Easter 2011

Finally, here is the Easter post. Sorry, we've been a little busy and the blog takes a back seat to other things. We started our Easter with an egg hunt at Ida Lee on April 9th. It was a chilly and rainy day, but Emilia did a great job "hunting" for the eggs and had a full basket when we left.  I say "hunting" because it was more like picking up the eggs off the ground.

She even found 2 special numbered eggs that she traded in for a chocolate candy and little rubber duck with bunny ears.

She was not too crazy about the Easter bunny. This was as close as she would get...kinda reminiscent of the Santa episode.

She felt much better once she started to play in the bounce house that they has set up. It was a little tricky getting her to come out!

Nate was just along for the ride - as he usually is. He had some quality time with LuLu!

 

Our next Easter activity was another Easter egg hunt at a friend's house. Thanks so much to Lisa who sat and filled about 100 plastic eggs and then scattered them around her backyard for the kids. We had a lovely morning and Emilia got another basket full of eggs to bring home!

Finally we got to Easter Sunday and another Easter egg hunt (Emilia is a egg-hunting pro now)! Daddy was in charge of filling and hiding the eggs this time so they were really hidden and not just scattered in open space.  I filled the baskets and put them and their presents out for the morning.

 

If you will, please take notice of the Easter basket that Emilia had this year. Mammaw offered to get the kids' baskets while we were at Joann's in March when they were visiting. They had some cute duckies and bunnies but Mimi chose the soccer ball and could not be swayed!

Nate was up first and played with some eggs while we waited for Mimi.

When Mimi finally got up she found her basket and presents first so that she could hunt for eggs with her basket.

LJ even got in on the action and did his annual Easter egg hunt. He never forgets how to open them!!

Shortly after the egg hunt and while I was making breakfast Brian said, "Uh oh, I hear eggs opening". Sure enough Emilia was going to town on her candy. She conceited to a short break for a bagel and then we portioned the rest to last at least a couple of days. We spent a lazy day at home and finished our Easter by going out to dinner.

What's been going on lately...

I really have to get better at keeping up with this blog but finding time is a real challenge now. As Mimi would say, "so anyway..." here is what has been going on in our lives.

Mimi started dance class. Right now she is in a toddler tumbling-type class, but we will enroll her in Princess Ballet in the fall. She is LOVING it so far so I can only imagine how she will feel once she gets into the leotard and ballet slippers with the other "big girls" next year. They start each class with some stretches and some simple ballet-style moves - introducing some of the terminology. Then they do some animal actions and practice tumbling and walking on the balance beam.

 

 

After that they move into the tumbling room and have some free play on the trampoline track, the wedge, and the bar.

Nate is getting so big. He's been playing in his exersaucer lately. He doesn't like to stay in there too long but I think it's mostly because he gets frustrated that he can't get all the toys in his mouth.

Emilia likes it too. She's climbed in a couple of times (how I'm not really sure) and she likes to put her baby dolls in it when Nate's not using it.

Nate has been trying so hard to roll over. He has been rolling belly to back since about 3 months and now he's on his way to mastering back to belly. He sometimes gets himself twisted like a pretzel though.

Here he is mid-roll from belly to back...he looks a little surprised! As you can see he spends very little time wearing pants these days - he's just happier that way.

Mimi got her Power Wheels Jeep. Brian got it on Black Friday and meant to give it to her for Easter, but he couldn't wait (plus Mimi spotted it in the garage). She really loves "driving" around with her foot on the accelerator but doesn't feel that steering is necessary. Most of the time she has her foot on the pedal and is holding a cup of milk in one hand and her baby in the other. Too funny!!

Finally Nathan has started eating big-boy food in his big-boy highchair. He has only eaten avocado for his "real" meals so far but he's also had some of my banana a couple of times. In a couple of days I will give him some banana and then we're off and running!

Sunny days

It's been pretty chilly for the last couple of days and I was longingly looking through some pictures from our beautiful sunny St. Patrick's Day at the park. It was warm and Mimi and Nate both had a great time! Springtime and sunny summer cannot come fast enough for this family!