Birthday encore

Grandma and Pop-Pop came down two days early for Julian's birthday party. The party was supposed to be Saturday, but we ended up pushing it back a day because our little buddy had been sick - with an ear infection diagnosed Friday, poor kiddo!

So on Saturday, we just hung around the house and recuperated. We had lunch in the backyard, and you can see that Julian was beginning to return to his cheerful self, playing peek-a-boo with his bear hood.

From Birthday encore

From Birthday encore

From Birthday encore

That evening, Julian opened his presents from Grandma and Pop-Pop, including this lawnmower.

From Birthday encore

From Birthday encore

From Birthday encore

He got zillions of gifts, and played with them all the way until bedtime. After bed, the adults began our prep for the next day's big PARTY!

From Birthday encore

From Birthday encore

Julian Turns 1!

Mommy got weepy, Daddy got nostalgic... but Julian was just excited about the crinkly wrapping paper. Yes, that's right, Julian turned one year old on Wednesday!

From Julian Turns 1!

Julian opened a present at breakfast, then we all ate lunch together near Daddy's work (Julian had a meatball and cheese.)

From Julian Turns 1!

From Julian Turns 1!

From Julian Turns 1!

Truthfully, Julian was under the weather, with a fever and a cold. Still, there were some highlights, like playing peek-a-boo with wrapping paper:

From Julian Turns 1!

And some lowlights, like the cupcake, which Julian wanted nothing to do with:

From Julian Turns 1!

Happy Easter

Fancy clothes, spring blossoms and cute cousins means... photo shoot!   Julian was way too fired up to sit still.  His well-mannered and beautiful cousins tried their best...

From Easter Sunday

From Easter Sunday

From Easter Sunday

We had a delicious buffet Easter dinner, fish tank included!

From Easter Sunday

Everyone sat very nicely for a long meal.  Julian played with Uncle Doug's keys, and Kyra wrote an entire story on the restaurant tablecloth!

From Easter Sunday

From Easter Sunday

From Easter Sunday

From Easter Sunday

The meal was followed by Julian's first experience on the Lesmerises backyard swingset...

From Easter Sunday

Suburban egg hunt (the best kind!)

Rainy weather meant the local egg hunt was moved indoors, but it was still loads of fun. The Easter Bunny was there, and Uncle Doug helped Julian pluck some nice eggs from the hunt (here is Julian practing his egg-grip.)

From Easter Egg Hunt

From Easter Egg Hunt

Julian also picked out a duck from the pond and won a sticker. Kyra managed to win a very tricky ring game.

From Easter Egg Hunt

FREE GOLDFISH CRACKERS! Check it, yo!

From Easter Egg Hunt

The local fire trucks were open for the kids. Kyra and Daria were pros, having been on before. Julian grabbed the nose of a firefighter (which is thankfully only a misdemeanor in Ohio.)

From Easter Egg Hunt

From Easter Egg Hunt

First Flight!

Julian flew on an airplane for the first time this past weekend. He and Mommy went to Ohio...

From First Flight!

Where big cousins Kyra and Daria, Uncle Doug, Aunt Katie (and cool toys like a pink shopping cart) awaited us!

From First Flight!

From First Flight!

Passover

For Julian's first Passover we went to a community seder hosted by Hill Havurah. It was really friendly and nice to meet some new neighbors.

Here is Julian reading from the Hagaddah (the traditional guidebook to the Passover meal).

From Seder

Here is Julian throwing the Hagaddah on the floor (not part of the usual ritual).

From Seder

Here he is playing with one of the Ten Plagues (in this case, a friendly frog).

From Seder

Mommy reenacting a hungry baby Moses...

From Seder

...and Julian participating in the traditional Four Questions (with some help from Daddy).

From Seder

Zoo

Julian went to the zoo for the very first time this weekend! His favorite part was... looking at dirt.

From First Zoo Trip

He's easy to please. He also saw lions, cows, pigs, and an anteater - and slept through the elephant part of the visit.

From First Zoo Trip

Doesn't Julian look like a big kid in his baseball hat?

From First Zoo Trip

Tulips

The tulips John planted in the fall came up very nicely this month. Julian gets excited when we open the front door - he loves to look at the flowers (and everything else outside.)

Here he is, chillin' in the stroller after a walk.

From Tulips

The next frontier: our mud puddle of a backyard. We're getting some help with it this week, and putting in grass so Julian can roam. Stay tuned!

Chicken nugget and a playground

Some more highlights from our visit to PA: Julian inspected and ate his first chicken nugget, and went to the playground by Grandma & Pop-Pop's house.

From Chicken nugget and a playground

From Chicken nugget and a playground

From Chicken nugget and a playground

The Next Generation

Here are a few more pix from our recent Palmyra trip. Mommy got together with two of her best and oldest friends, Ange & Karrie, and their kiddos (Addison, Talia and Will.) Here are the little ones at Chocolate World in Hershey.

From The Next Generation

If you click through all the photos (follow the blue link under the photo), you will gain an appreciation for how hard it is to get four kids to stay put and smile at once! Somehow during the photo shoot, Julian lost a shoe too!

Aunt Grace's birthday party

We spent last weekend in Pennsylvania, and on Sunday we went to Julian's great-great Aunt Grace's 90th birthday party. We saw lots of family, ate good food, and played on the playground.

From Aunt Grace's birthday party

Julian's nametag says "Margaret" to show which of the Gingrich sisters he's descended from. (Margaret was Monica's grandma and one of six sisters.)

From Aunt Grace's birthday party

From Aunt Grace's birthday party

The playground was fantastic - it had old stuff from the Mommy-Daddy era (remember those dangerous merry-go-rounds??) and new cool equipment that was just Julian's size.

From Aunt Grace's birthday party

From Aunt Grace's birthday party

Julian loves his Grandma, and his Grandma's glasses! What can we say, the kid is a grabber. (He also got to grab his first balloon, which he loved.)

From Aunt Grace's birthday party

From Aunt Grace's birthday party