Spring Break - Day 1!

Today is the first day of Spring Break. Erica was very excited to go to Storytime at the library! It's one of her favorite things to do, but she rarely gets to come along since she is at school all day. Here we are with Julie, one of our favorite librarians. We've been going to her storytimes off and on since Erica was about 18 months old!

Then it was off to meet Daddy for lunch. We met him at Taco del Mar, one of our favorite semi-fast food places. (Notice how tired we look after our long night last night!)

Daddy and the girls
Mommy and the boys
Then I (Steph) had to run to Target with the kids. I didn't document that trip with pictures, so sorry to disappoint! I will say though, that the kids were excellent! I had a few people comment on how well behaved they were and how they stayed with me. Yay kiddos!

Growing Growing Growing!

These were in the kids' Easter baskets last week. They are tiny little things and are supposed to grow up to 600% their size. So we are taking pictures to see their growth. I think so far, Erica's crown is winning!

Last Night

After some furniture rearranging, Caroline joined big brother, Kyle and big sister, Erica in their room. They now all officially share a room! Trevor had been in our room up until last night and we thought it was time to get him into his own crib during the night (he's been napping in there during the day). Last night was a challenge though. Caroline is used to a very dim nightlight, no music, and the door being closed in order to sleep. Erica and Kyle like a brighter nightlight, music playing, and the door opened ajar. Add to that that Caroline didn't get a nap yesterday (you'd think this would make her more tired, but actually has the opposite effect), and we were in for a challenging bedtime! Kyle was wiped out and fell asleep fairly quickly, but Erica was bothered by all of Caroline's talking/singing/getting up. I'm sure some of it was also due to the newness of the room situation, but it was a bit aggravating! Finally, it was quiet in the house and sometime around 11pm, Caroline woke up (or was it a night terror?) screaming. We put her onto our bed where we could do nothing but let her cry. After about 15 minutes, she snapped out of it and I was able to cuddle with her and help her relax and get her back to her own bed. Not long after that, Mr. T. woke up, ready to eat. We are looking forward to a better night tonight! So far, so good and it's 10:45pm!

Reading and Writing

Kyle is so curious about how to read, that the other day, I started the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with him. He was totally into it and wanted to do the writing part as well. He is so proud of his letters!

Baby in a Box

The kids were having fun playing pretend this afternoon. It's always nice when they all play together!

Here I am, in a box...
Hey, I'm falling over!
You can hear Trevor laughing on this short video. We love to hear these happy sounds!

Snow, Hail, Exersaucer and Awana Games!

I think I've come to terms with the fact that my posts are a mixture of our daily lives. I don't blog every day, so when I do, I post all sorts of things - thus, the "Snow, Hail, Exersaucer and Awana Games" title here! I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse of our days, no matter how they are presented!

We've been having crazy weather here this week. It doesn't usually snow or hail the last week of March here! But on Friday, it snowed for a long time, turning everything but the cement a nice shade of white. Then today (Saturday), it hailed for a long time. Strange strange strange!

You can't tell very well, but there were large snowflakes falling. Those of you who live in areas where it snows a lot are probably laughing at this, but we love the snow! We hardly had any this winter!

Hail

Trevor's 1st time in the exersaucer. He needed a blanket behind him to support him, but he loved it!


We all went to the Sparks-A-Rama Games this morning. Erica has been practicing the games all month with her team and today was the culmination of it all. Her red team came in 2nd place!

Here she is...

Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter! We had a very full day today! The kids woke up and ran downstairs to see their Easter baskets that were waiting for them on the dining room table. Here's what they saw...

Caroline's

Kyle's
Erica's
Trevor's

It was reminiscent of Christmas when they discovered presents under the tree! Such excitement!







After enjoying their new goodies and a yummy breakfast, complete with cinnamon rolls, we went to church and then to Gail and Stan's for Easter lunch. Somehow we neglected to get a picture of Gail and Stan, but we do love them so much! Sorry about that!
Gail had wonderful activities planned for the kids, including a game and stickers to decorate these eggs. I wanted to post these pictures because we found it so interesting in how they used the stickers. Does it show their personality or a bit of the age difference, or maybe both?




Trevor is really good at hanging out on blankets these days, so we have to make sure we document his day as well! Here he is in all his blue-eyed glory!

Caroline decided she wanted a ride on Daddy's back, but didn't realize she was cutting off his airway! Here is Greg - a nice shade of red!
From there, we went up to the Science Center again. We have a membership that expires soon, so we got in a couple of fun hours today as well!

Here's Kyle controlling the dinosaur.
Caroline popped her head out of this hole in a treehouse.
Here's Greg helping Erica work the lever to lift a heavy weight.

We hope everyone had a great day celebrating Resurrection Day!

Happy Easter!

Easter Activities

When we returned home from The Three Little Pigs, we had lunch and then had some Easter fun. We made Resurrection rolls, and while they were baking, we dyed our eggs. It was fun to go through the Easter story with the kids while making the rolls. After dipping a marshmallow in some butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture, you wrap it in a crescent roll and bake it. You'll have to scroll down to the end of this post to see what happens, but I bet you can take a guess! The kids loved all the symbolism. Happy Easter everyone!

Trevor was happily playing while we were busy at the table.







Kyle was concentrating - wishing his egg would turn a very bright yellow!
Our rolls... some of them didn't get sealed completely, as you can see!