Easter morning

Happy Easter

First Easter, 2006. 5 months old.


I had come back to add this one. Oh - the story behind it! Let's see... the people had a photo studio and advertised photos with the Easter Bunny. This was local in Corning so I was happy to avoid the mall. Well, we tried to set up an appointment, but the studio was closed. They moved it to their home. Not necessarily a red flag. I have photographer friends with amazing home studios! Not this case. This shot was taken on their enclosed front porch that looked ready for the film crew of Hoarders to show up at any moment. They literally stapled the backdrop to the wall when we arrived. And then this woman came out! So many things we should have done (like leave. or ask if I could wear the suit. My hindsight is way better than my every day vision, you know.) - but with 2 five month old babies all dressed and ready, we just wanted a picture. Then, after it was taken came the waiting. And waiting etc. They had a ton of excuses from their kids spilled something on the prints to the dog chewed on them..... it was probably 3 months before we finally got the Walmart printed prints. Such memories!!

If you see my mother - ask her how much she likes this photo! And for the record... that is the free frame they threw in with it! Oo la la.

And also for the record... I knit those ducky cardigans they are wearing in both the basket shot and this one below. The blue one I made for Joey & it got handed down to me. The pink one I made for Gretchen that season. Apparently, I had free time then.
Easter 2007 was right after we moved to NC. 16 months old.Easter 2008, 2.5 years old.March 2009. We saw the Easter Bunny at the mall. 3.5 years old.2010 Easter Bunny at Chick-fil-A. 4.5 years old.Same bunny! 2011. 5.5 years old.and a flashback to 2004... Molly & Angus, 3 years old.

arboretum... revisited

I believe we will be revisiting a lot. I can't get over how much they love being in a garden. There is nothing electronic. It's just one wooden yellow house, a few Adirondack chairs, some mondo fish to feed (bring quarters) and paths through pretty flowers and plants. And yet they fuss when it is time to leave. Maybe the novelty hasn't worn off yet, we've only been a handful of times.

This was the first visit together and it wasn't our Plan A for Thursday. I got everyone up and ready to go before 9:00 so we could go to the gymnastics academy for free play Thursday. On Wednesdays and Thursdays they let kids 5 and under play on the fun equipment from 9:00 to 11:00 for only $5! 2 hours of climbing though foam cubes in a huge pit, jumping on trampolines, running, somersaulting, walking on balance beams, swinging on trapezes.... wears a body out! At least one that is age 5 and under!! It was going to be the first time they go to go together. We pulled in right at 9:00 and saw the sign "Closed. Spring Break April 18-25". Argh!

Now, I have 2 fussy kids in the car - one of which is insisting that I am not making him happy! The other one was trying to reason with him, "She didn't know!" Glad someone has my back.

But, the worst part was, they were in flip flops. You take your shoes off as you enter, so we just grabbed something easy to get on and off. So, I didn't want to go anywhere else in just flip flops. I didn't really want to go to the Children's Museum anyway (which would have been a great save) because it is spring break and that place takes kids of all ages... including the masses who are normally in school when we go. I was looking forward to gymnastics being quieter because the little kids with older siblings who were out of school for the week wouldn't be there since the over 5s couldn't come.

So, we headed home to change our shoes and I offered the Arboretum as an option. Squeals of delight! Awesome - we'll go there. I was assuming it wasn't a place hoards of people flocked to on spring break.

"First, let's run to Kmart and double check for sandals." Turns out, they did have a cute pair of sandals, but not in her size. And by then, I was satisfied with the flats. I just needed to double check before cutting the tags off her pair at home. OK, done looking. We played in the toy aisles for a few minutes before heading out... "Can we ride the merry-go-round?" She even knows the best argument, "We won't be this little forever, you know." Yeah, I know. I'm the one you heard say it once. Besides, I already had 50 cents in my pocket to ride it before they even asked! I am that with it! OK, off to the arboretum. I was still confident it would be peaceful, until I pulled into the parking lot and saw 9 million cars. We even had to park on the side in the "additional parking here" lot! Well, let me tell you - I have no idea where those people were. Maybe they all parked there for the day and got on a bus to somewhere else, because there were maybe 4 other families roaming the grounds and that was all. Yay!

The kids ran ahead of me and before I was even in sight of the Yellow House, I could hear Carl screaming at Gretchen, "Get out of my house!" one quick threat ("If I hear you yell one more time, we're going home. No warnings.") and they were playing happily in their yellow house.

I grabbed a nice Adirondack chair in the shade and let them run around happily. Two older couples approached them and I braced myself for Carl to tell them they were not welcome in His Yellow House, but it was the opposite. "Come into our house." Gretchen then gave them a tour of the backyard. Carl showed them the water sculpture - even had them placing their hands in the water! Gretchen lead them into the garden area followed by Carl - who informed them, "There is a shark coming!" By then, they had gotten the fifty cent tour for sure. They thanked their hosts for their generosity and said they had to catch up to their husbands. I think the shark sighting scared them off!
We bought handfuls of fish food and the fish enjoyed more lunch. They had a snack with the little girl ahead of us. And after we left, 2 more kids had quarters and food for them. Lucky fish!

We headed home for lunch, stopping first at pre-school to pick up our book order that had arrived on Monday. There are only four more weeks left of pre-school now that spring break is over! Then, the whole summer off before kindergarten!! Hopefully, we can make the most of our summer - we sure squeezed a ton of fun things into this spring break!!!

spring break is over

But, we sure made the most of it.

Monday we didn't do much. We drove into downtown Wilmington to a pretty little neighborhood to pick up 2 free Fake Books. If you are a musician, you know those are very thick music books that only give you the words and melody line along with chords written above it. They are good for guitar playing, not so much for piano because there is no left hand part written out. Someone had posted them on Freecycle and either our name was chosen or we were the only one who was interested in them. Didn't matter - the lady emailed and said they were ours if we wanted them and she would leave them on her side porch in a plastic bag for us to pick up anytime. If you don't use freecycle, look it up in your area. It is a Yahoo group that is set up to keep things out of landfills. If you have something you are getting rid of, you can post it there and people respond via email if they are interested. You choose who gets it, and set up a time to drop it off or have them pick it up. We have given away a bunch of things - even found one family that was expecting twins who I was able to give a bunch of double stuff to. And, sometimes we put in to receive things as well. It's a neat little community. And it has helped my garage and upstairs basement immensely!! I have even been known to garbage pick things specifically to "save" them and give them away for free. 2 Melissa & Doug easels for instance. People throw those things out with the clips still on them! But, my innate garbage picking abilities are a post for another day.

After picking up these music books, we headed to the library to pick out a new chapter book to read at bedtime, a couple other books and of course... a movie. Carl loves getting DVDs from the library. His taste sucks. This week, he chose a Kipper the Dog video and I was very happy! Then, he came over with Kipper as well as Max & Ruby. I was more happy - I love Max & Ruby. We should have left right then. But, Gretchen & I were in the middle of puzzles and reading... so.... he had time to change his selection. We ended up leaving there with a Caillou DVD and also Snoopy, Come Home. I don't exactly remember the storyline of that one, but I do know it is a tear jerker. Not my first choice in a kids' video. But, there was no talking him back into Kipper, Max & Ruby. Sigh.

Slipping in a shot of Carl in his new favorite shirt (thanks, Colin!)
When we got home, we grabbed the guitar and put the 2 new books to good use outside. The kids are really into folk music right now - and it is so easy to find songs they like to sing and dance along with. If you have "Lomax The Hound of Music" on your PBS station (we get one new episode per week) check it out. It is the current favorite around here. Lomax is a Melody Hound and his sidekick is Delta, a white cat. They are puppets. The human character, Amy, travels around with her 2 pets all over the country in a caboose seeking out folk tunes. It's pretty cool if you are into folksy stuff like we are. I just let each kid pick out a white stuffed cat online and they are each going to get their own Delta Kitty. Boy, I hope both packages arrive on the same day! I'll have to tuck one aside for sure if they don't.

Tuesday morning I had a phlebotomy so Lew didn't go in to work and I left early to head to oncology. The last one I had 3 months ago was a 3.5 hour ordeal. Only 25 minutes of actual phlebotomy. The rest of the time I sat waiting for them to figure out why I was there. "We don't have orders from your doctor." Cripes, in 3 hours, I could have walked blindfolded over to his office, played charades to get them to know why I was there and crawled back with the order. So, this time - I started right off by saying, "Last time this took 3.5 hours. It better not be that long today." I was assured it wouldn't be. It ended up being 2.5 hours. Woo Hoo! And - my BP was higher after giving the blood than before! I was 130/90 and no one seemed at all phased. Wonder why it was so elevated?

Here's another slip-in... good thing there is that really high mesh wall, eh? So, when I got home from my morning with the vampires, it was 11:30. Lew left for work and the kids and I headed out back. We spent a few hours just playing. They did some finger painting and we hung the paintings up to dry on the deck. It looked cool having some extra color out there. They were really into practicing their swing dismount jumping. We even had lunch outside. Watermelon is one of their very favorite things and it was on the menu with chicken nuggets and PB sandwich as well as baby carrots (another fav!)! It was a good lunch!! Followed by a good nap! Ahhh!!



On Wednesday, we had reservations for the Chick-fil-A Easter Bunny event I already wrote about here. After lunch, we did a little shoe shopping. I am not a big shopper in the first place, but man - what a pain looking for cute little girl white sandals. I wanted to get Gretchen some new sandals for her graduation ceremony so she wouldn't have to wear her Birkenstocks. First - I am shocked at how many toddler sized shoes come with high heels!! I wanted a nice, sensible, cute pair of flat sandals. Not white with big ol flowers stuck on them. Not white with cork high heels. Not flip flops. Not something that is so stiff it gives you blisters just looking at it. And, yes, not something that costs $45. We tried a shoe store right from brunch with no luck at all. We had already checked a couple stores before today, too. Then we tried Kohl's. There was a cute pair, but not in her size. By now, I have decided a pair of cute flats would work, too. Those are the ones that were mostly so stiff she said they hurt when she put them on.

We gave up shoe shopping and met Lew & Lindy for lunch at Costco. Hot dogs and ice cream with Lindy - it does not get better than that! He mentioned taking us camping on the next full moon. he knows of a campsite about an hour away that is on a little island on the coast. You ferry over. Having the full moon will give us more light at night. Here's my history: I was a Girl Scout all the way through school - even all through high school when it clearly was not cool. I loved all of it except camping. I hate camping. The problem is Lindy mentioned this in front of the kids and now all they can talk about is sleeping in tents by the ocean with Lindy next month. yippee.

After lunch, I decided since we were right next to Marshall's, I'd check there. And the shoe store next door. No luck at the shoe store, but Marshall's had some sandals Carl fell in love with. I wasn't even in the market for a pair for him, but he did only have his Birkenstocks that fit right, so I let him try these on. You know - he wears a size 1?? Gretchen is only a size 11. But, they had a pair of pink bubblegum sandals she liked. Crocs. Ugh. I think those clog things are about the ugliest things ever. This is why it is good I never say "never". As ugly as they are, I didn't say, "My kid will never wear those hideous shoes!" OK, maybe I thought something pretty close. But, this pair was not the classic clog and they actually coordinated with Carl's pair a bit. And she liked them - big plus! So, I let her buy those, too. Each pair was only $15. I think a good deal for sandals.

The best part..... they can put them on all by themselves!!!!!!! Nothing for me to tie!!!! or double knot!!!! Worth the $30 right there!!!!!!!

Still no dress shoes for graduation. We decided, yeah right - I decided - to stop at Sears on the way home because I saw a pair in the Lands End catalog that I was kind of comparing everything else to to this point. Of course, they don't carry kids' shoes in the stores. The sales guy made a big deal about the fact that I could order them online right there and get free shipping to the store. All I would have to do was pick them up. Gee, every single day I get some new "free shipping" code from Lands End directly in my email. Mailed to my house.

But, we did check the regular shoes. And we found a pair!!!!! She liked them!!! They didn't hurt her feet!!!! They had her size!!!! They are white!!!!!! and cute!!!!!! and under $20!!!!!!!! I did keep the tags on them until we could check one more store before deciding for sure we were keeping them. But, she likes them and can walk nicely in them! So, all in all... on Wednesday, we got 3 new pairs of shoes!!!! No more shoe shopping stress until back to school time now!


One more day to report on ... Thursday. This post is already pretty long. I will close it up and make a new one for Thursday's fun, OK?

how to spend a Friday when Daddy doesn't have work

Start the day by exercising. After breakfast, you might head over to the berry farm to pick your own strawberries.
Even if you don't like berries, you can enjoy the picking!
Check out the goods. We intended on each child filling their bucket less than half full. Well, in what seemed like less than 6 minutes, we had both buckets filled... and our bellies, too. Of course, when the berries are the size of baseballs, it's easy to fill your bucket!
We kept telling Carl to stop picking because we had enough berries, but he kept saying, "Ooo! Here's one I can pick!" and adding more to his pail. He wouldn't even taste one this year, but he did keep asking me "When can we come and pick blueberries?" He won't eat those either.
Now, look back on our turtle post and remember how tiny that little guy was in my hand. He'd be able to eat for a week on one of these berries!
OK, berry picking is almost done.
Relax a little before heading for the next stop.
At this point, stop at Michael's craft store to stock up on supplies for some teacher gifts. Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up in early May and each year we paint wooden magnets for one day's little gift. We've done hearts and flowers in the past. Today, we bought butterflies. The kids will paint them, I'll spray seal them and we'll stick a magnet to the back. So, 2 teachers, 2 directors and 3 therapists. I want to get an early start on them. We also bought more stepping stone supplies. Those are gifts for the teachers (and directors and therapists) for the end of the year in mid May. Gotta get a jump on making those, too because we only have 3 molds. I should pick up one more so we can do 4 at once. The box of mix makes 2 stones per box. They take a couple days to dry before you can reuse the mold. That's why we start those early.

Go grocery shopping and have lunch at Costco. You will meet someone there from the camera club. It is guaranteed. Today, I happened to meet a lady before we even entered the store and then as we ate, another member stopped by and sat with us for a few minutes. He offered to pull Gretchen's loose tooth, but she turned him down.

Take your groceries home, grab your flash and head back out to a toy store for a Pat The Bunny event. That ended up taking about an hour to work our way through the line to get to hold the sweet little baby bunnies. They were only 4 weeks old and this was their first time meeting people. Gretchen wasn't confident enough and the bunny kept wiggling away on her. By the time I was holding one, she wasn't in the mood to let me try to help her in any way. It was close to 4 pm, about 2 hours after nap usually starts. Carl wasn't too keen on not being able to run amok in the toy store, too, but he did enjoy snuggling the bunnies.
Stop to hug Pat the Bunny (you know, from the book)
After all this excitement, head home for a late nap.

Then, go out to dinner to one of your very favorite local restaurants. Mmmmm...... fried green tomatoes, wings, cheeseburger and chicken fingers!! They see us come in and bring our drinks right over: diet coke, water, white milk and chocolate milk. We're there at least once a week. Big Ken would approve of the place despite their lack of liver and onions.

Get home late. Watch The Cosby Show and hockey play-offs. Put on your jammies and go to bed because tomorrow is Saturday and you never know what fun things you might have in store!

Easter Bunny photos

This morning we had brunch with the Easter Bunny at Chick-fil-A. The kids ate well, had a lot of fun telling the Bunny that we saw him in the movie HOP & showing him exactly how to hop, both did their craft start to finish and had a lot of fun playing on the climber there.

It's late, so here are the photos and I will update tomorrow with more about how we are enjoying our Spring Break.


Oh - here's last year's entry. We did the same Easter Bunny brunch. Kind of neat to have the same Bunny 2 years in a row. Oh - I will also update with flashbacks of all Bunny shots we have. My mother's all time favorite is the one from their 1st Easter. I'll get to that later on in the week, too.

quote of the day. or year.

Gretchen, to Lew, Carl & me as we all watched TV on the bed together this evening:

"Guys, I love you so much. More than you will ever know."

Happy Birthday wishes!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

turtle germs

Sometimes, the eye for an eye sibling thing amazes me. Guess what? Gretchen couldn't get to the Arboretum and that "Yellow House" fast enough. I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted. Since it is supposed to rain tomorrow, I figured we might as well get this over with. I put the 30mm on my camera because I used the 60mm macro the last time. This time, I wanted to be able to capture more of the house without having to back up so far. We got there, took some photos, played in the Yellow House and its gardens and then headed over to the pond to see the fish. Oh my - Gretchen took some hilarious videos of the fish swimming around. She was narrating everything... "Here comes one fish. he is swimming under the water. He's coming right at me. Oh, I have got to get this on tape! This is going to be an excellent movie! Oh look, an encore. He is still swimming." and so on... but the clips she took were so long, I don't think I can upload them to share online. At least, I can't do it in a timely fashion.

So, then we were turning to head for the car. She ran back to the yellow house and I happened to glance down at the sidewalk. Right there in the middle was the tiniest turtle I have ever seen. He was the size of a nickel. I called Gretchen back over and we picked him up. I didn't want the thing to get stepped on. But, we didn't think we should put him in the pond. I seriously think the fish would have eaten him. I swear, those koi are bigger than Angus. They are huge! and ugly! I hate fish. and fish tanks. Gretchen wanted to hold him. By now, I was wishing I had my 60mm macro lens today! Anyway, we didn't know if we should leave him on the side of the pond or take him back over to the side garden with a marshy area where we saw a bigger box turtle earlier. Then, I said, "or we could ask someone"... and that's all she needed to hear. "Let's go ask someone. Can we ask someone?" "Mom, can we ask someone?" "Mom. Mom. Mom. Can we ask someone." If you do not respond to her in less than 1 second, she asks again... and again... and again.We finally found someone who looked like a worker and asked her what to do with our turtle friend. Gretchen was still carrying him. No problem. The lady said, 'Actually, when we find turtles, we remove them from the property because they get into the pond and eat the lilies. And lilies are expensive." She said she would take him home to her son and immediately asked, "Do you want to take him home?" We said we have a pond in our backyard and we would do that. By now, I thought it would be kind of neat for Carl to get to see him. Gretchen is still carrying him. We got back to the van and I held the turtle for her so she could get into her car seat. Then, I gave him back and got in the driver's seat... and backed out of the parking spot. That's when it got exciting. "He's moving! He's crawling! I do NOT want to hold this turtle! MOOOOOOOMMMMMMM take him!!!!!!!" So, I stopped the car and reached back and took him from her. By now, the teeny turtle who had kept his arms, legs and head inside was feeling brave and had everything out and ready to rock and roll. I tried to set him on the console, but he wasn't intimidated and was crawling all around. "He's crawling! Mom! Make him stop! I don't want this turtle!" I said something about it being too bad Carl can't see him and she yelled, "Carl wouldn't care!" So, I quickly pulled into another parking spot and tried flipping him on his back thinking he'd stay still. Nope, he stuck his neck way out and flipped himself back over. More screaming. Remember... this turtle is the size of a nickel!Well, we decided to go back and find the lady with the turtle loving son again. She saw us coming and smiled. I said, "It didn't go so well in the van. You said you'd take him to your son. Will you?" and she said , "Sure." She told us last year he found one that tiny and now he was about 3" in diameter and her son was going to release him back into the wild. perfect. Now he could have this new foster turtle to care for. We gave him to her and skipped off to the car, sans reptiles.

Once everyone calmed down, we decided that by having saved this turtle and found him a good home, we are indeed Turtle Heroes! But, we washed our hand really well when we got home because we knew we had turtle germs.