April 1st - April 5th

Well, Declan's birthday week is finally over! What an extravaganza! He had FOUR parties and I was lucky enough to be invited to all of them. One party with his friends at one of those bounce places, one party at his preschool, one party with his immediate family ON his actual day and the last party was his "family" party with all the cousins on Sunday. It has been a whirlwind and although it was fun, I'm glad it's over. I'm that kind of girl, I guess. I like my routine, I like "normal" more than extraordinary. For example, although I enjoy vacations, I'm always, always happy to be home. I was even homesick (a little) on our honeymoon in Tahiti - LOL.

Here's Declan blowing out the candles on his cake at the family/cousins party. We had about 30 people in our tiny house, but it was fun (and exhausting). Happy Birthday big guy!

To add a little more excitement to the week, we also went to an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday (the day before Declan's big party). This is a picture of Brian's brother Kevin holding Brendan. What is so special to me is that Brendan is actually snuggly and content with Kevin. Brendan is generally not the type of baby to let anyone but me hold him, and he seems to especially not like it when men try to hold him (poor Grandpa), but he likes Kevin. So cute.

Here is Brendan wearing the glasses from one of Declan's birthday presents (from his little pal Sophie). She got him a DJ Lance wig with glasses (from Yo Gabba Gabba, which you know if you have a preschooler). Brendan LOVES the glasses. It just tickles him to pieces. I think it's because I wear glasses in the morning and NEVER ever let him touch them!

Here is Brendan in the garden - just enjoying the little "preview of Spring" that we were all enjoying until Sunday, when we got hit with a snowstorm - yuck.

And here is the birthday boy himself, on his actual birthday. He was opening one of his presents - Bendaroos, which are one of the worst toys ever but they have relentlessly advertised them on one of the kid's channels that Declan likes, so he has been asking for them since Christmas. I broke down and ordered them and he is thrilled with them. They are, basically, sticky pieces of string that you can (sort of) stick together to create "things", like butterflies and spiders. They have this little booklet (that he is reading here) that shows all these magnificent creations that you can make with Bendaroos, but in reality, even an adult would have a hard time replicating the creations they have in the booklet. Declan is just as happy making his OWN creations. He likes that I let him stick them on the door to make "pictures". He is still at an age where he is easily amused.