I Finally Finished!

Lily's 2nd birthday book, that is!

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Easter Party 2013

After the first part of our Easter activity filled day, we headed home for Lily to take a nap before heading over to a friend's house for an Easter party with more friends.  After Crankypants took a good nap, Daddy headed to work, and the rest of us went off to the party.

We, the parents, hung out and chatted while the kids played until it was time to go out for the egg hunt! The dads did a great job putting the eggs out in the yard! The little girls couldn't wait to get out there and lined up at the door ready to go!

Lily was super happy to be looking for eggs again.  Amy, after being with us earlier for the egg hunt, said, "It should be fun to get Lily inside after this." ahahhahahahahahhaha  She was right.  It was just as fun as the morning egg hunt ending...only it didn't last as long.

The toddlers headed out for their part first and then the big kids next.

 

 

Lily and Victoria wanted to look out the window, so what does any typical 2 year old do?? Climb up on the train table, of course and simply make it happen. 

 

 

This is where the bigger boys hung out most of the evening...talking and playing video games.

 

{little} Lily's milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

 

We also colored Easter eggs. It was helpful to do activities in age groups.

The toddlers pretty much manhandle the eggs and throw them into the dye.

 

 

Victoria waiting her turn with her mama. :)

 

Lily chose pink, green and blue for her colors.  She was happy.

 

We chowed down on some pizza, salad, fruit and cake for supper and these toddler besties enjoyed every bit of it!

 

This is one of my fav pictures...EVER! Amy captured them playing and they both cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeesed for her!

I love these girls!

 

It was a super fun time hanging out with friends and letting the kids play together again. I appreciate these women and their families so very much and I'm so grateful to have them in my life!  What a fun Easter party! Can't wait until next year!  And we'll have a couple more babies in the mix come next Easter...and with any luck, maybe more than a couple! ;)

Easter Egg Hunt 2013

While I need and want to post about turning forty, my amazing bestie and group of friends pulling off my first ever surprise party, and all the birthday things, I'm going to post about our past weekend's Easter happenings first!

I'm also pretending there's not 4-5 inches of snow outside and instead of wearing flip flops everyday { y'all know I still wear them often even in winter--can't take the desert out of the girl} I put on my stupid boots one more time to go out and clean off the car to get the kids to the bus.

After a week of super cold and wet weather, I was hopeful for Saturday's forecast of 40s and sunny since we were going to our community Easter egg hunt!  The forecast did not disappoint.  This Arizona girl needs her sunshine.  Lily was super excited to get started and let's just say patience is not in a 2 year olds vocabulary.  So we tried to distract her while we waited for the hunt to get started.

 

Finally after enough waiting it was time to begin!  The under 3 year olds go first and since it's in a big open field, there is plenty of space to run and more than enough eggs for the kids to collect their share. Lily loves to run!

 

 

Lily's bestie, Victoria, along with her parents, came with us too!

Lily left Victoria in the dust just to run run!

 

The girls collected eggs while their crazy mothers snapped away on cameras.

 

 

 

 

Andrew helped to keep track of Lily only ending up with 12 eggs at the end, so he'd examine her basket and then toss some out along the way.

 

 

Victoria was in a much better mood than Lily the whole time...especially when it came time to leave.

 

 

Hugs and kisses, of course...

 

Andddddddd then Lily realized it was time to go...she was not a happy girl.

 

 

She was d-o-n-e after that.  No good pics of she and Mama, no good fam pictures and no good Easter bunny pics. She just wanted to keep getting eggs!

 

 

 

Luckily for Lily, we had another egg hunt in our schedule for later in the day...

 

after

 

a

 

nap!

 

 

Shutterfly Giveaway--updated

Remember last year when I was lamenting about Andrew's end in elementary school and how I couldn't believe my baby was starting junior high???  Well, although I haven't finally completed his yearbook that I'm creating for him, I'm so glad that I have one for him that is personalized for his life.  As I said before, the school really dropped the ball with the 6th grade yearbook and I was really disappointed with the product.

Thank God for Shutterfly!  My favorite and go to place for cards and all photo gifts!

So 7th grade has brought me a new opportunity to create a personalized yearbook for him once again. I've been putting pictures in a folder to work along the way so come summer I'll be able to have it completed along with the 6th grade one.  I'm excited for him to have these to look back on when he's older! He enjoys looking at old pictures from his life and always has. Shuttefly just makes it easy to have them organized in a yearbook form.

Shutterfly makes it easy to make a year to remember whether you're doing an individual book like I am or your suggesting to your child's teacher or PTA for groups.  Shutterfly does both.  Check it out and preserve your child's school memories!

Helpful links:

~Direct link to the order page

~Download Yearbook Tips & Tricks .PDF

~Yearbook Shortcuts & Ideas -

~Yearbook Photo List -

~Yearbook Schedule & Timeline -

I'm lucky enough to be able to giveaway an 8x8 – 20 page hardcover photobook plus US standard shipping promo code !(expires 4/31/2013)

I love these photobooks and I'm super excited to share with you!

Mandatory:
~Follow me via bloglovin'!

~Leave me a comment telling me what kind of book you'd make {an annual, a birthday, Christmas, a child's year etc.}

Extra entries:
~Tweet about this giveaway and include @littlepunkypie and @Shutterfly in your tweet. {tweeting can be done daily ~separate comment each day}
~Like Shutterfly on Facebook and tell them "My Not So Little Guy & My Little PunkyPie" sent you


The deets:
Contest ends: My 40th birthday whoop whoop!! Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 11:59pm. EST. {open to U.S. and Canada}
Winner will be chosen via random.org and notified via email and updated on this post.


Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Shutterfly. All opinions are 100% my own

****WINNER:  

Congratulations MrsGregWillis!!!!

Steph Snippets

~Soooooo, two more weeks have gone by since I last posted and I wish I could say I've been super busy cleaning my house or I went somewhere exotic, but the truth is, I've been in this fog of exhaustion, nausea, and heartburn.  My house is a wreck.  Everything gets on my nerves and I'm just trying to do my best. My poor family. I've sucked lately.

~One week left of my 30s!

~I have very good friends who make me laugh, keep me sane, commiserate with me and I'm very blessed to have in my life.  Thanks y'all. I'm glad I found you.

~I had decided to do my pregnancy updates differently this time on the blog and due to last week of nauseadom, I'm already having to combine weeks 8 and 9.  'Cause you know I have pregnany stickers I have to use and the first one is week 8.  Important stuff like that. Oh well. Life happens.

~My new blog design is almost done! Thank goodness for an awesome understanding designer who is patient!

~Last week we had 6 inches of snow and then we were at the park in short sleeves at 60 degree weather. Pittsburgh is weird.

~Andrew started lacrosse this week. So far he loves it! They practice a lot (Monday-Friday for two hours each day) and he's sore, but it's been good for him.

~When I got Lily dressed today she asked me, "Where we going?" Ummmm....nowhere. Looks like we spend too many days in pajammies.  But really, why create more laundry for myself?

~I love Anderson Cooper.

~So with Google Reader going away...I'm trying to find the best alternative. I don't want simple RSS feeds just cluttering up my email and I'm not entirely sold on Bloglovin'.   Anyone else find something they love yet?

~Looking forward to going out for supper for my birthday this weekend with George and Andrew. Lily is going to play with her bestie so we can enjoy a peaceful meal! We're going to the Cheesecake Factory and I'm super excited that I just may get two different kinds of cheesecake!  Next week supper with my girls too!  Can't wait for that!  So far, y'all I'm obsessively thinking of Red Robin. :)

Anddddddddddddddd with that...I need to go eat something because I feel like I can right now!

Happy Friday!

Reagan's 9th Birthday!

Reagan had her first ever birthday party with all her parents this year. She had decided she wanted a roller skating party, so we talked about it, picked a day that worked for all of us and the plan was set in motion.   Reagan carefully chose her friends to invite, her mom designed the super cute invitations, I mailed them out and we both appreciated that all we really had to do was show up after that!

 

 

The party was a success with 8 and 9 year olds roller skating their hearts out, eating pizza, ice cream sundaes and cupcakes.  

 

 

 

 

 Reagan's baby sisters, both Lily and Roxy, were happy to dance to the music, run around and chow down on pizza and ice cream too!

 

 

 

 



 

The last thing Reagan got to do was get in the windtunnel fun machine and catch as many tickets as she could! It was funny to watch!

 

 

 

It was a fun day and a first for Reagan with all of her parents together!

It was a successful party!

Happy 9th birthday, Reag!