Andrew's Birthday Party

Andrew's birthday party was a great success! We had lots of family around, lots of friends, and lots of fun.

















Happy birthday, Andy bear!
Thanks for being the kind, lovable, adorable little boy that you are. Your sweet temperment makes being around you a joy!
You keep us laughing with your silly antics.
You keep us guessing what your little mind is thinking.
You are such a charmer.
You are still Mommy's boy.
You are Will's best friend.
And we all love you more than you will ever know.

T-ball Practice

T-ball season has begun! Will and Dan had their first practices the weekend of Andrew's birthday party, so all of the fam got to share in the action. And a bonus...Gigi takes awesome pictures that my poor little camera just can't manage.
As a mom, I have to say that it is pretty exciting watching our little boy out there playing! And Dan is a great coach, which I knew he would be. He has so much patience and you could already see improvement in the kids in just one day. I think this is something that he has been looking forward to for years.
Friday night:
And you know the birthday boy got to play too...

with Jabo!






Saturday afternoon:

Easter

We headed to Jackson for Easter to spend the long weekend at Nonnie and Papaw's house. It was a great weekend with lots of time spent outside and lots of playing.
And on Saturday morning our close little friend, Emily Kay, had her 4th birthday party. We were so excited to be in town so that we could go to the party. The boys loved getting to see some of their out-of-town friends and so did Dan and I.


Saturday afternoon, we dyed Easter eggs with Nonnie and Papaw.

Notice the whisk in Andrew's hand. Well, that worked pretty well in keeping Andrew from smashing the eggs to smithereans...

but notice the large blue-purple-puce colored spill all over the tablecloth is this picture? We did not come up with a good solution to keep him from spilling the mugs of dye all over the place. Oh well! Memories right?


Sunday, the Easter bunny showed up with lots of fun goodies and Easter eggs hidden all over the backyard.




We then went to a beautiful Easter mass at St. Richard's.



Afterwards, it was back to Nonnie and Papaw's for a yummy lunch and more time enjoying the nice weather outside.
It was truly a beautiful and blessed Easter weekend for this family.

Easter Egg Hunt

We went to the annual Easter Egg hunt at the MSU president's home on Monday evening. The boys had a great time as usual.

Scouting out the good eggs...

And they're off...

Will was all over it this year. Andrew picked up 2 eggs which is 1 more than last year, so we consider that a pretty good improvement.

Will and his friends, Enzo and James.

These goofy boys make getting a cute posed picture next to impossible, so I take what I can get. :)

Dan's Influences

One thing I have always pictured for our boys since they were wee ones, is sharing a love of the hobbies that Dan enjoys. I just always knew that Will and Andrew would love sports, hunting, and all those other "guy things" and that it would be something that they could bond with Dan over. Well, I think this weekend is a perfect example of how that picture is coming more and more true.
Dan, Will, and Andrew started the morning off by going fishing with Dan's boss, Tim. The boys absolutely love going out on Mr. Tim's boat and it is really a treat anytime Dan asks if they want to go along.
After returning from the early morning fishing trip, we all loaded up to go to the International festival on campus. This is always so fun and we all love trying the yummy international fare.
Of course, the only picture I actually took at the event was Will holding this super messy popsicle.

(Ha! After I went back through this post, it seems like this event is a little out of place with the "theme" but we will call "enjoying good food" another influence of Dan.)

And I shouldn't be surprised by this any more, but our kids did not want to go home without fitting in some sort of sporting event on the day. So, we stopped in the junction and let them hit some "baseballs" (we improvised with tennis balls from Dan's office) and run around for a little while.
I think that it is clear this was the highlight of the day.




Dan is truly inspiring these boys to be as big a sports' fan as he is....and I wouldn't want it any other way. :)