Look who’s four!

Ok, so her birthday was over a month ago. I’ve turned into one of those bloggers… I’ve accepted it and I think I’m ok with it.

Samantha got to celebrate her birthday twice this year. Aunt Christine made sure she was taken care of while we were in Virginia. She got Sammy a fabulous princess cake and some of the best gifts a little 4 year old girl could ask for – a purse, a tiara, nail polish and a bunch of lip gloss. Samantha was in heaven.

For her actual birthday, we had been planning on being in the car driving back from Virginia. But, since we made it back in one day instead of two, we were able to go out and celebrate on her birthday. She picked Monkey Joe’s. The kids had a blast. Mike, not so much. Too much chaos.  Ben had an accident as we were loading the car up to come home. He has healed nicely since. On a random note, of all the things to do at Monkey Joe’s. guess what Ben’s favorite thing is?  That’s right, the hand sanitizer.  He goes from pump to pump saying “hands!  hands!  hands!”.  At least he’s got good hygiene, right?  And he just saw the picture and started saying it again.  He has a thing for hand sanitizer.

I let Samantha pick out her own cake.  She was very excited about the Easter rings on the cupcakes.  Other than the gift she got from Jon and Christine, this was her favorite gift.  A doll that pees.  Isn’t that every little girl’s dream?

Samantha is such a great addition to our family.  I can’t imagine life without her.  She is such a sweet girl.  She loves girly things like lip gloss, princesses, nail polish and dresses, but she can hold her own in a light saber battle, and can climb just as high as Carter can on the playground.  She is never one to be told what she can’t do.  She loves being active and would much rather play outside than watch TV, although she is quite the Wii player.  She’s doing great in school and loves her teacher.  She has never liked meat (except chicken nuggets of course) and starts most meals with a “I don’t like this…”.  She loves hanging out with the girls and will sit quietly through a girl’s night out with me and my friends.    In general she is an easy going, snuggle loving, helpful little girl and we love her!

Easter

I always find that when I wait too long to blog about something all the witty comments I had to share are gone.  So I have tried to keep it sweet and simple, here is our Easter in pictures.  One day I will figure out lighting and Photoshop and my pictures will look amazing.  I’ll let you know when that day arrives.

The Easter Bunny was good to us this year:That’s Tangled that she’s excited about.  She’s probably watched it a billion times now.  One of her favorite phrases is “find your humanity!  Haven’t you ever had a dream?”Hunting for eggs…On second thought, I’m not sure any amount of Photoshop can overcome our lack of photogenetics.  But we still try.I’m not sure why this picture cracks me up, but it does.  Is it the way his arms don’t rest by his side because he is so chunky?  Or is it because he’s supposed to be looking for eggs and he’s just staring at the ground?  I don’t know. Seventh Annual Egg Toss.  I’m not sure if I should be offended that I have been kicked off  Team Chaplin or not.  I guess someone’s got to take the pictures, right?Team Callister won this year. They don’t lack photogenetics. Ben got his own egg toss on this year. I think he shows promise. Carter had better watch his back, it won’t be long until he’s standing on the sidelines with me.

Road Trip!

Last month we took a road trip to visit Mike’s brother and his family in Virginia.  We had a great time, and the kids were surprisingly good on the drive.  Ben just talked on the phone, and Carter and Samantha rocked out to Justin Bieber.  Alright, that was just for the first five minutes or so.  But we had enough snacks and videos to keep them happy  from screaming the whole way there.  The weather was so nice while we were there!  We were able to play outside almost every day (which was a novel concept for these Wisconsinites). Still, with the big mouth.  One of the highlights of the trip was visiting with an old friend.   Mike and Cameron have been good friends since high school.  We actually had our wedding reception at his house.  Anyway, Cameron is in DC training for his new position with the State Department in Kenya.  We haven’t seen him in a long time and haven’t ever really gotten to know his wife, Jaclyn.  It was so good to visit with them.  I’m glad we caught up with them before they shipped out to Africa.  I was so impressed with how willing Jaclyn was to have her picture taken – she had her baby a couple of weeks after we saw them.  Hopefully we’ll be seeing them again soon (safari anyone?  Yes please!)!And of course, being so close to DC, we had to go and show the kids the sights.  We didn’t have as much time as I thought we would, and I didn’t get to see the cherry blossoms, but we did hit most of the major sights. 

The cousins joined us.  Aren’t they super cute?  Most people have a hard time believing that they are siblings, let alone twins.  Of all the sights, this is the one that Carter kept coming back to.   He’s a Chaplin though, I would expect nothing less.  Samantha wasn’t feeling well, and she and Ben fell asleep in the stroller, but I swear they were there. Carter dreaming of the day that he lives in the White House.  And Mike wins father of the year award here.  Check him out with one on his back, two in the stroller, and my purse.  What a man!  And you know it’s a good day when they end up like this.  This, by the way, is a classic Forster sleeping shot.  She looks just like my Dad (ok, and me) when he falls asleep sitting up.   I’m excited to go back when the kids are older and understand more about what a special place DC is. 

We also celebrated Samantha’s birthday out there, but that's another post. Overall, we had a great time visiting with Jon and Christine.  Now it’s their turn to come out here!