Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Ultimate PLAYROOM adventure

Have you ever seen such a place?!!?

While visiting in Richmond over the Easter holiday we decided to take Caroline to the ultimate Playroom. It's AMAZING! Caroline's eyes lit up when we walked in the door. The place was filled with all kinds of toys and lots and lots of moon bounce type equipment. We spent an hour or so going from one thing to another...I need something like this at home! ;~) It definitely kept her busy...and Mommy too!

I hope the pics help you to imagine the fun our little girl experienced that day! Enjoy!


Caroline and Mommy posing in front of the giant caterpillar.

It's hard to keep my balance...let's try all four's...that's better!


Ohhh...

Somewhere under the Rainbow...

...the mushroom grows...

Caroline crawling through the tunnel...at the end of the rainbow.

And this one is for Daddy...my own motorcycle...vroom...vroom!










Hippity, Hoppity, Easter has come and gone...

until next year!

What a difference a year makes!

From riding in her new wagon to Easter egg hunts...and another visit to see the Easter Bunny of course...she's discovering more and more each year.

The weekend before Easter we visited Richmond for my cousin's baby shower (baby #2) and while we were there, we celebrated Grandma B's birthday and went on an Easter Egg hunt with Caroline's cousins.

Caroline also had the opportunity to celebrate with her Great Grandma (Granny) for her 88th birthday. Granny was so surprised to see her...she had a great day!

We spent our Easter weekend celebrating with both of our families. We had two Easter dinners. One with my parents (Grandma and Grandad) on the Saturday night before Easter and the other was spent on Easter day with Brian's parents (Grandma B & Pops). And let's not forget that we spent Sunday morning in church celebrating the resurrection of our lord...THE REASON for our Easter celebration.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and hippity hoppity until next year!

LOTS AND LOTS of pics below...ENJOY!

Love,

Caroline's Mommy


Caroline's first ride in her new red wagon.

YAH!!

A flower for you Mattie...doesn't it smell good!
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The Easter Egg hunt has begun.

Cousin Bella and Caroline finding the eggs.

Here's another one.


and another...



Lots and Lots of eggs!!
All done.


Daddy, Mommy and Caroline after the Easter Egg hunt.

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Granny and Caroline on Granny's 88th Birthday.

Granny and Caroline.
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Caroline and her horse, I mean dog Mattie.

Caroline practicing carrying an Easter basket at Grandma & Grandad's.
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Easter Morning...ohhh...a Max and Ruby video...left by the Easter Bunny.

Easter Morning in her hat...didn't keep this one on very long.

Grandma, Caroline and Grandad on Easter Morning.
Take two...without Grandma's glasses.
Daddy, Caroline and Mommy on Easter morning.

Caroline, Grandma, Grandad, Mommy & Daddy on Easter morning.


Isn't she sweet!!


Mommy and Caroline.

Daddy and Caroline.

Easter Egg hunt at Grandma and Grandad's.


Here's another one...
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Easter Egg hunt at Pops and Grandma B's.

Pops, Grandma B and Caroline on Easter day.

Logan (Caroline's cousin), Pops, Grandma B and Caroline on Easter day...oh and Goldie too!










































































Monday, March 30, 2009

Bubbles, Birthday, Bella, and Play!

Hi everyone...it's me...the one with the busy, busy, little girl! So busy that we can't keep up with this blogging...I am REALLY going to try and be better...starting in April! ;~) I am going to try and do a weekly post to keep all of us up to date on the happenings and whereabouts of "The Battens." Stay Tuned...
Well for now, I wanted to give you a a quick glance as to what has been going on with us the last couple of weeks.
First up...Caroline LOVES bubbles...what toddler doesn't right! So, Mommy bought her this little doggie, he's called a bubble belly because you fill his belly with the bubbles and he barks them out...pretty cute! It is difficult sometimes to get a good steady flow of the bubbles...needless to say, Caroline gets impatient with the doggie and says, "GO...GO...GO!"
Here are a few pics of Caroline and all of her BUBBLY fun!
BUBBLES, BUBBLES, all kinds of BUBBLES!!

oooooOOOOOHHH!! She's trying to catch them...

Daddy, Caroline and the Bubble Belly Doggie!

Caroline and her new Bubble Belly Doggie friend!



MORE BUBBLES...but these bubbles are different than my doggie bubbles??


Next...we have Daddy's Birthday, March 22. Daddy turned 34...we're getting old. I do remind him that I am younger than him, even if it is only by 5 months, still I'm younger! ;~) Only one more year and we will be 35!! That's hard to believe. I think we will then be in a different bracket, you know the age brackets that surveys etc...ask you for...we're moving up a bracket next year...oh well, age is just a number, right?!
We had a wonderful day celebrating Brian's Birthday. It started around 3pm that afternoon when we went for our couple's massage! Yes, extravagant...BUT...it was FREE...thanks to my gift card that I had won during a teaching event last year. I had never had the opportunity to use it, so I thought this would be a good time for us to both enjoy some relaxing time together. It was WONDERFUL!! It's amazing how all the stress of your day to day life seems to disappear in the first few minutes of the massage...well worth it!! After the massage we were off to have SUSHI...personally I'm not a big fan at all, BUT it's his Birthday wish, so we went. He LOVED it and I endured it! We then topped off the night going to a movie, which we hadn't done since Caroline had been born, actually this was probably the first REAL DATE we had been on since Caroline was born...sad I know...but true!
The next day, Sunday March 22 the "true" Birthday was celebrated with a cake with candles, ice cream and of course balloons...that's what Caroline had given her daddy...balloons...she LOVES them, so she knew her Daddy would LOVE them too...and he did!

Daddy's Birthday PAARRTAY!!!

Caroline watching as Daddy blows out the candles.


Caroline enjoying Daddy's Birthday cake!


So, needless to say, in order to have this wonderful Saturday night date, we had to have someone to keep our 'lil pumpkin, so who better than her Cousin Bella and Grandma! Caroline was so happy to see them both! She hadn't seen Bella in a while, so it was so exciting playing with her cousin and showing her all of her toys and her new playroom! She was so excited in fact to have them there, that Caroline did not want the day to end...she FINALLY fell asleep close to 10pm that night...but what an exciting day!! Thanks Bella and Grandma for keeping our little girl...

Cousin BELLA and GRANDMA visit...

Grandma with the two girlies!
Daddy, Caroline and Cousin Bella.


All of the girls...Me, Caroline, Grandma and Bella...and of course Bubble Belly Doggie!


Grandma and the Girls.




And finally...Play!
Yes, this is what we like to do best.
Play at home, Play in the Yard, Play at the Park...Play, Play, Play!
We had an actual play date with our friends, Maia Valenti and Ian Valenti, yes Maia Valenti...can you believe it, she was born on November 7, only one day older than Caroline. She even has the same name as her Aunt Maya! Crazy, I know...
We had a lot of fun playing with both Maia and Ian that day. Can't wait to meet up with them and play again soon!

PLAY TIME...

Caroline playing at home.


Caroline playing and exploring the Spring flowers in our backyard.



Mommy and Caroline.




Maia and Caroline swinging at the Park.



Maia's BIG BROTHER Ian giving Caroline a hug at the end of the day...so sweet!



And One Sweet Face!
Again, I hope you enjoyed sharing in our memories...more blogging to come in April...I promise!!
Love,
Caroline's Mommy