Happy Easter

We started our Easter celebration last week end with the tradition of coloring Easter eggs.  Teresa was an active participant this year.  She just liked dropping them in the cup.  Timothy concentrated on getting his eggs just right.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, but today was very blustery.  It even snowed a little bit!  But I told Timothy he could wear his new short sleeve shirt if he agreed to wash off all the tattoos on his arms (he had at least 10!).  Teresa was not too excited about her dress, but I got her in it.  The three of us posed for a picture before church.

Grandma Judy met us for church.  It was a very full service and people were even sitting on the kitchen counter!  After church we went home for our Easter dinner.  Despite the cold, Troy grilled our ham steak.  He likes the challenge of cold weather grilling!

A nice family picture before lunch.

After lunch was over, the kids got some Easter surprises from Grandma Judy and got to do an egg hunt.  They had eggs filled with jelly beans and M&Ms.  Their Easter buckets had books...Star Wars and ocean animals...bubbles and milk straws.  That made for some happy kids.

Timothy excited about angry bird fruit snacks.  Teresa pulling out a new book.

I thought these pictures were cute.  A picture of each of the kids focused on the contents of their eggs.  And Judy, quite pleased to discover the contents of her egg too! 

 

It was a wonderful day!  Great to be together as a family and have Judy join us for part of the time.  We spent the afternoon playing Chutes and Ladders and trying to play outside just a little.  A highlight of the day was Timothy's prayer at dinner.  He thanked God for Easter and Jesus dying for us.  And his first highlight of the day--church.  What a special boy.

This is my favorite picture of the day.  I told them to give each other a hug and I was even able to capture the sweet moment!

Puddles

One of the great pleasures of a coming spring is... puddles! With all the snow we have and finally a few warmer days, we certainly have our share of puddles. I finally decided to invest in some rain boots to keep little toes dry during puddle splashing expeditions!

Standing in the deep puddle at the end of our neighbor's driveway.

Checking out how the new boots are holding up in the puddle.  (Teresa's boots still got wet because she fell in a puddle and the boots filled with water.)

Deciding which chunck of snow to send into the water next.

Keeping busy with Teresa

Teresa has been pretending a lot lately.  She likes to push her babies (aka kitties) around in the stroller.  She goes to Target, the grocery store, church, and the banana store (we buy a lot of bananas!).  She carries along her "church bag" on her outings.  It carries her books and water bottle and then we fill it with all the pretend things we buy...bananas, turkey, bread, strawberries, cake.

 

Just a Friday morning picture of a girl and her mom!

Here Teresa has set out a picnic for us to enjoy.  There was lots of ice cream and hot dogs!

Another favorite activity of Teresa's is puddle splashing.  I finally invested in some rain boots after some very wet feet the last two days.  Timothy and Teresa model their new boots.  Teresa likes splashing so much that the last few days she wanted to stay outside longer than Timothy.  That is unheard of!

Happy birthday to me!

I am not sure who was looking forward to my birthday more this year, me or Timothy!  He made clear in early discussions of my birthday activities that I needed to have a party.  (It can't be a birthday without a party!)  Since we have Bible study on Thursdays with a group of moms and kids we decided that's where my party would be.

I made a pinata for the kids to bust open after Bible study and made some muffins to share for snack.  Timothy was very excited and was counting the sleeps until pinata day.  Timothy suggested the pinata be an octopus.  I did my best...you'll have to use your imagination!

Timothy taking a swing at the pinata.

The happy little octopus after being torn a part!

 

Troy, ever being the sneaky husband, alerted my bible study friends of my birthday ahead of time and had everyone chip in to make a care package for me.  He also decorated with a birthday banner and provided some yummy treats.  It was a fun morning and the kids had a great time with the pinata.  The only unfortunate thing was the string holding up the pinata broke right away.  I didn't have time nor resources to fix it, so I held it.  That was a fine plan until my poor arm got whacked by one of the bigger kids!

Opening up the gift bag from friends.  (And Teresa picking the gummy treats from the pinata out of her teeth!)

My birthday was also the day assigned to Timothy's kindergarten registration.  That is what the kids and I did in the afternoon.  I should have left the kids at home...it was long and boring and did not bring out the best behavior in any of us.  I had thought of going bowling to pass the afternoon, but decided that was best left for another day.

Despite not  having the best afternoon, I pulled together my emotions and had a good night.  We had pizza dinner and the boys went off to Timothy's swimming.  There were ups and downs to the day, but as the gifts Troy gave me reminded me (a hat and shirt)-- "Life is good!"

Time for the cake!

My attempt at a brownie ice cream cake.  Over cooked crunchy brownie, but still pretty yummy with frosting and white chocolate M &Ms!

Pictures

Here are some pictures to tell what we are up to...

Teresa is a girl of routine.  She likes to do the same things each day.  Read the same books.  Eat the same foods. And wear the same hairstyle.  Everyday it is two braids.  I am trying to vary up the look while still maintaining the required two braids.  Her hair has gotten long enough to do two pigtail braids.  I had to take a picture because she looked too cute!  She would be a good Pippi Longstocking as her braids stick out quite well!

This picture doesn't show it in any way, but here Timothy is pretending to be a Star Wars character.  I forget which one.  It changes frequently!  Star Wars is his new fascination.  I have had to study up on Star Wars by reading first reader books from the library.  Even Teresa knows Darth Vader, and Jaba the Hut.

And here is our snow.  Last year at this time the kids were in shorts and we hit 70 degrees.  This year it snows and then snows again and again and again!  Oh,  how I wish is would warm up.  Next week the temps are supposed to be in the teens.  I guess that will make spring all the better when it comes!

Here Timothy stands on the mountain of snow in the front yard.  The little playground is buried in the snow!  It must be noted that this pile is created in part from the snow blown off of the driveway.  It is not that deep everywhere!!  Thank goodness!

Here Teresa enjoys a little puddle splashing.  It is still hard for her to maneuver in her snow gear, so she doesn't play much in the snow.  Thankfully today was warm enough to make a few puddles to entertain her.