The Graduate!

Robert Paul Anthony is officially a high school graduate!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  We are so proud of him and can't wait to make a few appearances at Penn State to visit him in the coming years.  

Love you Bobby!!!!

Kicking Off Summer!

This is going to be a fairly long post since it's been 6 week since you've heard from us.

Randy and I had a night away from the kids and went to Atlantic City.  We stopped at a winery on the way down.  It was a super cute place that gave us an LM discount.  Can't beat that!

I almost got arrested cause I was taking pictures on the gaming floor.  Oops!  Here we are at dinner in Revel Casino.  It was such a fun night.  Thanks Pap Pap and Nonni for babysitting.

Our little bug is growing up so fast.  He is so cute I could just eat him up!

These are my Mother's Day pictures.  I couldn't get a good one of them together.  Oh well.  Nathan loves wearing his Pens jersey even though they are not in the finals...bummer!  Note that blue doggy is in the picture.  He still loves that dog.

And Ryan has his own special item.  He loves loves loves his pillow.  Pillow was actually one of Ryan's first words.

Grammy - what are you doing to these kids???

Here Nathan is listening to "snap, crackle, and pop" for the first time.

You may recall that my friend, Natalie had her son, Austin less than 24 hours after I had Ryan...and at the same hospital.  Ryan loved seeing Austin again and getting to play with someone his own age.

Then came Randy's birthday.  We celebrated in style by going to swim lessons, then Arby's for dinner, then home for cake.  Who could ask for more?   I did have a birthday, but no pictures were taken at the event.

 We hosted a small Memorial Day party.  Pap Pap did his signature move on Ryan.  No small children were hurt in the making of this picture.

Our friends Steve and Caitlin came as well and brought their cutie, Amelia.  She's a few months older than Ryan.  What a diva!

I must say that these boys LOVE each other to pieces.  They hug and kiss many times each day.  They really enjoy each other's company.  As a mom, I could not ask for anything more.

We went swimming at Nonni and Pap Pap's house a few weeks ago.  Nathan had a blast swinging on the hammock.

And Ryan had a blast playing in the dirt!

So, this is the end of this post, but I'm posting another one right away of a very special occasion for the family.

Ryan Starts Swimming!

This post is all about Ryan.  He finally was able to start swimming.  We had to take a lot of precautions so that he didn't get any water in his ears.  First, we had to make special custom ear plugs for his ears.  If you've never tried molding putty into your 1 year old's ear, let me tell you how hard it is.  Then we bought the band that goes around his head to hold the ear plugs in.  We were so surprised that he actually didn't mess with it too much.

When we arrived at the pool, he was very interested in what was going on around him.  He wanted to get in the water right away.

Luckily, we got a few good pictures in before class started.

Dad said he was a natural in the water.

I'm a little jealous.

How adorable is this kid??

Our Little Sluggers!

It's official!  Our schedules are packed with activities for the kids.  Here is how we spend every Thursday and Saturday!

Here is Nathan on the pitcher's mound.  He is ready for action.

Here he is up at bat.  He clocked this one.

This is how most of the kids stand while they are out in the field and running bases.  Classic T-Ball!

We realized that Ryan had to get in on the action too so we pulled out all the baby T-Ball equipment.

Ryan even runs after the balls after he hits them.  He's the perfect type of player to practice with.

Calvin gets very little attention lately so I decided to take a pic of him with our new camera.

This is how Ryan looks during most of the games.  He is not happy to be a spectator.

So instead of making him sit in the stroller, we let him play in the dirt.

Or go to the playground.

See, he's much happier now.

Chocolate, Bunnies, and Eggs - Oh My!

Before we started dyeing eggs, Nathan and I posed for a quick funny pic!  

Check out Nathan's black eye.  Of course he got a massive boo boo 3 days before Easter.  We dyed eggs this year using dye in a bag.  It was certainly less mess than in previous years.

 Ryan was actually able to help with making the eggs.  He did such a good job.

The finished products!

This is what the Easter Bunny left.

Ryan didn't quite grasp the concept of looking for eggs.  

He did however like the basket.

 Nathan loved finding the eggs that the Easter Bunny hid.

Ryan finally got the hang of it.

All in all, it was a great Easter.  I'm getting a new camera this week so finally I'll be able to post some decent pictures.  Wahoo!

Wrapping Up Winter!

After Nathan's birthday, we realized we had a lot of toys in the house.  We talked to Nathan about donating some of his new toys to sick kids in the area that don't have many.  He decided that was a good idea.  Here is Nathan giving the gifts at Virtua Hospital's Pediatric Emergency Room.  

We did let him enjoy some of his toys.  Especially his new bike.

He is also having fun playing with his army men in the fighter jet!

Ryan, on the other hand, has been up to his usual tactics.  You know, stealing cars and getting into trouble.  

Mommy tried taming him by reading him a book.  Having Ryan sit still this long is a rarity so I made sure Randy snapped a picture of it.

We've been going to a lot of birthday parties lately.  The boys love the ball pit at a local party spot.  

Nathan and his Luke loved the Easter Egg Hunt this past Saturday.  If anyone has been to an egg "hunt" recently, you'll know that there really isn't any hunting.  It's basically kids putting as many eggs in their basket as possible.  We know this is the case so we use a grocery bag instead of a basket.  We get way more eggs that way.  :)

Easter is next weekend so we should be posting pictures of the 4th Annual Rivera Egg Dyeing Extravaganza soon.  Hopefully Randy won't drop any this year!