Easter Morning

Friday, the boys brought home lovely Easter art:

And yesterday we got out all the eggs so the Easter Bunny could fill them.

Happy Easter! We enjoyed a lovely morning at church, where the service included a fun skit from the older youth group, Easter stories and cookie creations with friends. 

After brunch, we came home to find the eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden for us and discovering their delicious treasures. We hope you had a great Easter morning too!

 

Egg Dying

We took advantage of a gorgeous afternoon to prepare our Easter Eggs. After donning some older clothes, we spread out on the deck to make 18 hard boiled eggs beautiful. We experiemented with color combinations, using a white crayon, painting with a q-tip, and adding oil to the water for a nice marbled effect. The Bunny's going to love these eggs!

Happy Birthday, Ahan!

Evan's friend Ahan had his birthday party today, and while we were sad to have Virginia lose in the ACC Tournament, that meant we could be home in time to go to the party! Yaayyy! Ahan has a great basement movie screening room, so we got to see The Lorax in style.

 Tons of friends = so much fun and so much craziness!

 The Lorax - up close! We definitely need a movie room in our house...

 Happy Birthday, Ahan! 

"I speak for the TREES!" he kept shouting/
singing all the way home, after pilfering party decorations.

Brackets

It's tournament time! At 4 years old, it's high time Evan picked his own bracket. He and Mike sat down last night after dinner, one with beer, one with chocolate milk, and ran through the entire field of teams, and Evan signed his name to his bracket when all was said and done. His totally unassisted (well, Mike read the names) picks were entered in my office's bracket competition - we'll see how he fares!

Happy St. Pat's Day

We didn't celebrate big this year, as we'd just come home from a trip, and the kids didn't celebrate much at school since the holiday fell on a Sunday. But Drew did make this adorable shamrock collage, and the boys were treated by a package in the mail containing green friends. T-Rex and Al are getting lots of St. Patrick's Day love!

ACC Tourney Travels

Mike went down the other day, but the boys and I took Friday off to drive south to Greensboro and join him, and cheer for UVA in the ACC Tournament. We had a last minute addition in our good friend Kate - a welcome driving partner for me and someone the boys adore. It's only a 3 hour drive, but when you add in lunch running off a little (lot) energy and emergency bathroom stops... it took us a bit longer. But we got there for the start of the game! Unfortunately we were also there for the ending too. :(  But we all loved the little trip, some great seats, lots of entertainment, and a fantastic hotel. All in all, it was a solid roadtrip!

We packed lots of fun things for our trip, and a big box between the boys' seats worked well to corral it all. Ok, most of it. Books, new Crayola Color Wonder lap desks for both boys, books, "a guy," a laptop each, and window gels. Thanks, Holly, for that idea - we'll also take them on our next plane ride for sure!

 

  We of course stopped at Chik Fil A for lunch. You can tell Drew absolutely l-o-v-e-s "his" Kate! The Lynchburg CFA had a great play-place. We stayed too long. :)

 Game time!

Fruit snack time. Nothing interrupts fruit snack time.

 Clearly Drew does NOT share mommy's love of mascots. Evan was totally fine during the halftime mascot basketball challenge... since the guys were not within shouting range. Drew wasn't so confident, and sobbed terrified sobs during almost the whole halftime. After the game we went to the Fan Fest tent and accidentally ran into some of the mascots... then it was Evan's turn to flip out. Maybe someday they'll be as amused as I am at the odd features and larger than life costumes and funny antics of mascots. For now, even the mantra, "It's just a guy in a suit, it's just a guy in a suit," doesn't do anything to reassure.

Front row seats! 

  Our littlest cutie got on TV! Almost looks like he's giving the camera the evil eye, but I'm going to pretend he was a star.

The hotel may have been the most anticipated part for Evan. He loves hotels. Absolutely loves them. I'll admit - the O'Henry in Greensboro is fantastic! Great Southern charm, fantastic staff, and the sleeping room bath space is fabulous! (How do I not have a picture of that??) Big glass shower, white clawfoot tub, separate sink, massive space, gorgeous lighting, and sparkling black and white tile everywhere. How do I get it in my house?

 Admiring our handsome selves in the massive walls of mirrors.

Hiding. Sort of. The mirrors kind of made it hard.

Time to wind down. Hotels don't have kid channels any more (Nickelodeon and Cartoon network aren't appropriate for the under 7 set), so thank goodness for the free internet and the iPad - with the Disney Jr. app. This photo was while all was still calm... before Drew decided he wanted to push the one and only iPad button over and over, turning off the show every 10 seconds. That didn't make for a happy big brother.

Finally asleep. Drew got a crib and Evan got the pullout couch. Both thought their digs for the night were way cool. especially after Evan got to meet the lady who fixed up his bed and watch her billow out the sheets. They both slept like rockstars, no one fell out of bed, and no one joined our bed - big bonus! However, everyone (under age 5) was FULL of energy in the morning!

 In an effort to keep the peace and not have the neighbors call security complaining of noise at 7am, we rigged up the couch cushions and built a fort. Drew's under there... somewhere.

Complimentary full breakfast in the gorgeous sunroom? Only if ALL members of the Pariseau travelling party can join. 

Then back to pack up and head home. 

Mommy - I can sit on the huge marble ledge and drink water from a ceramic coffee cup!
(Mommy cringe.)

Look at me!                          Yum (slurp).                          Coooold!   

Yep, it was a good time. Too bad we couldn't have stayed for another game. Here's to next year!