Tubby Time!

Two little cuties in the tubby!

Asian Dinner Night!

The three lovely hostesses of the Amberly Angels' (neighborhood womens group) Asian Dinner Night! As I've posted about before, I organize the events for this group of women and we've had some great ones this last year with the help of so many willing hostesses! This event took place at the end of March.

The yummy asian dishes and pretty table.

The dumpling making contest!

I was far from being a winner, oh well! :)

The whole group of ladies!

A Trip to Asheville in March!

Ayden drew a picture for Grandma Betty!

We got to spend some time with our newest little Asheville cousin, Alexandria! She is about two and a half months older than Gabriel. She's a cutie!

We had fun playing at the park and having a picnic! It was a great trip!

More Cousins...

Our Raleigh Cousins, Frank and Sonja are going to have another little cousin (cousin to all of us Q's), due in late September! We are so excited for them!

More Life & Science...

Ayden playing inside a pretend rocket!

Gabriel realizing the cause and effect rule in action with a ball rolling down if you put it at the top of the ramp. :)

Gabriel enjoying the little play area at the museum.

Durham Museum of Life & Science

Ayden and the real astronaut suits! This display at this Museum really solidified Ayden's love of all things outer space! This was in early March when we started thinking about our trip to the NASA Kennedy Space Center! Can't wait!

Ayden checking out the difference between human and cow bones!

Ayden looking at different objects under the microscope!

Watching the "dots" fall on us and holding them up with our hands. It was some visual display, wish I could explain it. :)

Ayden loved the kids discovery area about taking care of animals. He spent about an hour or more taking care of the chickens, pigs, horses like he was a real vetrenarian! Ayden loves, loves, loves this museum! We are now members of the Museum of Life & Science. I'm so glad Ayden loves museums...much better than those parks with roller coasters!

Ayden's Creations!

I just love the things that Ayden creates...he is so imaginative, it really amazes me most days! His legos (duplos) were the best toy purchase that we ever made for him...they have provided countless hours of creative play time for him. The pillow pictured above is the "Kylaan (I don't know how to spell her name)" pillow that Lucy and Ayden each made together.

Goofing Around With Lucy!

These two are such good friends! Lucy is one of Ayden's neighbor friends who lives right across the street! They knock on each other's doors nearly everyday and almost never get tired of each other. They have so much fun together since they have such similar personalities...talkative, very creative and outgoing! I think they made a house here and were having a grand old time!

Gabriel's Favorite Things...

These photos are from early March, showing one of Gabriel's favorite activities...rummaging through the bathroom cupboards of course! He is currently 3 months older than these photos and this is still very much a part of his morning shower routine with Daddy and sometimes Ayden if he is up early enough! Gabriel gets up nearly every day at 6 am!

Can I Play With My Neighbors?

I hear this question (Can I Play With My Neighbors?) at least twice a day, if not more from my little bundle (or should I say big bundle) of energy named Ayden! He loves, craves, ok...he is pretty much obsessed with his neighbor friends and therefore interaction with other kids! He is a complete extravert, gets filled up by being around other people that he enjoys. He does play well by himself for some time, but he longs to be with others. I think he loves the fact also that his neighbor's houses are right next to ours (I mean about 8-10 ft apart), so it is that much easier to knock on one of their doors to play!
This was in either very late Feb or early March of this year. These photos are of one of our many trips to play outside in the empty lots near our development. The kids love to explore the hills, mud, rock piles, you name it! Pictured are two of Ayden's neighbor friends, "Big Gabe" (as Ayden calls him because Ayden's younger brother is of course Little Gabriel) and his sister Layla. They went on a trip to the "Big Hill" and succeeded at throwing rocks down into the pools of water below! What will we do when all the houses are built?

Gabriel went along for the ride too in the Ergo! Cutie!

Day Trip to Pittsboro

Another outing while Granny and Papi were visiting in late February/early March was a trip to this small old town about 45 minutes west of our house called Pittsboro, NC. It was originated in 1787 and has some historic sites. One is the old county courthouse, which is right in the middle of the old town. Another place of interest is this old soda shop that used to be a pharmacy. Here are Ayden and Julio enjoying one of the old fashioned cherry sodas!

Cheese!

And the ice cream sundae! Not pictured was this awesome cherry soda with vanilla ice cream that I had...it was soooooo good! :)

The Beach, Here We Come!

I am still here at my home, but my mind is at the beach! Hence this ocean-like background that I chose! One more week until my first Summer vacation in two years! We've had off season vacations, but nothing in the Summer in two years due to a certain little someone in our house! The countdown has begun! Beach in T-8 days!

Parents Visit - 2 weeks in late February

Gabriel had lots of fun playing with Papi!

Building towers of cups and knocking them down...one of the favorite activities at 10 months!

Also a fav...playing in the dishwasher! He still loves doing this!

Tunnel crawling! This thing has given both the kids hours of fun!

Stacy's 40th!

All the neighborhood ladies surprised our friend Stacy for her 40th Birthday! (Stacy is the one in the middle, Deb on the right and Jamy on the left) We all had a get together planned and it worked out perfectly that it was on her big day and so we all had some dinner and cheesecake at the C. Factory and then saw a movie! Fun night!

All Boys Playdate!

Here's Ayden having a fun playdate with some of his neighborhood pals, Gavin, Bennett and Sebastian.

Pizza Making Playdate!

In late February, the planner for Ayden's Friday playgroup planned a pizza making date at The Loop pizza restaurant! Ayden loved it! It was quite a unique playgroup activity and we got to tour their restaurant, which included going in a gigantic (or "bigantic" as Ayden likes to call it) refridgerator and freezer! Granny went with us while they were visiting that month. We had a lot of fun!

Here are all the kids in the group enjoying the pizza that they made! :)

February Happenings...

So, again...going back to catch up...this was one of Ayden's creations that amused me. It is still all about robots. :) I just love the things he makes with bristle blocks...we need more of them, but he gets pretty creative with just the small set that we have. :)

We decorated the playroom with old hearts that we made back at Stanford. I took two pieces of wax paper and put crayon shavings in between the sheets and then ironed them together and cut out the hearts. It's always fun to pull out the old decorations that still work! :)

Play room fun!

One of my favorite parts about February is all the Valentines that the kids (and adults!) give to each other! I have to admit that I especially love hand made ones. One girl in Ayden's class made heart shaped cookies on a stick with her mom...they were so pretty and yummy! Those were a hit! Hope our playdough hearts went over well. :)