Spring is in the air!

Spring is officially here and with that comes a breath of fresh air and a new start. Trees are budding, flowers are blooming and the weather is lovely (most of the time). I’ve been enjoying reading blogs lately and some of my favorites are those where people are just filling everyone in on their day to day lives. In that vein, I decided to start this blog, to keep friends and family, near and far, aware of the day to day, or week to week activities of my lovely little family: Chad, myself and Riley (almost 20 months old!) as well as Niki, our beagle mix, who Riley refers to as Kiki. 2008 was an extremely tough year for my family and I am thankful to all the friends and family who have been there for us and supported us. We wouldn’t be where we are without you. 2009 is shaping up to be a much better year for us and so I figured I would share it with all of you. You were with us through the bad times, so now enjoy the good times with us also!

This past weekend really reminded me of what is good in life: being surrounded by family and friends. Our weekend started with dinner on the patio at Uncle Julio’s. It almost rivals the patio at Joe Ts! Chad & I had just picked Riley up from daycare where we were informed that Riley had gotten bit by another student on the arm. They always give us an accident report when this happens and they never will tell us who the biter is. Unfortunately, Riley is usually the instigator… Well, we are sitting on the patio eating when suddenly I notice red teeth marks on Riley’s arm! We couldn’t believe it! It had been at least 3 hours since he had gotten bit, but there on there on his arm, plain as day were someone else’s teeth prints! We took a picture because we couldn’t believe it!



My parents had just returned on Friday from a Spring Break vacation to Hawaii (so jealous!) and since they were really missing Riley (and we were missing them) I took Riley over to play on Saturday afternoon while Chad went to an Opera meeting. Of course, before we could leave our house Riley insisted upon wearing these shoes that his Aunt Janeece gave him, which un-lucky for us have squeakers in the soles. With every step you hear “squeak, squeak”, which, let me tell you, after 6 hours, gets really annoying. But of course I am a sucker for whatever Riley wants so I grudgingly put the squeaker shoes on his feet, but brought his trusty boots along as well, just in case I could convince him to change. At Nana & Papa’s house, Riley immediately went in the backyard, where Nana showed him a present she had bought him, a teeball set. She showed him how to play with it, but he was more concerned about righting the tee each time he knocked it over! My mom started taking pictures of Riley playing and got this great one of him sitting on his soccer ball (you can see the infamous squeak shoes in the shot):




My dad also got this great shot (I told him it was arty!):




Of course Riley had the most fun playing with the box that rolls up the garden hose. Kids always like the things that aren’t really toys best!

After a couple of hours of playing (and continuing to refuse a shoe change from squeaky shoes to boots), Riley and I left to pick up Daddy from home. (I’m sure Nana & Papa were not sorry to see the squeaker shoes go! I promised my Mom, never again!) We headed over to the see Jason, Kate and Elizabeth who had invited us over for dinner! We had a great time at their house, admired the new exterior paint job they had just done to their home, held our sweet god-daughter Elizabeth and ate a lovely dinner on their back porch (Jason, no comments on the food okay? It was your company that mattered!). Before we knew it Riley’s bedtime was upon us and I took him home to go to bed while Chad stayed to play some video games with Jason.

On Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to meet Chad’s parents at Yogi’s Bagels for breakfast. If you have never been to Yogi’s for breakfast, GO. NOW. It is fabulous. When we got there Grandmommy and Haha had already snagged a table outside. We enjoyed pancakes and Grandmommy told us all about her Spring Break trip to NYC. Riley opened presents from Grandmommy. I think the Statue of Liberty rubber ducky that lights up is his favorite. (He took it to bed that night he liked it so much!) After breakfast Grandmommy had a great idea to go and ride the miniature train that runs by the zoo. I was so excited to do this with Riley because I have not ridden this train since I was a little kid. Riley was so excited and only tried to jump out of the moving train once. On the ride out he sat by me and was so cute with his little hand on my leg, all smiles. On the ride back, he sat by Daddy and during the trip we got some great pictures:

(sorry about my fingers getting in this shot, but his face here was too cute not to share!)

After the train ride we hopped back in the car to continue our busy weekend. We were headed to Hillary, Jarrett and Baby Aidan’s to celebrate Aidan’s 1st Birthday! He had a dinosaur party and we ate a taco buffet that was really good. Riley was obsessed with getting in Aidan’s Exersaucer. We kept telling him he was too much of a big boy for that, but finally we just plopped him in it. It gave us a chance to watch Aidan open his presents without us having to chase Riley all over! Aidan got LOTS of cute clothes for his birthday as well as a few toys, which Riley broke in for him while Aidan went down for a nap. Riley also thought that Aidan’s pirate ship toy made a good seat (silly boy!):

Before long Riley was telling us he was ready to go home and off we went, where Riley played in our front yard on his Jeep, while Daddy trimmed tree branches. Before we knew it, the weekend was over and it was time for bed.

My goal will be to update this blog on a weekly basis, with the fun things that we did the week prior. I hope you all enjoy reading and watching Riley grow!