Easter Morning

Once again, we are very blessed to be able to celebrate the holidays together as a family. Easter morning started off bright and early when the girls woke up a little before 7 am. Allison was very excited to discover whether the Easter Bunny had come during the night. We headed downstairs to discover that eggs had indeed been hidden around the house. After finding the eggs (all but one which we luckily discovered later that afternoon), the girls were excited to sort through their Easter baskets.

We then headed to church for their early service, which allowed us to have some down time (and a nap for the kids) before Brian's family came over for a late lunch. By the end of the day, everyone was tired, but yet happy and stuffed with treats.



Easter Fun

Every year my cousin hosts an Easter party for all the kids. Allison was so excited for the party this year. She was ready to leave the house by 9 am, even though the party didn't start until 2 pm.  We tried to keep the girls distracted by running errands that morning, but Allison wanted nothing to do with that - all she wanted to do was to get in the car and head to the party.  Once we arrived at the party, the girls soon discovered the goodness of Peeps.

My cousin organized an egg hunt for the kids. Two of the eggs had a $5 bill in it.  Allison found one of the money eggs and was so proud of herself.  Even Mia was excited for her.  They had a blast finding the eggs and receiving a bunch of goodies.  After the egg hunt, they colored their Easter eggs.  

A moment of craftiness....A split moment

I'm rather bad about doing craft projects with the kids; however, I try not to feel too guilty about it since they do projects at daycare (and we pay enough for those projects).  A couple of weeks ago the girls' daycare was closed for staff training so I took the day off. I figured I should do something fun with them, so I decided to do a craft project. We had a ton of broken crayons so I thought that we could make new crayons out of them.  I sat down with the kids and explained exactly what we were doing. Allison and Amelia were very excited and amazed we were doing a craft project. Mia kept asking "why are we doing a craft project Mom? "  

The first step was to take the wrappers off the broken crayons. I figured this would be the easiest part since at one point in time, we had to take the crayons away from Amelia because she kept taking the papers off.  Thirty minutes later, the kids were off playing and I was still trying to take those darn wrappers off. When I finally got them all off, the girls came back to help me put the cut pieces of crayons into the muffin pans and patiently waited as they melted. They were very excited to show their Dad their new creations that night.

We also made homemade pretzels that afternoon or rather, homemade weapons made from dough, as they seemed to weigh about 20 lbs each. Next time, I need to use less dough and roll them out thinner. Oh well, like I said, I don't do too many craft projects.

Extra-Curricular Activities

This winter we registered the girls for a ballet class at the community center were we belong. It was a six week course. At the beginning of the classes both of the girls loved it; however, be the end Amelia started to get stubborn about going.  Of course by then, I had already signed them both up for another set of classes. I had figured it would get us through the end of winter and the cold, early spring (needless to say, that wasn’t needed with 80 degree days in March).  I asked Allison if she still wanted to go to class and she said "yes." I thought that once we started back up with classes again, Mia would get past her stubborn streak and things would get better. However, it only went downhill from there.

At the first class of the new sessions, Mia refused to go to class (as expected); however Allison started to whine and say she didn’t want to go either. After packing up and heading toward the stairs to leave the center, Allison realized I wasn’t kidding and ran into class. Amelia sat with me until about five minutes until the end of class and announced that she wanted to go in.  The next week Amelia wouldn’t go in the room at first but then decided towards the end of the class that she would. I told her that she had to sit on her mat and participate in the class. Instead, Ameila ran around the room and then spun around in circles about 30 times until she became so dizzy that she fell on the floor.  All she needed was a bucket on her head and I would have been Steve Martin's character in Parenthood. Then, at the end of the class, both girls refused to cooperate and leave with me without causing a scene.

On the third week, I had to work, so Brian brought Allison to class and Mia stayed home with Aunt Lynn. The local news station was coming to class that week to tape some footage, so Allison was adamant on attending class that week.  This week I talked Allison into skipping class to take advantage of this July weather in March in order to go to the zoo.

On a positive note, we also signed Allison up for swim class and she absolutely loves its. The teacher has even said that Allison is the best in the class (yep, I’m bragging - too bad they don't make bumper stickers announcing that "My child is the best student in swim class").

A Little Comparison

April 29, 2009

April 16, 2010

May 5, 2011

March 21, 2012

Remember When...

This year St. Patrick's Day without a doubt was a "remember when" moment. I think people will remember St. Patty's Day 2012 for a very long time since it was almost 80 degrees outside. In a way, with the mild winter we had it didn't really seem odd that we were all in shorts. However, next year we will look back at these pictures and think "I can't believe how nice it was."

We celebrated the day by going to a neighborhood party a few blocks from our house. A couple that lives on a street with an Irish name threw their first Annual St. Patty's Day party.  They had a dog parade, chalk and bubbles, as well as a fire truck and ambulance for the kids to look at.  We were the first in line to view the fire truck, which was a good thing, since they got a call and had to quickly pack up and leave. The girls liked watching that - especially when the siren went off. The best part of the afternoon was the free samples from a cupcake shop that is soon opening up in the neighborhood. 

Happy Valentine's Day

We went all out and celebrated Valentine's Day this year. Ok not all out, but the celebration was stretched out over several day (well weeks). First, Brian decorated the living room, complete with red string lights and banners. Next, we made a trek to the store for the ever-so-important task of picking out Valentine's Day cards to hand out at school. The Saturday before Valentine's Day, the girls received a special package from Nana and Papa. On Sunday, we invited our friends over for a party complete with cookie decorating.  On Valentine's Day itself, the girls had a party at school. I don't know who was more excited, me or them. I kept logging in to watch them on the computer as their daycare has video cameras.   I was able to watch Allison hand out her cards. We had practiced the night before and she was able to recongize most of her classmate's names written on the cards.  Later that night, Brian and I gave them a special treat.  Overall it was a fun holiday.