Easter Festivities!

This post is *full* of pictures! The kids managed to get in lots and lots of Easter fun.  It started with a visit with Mimi the week before Easter.  She brought some fun Easter bags and got to read all of the kids a book (check out which one - appropriate, eh?).

What is in there????

Oh - it's a floppy bunny.  What fun (and what great entertainment in the car on the way to Amarillo!)

Mom told me after her visit that at the end of the story (Peter Rabbit, if you can't see it), Clara had pointed at Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail at the end of the book and said "they got deserts because they were good little bunnies" - and then she sighed deeply.   Yes, she's our little bunny that struggles to obey the rules - I can't count the number of times I heard the dreaded "no!" today.

Our next stop on the Easter train of fun (yes, it's getting late as I write this), was at the Amarillo zoo.  On Saturday, they had all sorts of special activities at the zoo, so we decided to check it out.  Well, I hadn't counted on it being 45 degrees until midday.  And I guess I forgot about the wind.  So the kiddos look a little cold, but we had them dressed in the warmest things I had packed ....

As you can see from Gracie's face, one of the fun things was face painting.   The girls also got to plant carrots seeds in a little pot, make Easter bags, pet a bunny and see the Easter Bunny himself.  It was a fun trip and the zoo is just the perfect size for all of them to enjoy.

 The girls & Daddy with the sleeping bear.  We hoped he would move, but not so.  JM was too fascinated with running up and down the ramp to the bear exhibit to be bothered with looking at the actual bears!






But he did like the donkeys:

Saturday continued with more festivities - egg dyeing with the Stebbins clan:

Then it was time for the Easter egg hunt.  Sarah decided not to hunt - instead she got to hide the eggs.  Susie & I were supposed to be helping, but I think there was more chatting (at least on my part) than hiding.  Sarah did a great job!  I think we had over a 100 eggs to hide, so it was no small task . .  .

And they're off!  Gracie was collecting those eggs pretty fast. I think was being a sweet older cousin and taking her time to make sure our kids found enough!

Check out that hiding spot!  And sharp eyes (Clara) found it.

Some were better egg hunters than others ....

Yes, that's grass he's putting in his basket ...

The Egg Hunt Crew

And finally, getting a snack ready for the Easter bunny.  Thank goodness Grandma had some lettuce tucked away in the fridge, since all the carrots were gone.  Then the girls decided some grapes and walnuts would be good, too.  Yummy, right?

Look at those late night, goofy with excitement kids!

Checking out the loot on Easter morning, before church.  And those bunny whiskers just wouldn't wash off...

Happy Easter!

More pictures of  JM to come - I've still got his birthday post(s) to do!

The Week before Easter - Spring is Coming!

Who can ask for more than a Barbie kite, a great breeze, and one of your dogs lounging nearby?  This was a fun day!

Spring Break, Part 2

On Monday of spring break, we had a fun-filled day.  First, cousin Alex (and Aunt J) came to play for a little

while.  I can't remember everything they managed to do in the few hours they had together, but here are some pictures: 

Chillin' in front of the tv

Finally got them off the couch and back out to the sunshine! 

Next, it was time to bring out the Barbies.  The babies had to go see Dr. Barbie and one of them had to go to the hospital to get a cast on her broken foot (the cast was a big white Barbie boot) - oh my!

Gracie got bored with this before the other two did - they would have played for hours, but it was almost time for Alex & Aunt J to leave.  But first, the kids got to enjoy the treat Alex brought - Ring Pops!

This picture doesn't even really begin to sum up the madness that ensued a few minutes into the ring pops.  There were lasers (ring pop bases) firing and all sorts of things going on - lots of shrieking and giggling! 

And then, all too quickly, the visit was over.  But the kids didn't have to despair for long because Aunt Susie, Uncle Dave, Sarah and Katie were on their way.  They arrived an hour or so later and we got to have dinner with them.  But apparently, our family lost the camera mojo, because we only got one picture during their visit. 

And no, you're not imagining things, Susie, Dave, Sarah & Katie are not in that picture.  I don't know how we managed it, but we didn't get a single picture of their visit here.  They'll just have to come again so we can be sure and get some pictures! 

We did have a great time with them on Tuesday, hanging out at the museum and going to lunch.  We didn't end up at the Science & History Museum as planned (which is really the kid's museum) because the line was 45 minutes long just to pay!  So, we headed a few blocks over and went to the Amon Carter museum.  I didn't know how long my kids would last, but we were there enjoying ourselves for about an hour.  The museum had a "postcard tour" for the girls to do and it really kept them engaged.  There were about 20 postcards of different paintings and sculptures that they had to find throughout the museum.  We only had to ask for help in finding one of the sculptures.  And at the end, the girls got a free postcard (they are holding them in the picture).  I really enjoyed the museum, too.  I had been there for special exhibits but hadn't really taken time to look at the rest of the museum.  After seeing how the girls enjoyed it, I'm hoping we can go to some of the other museums (like the Kimball and the Modern) and have a good time, too. 

Spring Break , Part One and a Half

So these are my two "crazy" bears, playing together outdoors.  And there wasn't any fighting or pushing, they were just having a blast.  Clara was quite pleased they were playing a "game" together - I think it might be the first time they have really been able to do that! 

I'm not sure you can see it, but John Michael has a litltle plastic dog in his hand.  (And don't you just love his "necklace?"  That's Gracie's - it's actually the leftover chain from our ceiling fan pull and she's turned it into a necklace & just loves to wear it - just love that, right?).

So here is how the game starts - you race to climb into the slide (clearly Clara goes over the top and JM goes the more traditional route).

Step 2 - "Drop the Dog"  (that's the game title, I think).  JM is in charge of positioning the little fellow over one of the little holes in the top surface of the slide and letting him plummet to the ground below. 

See - he's just about to drop it.  And I didn't get a good picture of the next step - but I think it's called shriek, scramble and search.  And as they race to get down off the slide, Clara goes over the top, JM propels himself off the platform over the ladder (why would you want to actually go down the slide???) and they run to go underneath and find the plastic dog.  Over and over and over.  Apparently, it's a blast to play.  Unfortunately, they haven't played it again since that day becasue the poor little puppy never made it inside.  Hopefully, it didn't make it into Coco's belly ...

Spring Break - Part 1

Well, we're trying to get back into the swing of things after a week off, but it's been a little bit of a struggle. Probably I shouldn't turn off my alarm in the morning and we should probably all be out of bed before 7:45 since Gracie is tardy at 8:15am. And today was picture day, too! Oh well, she actually made it there right at 8:15. I'm so thankful the school is so close.

Spring break was pretty fun this year. Gracie kept telling me she was going to sleep in, but she was out of bed by 7:30 every day (and some days earlier). She got an extra long spring break since kindergarten conferences were Thursday & Friday. So the break started off with me getting to hear that she's been doing well in school. You think everything is fine & she's doing well, but it's always nice to hear from someone else.

Then on Saturday I did something I had long promised the girls we would do - I took them roller skating! We found a great rink in Arlington (the Skatium) that offers skating classes on Saturday morning (all levels - beginner through advanced. (Sue, I was having flashbacks to the Skate Place!)) and after the lessons the kids can skate free at the session. And I get to skate for free (and the girls did too, since it was their first time to go).

It was a little bit of a rough beginning for us all (why don't your legs seem to remember how to skate after only, hmmm... 20 years?), but then the kids went to the class and the teachers really helped them out. Gracie seemed to really catch on pretty quickly and surprisingly, Clara was the one that had a harder time (it's usually the reverse with things that require balance and coordination). But they both stuck with it through the lesson.

Then we had a snack at the snack bar (ring pop and starburst) and then I headed with them out onto the rink floor. We made it around a few more times (Gracie skated on ahead and Clara and I took our time) and that was plenty for them. We were there about an hour and a half and Clara counted 3.5 times around the rink for her. Gracie probably made it a few more times, but she wasn't counting.

So we went again this past Saturday and I actually brought the camera! They had a blast and Clara finally really got the hang of things right at the end of her lesson. She just reminded me that she made it around the rink *13* times! She really kept after it. Gracie and I had already gotten off the floor & she decided to go around one more time. Gracie was busy working on trying backwards skating and doing a little hop (they work with them on that in the class).

So here are some pictures - it's not actually that dark, I think my flash wasn't strong enough since the batteries were giving out.







And they're off. I'm sure we'll keep going. We're even thinking about taking JM.... definitely will have to get some pictures of that if we do - I think he would love it!

Reality Check!

Clara and John Michael were both playing outside the other day. Clara was on the driveway and John Michael was playing on the driveway until then a truck drove up to our neighbor's house. So he took off across the front yard. Now even though our whole yard is fenced (chain link fence) and the dogs are always out with the kids, I don't really like the idea of JM standing at the far corner of our property near a truck that had a man standing outside it talking to someone inside (and I didn't recognize the truck or the man . . . but it did turn out to be the meter reader for our water company).

So I started calling to John Michael, telling him not to go so far away. I kept hoping he would listen to me and come back, lose interest in the truck, whatever, because I knew he would pitch a big fit if I went over and carried him back across the yard. So after no luck with my calling to him, I asked Clara to try and call him to see if he would come back for her, and I kept calling to him as well, saying don't go so far away.

Finally, clearly exasperated with me, Clara piped up with "Mom, it's not like he's going to Chicago!"

Thank you dearest for the reality check - what *was* I thinking? And how do you know where Chicago is anyhow?

Surprise!

Mike took Clara & JM off on a surprise adventure and got rid of all of our recycling and our branches and came home with the best thing ever ... GRAVEL!

Most of it was efficiently unloaded by the two workers you see here, of course with the help of the dump truck.



So in addition to making a better transition between our concrete driveway and the dirt (mud?), it's been lots of hours of fun for the kids. There were only a few upsets about the trouble it causes when trying to ride your bike through it, and once the girls discovered the fun of making tracks in it with the bikes that was resolved. JM's method was just to "ride" (push with his feet) the trike full speed at it and get stalled out by it.

It has been a great $30 "surprise."