Easter in Kalamazoo

The Ellestads, Swensons, Rhyans, and Santinis came to Kalamazoo for Easter this year. We had a full house and plenty of fun. Saturday afternoon we had an egg hunt. There were 7 little boys running around the yard!

Ben's first egg

Checking out the loot

Seven cousins/second cousins under the age of 6:

Ben (7 months), Vince (5), James (2), Isaac (9 months), TJ (6), Jojo (3), Dominic (2)

And yes, it was cold!

Jojo shows off the fancy cupcakes that he and our babysitter made. Mini marshmallows cut and dipped into colored sugar make flower petals and bunnies. They were really cute!

The kids loved eating them!

That night we watched the Final Four games--specifically Wisconsin vs. Kentucky. What a fantastic, exciting game! 

The next morning, the Easter bunny had come.

Grammy and Buppa with the grandsons. The boys all have on shirts in shades of blue, which was totally a coincidence.

Our family:

The Ellestads:

Babies buried in stuffed animals in the circle chair!

Trying out the silly string from the Easter baskets!

Random March pics

All three boys sitting on Ed

Ben and I met Mom and Diane at Quilt Festival in Chicago. Each of the boys attended a quilt show before they turned one--I think I'm setting them up to be quilters! You can't see him in this photo--he's on Mom's back.

He attracted as much attention as some of the quilts at the show! :) He did really well and was a pretty happy camper for most of the show.

This is the scene Ben and I found when we returned home at 10 pm.

Standing in the crib!

The boys started taking taekwondo. Here are their moves after their first lesson.

TJ reading to Ben

TJ teaching Jojo to read

Another egg dyeing session--this time with the Leskowski boys.

Moms and Boys Weekend

As has been the tradition the last few years,  Mom and Jenn and I got together (with the little boys, of course) while the guys spent Bros and Dads weekend at the cottage. This weekend has always been about basketball, but with five little boys, it's full of boy energy as well!

Grammy made mustache cookies. It was hard to make them hold the cookies for a picture before eating them!

More Ben and Isaac interaction, including a little wrestling! I don't feel like Ben is quite as small in person compared to Isaac as he looks in these pictures--maybe it's just head size?!

Going for the takedown!

Listen closely and you can hear Isaac grunt as he tries to get Ben off him.

Grammy and the babies. The three older boys play fairly well together, but the younger two need lots of attention!

It was a chilly weekend! We needed to get out of the house so we bundled everyone up for a walk.

So cute! Jojo spends so much time trying to be TJ and be 6 that I forget that he and Jimmy are only one year apart. They are such good buddies.

It was a little early, but we dyed Easter eggs just to have an activity to keep us occupied!

Prepping the colors. My boys were arguing over who "got" what colors...we had to convince them that they'd all be sharing all colors.

Here's Jojo double spooning:

A beautiful blue egg!

The finished product:

Jenn and Ike

Karen came to hang out--we love having her and love having a higher adult-to-kid ratio!

The little boys watching the big boys play through the window (it was still chilly despite the sun!)

I kept them company. :)

Sunday we headed over to see Uncle Fred and Aunt Diane's new house and safari land. The boys loved the lion, as well as roaring at it.

Ben: 7 months

This kid is starting to get seriously squirmy for these pics! 

He gets into crawling position, pulls up to stand (constantly), is eating puffies, and loves baby food. And he really loves his brothers--he lights up every time he sees them!

Here's his precursor to crawling: the forward butt scoot, something he started shortly after turning 6 months.

 Standing by the wombat:

And the piano. He looks proud, doesn't he?!

St. Patrick's Day Green

St. Patrick's Day often gets lost in the shuffle of March Madness and Bros and Dads/Moms and Boys weekend. But we did get some green on!

I'm quite proud that I was able to dig out the "Baby's 1st St. Patrick's Day" bib TJ received as a newborn! This is his "I want to crawl" pose.

Ben sporting adorable shoes Mom got him when he was born, as well as the turtle cuff overalls I bought when I was pregnant with TJ.

I'm a big boy!

Nancy brought over green mustaches for the kids:

Nancy, Thomas, Ashely and Ben wearing mustaches. I don't know where Jojo was.