Catch Up

As usual, I'm playing catch up!  (Click on the pictures to enlarge them!)

While Aunt Neci was here, we took cupcakes to Kemper's class to celebrate his birthday!  It just so happened that the class Easter egg hunt and party was that day so we were able to help with that.  Neci and I both left thanking our lucky stars that we are not preschool teachers! :)  After that, we spent the afternoon dying Easter eggs.  It was Kemper's first time and he enjoyed it.  Patience still isn't his strong suit and we had to convince him to leave the eggs in the cups long enough for them to actually hold some color but we ended up with a dozen colorful eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide!

(Clockwise from top left: Mrs. Trish and Kemper while his class sang happy birthday, Mommy and her boys in Kemper's class, dying Easter eggs, concentrating hard, Neci helping Kemper, Mommy and Kemper) 

For Kemper's birthday, we spent the day in Nashville with Joey and Casey at the zoo!  Apparently, the busiest day at the Nashville zoo happens to fall on the Saturday before Easter.  This is when they have their Eggstravaganzoo (Easter Egg Hunt).  Also, the day before and day after are the second busiest days of the year....we happened to be there the day before.  I've never seen the line to get in wrapped so far into the parking lot.  Since we'd made the drive down and Joey & Kemper were dead set on going, we braved the crowds.  It wasn't so bad once we got in and we all had a great time! 

After the zoo, Kemper requested the place that cooks with fire for his birthday dinner so off to the Japanese steakhouse we went.  He and Joey had a great time (and gave our chef a hard time in the process)!  A little superhero play rounded out Kemper's 4th birthday (Batman and Stargirl showing off their capes).  

Aunt Neci headed home the night before Easter (we were so sad to see her go!) so that left Mommy on bunny duty.  Baskets were successfully assembled and deposited but just as eggs were being hidden, a certain someone decided that I wasn't paying enough attention to him so only 6 eggs ended up hidden for Easter morning.  Kemper lost interest after egg #3 though so no harm there!  After checking out the Easter baskets, Casey and Joey came over and we got ready to head onto post for what has become our annual Easter Brunch (p.s. Casey - you are coming back to Clarksville next Easter to continue the tradition, right?!).  We met up with Jenny, Sam and her parents and had a great time!  Kemper especially enjoyed the chocolate fountain!

It appears that our phase of being scared of holiday figures is over because Kemper was obcessed with the Easter Bunny this year.  He wanted him to be at our table the entire time and couldn't wait to have his picture taken with him.  He gave him hugs, insisted that the bunny give me hugs and was constantly asking where the bunny was.  At one point, he told me that he saw a girl inside the bunny but I was able to convince him that the Easter bunny had to be tired from delivering baskets all night so his helpers were probably at the brunch.  Thank goodness he didn't decide to play 20 questions after that explanation.  

This little guy is doing so great!  He has his moments, as all newborns do, but for the most part he's such a good, sweet baby and we're all completely wrapped around his little fingers.  We were lucky enough to have Aunt Neci here for the first week of James's trip to Ft. Carson and then, after a particularly rough night flying solo, Grandma Rita came to my rescue and came back out for another visit.  We all enjoyed their visits and the company! :)  I am truly grateful for their help - even though Kemper is pretty independent and a big helper with Hudson, I was (and still am) trying to get into a good routine with both boys and was completely overwhelmed with James out of town.  He's got another trip coming up next week but hopefully we'll all survive with as few meltdowns as possible!  Kemper and I had our routine down to a science when we would fly solo but it's amazing how adding a new little person to the mix can shake things up so much! 

Since James was at Ft. Carson for Kemper's birthday, we decided to hold off on having his party until James got back.  His party is deserving of it's own post though - everyone had so much fun!