Sneaky Easter

Easter really snuck up on us this year. I feel like I say that about every holiday, but it's especially true of Easter when it falls in March. I don't even really have enough time to get over feeling violated by the leprechauns. 

As usual, we dyed eggs the day before. Pen decided to go to a color festival instead, so no fancy, artistic eggs from her this year. The rest of us did a great job, though!

The next morning, after our traditional bran muffins and cheesy scrambled eggs, it was time to see what the Easter Bunny brought!

Each kid got one item of clothing and a candy bar in their basket. Way to keep it fair, E.B.!

After we checked out our baskets, it was time for the hunt! As usual, each kid was assigned an egg color to find (8 eggs each). This Easter stuff sure is a lot easier now that E.B. came up with a system! 

Ginger notoriously has a bit of a hard time finding her eggs, so she was super stoked to see an egg in a tree right as she walked out the door. She ran to the tree and nabbed it with gusto! I captured this hilarious photo of her in action. Cracks me up.

Pen checked the mailbox for an egg, but found forgotten mail instead. Tricky, E.B.!

Bud ran all around, finding eggs pretty easily. All except the one you can see up on the window ledge. That one, just above his sight-line, proved to be his nemesis.

I posted this next photo because I think that Bud and the tree kind of look alike.

Once again, EB underestimated how good Big is at finding eggs (see him waiting in the background?). One of these years he'll get it right. 

I don't think that Big really minds finishing way ahead of everyone else, though. 

It seems to make him feel like a winner. Ha!

Ginger seems to be having trouble finding egg #8. Don't give up, Ginger!

Ah, finally! Egg #8 for Bud.

You can see that he's laughing at himself a bit. He only walked by there a gazillion times. Finally someone suggested that maybe he look UP. 

Pen forgot that one of her eggs was smaller in size, but she eventually found #8, too.

My handsome honey.

What a fun hunt! Just a quick photo of the kids before I let the younger ones hide the eggs over and over again for each other. I'm not sure what Kate's schedule will be for school next year, but it's weird to think that this may be the last Easter photo with all of the kids for a while. 

Cutie pies. I sure do love them.

A Lot of Parking

Why is time so weird? It seems like Edith turned 5 ages ago, yet I kind of can't believe it's April already. Whatever. The day after Edith's birthday, Rophone had the great idea of walking to the park to play. The park we walked to is just a little over a mile away, so it adds on a good little workout at the beginning and end. It was super fun.

The next week we took a trip to the library and I was so happy that Edith wore an outfit suitable for the #libraryattire photo series! For some reason she has been having me dress her for the past little while, which has led to some boring, very-matching outfits that just weren't worthy to be included. Thank goodness she dressed herself this time.

I'm also thrilled to report that Bud is back to his old self, too. I'm so glad that he has found ways to challenge himself again. Making your own World Atlas by hand? No biggie, right? Everybody does that in their spare time. Okay, maybe just Bud.

I love that he even made US maps as the country was during the Colonial and Civil War eras. Bud also makes maps of imaginary worlds and then takes Big and Edith around the house, pretending to visit the different places on the map. It's so cool.

I was really hoping that Edith would miraculously have an easier time being 5 than being 4, but I guess I can't expect it to happen overnight. After one, particularly hairy afternoon, Edith and I snuggled and talked about how things can be better. Then, we just couldn't resist taking some silly pictures together. Snuggles and silly pictures seem to make everything better.

St. Patrick's Day came and went, hardly making a blip. The leprechauns came and made a few piles of weird stuff, built a fort in the living room for the blender to play in, and stuck Edith's Hello Kitty lunchbox in the microwave. My favorite thing about it all is how the kids' imaginations take over and imagine the leprechauns did so much more than they really did-- "Mom! The leprechauns organized the freezer!" Ha! 

A few days after St. Patrick's Day we decided to go to the school's playground to play for a bit. It was a beautiful afternoon.

The kids decided that it was a perfect day to eat ice cream cones outside after dinner. Yeah, maybe not quite warm enough for that yet.

The next day was even more beautiful and warm. Just right for a picnic and games at the park with friends. It was super fun. Definitely something we need to do again. 

The first 3 weeks of March were pretty darn fun, now that I look at it. Not too bad at all.