Our baby boy is 3

It's so hard to believe Joey is turning 3. It seems like just yesterday that he was a newborn baby, now he's potty trained, in a big boy bed, talking up a storm, going to start preschool in the fall. I can't believe it.

The night before his birthday, we went to Red Robins for dinner and we asked if they could sing to him after we ate. I don't think he knew what to think - I thought he'd get a bigger kick out of all of them singing and clapping, but he just sat there kind of stunned. He sure did enjoy that sundae though.



For his birthday, we got him a Lightening McQueen bike and helmet. He loves his new big boy bike and really has gotten the hang of riding it.



Here's the birthday boy with his cake. We did a dinosaur theme this year.

First Swim

Well, the pool is officially open and Paul and the kids went for the first swim. It wasn't very warm though and they weren't in for long. Here are some pictures from their first swim.





We're looking forward to a summer with lots of swimming!

TIMBER!!

We decided to have some trees in our yard cut down - a couple were just dead, one was an annoying cottonwood tree and the other was just one that would give us a little more space in the yard. It was amazing to watch - they cut them down and ground the stumps so fast. One of them even climbed up really high in the trees to cut the branches off first.

Here's the part of the yard before:

One of the trees coming down

And here's an after picture.

The only bad thing was it was REALLY LOUD! So, of course, Joey hated it. We kept all the windows and doors closed, but at times, it was still too loud for him as you can see:

Lilac Festival

This week's was Rochester's annual Lilac Festival. We went down to Highland Park on Wednesday night to see the flowers and get some ice cream. The flowers were just about in full bloom and smelled so beautiful!

My baby brother is 30!

I can't believe my brother is 30 - man I feel old now! My parents threw him a surprise party at their house. We were in on it, with keeping him at our house until the party. He came to help Paul open the pool and we bribed him to stay with some guitar hero.

The party was lots of fun! Here's a picture of Brian with the kids. He just moved back to NY from Wisconsin a few months ago and the kids have just LOVED having their Uncle Brian around to play with.

Emily's 1st Communion

Today, Emily made her 1st Communion. I can't believe she's old enough for this milestone in her life. Time is going by so fast. She looked so beautiful in her white dress and veil. She did a great job and even decided to take the wine at the last minute (and without any horrible faces). When we had practiced at her 1st communion retreat in February, she made horrible faces after trying the wine. So, I panicked a bit when she told me minutes before going up that she was going to try it, but she did great!

We had a party back at the house afterwards. Here's a picture of Emily with her godparents - Auntie Kris and Uncle Charlie.

And, here's her cake - when I saw this at Wegmans, I just had to order it. It totally reminded me of the 1st communion cake I had.