Four Boys and tons of toys...: Easter Feaster!

Our Easter Weekend was one continuous blur as we celebrated it with Teeny's birthday. I guess it all started Thursday. We've been looking for a swingset for the boys for a while and Toy's 'R' Us had a pretty decent sell on one that we could save $300 bucks on. We called around and found the last one in Murray and we had to pick it up the same day. So, I took off work early and we headed to Neil and Becky's to get the trailer. By the time we picked it up, had dinner, and got home it was around 7pm and getting dark. We had time to do 2 or 3 of the 31 steps in the instructions before we called it a day. A was pretty excited to work on it with us. He's really into the tools and getting the job done kind of thing. The next morning was Teeny's pre-birthday, but we celebrated it that day because of all we had going on during the weekend. I got up early to get things ready and work on the swingset a little more, and then around 7:30am out comes A in his pj's wanting to help. That was the first place he went was straight to the backyard. He's pretty excited for his own swingset. He came out (shoes on and all) and we worked for about 15 minutes before heading in for breakfast with the other two monkeys. Speaking of monkeys, we have kind of created a tradition of going to the zoo on Teeny's b-day. We had a picnic at a little park that over looked Salt Lake and then headed to the zoo. It was a perfect day weather wise and it was more packed than I'd ever seen it. Spring break for the kiddies I guess. A was great showing us where to go next on the map and just anxious to get to the giraffes. Most of the animals were out and fairly active, except the cats. They were out, but sleepy as ever. The new exhibit is awesome though. It remindes us a lot of San Diego's zoo. N and T were pretty taken by most the animals too. I think A said that giraffes were his favorite, and N and T probably liked the train the most. A loves the train too. Thomas will have a lasting impression on all of our kids. After the zoo, we'd planned a date, but poor Cole came down with strep so we just did a little family dinner at the local mexican joint. Turned out to be pretty fun with the kids. N and T are at a super fun age. N is a tease. He'll offer something and when you go to take it he pulls it away and laughs thinking he's so funny. T has started telling us things. He can't talk all that well, but he'll say 'uh-oh' and point so we have to follow him around to see what happened. Following those two around still amazes us that we have two kids the same age. A has a memory like a book. He remembers everything. Friday night we colored eggs and I'm pretty sure that if we hadn't tried to get A to color an egg anything different than green, they'd all be green. His favorite color. Teeny's birthday was Saturday and we had another fun day with family. Teeny went on her morning run (she's training for the Salt Lake Half Marathon) and I got all the birthday fixin's out. She opened presents and then we worked on the swingset a little more and headed over to Becky's to color eggs. Once A loved the green. It was great seeing Doug, Rach, and Ava. It's been since Christmas! Holy cow we need to get up to Poky a little more often. Ava is just like Rach. Little bossy girl....but dang cute. She'd stand outside and tell those dogs just what to do and where to go. It was really funny. I just love to watch them and the boys play together. I have to admit that we caused a little drama with being paranoid about getting our kids sick and we totally missed seeing Fisher on his birthday. After Becky's we headed home, worked on the swingset some more (the forever project), and Ashlyn and Conner came over to watch the kiddies while we went to dinner with Jodi, Mark, Jane, Jacki and Ryan. Red Lobster was awesome. I love the salmon there and Teeny got pasta. It was funny though, when we sat down all the guys were at one end and the girls at the other end, and when we'd finished I realized that we'd hardly talked to each other because we were so involved chatting with family. It's awesome having that kind of family though. We had a great time and I love seeing Teeny and her sisters get together....crazy. Sunday (Easter...finally) was fun. The weather was kind of cruddy so we hid baskets inside for the kids. Along with the swingset, we got them each camping chairs. They love to have their own little seat. They were dang handsome in the shirts we got them too. After church it was over to the Jensen's for dinner and pinata. Yeah, it's as crazy as it sounds. Fifteen kids all swinging at a pinata in the backyard hopped up on sugar is insane. I wonder how we get away injury free from it every year, but it is a fun tradition. Alas, Easter was over and we headed back home for a little downtime as a family. Thanks everyone for making Easter and Teeny's birthday so fun!