Last Birthday of my Twenties!

I turned 29 today. Didn't really feel that different from 28 or 25 for that matter. It still blows my mind that I'm going to have 2 kids before I'm 30 is all I could think about all day. Who would have thought?! I know most girls have ideas about what age they what to at least start having kids and mine was 30, but I never thought I'd have 2 before I even turned 30! But I keep telling myself that I won't even be 50 before they're both grown and off to college (if that's what they choose to do).

The day was not super eventful. Mom and Dad were still here from coming back from Maryland so watched Arden in the morning while I went to teach my usual Monday YMCA classes. I found that teaching a "You & Tot" class without a tot was a lot easier because I could focus on just being the teacher and not teacher & mom!

Then I met Mom, Dad & Arden for lunch and then we went to Ben & Jerry's afterward. I was craving cupcakes but the Cupcake Shoppe downtown (and other dessert places for that matter) are closed on Mondays, so Ben & Jerry's had to do. Then once Dave got home and Mom & Dad left, the three of us, Dave, Arden & I went out to the Olive Garden for dinner.

Trip to MD

I took a short weekend trip up to Maryland to celebrate my good friend, Krista's engagement to an awesome guy, Doug. And also to be with my family for Easter and celebrate my brother's baptism, communion and confirmation into the Catholic church. I really miss my high school girls up in Maryland, especially now that I don't have a core group of girlfriends in Raleigh anymore, so it was fun to see everyone. It was too short a visit however, so I'm looking forward to more trips to MD for wedding stuff in the coming months, since 3 of my girlfriends are getting married this year.

And yup, you read that right- Brian at age 32 is getting baptized Catholic. My sister in law was raised Catholic, so when they started a family and wanted to begin raising Kelsey in a church Brian chose to learn about the Catholic faith. He then chose to convert (however we were never really raised in a church so he wasn't really convert from anything). I learned a bunch about the Catholic faith by quizzing my brother over dinner out of sheer curiosity. And then on Saturday night got the pleasure of sitting through a lengthy Catholic Easter Eve Mass ;-) Congrats Bri! It was fun though to be able to spend some time with my neice without the distraction of my own baby. Kelsey's really starting to form her own personality!

Easter Sunday we went out to a nice brunch and then Mom, Dad and I got back on the road.

Easter Egg Hunt

Arden has been fascinated with collecting things around the house and particularly the rocks in the driveway lately, so I figured this was probably the best year to go to an Easter Egg hunt. Raleigh Parks & Rec holds them all over the Raleigh area so we chose the closest to our house. I even succumbed to being the girlie mom that I thought I'd never be and bought her a pretty flowery spring dress for the occasion. Mom (Noani) got her a Easter "bucket"- we figured that would be better since that's what she used to collecting things in and all the baskets looked too shallow to hold anything. We got to Shelley Lake early and went down to visit with the ducks first. Then back up to the community center for the hunt. The areas were sectioned off by age, Arden falling into the 0-3 year old group, which seemed to be the largest group. Apparently this was not an original idea. The only thing that was missing was the horn at the start of the hunt and all the kids went toddling into the roped off area with the not so hidden eggs. Arden was so mesmerized by all the kids running by that it took her a few beats (and some not so subtle help from Mom & Dad) to remember that we were hunting for eggs. And within less then two minutes all the eggs were gone. She got a whopping 2 eggs and then another one that one of the volunteers gave her. Of course she's one so she didn't know any different, which was great. Too many kids, too little eggs, but still a happy outing for Arden. Now I see why families do hunts in their own backyards ;-)