easter egg hunt 

last (SUNNY!) saturday, my boys and i hosted our first easter egg hunt. 

it was not easy tracking down my favorite handles for the cupcake baskets. but i love them too much.

amy came over the day before the hunt and helped put together the daffodil straws and the jelly belly carrots. thats exactly what friends are for.

before our friends arrived, tagg helped make sure the treat table was just right. translation: he tried to sneak a bite of each dessert.

when everyone got to our house, some men helped hide the eggs....

while some men (craig) shot bb guns. please dont ask.

the kids decorated easter egg sugar cookies while they waited for the hunt.

when all the eggs were hidden, off they went! emery and sully are just about the cutest little couple on the planet.

everyone found their allotted 12 eggs. elliot, emery and alivia.

rylan and asher obviously found thier eggs.... chocolate goatees anyone?

tagg took the entire situation very seriously.

the thompsons are seriously some of my favorite people on this planet.

there was an egg down there somewhere. i promise.

avery and tagg took a break from hunting to look through their candy.

why does every child go through the smiling-way-too-much-to-the-point-where-theyre-not-so-cute phase? but i love that little nugget. its impossible not to.

sully's (and tagg's) favorite babysitter, my cousin, grace. we are so very lucky to have her live close by.

megan and lexi. about two minutes after this shot, lexi may or may not have chewed through the bag and got herself a jelly bean!

the children and their loot.

the girls. 

it was such a wonderful day. i will remember it forever. 

VEGAS girls trip

last week, my girlfriends and i headed to las vegas for our first girls' trip. we were so excited to get the party started that we took the earrrrrrly flight out. 

hanna and i flipped through magazines and talked to our neighbor during the flight. amy and kaitlin took pictures of themselves. lots of pictures of themselves.

once we landed, we piled in our sweet ride and had our driver make a very important stop on our way to the hotel...

in-n-out. duh.

after lunch, we headed over to our hotel. we were in love with the bright sun and clear skies!

remember that early flight? yeah, well when you arrive at your hotel THAT early you cant check in. so we tried our luck at double diamond and walked around the forum shops.

when we finally got into our room hanna and kaitlin wasted no time with getting into their robes.

amy and i stayed in our normal people clothes.

but then we looked down at the pool and ran straight down!

trust me. with four moms, in their swimsuits, there are QUITE a few tries before getting an acceptable pool shot.

once we got our fill of the sun (not really. that is impossible) we got fancy and had dinner at javiers. jocelyn happened to be in town and joined us. amazing.

frieeeeeeeeends forever. allllways will beeeee friends. (to the tune of zack attack's 'friends forever')

after dinner, we walked around the miracle mile shops to try and find more comfortable shoes for the rest of the trip! :)

we finished the night by watching the fascinating fountain shows at the bellagio.

the next day was more sun at the pool. and i finally got a pina colada. my favorite.

a tower at the bellagio pools: good for a cool picture. annoys the heck out of you when it blocks the sun.

we felt sorry for the people who walked by us and got five phones thrown at them to take our picture. but not too sorry to stop doing it.

after the pool, we shopped at fashion show and tried on ridiculous bead necklaces.

then we had dinner at grimaldis. grimladis is my favorite pizza in the world. i had no idea there was one in vegas. to say i was excited about that situation would be an understatement.

for our last night, we got all dressed up and attempted the vegas night scene. i lasted approximately 60 seconds  in 'the bank' and spent the rest of the evening shopping for souvenirs for tagg & sully in the hotel gift shop! :)

its probably a good thing i didnt dance the night away because the next morning, as we were laying out by the pool, i started my miscarriage.  i was 11 weeks along. it was pretty shocking and traumatic (especially because i was on a girls trip away from home!) but after spending the afternoon in the vegas ER, we flew home and everything was ok. not exactly how i would have liked to end my girls trip but honestly, my friends were so sweet and i feel like we bonded more than we ever could have over shopping bags and pina coladas. im sad about the baby but feel blessed to have such wonderful friends.

classy mudpie

two sundays ago i was in charge of dessert for family dinner. megan requested mudpie. i had never made mudpie before but wanted to try and make it using a springform pan. that way, it looked prettier than just pressed in a 9x9 pan. the entire process was extremely easy and with ice cream, oreos, buttercream and homemade hot fudge you cant go wrong.

mudpie
1   carton ice cream
1   package oreos
1/4 cup butter

crush up package of oreos in a food processor. melt half a stick of butter and mix it with the crushed oreos. pat oreo mixture into the bottom (and a little bit up the sides) of a springform pan. place in freezer to chill. soften ice cream. press ice cream into the pan, on top of oreo crust. let freeze a bit longer. release from pan and decorate with your favorite buttercream recipe. right before i serve it, i drizzle hot fudge onto each slice.

hot fudge
1   can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 can water
8   ounces semi-sweet chocolate
2   tablespoons brown sugar
2   tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

mix all ingredients with wire whisk over medium heat until well blended and almost boiling.

oscars 2013

whats weird is that we are not usually a costume kind of family. oscar night is one of the very few exceptions. my favorite part about the costumes is that they are all last minute. we run around my parents' house, trying to find the best stuff. we were: craig, leonardo dicaprio from django unchained. tagg, a special forces guy from zero dark thirty. me and sully, naomi watts & her son from the impossible. my mom and grace, anne hathaway & amanda seyfried from les miserables. taylor and rachelle, bradley cooper & jennifer lawrence from silver linings playbook.

my other favorite part about oscar night? how intense craig is about the whole thing. he stays in character for quite a long time. :) and this picture represented my mom's nasty fantine hair cut the best! (its just a wig that we chopped up)

megan and david were out of town this year but i wanted to keep the party up to our usual standards. so even though we were stuffed from dinner, i made our favorite party snack of all: bruschetta! 

guess who won the ballot again this year? me. i know, jocelyn and alex. if i put my brain towards something useful, other than celebrity/media, it might actually matter. cause guess what? i ALSO got 100% on the fashion police "guess me from behind" oscar edition quiz. 

tagg's valentines

i found these mini tins with clear lids and knew they would be perfect for tagg's valentines. we crushed up oreos and tagg placed three gummy worms on top to make it look like a little bait can. i randomly had the perfect size paper punch to make the round label we put on the bottom of each tin.

tagg was more than excited to bring his little tackle box to school for his valentines day party. 

GREAT WOLF LODGE

when our friends invited us to share a room with them at the great wolf lodge i knew we couldnt turn them down. i mean, an indoor waterpark for two straight days? my boys would have a blast. so last week, we drove down to who knows where,  walked inside the main doors and beheld the glory...

im not going to lie, its a wee bit stuffy when you first walk in the waterpark room. but once you start playing in the water its the perfect temperature (guess they know what theyre doing). we loved it.

we played in the water for a bit then cleaned up to go to pizza for dinner. the moultons are the perfect vacation partners!

after dinner, tagg insisted we go glow-in-the-dark golfing. despite sully's face, we all had a great time.

and right before we put the boys to bed i gave them their little valentines presents. valentines day wasnt until the next morning but a)the gift was pajamas for them to wear and b)i knew they would be too excited to go back in the water to care about presents in the morning.

and sure enough, we couldnt get down to the water fast enough the next morning!

both of my boys were fearless going down the water slides.

right before we checked out we let the boys walk around with the weird wand thingy to see the dungeons and dragons crap they had throughout the hotel.

on our way home we stopped by craigs office to have him work on tagg for the first time. tagg had a few little cavities and craig wanted to fix them before they got too big and needed novocaine in order to work on. tagg did SUCH a great job and sully holding his hand was the cutest thing i have ever witnessed.

turning 29.

last friday i turned 29. we started the celebrations on wednesday night with a family dinner. i LOVE sully in this picture. we had taken a picture without him when he yelled, "wait guys!" and ran his little body over to the other side of table so he could get in the shot.

on friday night my friends had put together an amazing night. first, we had dinner at palomino.

then it was off to a movie (warm bodies). i LOVE this group shot of the boys.

which group do you think had their picture taken a few times to get it just right? 

and to end the evening right, the thompsons treated us to our favorite dessert (in the hottest club in town), mcdonalds sundaes. such a wonderful week.