Splendor at Chicago Botanic Garden

We hit up the Botanic Garden two times this past weekend, the spring blooms were awesome!  We went on Saturday by ourselves, and then loved it so much that we invited G&G Mackus, Kristin, Cory and PJ down to go back with us on Sunday.  Luke also had his first swim lesson, which he HATED.  Doesn't he know that both of his parents were swimmers?

Video of Luke and Matt vacuuming together

Video of Luke playing on his motorcycle rocking horse, he's getting really good!

Easter Eggcitement

We had a great Easter.  It was quite the weekend of celebration and as usual Luke was spoiled silly by Isolene, Matt & I, both sets of grandparents, great grandma Della, aunts/uncles and the Easter Bunny.  

Presents in the mail from Uncle Ben & Auntie Linda on Friday - he loves his new books, thank you!

We spent Saturday up in Wisconsin with Mom, Dad, Kristin, Cory, PJ and Grandma Della.  Mom and Dad are back from Florida and so we had a nice reunion.  Mom made an awesome pre-Easter dinner and we loved spending the whole day with everyone.  

Easter dress from Grandma

Luke got the hang of the sit 'n spin:)  Grandpa playing with the kids.

Family pic

Delicious dinner with the fancy china

Celebrating their 60th birthdays in person:)

Grandma's in the sister sandwich

On Sunday morning Luke found his Easter basket and eggs that the Easter Bunny had left for him in our living room.  He walked out of his bedroom in the morning and immediately saw a blue egg on the end table.  His eyes were wide with all of the other eggs in sight!  There were real hard boiled eggs as well as plastic eggs with animal crackers and goldfish in them (which he did seem to prefer).  We taught him to put the eggs in his basket, which worked out fine for the plastic eggs that he chucked into the basket, but the hard boiled eggs didn't fair as well.  Let's just say I had to be quick about making egg salad out of those eggs.  But we have to get him started sometime, right?  I attached a pretty long video of the Easter egg hunt, if you have some spare time and want to watch the action.  (I use the word "action" pretty loosely.)

Checking out the toys in his Easter basket

The rest of the day on Sunday we went to Donna and Emil's house, where we celebrated with the whole crew - Grammy & Boyd, Aunt Diane & Uncle Garry, Justin, Sara, Orrin & baby Lila, and Uncle Mike.  D & E had set up a whole Easter egg hunt outside of the kids, and Luke loved it!  Grandma and Grandpa also had another special surprise for Luke.  They gave him an adorable mini John Deere tractor complete with a trailer they made for him (they seriously are so crafty!) to pull along with.  

Easter egg hunt at G&G Baranko's

Orrin was really good at finding the eggs!

all the loot

Baby Lila is getting so big!

Awesome John Deere tractor 

A trip to the park, Justin & Orrin, Matt & Luke plus funny faces from Grandma

Traditional Hungarian Easter feast = meat plate!

Diane & Garry with granddaughter Lila - Congrats Garry on your recent retirement!

Last night Luke randomly fell over and hurt his ankle.  One minute he was standing and the next he was crying.  We think he must have rolled his ankle.  He couldn't put any weight on it, and it was so sad to watch him try to "walk it off" and then as soon as he'd take one step he would howl in pain.  We were super worried about him all night and prayed it would be better in the morning (which it mostly was, he is limping slightly, but is bearing weight).  I can't even imagine having a seriously ill child, we were such basket cases over a turned ankle.  Really makes you appreciate health even more.  

Tiger sighting!

Sandbox!

The Easter bunny came early this year in the form of a brand new, HOME MADE, gorgeous sandbox for the Lukers.  Emil and Donna brought up this amazing gift, and Luke could not wait to "dig" in!  The hand sewn canopy lifts up and down providing shade from the sun and a handy cover for the sandbox when it isn't being used.

Luke helping Grandpa with the assembly.

My new sandbox!  Now I need to learn to keep the sand IN the sandbox.

Dying Easter eggs:)  

We had a very special visitor on Saturday, with my wonderful friend Gyongyver Lakos in town for a quick visit.  "Ginger", as we call her, was a teammate and dear friend at Purdue.  She returned to Hungary after college and I haven't seen her in 10 years!!!  (Side note - I can't believe it has been 10 years since I graduated college.)  We hosted a little dinner with some of our local Purdue swimming alumni so that everyone could get to see her.  It was as if no time had passed at all, everything was so fun and natural.  We are all so impressed that she can just pick up English again with no trouble, even though she never uses it at home.  Ginger, we miss you!  Come back soon!  Or better yet, I'll go to Hungary!  Baranko IS Hungarian:)

Missy, Kelly, Leah (w/ Lightning McQueen slipper), Ginger, Jenni

Our first attempt at a group shot...not quite so natural

Bean's younger daughter Aubrey

Kylie & Lukers

Luker Dukerson is asserting his independence something fierce.  We had to give him his first time out this week.  It lasted about 30 seconds, but I think he got the picture (no hitting Mommy).  His other favorite naughty things are lifting his foot up on the dining room table while he's eating ("foot down!"), throwing toys, kicking, and the always popular putting food in his hair/throwing it on the floor.

He is pretty darn cute though.  It takes real self-control not to laugh at his naughtiness.  New obsession (other than the Richard Scarry word books, still, as seen below), are puzzles.  Isolene checked a few more puzzles out from the library and Luke is super into them.  He must do them 20 times a day.  He has even started to do some that are actually pieces that fit into each other, not just matching.  Brilliant boy:)  Finally, I'd like to report that it seems that we have a well-hydrated little guy on our hands.  He pees SO much!  We change his full diaper like 8 times a day, and his diapers just aren't cutting it.  They're the right size, but they can't handle the capacity.  We even have to get up and change his diaper and pajamas in the middle of the night a few times a week because he wakes up wet and cold, poor guy.  Matt is doing research on better diaper brands (better than off brand Costco?  No way!).  If anyone has any suggestions, let us know.

Short little clip of Luke trying to do a somersault below.  He does this all the time, and can never get his feet over so just kind of flops his arms around with his head on the ground and balancing on his tippy toes.  Those gymnastics classes are really paying off:)