Aunt Bella Comes to Town

Aunt Bella and Uncle Dwight are in town today! It's Spring Break for Aunt Bella and we're thrilled they came up to visit. Bryce was napping when Aunt Bella, Uncle Dwight, Nana and Amy got here and Bella snuck in to wake him as a surprise. Bryce was definitely surprised to see her, haha! Somehow, Aunt Bella lured Derek and Bryce into doing math with her. You can take the teacher out of the school, but you can't take the school out of the teacher. ;) Amy does the same thing!  All the kids were excited to show everyone the flying toys I brought back for them from Chicago, so we went outside to fling them around. After playing outside, we placed Chick-fil-a orders with Mitchell who kindly picked it up on his way home and we enjoyed a fun family dinner together. We went for a quick family walk once around the neighborhood before Nana and Co. set off for home. We love hanging out with our family!

 "Brycie Bryce..."

 Look who it is!!

 Yay! He loves his Aunt Bella. :)

 Counting the TMNT trading cards. Bella had him counting all the way to 12 while Derek added and subtracted for her. :)

 Derek was fascinated with the TMNT cards. He made sure Aunt Bella saw all of them.

 Uncle Dwight is a crack-shot with that flyer. He nailed Aunt Bella on the bum lots of times, haha!

 Andi and Ace were excited to have all the company. Ace kept trying to herd Andi away and hoard all the attention for himself, silly boy.

 Bryce improved his range with the flyers after Aunt Bella demonstrated for him

 So excited!

 Andi wanted a turn, too!

 Clara didn't quite get the hang of it and kept snapping her hands with the elastic band. Oops.

 She was very persistent and struck some awesome poses, haha!

 Derek found an advantage from having the high ground

 In true little-sister fashion, Clara wants to do everything her brothers do

 Run!

 Bryce and Clara lead Nana to the swings so she could provide some Nana-power!

 Wheee!

 Nana and three of her little hooligans!

 Aunt Bella loves Derek cuddles.

 Derek has some funny faces!

Aunt Amy scored some rare Clara-cuddles. They only last a few seconds, but they're so sweet. 

The Gradubirthday Party

My little sister is 21!! My cousin is has graduated from college and going straight for his masters! Crazy! Uncle Tim and Aunt Jenn invited Mitchell and I to join them at Pinstack Bowling for a night of fun - without kids! We were so excited for this evening... but I wear the crown of Dork of the Universe. I wrote "Gradubirthday, 7 pm" on the calendar.... under Friday. Not Saturday. So, Friday night rolls around and I've arranged to swap babysitting with Jenna and watch her kids Saturday since she's watching mine tonight. As Mitchell is dropping the kids off, I check my text to verify time and place... and realize the part is at 8.... tomorrow. GAAAAAHHH!!! So, Mitchell and I make the best of it and go to Chipotle and see Jupiter Ascending in the movie theater. Should've waited for the dollar theater, but Chipotle never disappoints. :) My family was understandably disappointed, but I had already made the commitment to watch Jenna's kids so she and Jon could go see the Nashville Tribute band give a fireside/concert at the Stake Center. So cool! After a little nudging from one or two people...ahem... I scrambled to work out a last minute solution for a babysitting swap yet again. The stars aligned for me, but Jenna turned out to be the only one who wanted to go see the band and Liz's family was in town. Mitchell, however, was exhausted from working 36 of the last 48 hours and fell asleep literally the minute he laid down on the bed. So.... I went. Without kids! :D I love my kids, but gosh it was nice to get a much needed adult night. Aunt Mary came in from out of town and she's always a blast. :D Uncle Tim and Aunt Jenn arranged for us to play a game of bowling, eat a ton of pizza, play unlimited laser tag, bumper cars, laser maze (think spy movies) and rock climbing, plus a ton of video games! It was so awesome!! I got there just after 8 and didn't get home til 2:30 in the morning. HAPPY GRADUBIRTHDAY!!!!!!

Mom, Aunt Mary, Rob and Val hanging out during our bowling game

Bella, Danny and Amy waiting their turn for bowling

These two need to stop being so cute! ;)

Pinterest inspired this...tasty... birthday cake. ;) No alcohol was involved in the eating of this cake, I assure you. The bottles were all emptied beforehand.

Dillon let Val blow out the candles, lol.

The birthday cousins!

Me, Kelly, Mom and a photobombing Rob. Well played, Rob.

Val, Mom, Kelly, me, and Amy! I love my family!

Uncle Tim was raring to go for laser tag! Pew pew pew!!

Danny, Amy, Dillon, Bella and Dwight attempted the ropes course suspended 15 feet or so above the video games. Danny was the only one to look down for a picture, lol.

Amy and Bella race up the rock wall. Amy won twice, but Bella was right behind her both times.

Amy did her theatrical waves as she repelled down the rock wall

Bella on the rock wall

Danny and Amy played the Wizard of Oz game, too and they scored the Dorothy card worth 100 tickets. Way to go!

Aunt Mary has the luck of the Irish - she scored so many extra coins, tokens and bonus ticket tokens that we were able to get several cool toys for the boys - a parachute man, two plastic sharks, a huge foam glider and a set of small wooden dominoes. We had lots of fun playing this game together! Thanks Aunt Mary! Thanks Uncle Tim and Aunt Jenn!

Fun with Aunt Bella

Aunt Bella loves playing with her nephews and, now that Clara is growing out of her stranger danger phase, she can get some one on one with her niece. This was the first time Clara didn't start crying when someone relatively new started trying to play with her. Aunt Bella has tapped into her inner pied piper and totally charmed the little princess. One small step for Clara, one giant leap for the rest of us! Way to go, Aunt Bella!

Oh Aunt Bella, you're so silly!

She's gonna get you!

Tickle, tickle, tickle!

These two are so cute.  :) Neither of them like eggs though.

She still likes to be upside down, haha!

Nothing like being all snuggled up with your favorite people and favorite electronics, lol. Glad we got to see Uncle Dwight, too!

Visiting Aunt Bella and Uncle Dwight!

We made it! We got to San Antonio this evening and the boys are thrilled to see Aunt Bella and Uncle Dwight. Dwight's sister, Dawn, made a DELICIOUS beef and broccoli noodle dish to welcome us and surprised us with peach cobbler and ice cream for dessert. Mitchell was in heaven, lol. After dinner and some hang out time, we put the kids to bed and had adult hang out time complete with The Amazing Spiderman 2. Poor Bryce always has a hard time sleeping anywhere but his own bed, but Aunt Dawn took two massive, fish-shaped pillows up to the boys and that helped Bryce get to sleep.

  

Bryce was fascinated with Aunt Bella's nutcracker teacher. He wanted Scrappy to have a look, too.

Bryce is pretending to be a puppy. Scrappy wasn't amused at first, but he warmed up eventually and started chasing Derek and Bryce around the house, haha!

 Sam and Scrappy were anxious to go outside to patrol the backyard. Big One and Little One!

 Aunt Bella teased a couple crawls out of Clara with the stuffed snake.

Breakthrough! Derek had been really nervous around the dogs, didn't want to pet them, didn't like it when they came too close, etc. Scrappy was much quieter and stiller as he slept on Uncle Dwight's lap and that gave Derek the confidence to start petting him. Woohoo!

Playing games on Aunt Bella's ipad and petting the puppy. :)

Aunt Bella helped Clara take some shaky steps

Aunt Bella loves her Clara!

Creeper Bryce waits to pounce!