Oh Yeah, Easter

Easter, yes.  Almost forgot to post but not quite.  I don't feel like the pics we got really captured this holiday for us.  I did capture some choice facial expressions though, eh?

I think egg decorating night is always our favorite Easter tradition.  We all get pretty into it.  I love how the kids never fail to be fascinated by the simple act of drawing "magic" pictures on their eggs.  I also love how we as parents never fail to be fascinated as we watch our kids.  Fun stuff.

Pretty Flowers

On Friday, BJ decided to use one of his vacation days and we all visited the St. Louis Botanical Gardens. We were considerably impressed.  The gardens were overflowing with spring blossoms!  The gardens also boasted an extra large Japanese and Chinese garden which, of course we both loved.

When BJ was done oohing at all the azaleas (despite his constant sneezing and extra puffy red eyes--allergies you know) and when I was done ahhing all the tulip beds (both of us making mental notes on color combos for our someday-we-hope-in-the-very-near-future yard) we took the girls to a really fun children's garden...where we promptly lost our precious # 2 for about 10 minutes.  After the panic wore off, the girls (and their parents) were able to run and get nice and dirty. 

It was a long day that made all our legs ache.  One of those good aches though, you know?  Oh but it was soooo wonderful to have an entire day with all 4 of us!  

You'll notice that most of the pictures are of Cambree.  Haylee didn't feel very well and was not excited about me taking her picture.  I guess I didn't take many pictures of the flowers either but hey, you all know what flowers look like right?  My kids are more fun to look at anyway in my perfectly unbiased opinion. :)

A Smile

I cannot look at this picture without smiling. 

I could definitely use one today.   

Anyone else?

Smarty Pants

Many folks put their kids into preschool around age 3. We noticed this especially in NC where kindergarten starts as a full day. Well, situations for us have not been such that it has worked out to get Haylee into preschool. Recently, I heard about a local high school with a parenting class that offers an extremely discounted form of preschool taught by the students. We've just wanted her in some kind of program to get her ready in some way to enter into the world of BIG KIDS this fall.
(Hold on, this fall? As in 5 months away??? )

You know what I mean: backpacks, lunchboxes, school busses, kickball, cubbies, paste, "you're not invited to my birthday party anymore"s, standing in line, raising your hand, trading desserts at lunch time, chasing boys at recess...

According to Haylee though? She's already there.

When I picked her up that first day I told her how much I missed her and casually asked her whether she missed me too. I was full on expecting a big hug and a "Yes MOM!" but do you know what she said?

She said: "Uh...actually Mom, I didn't even think about you. Nope, not once. Can I have a cookie when we get home?"

Stab to the heart. :)

It was a balmy 55 or so when we left. Hence Cambree's backwards winter hat and loner mitten.

"Bye Haya!"

So we're eating breakfast the morning of the first day and Haylee asks me what she's going to do at school. Among other things, I mention that she might talk about letters and I decide that a good mother wouldn't waste this perfect opportunity to review, right?

So I begin: Haylee, what sound does 'p' make?

(long pause, right when it's starting to get a bit uncomfortable I decide to prompt)

Mom: C'mon, you know this one! Pizza, Party, Purple, Panda...

Smarty Pants: Oh, you mean the letter 'p'...it sounds like puh. (DUH)

Ha ha ha. The fact that she wasn't even trying to be funny just makes it funnier. Also the fact that during the "long pause" she was possibly trying to decide how to mimic the sound of pee is funny too. Yes, we have potty (in all its forms) on the brain in our house...24/7. Want another example?

While reading about Eric Carle's extra hungry caterpillar, Cambree refused to let anyone call the cocoon anything other than POOP. Haylee and I were pretty emphatic but she was too. So she threw the book. End of story.

FAT FREE, CALORIE FREE CHOCOLATE!!!

I found a wonderful recipe for chocolate play dough here and made it for the girls the other day.

(Just a tip: if you try making this, make sure your water is really boiling before you add it so the salt dissolves. Ours was a bit grainy.)

We made cupcakes and cookies and they actually smelled authentic! The dough smelled delicious! So much so that even though I knew there was tons of salt and no sugar in it, I had to try it anyway as did both girls. YUCK!

Sometimes, I'll just crack open the bag and take a sniff.

Just for fun.

When no one's looking.

Sick Days...

...are blessings in disguise, for me anyway. Today (this was Monday actually) forced me to put my blessings a little bit higher on the priorities list (conveniently knocking "sweep the floor" and "clean the bathrooms" to the very bottom of the list, thank goodness.)

Our little Bree was so sick! Haylee caught her in-between episodes of "spitting up" to read to her. She was such a huge help in other ways too. Cambree didn't have much luck making it to the bathroom so we just held a bowl for her when she needed it and Haylee took over the job if I happened to be away when it was needed.

Which do you prefer?

So we're at the store today and while I'm debating between Always and Kotex, I hear my 2 year old say very loudly and, surprisingly, very clearly "Mommy Pullups!" over and over and over while my 4 year old corrected her over and over and over "No Cambree, those are NOT Mommy Pullups!"