Easter 2013

Our Easter started on Saturday this year. I did a Springtime Storytime at the bookstore and we did an egg hunt after stories. Egg hunt + bookstore = fun!

After storytime, we headed to Gramma Debbie's house. Aunt RiRi was home from school and Aunt Chelle put together a fun egg hunt for Marino. An hour later he asked if we could do it again! We were fortunate to have a beautiful day. 

Krissy, Aunt Rianne, Sammy, Marino, Aunt Richelle and Gisele, post-egg hunt. 

We finished the day with a great meal. 

Easter morning, Marino woke up to this:

He was super excited to see the Easter bunny came! Favorites from his Easter basket:  Melissa & Doug Firefly Flashlight, the book Creepy Carrots, and Lindt Chocolate Carrots. 

Later that morning, Aunt Chelle and Aunt RiRi took Marino to see The Croods, which he loved!

That evening, my friend Chandra came for dinner with her daughter, Hannah. They live in Atlanta and I haven't seen them in a couple years. Marino generally needs a while to warm up to people, but not Chandra and Hannah! He immediately showed them all his toys, was jumping on them, hugging them, sitting on them, etc. It was nice to see him so open! He and Hannah had a great time - she even played cars, Transformers and super heroes with him. 

This morning he said "I wish them could visit again every day." 

Great weekend, great friends, great family! 

Spring Break 2012 - Part 2

Easter was a lot of fun this year. Marino understood the concept and was very excited for the Easter Bunny's arrival. This year, the Easter Bunny brought some treats, but also a toy recycling truck (by far the hit of the day), sunglasses, some books and a tiny kite. Marino still isn't really into candy - he just wanted to eat marshmallows.

We headed over to my mother-in-law's house in the early afternoon...

this is what Marino wanted to wear.

We had a delicious dinner and lots of fun visiting with family.

Monday was our last day of Spring Break. In the morning, we got together for a playdate with our friends The Richmond's, who we met back when Marino and Hayden were neighbors in the NICU. Today they are almost 4 and it's hard to believe they were ever so fragile and tiny!

Marino loves swings right now - the higher he goes, the happier he is!

I love this picture of Hayden - so handsome!

Serious conversation while climbing...

Pretending to drive...

Sweet brothers: Jackson and Hayden

Spring break is over but we made the most of our time off!

Spring Break 2012 - Part 1

Marino's preschool was closed for 6 days for Spring Break. I was fortunate to have my mom and stepfather visit the first couple days so I didn't have to take the entire time off of work. Marino had a great time with Gramma and Grampa Ray - visiting the lake, playgrounds, the bookstore and getting in lots of snuggle time. They left on Wednesday afternoon and Marino and I headed up to New Jersey to visit Sonia and the girls. We had amazingly warm weather that day and the kids were happy to spend lots of time outside.

Siena and Cat, happy to be enjoying the great weather, chips and salsa!

The next morning, some more friends came over and the Easter Bunny (aka Uncle Wil), hid eggs at the playground across the street. The kids had a lot of fun finding eggs, and just as much fun opening them!

 Can you tell they're excited to find eggs?

Meeting to discuss whether there were any eggs left to find...

Cat enjoying her treats

This is the only thing Marino was interested in eating - bunny marshmellows.

After the egg hunt and lunch, we headed back to Maryland. On the way back, Marino was already asking "Can we go to Aunt Sonia's tomorrow?"

On Friday morning, we headed over to Meadowside Nature Center for a celebration of their 40th anniversary. This was my first time there and I'd like to go back sometime to check things out when there's a little less going on there. This being Spring Break, there were hundreds of people there (I think even the staff was surprised by the volume of visitors). It was very fun, though - they did a great job of having activities for every age.

This cool game featured a hawk "talon" with a magnet on the bottom...you had to catch magnetic mice to eat, without accidentally picking up cars, hitting telephone poles, etc. A lot of the game emphasized how difficult life can be for raptors - it was an interesting perspective.

One of the permanent residents at Meadowside...this guy shares a home with a vulture.

I wasn't able to get a good picture, but they also have a bald eagle. I had no idea how huge eagles were!

Of course, all the kids loved the bubble wands, and chasing the bubbles after they made them.

My tired boy after visiting the raptors!

The rest of our Spring Break coming soon!

Easter Part 2 - Hershey Park

Evan, Marino and I went to Hershey Park for Easter. They have an annual event for 2 weekends in the Spring known as "Springtime in the Park." The tickets are half price, and although some rides are not open (primarily the water rides and "Boardwalk" area), there is certainly plenty to do and more than we could accomplish in an 8 hour day.

Would you believe a stranger gave us free tickets? As we were walking in, some man was giving away corporate comp tickets he couldn't use. Pretty awesome!

Our friends Jen, Matt, Sydney, Justin and Noah met us there, along with their neighbors, Chip and Deb and their kids Kendall and Griffin. So total we had an eleven year old, an eight year old, a five year old, 2 almost three year olds and an 18 month old.

Here in lies the advantage of going to an amusement park in the off-season - we were able to accommodate everyone! Jen and Matt had the genius idea to start at the back of the park, since it seemed like everyone was coming into the park and just stopping at the first rides they saw. Great idea! The back of the park was empty...we were just walking up and getting on rides, and getting right back on if we wanted to go a second time. This also made it easy for one person to watch the kids while the adults rode on a ride...there was only 5 minutes between when they went to the ride and when they got off. I can't imagine how this would work if there was 90 minutes of waiting involved! Going on a slow day is definitely beneficial.

The park has lots of rides for smaller kids that are replicas of the adult rides. I thought this was not only adorable, but fun for the kids to be able to ride the same rides. I highly recommend taking your younger kids there during the Springtime in the Park event - the limited wait times for rides, bathrooms, eating, etc really made the experience a lot more enjoyable for us (not to mention the lack of hot weather!).

As much as I enjoyed Hershey, there really was not enough chocolate there, except in Chocolate World! I expected there to be chocolate every where you turned, but sadly, that was not the case.

Sydney, excited for our day at the park!

First ride, balloons, they both loved it!

Marino, Sydney, Justin & Noah - ready for our day!

At the entrance of the park they have measuring markers, each is a different Hershey candy. Sydney and Marino were "Hershey Kisses" (the second smallest after Miniatures).

Evan and Jen made me go on this ride with the kids...since I was too chicken to go on any of the adult rides!

Ominous clouds, huh? We got stuck in a rain storm at the end of the day.

The Easter Bunny was there...Marino wanted to say hi but wouldn't get close. Sydney was braver...

Jen and Syd at the entrance to the Hershey's factory tour ride, where you learn about how they make chocolate. Marino and Sydney loved this ride - especially the singing cows!

Family love...

Chocolate World has a section where you can put on a factory hat and learn how they package the candy. The kids enjoyed their job.

BIG HUGS!!

I said I wanted to take a picture, so they pretended to go to sleep!

Marino started falling asleep on this swing ride...he didn't nap the whole day!

Marino was very excited to "say hi to the chocolate".

Daddy won lots of cool prizes for Marino.

Evan, Jen & Matt ready to go on a very scary ride...Marino started crying when he saw Evan up there "I want to ride the roller coaster with Daddy!!" he said.

We brought the wagon, which worked out well in terms of comfort for Marino. Lots of hills in Hershey, though, and I would have had a hard time pulling the wagon myself for the whole day (thankfully, Evan and Matt were there to help!).

Waving hi to the daddies!

You think they had fun?

Great day, great friends, great chocolate! Great Easter!