Egg hunts, bunnies, lambs and yummy food...

We managed to stretch Easter out over almost an entire week! I guess next year we will shoot for "the 12 days of Easter".

We started the week with an Egg Hunt at a play date with some friends. The kids each had 6 eggs to find, I admit my son got somewhat derailed after realizing that there were treats in the eggs, I had to encourage him to pick up the rest of the eggs. Ainsley caught on very quickly and actually was finding the eggs on her own.

We made some festive food for the play date, bunny shaped tuna sandwiches and bunny deviled eggs.

the idea for these eggs came from the blog Papawow.com, thanks papawow!

Later in the week we tried our hand at coloring eggs. As we were doing it I realized it was a "first" for all three of us. Neither Wythe, Ainsley nor I had ever dyed eggs before.  Wythe enjoyed it at first but quickly lost interest. Ainsley was just angry when she realized she couldn't drink the dye, we had to move her away from the table lest her anger destroy the project.

and our finished product...

Easter morning  I tried to get some pictures of the children in their Easter outfits but somebody wasn't in the mood for photos.



This year we continued our tradition of going to our neighbors for an egg hunt and brunch. Sadly this is the last year of that tradition as they are moving out of state. The kids were eager to look for eggs so they got their baskets and headed outside.

Getting ready to start the egg hunt...

Wythe showing the girls the soon to be famous "Egg Hunt Dance".

Eggs, eggs, everywhere...

Towards the end of the egg hunt the baskets were overflowing and there were a few spills...

My children had a wonderful egg hunt with their friend "fee fee" and thanks to my friend's good thinking the eggs were empty so we didn't have a sugar overload that day!  I was very happy that we made it through the weekend and my kids only ingested sugar in the form of a piece of cake!  We will save candy for later years when we can't fool them with empty eggs!

After the egg hunt we had a lovely brunch, lots and lots of mimosas followed by a bunny cake!  Once we were all in a tipsy food coma we stumbled home to nap/relax/cook for a couple hours.

Later that day our neighbors came over to our house for Easter dinner.  On the menu was plum honey glazed ham, scalloped potatoes, Asparagus with red pepper and almonds, rolls and pear strawberry blue cheese salad.  Since the weather continued to be so beautiful we ate outside on the patio.

After dinner we had "lamb" cake for dessert!  I made the cake using an antique mold that belonged to Peter's grandmother.  I don't think the mold was designed for cakes, there are no vent holes or anything but it worked pretty well. 

All in all, we had a great Easter week(end) and look forward to next year!

'til next time...

"Special Milk"

Today I heard my son ask for "Chocolate milk" and it made me a little sad to hear it. Not that he asked for chocolate milk but rather that he called it by name. Until today my son has always asked for "special milk". He would even instruct me how to prepare it.

"Mama get reg'lar milk from 'drator (refrigerator) get special lotion (this being chocolate syrup, anything in a squeeze bottle is called lotion) put special in and shake, shake, shake."  Needless to say, I think this is adorable, so I was a little sad to hear "Mommy, Wiff (Wythe) have chocolate milk, peese?"

I can only hope the days of "special milk" aren't completely behind us!

"til next time...

Warning: This may melt your heart...

Today my little guy was playing with his cars and he says "mama sit rocking chair, snuggle Wythe", or as he says "Wiff". So I went over and sat down in the rocking chair, he climbed up in my lap and snuggled for about 10 minutes. Then he got down and went back to playing cars. 

These are the moments that make you forget about all the sleepless nights, temper tantrums, whining, and all the other less desirable toddler behavior, the moments when you know there is nothing more precious than being a parent. I wanted to write this down so that I don't forget such a priceless moment.

'til next time...

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails...

Yesterday I had my first "mother of a little boy" moment. We were playing outside since it was our first really warm day, actually it was almost hot as it was in the 80's. My son had been picking up sticks and taking them to the burn pile, or as he says "helping daddy with fire".  He sees my husband taking trees and large branches to the burn pile and wants to help by collecting twigs and occasionally a branch that is a couple feet long. I was on the patio with my daughter and Wythe had wandered down the walkway.  I saw him bend over and pick up a stick, something caused me to take a second look at that stick and I thought "that doesn't look like a stick maybe it is something Peter left out" then the stick started moving. My heart skipped a beat at that point and I hurried over to Wythe, sure enough he was holding a 4 foot+ black snake! I didn't want to over react and so I calmly told him to put it down, fortunately he listened. I didn't want to say something like "snakes are yucky" or "NO don't pick up a snake" so instead I opted for the "snakes are our friends and we must treat them with respect which means just say hi to Mr. Snake but don't pick him up because he is probably just out trying to find something to eat or trying to get some sun or even on his way home and he probably doesn't like to be held by little boys"...that story. I think at that point Wythe still thought he had been holding a stick because he was looking at me with that look toddlers have that says "you keep talking and talking and I have no idea what you are saying". Then as the snake slithered away he said "where stick go?"  So much for my explanation about snakes.  I did wash his hands and we talked some more about the snake, I think he started to understand because he wanted to go back to that area to see "hiss...hiss....snake". 
Afterwards I had to pat myself on the back for remaining calm and not panicking to see my two year old holding a snake. But to be perfectly honest if I had seen him holding a large spider...well, all bets would be off.  The chances are I would have gone inside, locked the door (leaving him outside) and called for help.

'til next time...

Missing....items off of counter...

Recently I have noticed that more and more items are missing from the counter tops and table.  The culprit....a 2-3/4 year old boy.  I have been working with him to teach him that most things on the counter top are not for him and yet it would appear that this lesson has not sunk in yet.

Today I had "The Case of the Missing Cream Cheese", kind of made me think of Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys!   I had a set out a package of cream cheese to soften in preparation for cooking. When I went to use it I couldn't find it. First, I looked on all the counters and the table, looking under everything that was sitting out. Then I thought that maybe I had put it back into the refrigerator....nope, not there.  I then thought perhaps I put it in the cabinet in a fit of mommy brain so I proceeded to go through all the cabinets, food cabinets, the pan cabinet, the storage cabinet, dishes cabinet, drawers......nothing. By this time it has occurred to me that little fingers may have swiped the package but where could it be??   My son has not reached the point where he can tell you where something is. If you ask him "Where are your shoes?" or "where did you put your train?"   he will typically just repeat what you said....very frustrating...but that is another topic.   So, I knew asking him wasn't really going to get me anywhere, especially considering that he doesn't even know what cream cheese is, describing the package wasn't getting me anywhere!  So I started on a house hunt. First I did a cursory look around the floors and under furniture...nothing.  Then I emptied the toy box...nothing. Searched the kids room....nope.  Looked through the laundry room....nothing.   Looked out in the addition....nope. Looked in the bathroom....nada.  Looked through the trash cans, including the trash bag I had already taken out.....no cream cheese  The last place to look was my bedroom but I doubted it was there since he hadn't been in there. On my way into the room I notice that someone was been into the DVD cabinet....yep....DVD's and a package of cream cheese.  I don't know why I didn't think to look there first.

'til next time...