We begin, as we often do, with some goofy photos from us hanging out around the house. This time, it was Owen's turn to show us some love.

He's getting more willing to wear these things.

He's also been spending a lot of time pushing things around the entryway and kitchen downstairs, so we decided it was time to bring something down from the play room that would serve his needs more appropriately.

Enter the shopping cart.

Almost immediately, he started trying to ram it into my shins.

Muhahahahahaaaa!

This caused me to take a heroic cowering posture near the doorway, which of course led to him trying to give me everything he could from the cart.

Yes, thank you, I love fake boxes of crackers.

Once we were done with that, we decided to clean up a little before the drive. Owen, as always, was more than willing to help out.

Seriously. You can't start using this thing without him fussing and demanding to help. It's bizarre.

When we arrived, we discovered that the birthday boy had procured a new video game system for his special day. Max was excited that there was a controller available to him.

Pretty sure it's not on, but don't tell him.

Much setup commenced, so the boys quickly grew bored and moved on to playing with various toys around the house. Owen discovered that Mikey is a handy buddy to have around.

So I can hand you this, and you'll throw it way up in the air? Sweet.

Max, meanwhile, discovered that there's just enough space behind the couch for him to squeeze in there.

Have fun! We're going to dinner.

Owen discovered once again the joy of furry animals that wander into the room at random.

This is the only cat in the house that will come close enough for this to happen.

We also spent a little time in their newly chaired media room, but it's too dark in there to produce a reasonable photo. That, or I was holding a game controller. Whatever. All I know is that Max is growing ever closer to learning how to make the ninja turtle walk to the right, and I couldn't be more proud.

Once things were up and running and Kinecting and what not, we decided to find out if full-body motion controlled video games were playable by the under-five crowd.

Verdict: Kinda sorta, unless you need them to hold their hand over a menu item.

Continuing in that theme, Max (and Owen, to some extent) insisted that we turn on the arcade machine that lurked nearby. This kept the boys occupied for much of the rest of the evening.

Ahh, the soothing natural glow of gaming.

Owen refused to be left out.

A trip out for dinner later, and our night was complete. When we awoke the next day, we decided it was high time to take the boys out to get some Easter photos taken. The results aren't available for posting online, but many of you will see them in your mailboxes soon. Suffice to say, the process was harrowing. Max was reasonably good, but his brother was not interested in cooperating at all. We eventually had to send his mom away to hide so he would stop running out of the picture to attach himself to her legs. We did manage to get a few half-decent shots, but it may be a while before we take another crack at it.

That'll do it for today's post. If you want to see the rest of the photos (including a cheesy-headed Owen), click here. See you next time!