J's family birthday & V-Day

Last weekend, the weather finally cooperated and the family came over to celebrate Justin's birthday!

 Lots of fun, and let's just say that, perhaps, I have not found my drink. I got a bit sick this time. Argh.
 Lots of toys for Justin and this one was one of his favorites. A slingshot TMNT!

 Both boys had "100 days of school" celebrations in the past few weeks. For Colin's, they asked that the kids come dressed as 100 year old people. This is the look that Jack & Colin came up with. Pretty good, eh?!

For our Aarti & Leela dinner, we tried a new popcorn/chocolate/m&m recipe. A nice Valentine's dessert. Delish!

 And the boys and I woke up to chocolate covered strawberries and a flower from Jack! Perfect-o.

 I learned that Valentine's day is like Halloween (and Christmas and Easter). Candy galore. The boys had a blast.

One month ago, Colin's school sent out 1000 sight words for the kids to learn by the 2nd grade. I told Colin that if he learned the 1st 200 words, he would earn a new lego set. And this past weekend, he finally earned his lego set! Proud boy and a big reward. #expensiveparenting

 On the food front, Jack made us spam musubi! Delish. And I've been more daring at Trader Joe's and we've had lots of success. Macarons, honey mustard, wasabi seaweed, soups, desserts. Oh, so good! I love Trader Joe's!

In other news:

• We went to see the Lego Movie and loved it! Even funny enough for the parents. =)
• Both boys have come down with winter colds and it's so tiring for the entire family. Let's just say that Jack has come home multiple nights this week to 1 or both boys asleep in bed with me!
• The snow just keeps falling. and falling. and falling. Enough already!
• C & J play together all of the time. Today, I came home from grocery shopping and found both of them on 1 kitchen stool screaming, "Don't step on the floor, it's lava!" 
• They are both so much fun and have great imaginations. I'll try to catch more on video and write down their phrases/stories. It's just a ton of fun to be around them! They can pretty much take care of themselves and they're full of funny/memorable moments.

8am
Me: Justin missed you last night. He kept asking for you at bedtime.
Jack: Why?
Justin: Because I love you.

Road Trip!

We did a weekend road trip to Ann Arbor, MI! They were expecting a ton of snow on Saturday so we left Friday after work. It was good to be snowed in with cousins because they all kept each other busy. =)

Lots of snow came down but it wasn't bitter cold. So Alex & Colin had a blast building a snow fort and throwing snow balls. Baby Danny made an appearance out in the snow too!

Matt is now my favorite brother in law because he found my drink. We all know that I can't drink. But somehow, this stuff didn't make me sick. It was so nice to finally not be the only sober one around. =)

One of the funniest moments was when Matt & Elena put baby Danny down to sleep. But the boys heard him crying so they went into his room and started playing with him. I didn't realize what was happening until Matt started asking who turned the lights on in Danny's room. oops. But what good cousins/brother.

Elena & Matt even had a surprise birthday cake for Justin. Lucky boy. And it was the best cake ever. Fruit cake tort from Whole Foods. A must.

Justin loved his Baby Danny time. (And yes, Justin wore the same pjs for all 3 days. He refused to wear real clothes and we didn't care. haha.)

I was drinking and made Jack take a selfie with me.

These 3 boys played together all weekend. It was so fun to watch all of them run around and play.

Ana is so precious and I absolutely eat up the cuddle time she gives me. =)

Justin was out cold about 3 minutes into the drive home!

Thank you for a wonderful weekend! Drinks + cake + family = good times.