Disneyland

Nicholas, Zachary and I spent the day at Disneyland. Even though it wasn't his official birthday, he still got the birthday button. The cast members at Disney are so good at paying attention to those buttons, and Nicholas loved being told Happy Birthday all day. I think it made up for the dentist and hair cut on his actual day! It is a tradition for me to spend the day at the park with the birthday boy (Katie's turn will come in a few years) but since it was spring break, I brought both boys with me. Nicholas got to chose all the rides and be the star of the day. And now he gets to come in July when it's Zach's birthday.

It was a great day - not too crowded, not too hot. We went on every ride we wanted to with minimal wait time, and may of them twice. I love roller coasters and Disneyland, so this is a treat that I look forward to as well. We even got Zachary to try Tower of Terror and he loved it! So much in fact, we went on it three times. Now that's progress.

Here are the boys in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Mom and her birthday boy after riding Space Mountain:

And in front of the pretty purple (my favorite color) flowers at California Adventure:

Nicholas and Wall-E, one of his favorite movies of last year:

They are building a new attraction at Californial Adventure and had a lot of the lake blocked off. These construction cuts outs were on the temporary walls blocking the workers - and for the most part the boys fit right into the outlines - with a little crouching on Nicholas's part :)

We went on April 22nd, and that was the day that It's a Small World opened - and it's also our wedding anniversary - so yes, I spent my wedding anniversary not with my husband, but with the boys. But it was worth it, and Johnny was with the other lady in his life - Katie.

What a fun day - even Goofy agrees that this is what birthdays are all about - fun times with my boys - I hope they still want to do this when they are teenagers!

Easter Sunday

Easter 2009 was a wonderful day. We started off the day going to mass at La Purisima. The church was decorated so beautifully. Mass on holidays is a lot of fun, because there are so many people and we see a lot of our friends. Father Vincent makes the celebration special for the children by allowing them to come up around the altar for the Eucharist. Everyone is dressed in their Easter best and the children are so cute.

This is Maggie, she is in Nicholas' 1st grade class, and Katie just loves her! We sat by them at mass, and Maggie was a huge help in keeping Katie entertained and well behaved through the longer than usual Easter mass.
After church we went home and the whole family came over for brunch. We also had our neighbors Jason, Denise and their son Kaiden over for the egg hunt. Katie and Kaiden are best buds and love to hang out together. Katie loves her cousin Baby Alina. Alina looks a little nervous and hopes her mommy is near by to catch her if she falls!

Now it's the time the kids have been waiting for! The Egg Hunt. The weather was beautiful, not too hot to melt all the treats, but nice enough for spring clothes. We hid the eggs up high for Zachary and Nicholas and easier to find for Katie and Kaiden. As you can see, even Zachary had to stretch for a few.

Nicholas is ready to fill that basket with candy and treats

Katie really got the hang of it quickly. This is the first year she has really been into searching for the eggs hidden around the yard. She had her Dora (of course) bucket to store all the goodies in.

Our children in their Easter best - and showing off the goods they got from a successful hunt. It was a wonderful day spent with family and friends

Nicholas is 8

Nicholas turned 8 this year - my where has the time flown? Since he is April 10th, he often gets to share his birthday with the Easter Bunny. This year it fell on Good Friday - and he wasn't really happy about that! Poor guy had to go to the dentist (thanks Dad!) and get a haircut (I mean, Easter was in a few days, he needed a trim for those family photos) - but then we went to the movies and saw Monsters vs. Aliens and went to Cherry on Top for some frozen yogurt - so all was not lost.



He got to spread this birthday out for weeks though ... the family celebrated on Easter with a special birthday cake with green (his favorite color) frosting and mint bavarian cream filling - green of course.
We all sang to him while he blew out the "8" candle
I think he is enjoying his cake ... yummy - we all did! Mom has been experimenting with cupcakes and cakes with fillings and frostings, so this was a perfect excuse to try something new. The top layer is supposed to be choclate ganache - as you can see, it was more chocolate soup, but still delicious!
Being 8 will continue with a trip to Disneyland with Mom and Zach and then again a few weeks after Easter break when we has some friends over for a sleep over - stayed tuned for those photos - five 8 year-olds in our house overnight ... yikes