ethan's birthday was Thursday, March 22. Since Ricky and I were leaving for our cruise on Friday morning from Chicago, we had to take the kids to my sister's house on Thursday night. We celebrated all week with Ethan, so I don't think he noticed!

He sure did enjoy his spaghetti dinner!

He got Bigfoot the Monster for his birthday. He's not sure if he likes it yet! He will play with it, but can't be too close to him. It's really cute!

What a great looking bunch of kiddos!