Easter Morning

Growing up Easter morning meant a new dress, hat and gloves to wear to church.  It also meant pictures in front of the fire place in between my two brothers.  At our house we forgo the hat and gloves, but each child got a new Easter outfit and church shoes for the summer.  This was the first year we did not have to leave at 7 am for the 8 am service, so we had a bit more time to check out the Easter bunny loot and get ready.  The girls had matching dresses and Trey got a new pair of shorts and polo shirt.  The weather even cooporated for a beautiful Easter morning. 

I am usually in charge of putting out Easter baskets and I put them on the table at each child's place because that is where they were put when I was a kid.  This year Jay put out the baskets because I was upstairs feeding and getting Esther to sleep.  I was surprised when I came downstairs early in the morning before the kids were up to see the baskets in the living room, but it totally made sense to Jay to put them there.  We are constantly learning new little things like that that we do differently because of the way our families did it growing up :)

Why yes, the kids are wearing Christmas pajamas on Easter morning.

The chocolate bunny.  The Easter bunny failed to deliver one of these last year and the kids were super excited to get one in their baskets this year.  Also, the flip flops from the Easter bunny were very exciting, but next time the Easter bunny will not bring any shoes/clothing the kids cannot immediately wear to church.  It was hard to convince the kids they could not wear their new flip clops to church. 

Charlotte was excited about her new "My little pony" underwear.  Hey, the Easter bunny delivers more than just candy!

Esther was not sure what was going on but she humored the big kids by watching them dive into their baskets.  I have no doubt next year she will be doing the same thing!

The kids first bite of peeps. 

This was the best we could get from our before church photo session. 

After church we tried to get some better pictures outside.

No such luck...

Winner for the sweetest picture of the day. 

Easter Fun

The kids love any holiday, but especially ones that involve candy.  We tried to emphasize the Easter story and the reason why we celebrate Easter.  Trey understood that Jesus died and that when they went to the tomb to find him he wasn't there anymore, he was alive again.  He asked some good questions about heaven and Jesus, but it is a bit much for a five year old to be able to comprehend.  Charlotte just listened to our conversations, but was more interested in the jelly beans she got from church!

 We did some Easter crafts at home.

Then we dyed Easter eggs.  Trey did this at school last week, but we have never dyed eggs with the kids before.  They loved seeing the colors change.

We also went to an Easter egg hunt at a local church.  They had face painting, inflatible bounce houses and slides, and a gigantic egg hunt.  The grand finale was the helicopter dropping eggs.  Esther slept in the ergo carrier and the big kids had a great time.

Five on Friday

Five on Friday 

1. Outside Playtime
With this warmer weather, we have been playing outside almost every afternoon.  The kids enjoy taking walks through the woods and finding new "treasures."

Going on an afternoon walk

It is so easy to just wear Esther outside so I can keep up with the other two.  Good thing she likes being in the Ergo!

They love to race each other.

2. Easter Eggs
Auntie Jill brought the kids sidewalk chalk in the shape of eggs.  They have colored with them a bit, but mostly they like to hide the eggs in the yard and then find them.  Charlotte just lays the eggs in different places, but Trey likes to bury the eggs under leaves and dirt so sometimes we have a hard time finding them!

Trey is a master hider.

Charlotte only lasts about 5 seconds before she starts to peek to see where Trey is hiding the eggs.

3. Cloth Diapers
Esther has been in cloth diapers day and night for the past 3 weeks.  We are using Bum Genius 4.0s in snaps.  I have a dozen snaps left over from Charlotte and our Sunday School class generously gave us another dozen for Esther.  They contain her explosive diapers so much better than the disposable ones!

She doesn't mind diaper changes at all!

4. Selfies
Charlotte learned how to take selfies the other day.  I had a meeting a church the other morning and she came with me.  She played in the room while we met, but then she found my found and started take selfies.  I have about 100 pictures that look just like this on my phone now.

5. Smiles!
This sweet girl has showed us her first smiles this week!Since about a month she has been smiling as she plays on the floor, but this week she started looking at each person and smiling at them.

Happy baby!

Musings of a Five Year Old Boy

Each day I am amazed at the thoughts and ideas that Trey shares.  Sometimes they are things he has learned at school, ideas he has heard at church or just things he makes up.  He has always had his own personality, but I am seeing it emerge on a whole new level as he moves out of the preschool years. 

 Here are some of our conversations today.  This is just a small sample of the conversations we have every day.

Me: Trey, please get a tissue for your nose. 
Trey: But I like licking my snot, it tastes good.

Trey: (comes in from outside) Mommy, here is a flower I picked for you.  It is purple because that's your favorite color.

Me: Do you want to take a shower soon instead of just baths?
Trey: No, I will take a shower when I am a grown up.
Me: How old do you have to be to be a grown up?
Trey: 10 or 14 or maybe 25

Tonight's bedtime prayer: Dear God. Thank you for our family, for helping me to be brave, and for making manes on lions. Amen."

Pirate Pool Party

Jay and I have decided that in our family when you are five you get to have a "big" birthday party with friends someplace other than home (because when you are the parents you can make up any rule you want).  This was our first away from home party, and it was so much easier to get ready for!! Honestly, the cost was fairly comparable to other parties we have thrown because we didn't have to get anything for games/activities, the place was the entertainment and we did minimal snacks/decorations.  The best part was we didn't have to stay up late to make decorations, clean up our house or try to run around getting everything ready right before the party! I am sure none of that mattered to the birthday boy, but it allowed Jay and I to enjoy the party a bit more.  Trey's next big party will be when he is eight. 

Trey had his party at Greenridge Rec Center.  They were wonderful to work with and had everything organized for us, including a cart for kids to put presents on as soon as they arrived. The party was for two hours and we swam the first hour, changed in the locker rooms out of our wet clothes, and then went to the party room for snacks and to open presents.

Trey had the best time.  He had been to other birthday parties here, but I think he enjoyed it even more being the birthday boy.  Nana brought Trey's cousins, Jacob and Chandler, to visit for the weekend and come to the party.  The kids had so much fun together.  The two five year old boys declared to me on Sunday afternoon that "They were best friends because they both like to be silly together." 

The 45 minute car ride with the boys all in the back made me thankful that our kids can't reach each other when we go on road trips. 

Bedtime stories on Saturday night. 

Jacob loved helping with Esther.  He would pick her up if she was crying or give her the paci.  Such a great big cousin! He also tried to protect her from the other boys by telling them to be quiet so Esther could go to sleep or to be gentle when they touched her. 

This was Charlotte's first time at the indoor pool.  The front area of the pool is very shallow and has some slides for little kids.  Apparently the kids decided they were too big for the little kid area and wanted to hang out in the main pool.  Charlotte was right there with the big kids.  She pretty much did her own thing the whole time and you had to watch her like a hawk because she was all over the pool!

Charlotte was quite the little fish!

Chandler had fun swimming and jumping into the water.

We had to have 3 adults in the water since the kids were all five and under.  Thanks to Jay and two other dads for being jumped all over, climbed all over, and helping the kids have a great time in the pool!

The picture sums up how Trey spent a lot of time.  He loved being in the water with his friends, but as soon as he got water in his eye he had to climb out of the pool to get his face wiped off.  This happened about every five minutes!

After an hour of swimming and playing the kids headed to the locker rooms to change.  Thanks Uncle Mark for helping Jay get Trey and his cousins changed and under control in the locker room!  At the end of the swimming time Uncle Mark, Nana and I got the party room set up and food set out.  We had Trey's favorite foods for snacks: grapes, colored goldfish and cheese sticks.  I got capri sun and water bottles to drink and then we did ice cream cups and cupcakes for dessert.  Super easy, no prep, and all the kids loved the food.

All these boys can be pretty silly, but Charlotte held her own with them!

We got a cupcake pull apart cake from Kroger.  The cake is actually made up of 24 cupcakes. This was our first time buying the cupcakes instead of making them.  They were way more messy with tons of icing that melted and made it hard to just "pull apart" the cupcakes.    Next time we will go back to making our own cupcakes. 

The kids were so excited about the cupcakes.  They had been eying them as soon as they came in the room and we made them wait until everyone was changed before they could eat.

It was so much fun watching Trey interact with his friends.  His Sunday School teachers at church said the boys were so excited about Trey's party that afternoon and they had the boys practice singing happy birthday at church! 

He knew exactly what to do when they finished the song!

Everybody was hungry from swimming so this was the only time they were quiet.

After the food it was time to open presents.  I was amazed at how excited the kids were for Trey's presents, even though they were just watching him open them.  They wanted to touch the toys and "Ohh and Ahhh!" over each one. 

Last year Trey's party had the same pirate theme.  I was trying to come up with something other than goodie bags with toys that will get lost or candy.  Each kid got a pirate backpack bag and pirate beach ball.  I figured those could be used all summer. I ordered them from amazon and didn't have to go from store to store gathering goodie bag supplies! 

Pirate Loot Backpacks on Amazon

Pirate Beach Balls

We had such a great time!  I am so thankful that Trey had wonderful friends and cousins to play with.  Except for the cousins, all the other kids were friends from church.  His class is mainly boys and I look forward to watching those boys continue their friendship and grow up together!