Easter Egg Hunt

Last weekend we had our third annual Easter Egg hunt. In the past years a lot of people I invited weren't able to come due to traveling or other plans. For some reason this year every person I invited said they were coming. In the days leading up to the hunt I started panicking. We had over 50 people coming. I had visions of not having enough eggs (I had 400) or starting the hunt and then people coming late and some kids missing everything. Poor Nate spent a good five days listening to me worry. This usually happens before every event I host. It turned out really well. The weather was awesome and all the kids had fun.

Dex spent most of the day sleeping. He also wasn't impressed with his outfit. I thought putting chicks on him would make him feel a little festive, but once again I have a child who doesn't care about the clothes I pick out.
I set up a bubble table to give the kids something to do before and after the egg hunt. It turned out to be a great idea.
Asher informed me that his bucket was not a hat and I had to take it off my head.


Here is a shot of the beginning of the egg hunt.

Asher only got 5 eggs, because he insisted on only looking for the blue ones. He also wanted to open each one when he found it.

Playdate

I know, I know, I have slacked off as a blogger. The last few weeks have been a blur of visitors, sleep deprivation, and little people constantly needing me. I promise I will try to post more this week. Here are some pictures from a play date with Asher and one of his best buddies Noa.

Noa's mom offered to take the Ash man for an afternoon about a week before I had Dex. They started off the day with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Their next move was to fill a bucket up with water.
This progressed to dumping the water in mud, and making even more mud.
Then the clothes came off.
Here they are plotting their next big idea.
Into the bath tub they went when they were done playing.
They ended the day with snacks. Ash loves to feed his friends.

The winner is...

Clarissa!! I'm a bit bummed that there weren't more participants. Clarissa you'll get your prize in the mail soon.

Contest!

It's been a while since I've done a contest, so here you go. Nate and I met at Living Word Community Church in York PA about 6 years ago. During that time I was in a small group with a sweet girl named Emily. After I got married I moved down here and we lost touch. Thanks to facebook and the blog world we found each other again. She recently opened an etsy shop and makes really cute stuff. I have never personally done anything for Mayday, but am planning on it this year and want to give one of you an opportunity to participate as well. The tradition on Mayday is to leave a basket on someone's step ring the bell, and run away. The winner of this contest can pick one item from Emily's shop, but they have to leave it on someone's step on Mayday. It order to enter you need to follow my blog. In the comment section please tell me which item you would like and who you intend to give it to. The contest will run until Saturday at 9 PM. Have fun!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PickingBlueberries

Random bits from our week

Tomorrow Holly and Harmony head home. I am nervous, quite nervous. This will be the first time I will be on my own with all three kids. I usually require a lot of sleep and need to adjust to less for a while. If I don't post for a while it's probably due to utter exhaustion on my end.
Piper is pointing to our turtles, which she calls cacka. She also says cacka for tractor and helicopter. It's very confusing.
Asher still has a love for bubbles. Unfortunately he also still has a love for spilling the bubbles.

On Friday it was in the 70's so we headed out to the beach. We walked around for a while and then after lunch we headed to Jockey's Ridge. Dexter never made it out of the car due to his milk obsession.

Dexter's first week

Nate's mom and sister are down for a total of two weeks. It has been so awesome having help for this long. I have spent most of the time cuddling Dex and taking care of him. Other than the fact that he doesn't sleep well at night he is a very easy baby.
Asher and Piper wanted to share their toys and piled them up on Dex while he was taking a nap.

Tea Party

After school last week I had a tea party set up. I used a dinosaur sandwich cutter and we had apple juice instead of tea once again.

Dexter attended the party, but slept through it and chose to have milk instead.

Park Day

Last week Nate, Holly, and Harmony took the kids to the park while Dexter and I stayed at home. Asher still hasn't gotten the hang of his bike, and we're going to try to work on that this summer.
Piper of course wants to do everything her brother does.

First days home

Dexter spends most of his days sleeping. I am having fun putting him in different outfits and blankets. Clarissa knit him this hat and I knit the blanket.
One of his favorite activities so far is sleeping in front of the window and sunbathing.
I can't even describe how much I love this little guy.

Baby Dexter

Dexter Constantine Niphakis was born at 8:11 am. He weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces. He was 20 inches long. This was the first time we didn't know if the baby was going to be a girl or a boy. I heard him cry and then Nate announced "It's a boy". We both cried. I'm so glad we didn't find out earlier what we were having.
I got to hold him briefly before Nate and Dexter went off to the nursery. Clarissa stayed with me while they finished up the surgery. It was a very busy day so I had to wait in recovery for about an hour before Dex was brought back to me.
He looks a lot like Asher did as a baby, just darker.
Nate gave him his first sink bath.

Here is when I really got to hold him. We stayed in the hospital for two nights. It was rougher than I anticipated. I developed a pretty severe spinal headache (which I still have). The incision pain is also a lot worse this time. Since we've been home I've been in bed most of the time. It's been hard on all of us. The kids want to spend time with me and I just have to stay in bed. Luckily my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are down taking care of us. The kids love being with them.

Prepping for Dexter

On March 30th we checked in the hospital at 5:30 am. These are the last few shots of the baby in my belly.

My friend Clarissa was able to be there the entire morning. It was so amazing to have her support the entire time. This was right before I was taken back for surgery.