Category Archives: Happy

Easter – Part II

This year Alan’s Easter celebration was highlighted by both new and old traditions.  He missed coloring eggs with Grandma Debbie and hunting for eggs with Tyler, but Daddy was able to fill in.

On Saturday night we figured out how to color eggs together.  Batch 1 (eggs 1 through 5) wasn’t perfect, but by batch 2 (eggs 6 through 11), we were pros.  🙂

Of course the Easter Bunny came on Sunday morning.  He brought Alan a Lego, a Hot Wheels car, and some chocolate eggs!

On Sunday afternoon, we spent a considerable amount of time doing elaborate Easter egg hunts that covered the whole house.  Alan drew maps of the upstairs and downstairs and tracked where eggs were hidden so that we did not lose any.  I hid eggs downstairs and Alan hid them upstairs.  He made 5 copies of his maps so we could repeat the process.

Benny (left) and Binny (right), two bunny brothers named by Alan, were new additions this year.  They helped hide eggs and accepted the delivery of Alan’s Easter basket.  We’re glad to have them!

Easter – Part I

Today the Easter Bunny rolled through Mayfield Heights on the top of a fire truck.  This was one activity that the pandemic could not cancel.  Alan, looking stylish in his new sunglasses, enjoyed seeing the Easter Bunny along with Cassidy and Xavier, who were also outside at the time.   Easter is Alan’s second favorite holiday after Christmas, and he was ready to kick off a fun weekend!

After seeing Xavier during the day, Alan also FaceTimed with Brady for an hour at night.  The Easter Bunny had passed by Brady’s house as well, but they had a lot more to catch up on than just that.

Easter!

Celebrating Easter at Grandma Debbie’s — one of the highlights of Alan’s entire year — has had Alan smiling for the past two weekends.  He just couldn’t wait to color eggs, so he got a head start and colored his traditional “emoji” eggs a week in advance. They turned out great!  🙂

With the coloring done last weekend, Alan spent this weekend focused on Easter egg hunts!  Saturday night he did four hunts with Grandma Debbie, Tyler, and Carleigh — as each took a turn as the ‘egg hider’ in Grandma Debbie’s house.  When Grandma Debbie hid the eggs, they were filled with money and Hershey Kisses.  One lucky winner (Tyler this year) walked away with a $5 bill.

Then today Alan and I took turns hiding and finding eggs at home, as Alan just couldn’t get enough of it.  Alan also found an Easter basket waiting for him in his fort!  It was filled with a neon Indians baseball, a blue foam Indians stress ball, a Lego snowmobile, M&M’s, Oreos, and a golden egg with a Lego train and dollar bills inside.  Alan hinted to me that he thought I was responsible for the basket, not an Easter bunny.  Perhaps it was the baseballs that gave it away…

Thanksgiving!

The cousins were back together today to celebrate Thanksgiving!  As usual, there was much running, jumping, and playing hide-and-seek.  🙂

Continuing our tradition, Alan decorated the Christmas tree as soon as he got home from Grandma Debbie’s house.  He did a great job decorating on his own!

11/23/18 Update: Alan and I spent Black Friday shopping for some new ornaments and Christmas decorations at Target.  Alan convinced me to string lights up on our living room and bedroom windows this year.  We also went to the local Goodwill store so that Alan could make his annual donation.

Easter!

 

There is not a holiday that Alan enjoys celebrating with Grandma Debbie more than Easter.  After sleeping over last night, Alan woke up Grandma Debbie early this morning at 6:50AM because he was so excited to color eggs.  This year he made each one represent a different emotion.  He picked the green one to be the happy emoji, since green is his favorite color.  As he was designing the eggs, he used his imagination to create and share stories about each egg with Grandma Debbie.

When I picked up Alan today, we did three Easter egg hunts with Grandma Debbie.  Each one of us took turns as the egg hider.  Alan also did an Easter egg hunt with Tyler and Carleigh last night when they stopped by to play.  Tyler lost his top right front tooth while playing, after Alan lost one of his bottom front teeth (2nd on the left) on Tuesday of this week while driving home from piano.

After we went home, Alan had an Easter basket waiting for him from the Easter Bunny!  It contained cars (for the new Hot Wheels mat), a Spiderman fidget spinner, an Ohio State ball, M&Ms, and eggs with coins in them.  Alan told me that Easter is his second favorite holiday — just ahead of Halloween and behind Christmas.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was highlighted today by Alan bringing his Thunderhollow criss-cross race track to share with his cousins.  They loved crashing cars on the race track.  The kids also enjoyed a game of hide and seek with Grandma Debbie!

When we got back home, Alan decorated his new, much taller Christmas tree.  After realizing one string of lights wasn’t enough for the new tree, we went to Target to get another set.  We also picked up some Cars 3 ornaments, as the year of Cars 3 continues on!

Veterans Day!

Alan’s school celebrated active and retired veterans of military service at a school assembly this week.  Alan wished his own Veterans Day Hero, Uncle Josh, could have been there with the other guests being honored, but Alan was still able to hang up Josh’s picture in the hallway. 🙂

Thanksgiving!

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Today Alan celebrated Thanksgiving with Tyler, Carleigh, and the rest of the family! He loves seeing his cousins and playing tag with them. Tomorrow they’ll be back for more, as the cousins are having a sleepover at Grandma Debbie’s!

Today was a rainy Thanksgiving, so we couldn’t play baseball like we did last year.  But we did continue our tradition of decorating our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving.  Alan was in charge of putting up all of the decorations around the apartment as well. 🙂

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Easter!

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This year Alan gave his Easter eggs names and their own story. The green one (with a face) is a villain, because as Alan says, “every story must have a villain.” The other eggs are the good guys. 🙂

4th of July!

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Alan wasn’t quite ready for fireworks this year, but that didn’t stop my little buddy from being patriotic and celebrating Independence Day.

He had a blast playing with cousins Mariah and Dominic at the pond behind Grandma Debbie’s house, where we went for a family barbeque on the 4th.  Very few things can get Alan as excited as he is when he’s playing with his cousins!

Earlier in the week, Alan also ventured to the zoo with me for my summer work outing.  Alan’s highlights of the day included roaring to try to wake up sleeping Tigers, watching kids feed leaves to Travis the Giraffe from up close, and observing sharks from just a few feet away through glass.  Alan also enjoyed running up and down the ramps outside the monkey exhibit, as well as running laps around the zebra observation platform.  Alan always manages to get his exercise in no matter where we are…