One thing that people don't tell you about parenthood is the amount of birthday parties you will attend and have to throw. 

One of our friends had her very first birthday this year and her parents threw her a fantastic party. Charlotte and Ethan had a lot of fun.

Ethan, ever-creative, eats this birthday cupcake hands-free.

He looks pretty proud of himself.

Charlotte turned three this April and we had a small party to celebrate. She was pretty jazzed. Balloons and presents and cupcakes. Three of her favourite things.

Cousin Tai's birthday is in the same month, so here we are, more cake and good times. 

Ethan enjoyed the party mostly because he found this broom to play with.

Mom of course had another birthday.

And we had the gang over to our place to celebrate Nan's birthday. 

Here is Charlotte helping Nan blow out the candles on her ice cream cake a la Amy. So yummy!

But, there are other fun things to celebrate throughout the year, besides birthdays. Like Easter Egg hunts. This April, we still had snow on the ground but the Easter bunny still visited and the kids went a-hunting.

This was Ethan's stance for the whole egg hunt. Not a lot of searching or finding was done by this guy. And yes, that white stuff in the background is snow.

This was his other pose: looking over to the right.

He started to move around when he spotted this rocking horse.

Miss Charlotte on the other hand was all over the hunt! 

I see you little pink egg.

Yep Ethan, your basket is still empty.

But we don't actually spend all our time at parties. We tend to stick close to home and when the weather is nice, we head out back to the pool. Ethan has learned to swim with a life jacket and Charlotte continues to be quite adept with her water wings.

Ethan swimming solo with Dad nearby.

Miss Charlotte and her fabulous smile.

Two water monkeys.

Ethan the duck.

Well, that's the news for now. Until next time!