Grandpa's 100th Birthday Party

Yesterday was Grandpa Katkin's 100th birthday party! Grandpa was in very good spirits.

The birthday boy!


Where there's food, there's Hannah.
The birthday cake!


Hannah getting the best spot in the house for cake! Our girl LOVES her cake and ice cream!
Grandpa and his wife, Thelma (a spry 95 year old!).

Hannah loves singing Happy Birthday these days and is still singing Happy Birthday to Grandpa as I type this!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!!! Hannah came down this morning to find that the Easter Bunny had left her a basket of goodies.

She was really happy and wanted to dig right in.

After a hard boiled egg, we let her choose something from her basket for a treat. She chose the white chocolate peanut butter filled Easter bunny (she was nice enough to share with mommy and daddy).

Then it was off to New Hampshire for brunch at the New England Center. There were about 15-20 of us and we had a private room which was great for the kids. Even better, the Easter Bunny came by a few times (Hannah, Owen, Addie, and Jackson).

At first, Hannah was a bit shy, but by the 3rd or 4th time she really warmed up to her and would run over to give hugs and all.

The Easter Bunny had a little basket of treats (erasers, notepads, pencils, etc.) for the kids. Funny enough, each time Hannah would take a pencil and go put it in her bag. After the 3rd time, it was enough pencils. The bunny heard me say something and so suggested a pencil sharpener to go with all of her pencils.

After brunch, we went to Auntie Cheri and Uncle Frank's house for an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Hannah was really into it this year and while she was really good at finding some of them....others she'd walk right by.
Addie checking for eggs at the top of the slide.
And now we're home, recovering from all of the food and sugar of the day....

Decorating cookies

After dying eggs, we moved on to decorating sugar cookies. (I had to do 2 posts due to the size of the pictures) Another fun activity mommy planned so that we could give boxes of cookies to family and neighbors for Easter/Spring. We decorated a few cookies on Friday and then finished the rest today. We worked out a system where I frosted each cookie and then passed it to Hannah where she added all of the finishing touches!! Sprinkles of all sorts!! (and check out our finished eggs!)
After we were done, Hannah got a cookie of her own. She was VERY happy about this!
One of our finished boxes of cookies!!! She did such a great job!

Mommy and Hannah! Apparently she couldn't stop eating long enough for a picture...

Coloring Easter eggs

Once again, Hannah and I dyed Easter eggs this year. Hannah got the concept much better this time and it was much less messy (instead of a blue hand, she ended up with spots of discoloration on her hands and a few orange splashes on her face...oops). She was very proud of her work too and is already looking forward to eating an egg for breakfast tomorrow.

Figuring it all out.

ooohhhhh
Taking her job very seriously...
Very proud!

Great Papa's 93rd Birthday

Yesterday we went to Portsmouth to celebrate Joe's Papa's 93rd birthday! Hannah is still sick, but managed to keep it together long enough for the birthday party. The poor thing is miserable and cried the entire hr. drive there and back. After going to bed last night at 6p (by choice) and sleeping until almost 7a this morning, she does seem to be feeling a little better.

Back to the party.
Great Nana and Papa.

Hannah and her Daddy.Broccoli with ketchup. Yum.

Owen and Uncle Frank questioning Hannah's palate.Addie about to help Papa blow out his candles.
Nana stayed in New Hampshire for her last few days in New England. Sadly, Hannah was so sick and clingy while Nana was here with us, she didn't fully get to appreciate all of the extra love!

Boston Children's Museum

After staying home all day Wednesday due to illness, we ventured out to the Children's Museum yesterday for some fun. Unfortunately, Hannah was still really sick, but because I had reserved tickets already, we decided to give it a try. We stayed for about an hour and while she did have fun, she was ready to go home pretty quickly.

Hannah's favorite room is the bubble room.


Followed in close second, the "raceway" room that has a slide where she went really fast.
Hannah loves her tools!
Learning all about the loom.
Hannah seems to be feeling better today so we're hoping to go to the aquarium, but we're waiting until after nap time to make the final decision.

Rainforest Cafe

Nana is visiting from North Carolina this week and with Joe out to dinner for work, I thought it would be fun to go to the Rainforest Cafe. Hannah has been there once before and really liked it and last night was no different. She was still a bit weary of the "thunderstorm" every 1/2 hr or so, but as long as she was with her mommy or Nana she enjoyed it.

Here she is during a thunderstorm with Nana.

And after, back to all smiles.
She also got to see the Easter Bunny at the mall. We didn't take a picture with him (her?), but since there was no line, Hannah said she wanted to go and say hi. Of course, I had to go with her and she was very shy when we got up to him (as she herself will tell you), but she gave him a high five and we were on our way.

We are looking forward to a fun filled week with Nana with a trip to the Children's Museum tomorrow and the aquarium on Friday (with Daddy too). Unfortunately, Hannah and I finally acquired Joe's cold from last week, but not even that will stop our fun!

Grandpa Katkin's

Another visit to Grandpa Katkin's...this time Joe's Aunt and cousins were there too. We hadn't seen his aunt since our wedding (almost 4 years ago to the day) and I had never met his cousin Jane and her family. They live in Connecticut, only 3 hrs from here (who knew?). Anyway, Grandpa is turning the big 100 this year and they came up a little early to celebrate.

Hannah had a great time playing with her cousins, Sadie, Toby (3 yr old twins), and Justin (6 yrs old).

She particularly took a liking to Justin and he was so great with her.
Walking out to the barn, notice Hannah is holding Justin's hand.