Anna and the egg hunt

On Holy Saturday, we didn't have much to do, so we decided to take the kids to build-a-bear and make a bear for the new baby.  We have made "bears" (Nate's is a turtle) for each of the kids with their in utero heartbeat in the bear.  Since we already have the name picked out and know it is a girl, we figured it didn't really matter when we did it.  So we did it early. 

Here they are kissing the hearts to put in the bear.  The lady actually let Gwen stuff the bear, but apparently I didn't get a picture of that! 

Here they are fluffing up "Anna" as Gwen has dubbed her.

They really enjoyed this, I think they would have stood their all day. 

We spent the next hour, or so it felt, trying to decide on accessories and outfits for Anna.  Have I mentioned that Gwen really enjoys accessorizing!?  We finally got everything done and had heard they had an egg hunt.  We had gone to Eric's work for an Egg hunt, but sadly we got there late and missed the whole thing, the kids where greatly disappointed, so we decided to do the one at the Mall.  They had scavenger type thing where they had clues and then you had to guess.  Some of the clues were to advanced for the kids, but this one was easy to figure, we asked the kids which store had a blue butterfly and Nate got into a pointer pose and Eric and I about fell on the floor!  It was so funny, of course when I went to get a picture Gwen had to do the same because Nate was getting the attention! 

There was a lull, and by lull I mean that the kids where losing steam, so we took a candy break! 

There where 12 or so store participating, most gave candy, but some, fortunately gave bubbles or stickers.  Thank goodness!  Needless to say, the kids really enjoyed the day and where pooped!  A good day before Easter for them, to be sure! 

Easter Egg Hunt

At the Church we sponsored a Easter Egg Hunt for the kids.  Unfortunately, it was raining outside, so we had to do the whole thing inside.  I don't think the kids cared, they still got to "hunt" for eggs and got plenty of candy.

This is for the under 3 set, but the over 3 set of eggs weren't much harder to find. 

Let the rush begin!

Going through the stash! 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Today we started out pretty early, Gwen woke up early to potty and found some eggs, we tried to get them to go back to sleep but we realized it wasn't going to happen. We started the egg hunt at about 6:30am. The kids really enjoyed hunting for eggs, I took a video of the craziness.  Nate insisted on wearing his shoes and socks.  I think they were both still asleep.

Since we started the egg hunt so early, we were ready in plenty of time for Church.  We got our normal seats, the kids were really good, we let them have 1 piece of candy before we left for Church and then we let them pick out candy to take to Church, Gwen put an egg in her purse filled with candy and Nate brought some Peeps, which he left in the car.
Gwen asked if we could decorate Easter Eggs, which we didn't get to yesterday.  So today we did that after lunch.  The kids seemed to enjoy the day.  I think they hid and found eggs several times today.  Here's a slideshow from today.  

Happy Easter 2012 - slideshow maker with music

Thanks to Grandmom for the candy and the Easter clothes!

Easter pictures

These aren't the last of the Easter pictures, as I was looking at the pictures I realized some were missing. It finally dawned on me that some of the pictures are on the old camera...so eventually I will get the egg dying on here, possibly, we'll see! Eric's school had an Easter Egg Hunt, it ended up only being a few kids (5) and they hid 150 eggs. Let's just say that the kids got a lot of chocolate! The weather was iffy and I guess people were scared it was going to rain, it didn't. Sadly we forgot to bring their baskets so we got some boxes from Eric's work.
Here is a picture of the kids with the "Easter Bunny"
The kids got up Easter morning and did their home egg hunt, but sadly because of Gwen's attire we won't be posting any pictures of her...but enjoy the pictures of Nate!

Holy man, it was hard to get them to find their baskets, they just didn't get it. I kept trying to get them to find them, but they were more interested in the eggs. Finally they found them. Here is Nate working on his puzzle.
We had a nice Easter dinner, Gwen helped me ice with the cake. I didn't get to that to mid-day on Sunday. But it didn't matter, it was yummy and it was done in time for desert!
Hopefully I will get to the last Easter post sometime soon!

The project

I decided that while Gwen was on spring break we should do a project. We went to the store, picked out some beads and a cross and everyday until spring break she asked if we could make her Rosary. So, first thing Holy Thursday we made her Rosary. As you can see she dressed for the occasion and wore her baby on her back. (in her homemade sling-type thing) Nate enjoyed playing with the beads.
Here she is hard at work.I think Nate took this picture!
Here she is proudly showing her Rosary.
Some of the beads weren't the easiest for her to get on, so I had to help her, the Rosary is kind of gaudy, but she's 4 and she likes it and is proud of it.

Happy Easter

We have had a busy couple of weeks leading up to Easter. Our Mom's group at Church decided to do an Easter Egg Hunt, so we have been busy with that. I also decided to attend the whole Triduum, which means I have been out late. I usually only attend the first 2 days of the Triduum since I take the kids in the morning to Church, but this year decided to do it all! We also had an Easter Egg Hunt today and yesterday. Wow! Busy! I am posting some pictures from last week's Easter Egg Hunt. For you to enjoy. The kids decked out in their Easter finest!
Some of the teens decided to play duck, duck, goose with the kids, while the eggs were being hidden. Gwen didn't want to and Nate was super excited to play. He totally didn't understand and ran every time someone said "goose". He as usual brought smiles and laughs to everyone there!
Nate getting some eggs, he is pretty good at it now!
The kids seem to be having a good Easter, we will be eating early afternoon and they are SO excited to eat more candy and they seem pretty happy with their puzzles and new game. Happy Easter everyone.

King Cake Day

Gwen came home from school today all fired up! She has been so excited about Mardi Gras today "SHE HAD A PARTY AND GOT A BALLOON AND MADE A MASK AND SHE GOT A BABY JESUS!" So I decided to make a King Cake, we had the baby Jesus after all. We've never made a King Cake before, but what the heck, I knew I had a recipe somewhere. It took me a while to find the recipe, but I did and we made the King Cake. The kids where very excited and helped. I remembered to take pictures. Gwen was very excited to place the baby in the cake, well not at first, but I assured her the baby would stay warm in the cake. Seemed weird, but she's 4 and well she was like ok and went and found the baby she previously hid.

Gwen has also learned that today is the day for sweets, no sweets tomorrow. "No ice cream, pancakes, cake" and no meat tomorrow. I haven't pushed the abstinence/fasting thing with them yet, because they were too young last year. Now I don't have to go over it with her, score!

Egg hunt!

This weekend we went to an Egg hunt at a local Church. We had a good time. They had 2 areas for the kids one in the playground area for the 3 and under crowd (basically every foot or so and in plain sight) and one for the older kids. I think over 1000 eggs were buried. I dressed the kids up in their Easter clothes and took some pictures. Gwen was rather difficult as you can see, I just wanted I picture of her in her dress and she really didn't want to get her picture taken! Nate was more interested in playing on the playground until we showed him the eggs and then he got the idea. They also had hot dogs and other lunch items for afterwards. It was a little chilly but the day warmed up nicely. Oh, enjoy the slide show!

Choices

We are having a relatively good day around here, despite the congestion that has appeared. We don't have any other symptoms but congestion, I got mine first, I think and then Nate and lastly Gwen. I have to say Nate is super cute, every time I blow my nose or Gwen's he also has to "blow" (his nose). I am sure that is not very hygienic, but whatever, we all have the same thing anyways. Nate's vocabulary is really improving. Some words can confuse, but he probably has close to 50 words now, and he'll try to say anything, I have been working on different fruit with him because he likes to call everything in the fruit bowl "apple" which is really annoying to me, because pears are not apples, but I guess he gets confused because we have green and red apples in our bowl. We also have a new fruit addition to our family, the pomegranate. Approved by 3 of the 4 members of our family (only disliked by Gwen). So if you are keeping track at home, Nate eats-salmon, pomegranate, CHEESE, bread, cereal, grapes, rice. He will occasionally eat corn, apples, pear, and banana-he is rather picky about bananas, the ripeness affects his decision there! I have faith that this is a phase and he will eventually eat more food, Gwen is slowly starting to eat dinner with us-I am hoping by the time they are 20 I won't be having these problems, of course by then I hopefully won't be making them dinner because they've gone away to college!
I think we are finally settling into the lifestyle of our choosing. We knew going into this there were going to be cutbacks and I think we are doing well. We are sticking to our budget and despite some random things we didn't account for we are not at a high level of stress about money (or lack thereof); if we were, I would be looking for a job. We have found we don't really miss the things we cut out and we are wondering where our money went to before.
Gwen is, well getting to be a big girl. She completely dresses herself in the morning. I think she would also like to brush her teeth, but I still brush after her, she is cute trying to brush. She can talk your ear off and she has started talking to random people, strangers really. She'll tell them anything. We were at the play area in the mall and this guy walks up to his wife (who was a friend of the person I was with) and said this little girl (Gwen) just told him "Nate is my brother, he's a boy, he doesn't wear dresses, only shirts, I wear dresses." He didn't know I was her mother! I don't know where she gets this stuff! We have good days and bad days with her; days she can listen and days she can't. I would like her to understand that I am not kidding, when I tell her to help me clean her room, it is not up for debate. But, she gets to the super tired point and starts to cling and hang on me and WHINES instantly! And, she can be bossy, telling us what to do. I think she is going to start to become more helpful and sweet, as her brother becomes more challenging and sweet.

Easter videos

Here are the many Easter videos, I don't know how exciting they will be, except for maybe the bubbles one, which I haven't viewed, but I was there and thought it was darn funny!
Gwen's first taste of sweet tarts


Gwen's first solid chocolate Easter bunny, no hollow bunnies for us! (except for the one that baby #2 and I are sharing.)


Yummy, peeps!


And last but not least, BUBBLES


I hope that you have enjoyed these videos and pictures. Sadly I did not bring my camera to our Easter dinner, I had no idea that we would be doing an Eater egg hunt after dinner. It was quite funny we had another couple eating dinner with us, who had no kids, and as soon as the Easter egg hunt was announced, they bolted for the door! Gwen and my friends daughter had a grand time playing together.

Easter pictures

We have some pictures from Easter morning...you know when Gwen was "suffering" from a sugar high! These pictures were taken after the posted video. I have more videos to post, but I will do that in a separate post. I had planned on stuffing plastic Easter Eggs Saturday night while Eric made me watch the "10 Commandments"...we own the DVDs so we didn't have to watch at a certain time and we could turn it off and go to bed whenever, but alas, we could not find the eggs, I was so upset...had I known that I would have made the hard boiled eggs and we would have died them...I was too chicken this year to try that with Gwen. Here is Gwen with my (& baby #2s) bunny. Gwen has taken quite a liking to it. Surprisingly enough after I bought it for myself, I don't really want to eat it!

Gwen eating her 1st peep! I personally don't want anything to do with Peeps, but apparently Eric wants his daughter to also indulge in sugar, like he likes to occasionally. Eric told me that Gwen likes to only eat the ears and then gives the rest to him...I think it is a perfect arrangement for him.
The godfather came over to visit. He comes over frequently, but we don't often get pictures...he had to head over to parents for Easter happenings, but we are on the way out of town. Gwen is showing him her bounty!
The bubbles...wait until you see the video...Eric and I were laughing so hard, silently trying not to spoil the video! The bubbles were a huge hit!

Happy Day!

Happy Easter! Gwen almost gets it, she keeps saying 'happy day'. At one point I think she was saying 'happy easter day'. But then I put her down for her nap and she was done with her sugar high, so I guess that her knowledge left. We went to a friends house for dinner and they have a 2 year old. The food was good and Gwen had a great time playing with her friend. More details to follow, I am exhausted, for now a video for your viewing pleasure!

Easter story cookies

I was just emailed this recipe for Easter cookies that I thought was pretty neat, so I thought I would post it...maybe a little young for Gwen, but it might be a nice tradition some day. The cookies are at the bottom of the page.

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday was a busy day for us. It was supposed to be just a busy day for me, but Gwen as usual had other plans. I won't really going into that now, we had our rain date Easter egg hunt. Here are some pictures of Gwen picking up eggs. I took a lot of pictures, 'cause she is so cute. I posted them all too, 'cause I couldn't decide which ones to post.

Gwen was also able to spend some time with her friends. She really seemed to have a good time. She was also a big hit, squealing randomly, everyone that it was cute.

She seemed to really enjoy this, you couldn't really see the cool part of this toy, it was covered by her dress.

Another post later that include the pictures of my haul of toys at the Nearly New Kids sale!