Kate & Gabe: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Last day in the baby seat

At almost 13 months old and taking his first steps, it's time to retire the infant carrier and graduate my sweet baby to a toddler seat! I know there will be times I miss the carrier (when he falls asleep and I need to run into a store), but I know he is ready to move on. :)

This is the last time I will carry you in the house asleep in your seat my sweet Grant....

Easter Brunch

After enjoying what the Easter Bunny brought the kids this year, we cleaned up and headed to Grandma & PawPaw's neighborhood for Easter Brunch at the clubhouse.

Easter 2013

The food was great, everything beautiful.....

now to just figure out how to get Grant to sit still in a high chair! ;)

Waiting for us at brunch was The Easter Bunny!!

Once everyone was finished eating it was time to gather all the children for the annual Easter Egg Hunt!

There were lots of eggs for everyone!!

But, the best part of the day was that Grant started walking!!!!!

He took a step or two over the past few days but during the hunt today really started walking!

It was amazing!!! My baby is growing up!

Sweet friends...

Gabe with his classmate and friend Bridgette.

One final picture with the Easter Bunny! Thanks for hiding so many eggs!!

Once we got back to Grandma & PawPaw's house Gabe decided it was his turn today to give Grant a ride in his new jeep. All three kids had such a great day!!

Easter Morning

Last year I told myself I would do better about making sure the kids know the true meaning of Easter, help them to understand the extreme importance of this holiday to our faith. But, two things keep getting in the way. One, we were so much busier this Easter than I think ever before at this time of year. Working nearly full time (babysitting) mixed with Grant's 1st birthday, kids' schoolwork and after school activities, I have found my limits...and am busting at the seams with not enough time to accomplish it all. Mix that with the fact that Jesus' death and resurrection is a really difficult topic to discuss with little kids. I'm not trying to make excuses, I have read several blogs where moms have done cute creative things that are simple and offer at least an introduction to the meaning of Easter. Next year....I know I can do it! :) Thankfully I will be working less and Easter is in late April...giving me a whole extra month!! Kate and Gabe do have a basic understanding of Easter and do a fantastic job telling the story. But what I don't want them to miss is understanding how important that "story" is to their life today. Growing up in church it's so easy to know all the stories and songs, how to act, and what to say, but I want so much more for my kids. I don't want them to just know about Jesus, but to really know Him!

All that said, of course my kids woke up and ran to see what the Bunny brought them this year. :)

The Easter Bunny filled their baskets with lots of great goodies!!

Sleepy but also very excited!

Grant doesn't remember Easter last year, but he sure did love getting a new fire truck!

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Easter Eve

Our family usually gets together for lunch on Easter Sunday, but this year everyone had other plans so we switched to celebrate with family on Easter Saturday instead. Before going in for lunch the kids all lined up for a picture and then took off to collect Easter Eggs! As you can see, Zane did NOT want his picture taken. :)

Cousins...

Grant didn't race around the yard with the big kids,

but he was very happy with his one egg!

After lunch it was time for fishing!!

Gabe didn't have the patience this afternoon to fish long enough to catch anything, but look how excited Kate was when she finally reeled in a fish!!! She even helped take it off the hook to throw back into the pond!

Grant had lots of fun in the backyard too!

And inside too playing with Granny Annie. :)

Community Egg Hunts

This morning we met up with some friends at two local Easter Egg Hunts...can you tell we like to run after eggs?!? :) Kate and Gabe are not grouped in the same area this year so I left Kate to hunt with friends and stayed with Gabe (and Grant). There was a baby area too but I wasn't comfortable letting Gabe run off alone....Kate has a little more street smarts than my sweet boy....so the boys and I stayed in the preschool area.

By the end of both hunts Kate and Gabe had each found a prize egg....YAY!!!

Gabe turned in his special camo egg for a basket of Easter treats and toys and Kate exchanged her golden egg for a gift certificate to the frozen yogurt shop! Both left VERY happy!!

Friday, March 29, 2013

Flashlight Egg Hunt

I love holiday activities, but I hate days like today when everything lands on the same day and we want to do it all! Oh well, the kids were up for more fun so more fun we had! We left Grant with Grandma & PawPaw, picked up Daddy, and headed out to Crooked River State Park tonight for their flashlight Easter Egg Hunt! It's such a fun idea, but because of it's uniqueness and no age limit like most daytime egg hunts, it drew an insane crowd last year...I mean it was CRAZY! So crazy that I think we left with 1 or 2 eggs with four of us running around in the dark. I wasn't sure about going again this year except that they were offering a "dusk" egg hunt for preschoolers this time....so I figured at least Gabe would get eggs to share with Kate and we could have fun running around with flashlights even if we didn't get any eggs during Kate's nighttime hunt.

Gabe's egg hunt was a success....plenty of eggs for everyone! Now time for the madness...

I kept expecting the cars to start pouring in like last year and was prepared to hold on tight to the kids in fear we would lose them in the dark surrounded by so many people. BUT, the masses didn't come!!! I guess after last year's fiasco of so many upset kids with no eggs and angry parents who paid $3/person to get trampled on and leave with nothing, many decided to stay home!! There were still a few major kinks that hopefully they'll work out for next year (and somehow even a few kids without eggs), but overall it was sooo much better than last year. The kids had lots of fun running with flashlights and they both left with baskets full of eggs....SUCCESS!!!

After Party Playdate

Because three Easter parties in one day isn't enough, we headed to Grandma & PawPaw's house for even more fun! My sweet friend Lisa Jordan gave this awesome Jeep to Grant after her boys had outgrown it. He isn't quite big enough to drive it yet, but of course his sister was eager to help him enjoy his new ride!!

We're ready for an adventure!!!!

Let's go for a spin around the block!!

Grant was having sooooo much fun!!!!

My two wild kids....Gabe is going to have his hands full in the future trying to keep these two in check! :)

Easter Eggstravaganza

Most of these sweet kids have been friends since they were toddlers, a few of them at our very first Easter Eggstravaganza...when Kate was only 2!! I really wasn't sure if I could pull it off this year, so soon after Grant's 1st birthday and with as much other stuff as we have going on right now. But, how could I not keep with our annual tradition??! I have had to greatly downsize both last year and this year, but the kids still had fun...and next year WILL be less busy....right???! :)

3...2...1....GO!!!!

I love seeing Kate's intensity during an Easter Egg Hunt!

She is serious about getting some eggs...especially if there is a prize egg to be found!

I had to skip some of our usual activities, but at Bryce's request we had to at least have the Bunny Hop race!! More games next year for sure! :)

And last but not least, a silly picture of three sweet friends.

SMES Easter Egg Hunt

Right after Gabe's Happy Apple Easter party it was time to head down the street to celebrate with Kate! While I was at the waterfront park helping to hide eggs, Grandma & PawPaw went to watch Kate as the 1st graders left the school and walked the few blocks to the waterfront. I love how excited Kate got when she saw who was following her class! She LOVES he grandparents!!!

My little Happy Apples got to ride alongside and wave to Kate too!

I was so thrilled to learn that the 1st graders got to have an Easter Egg hunt. It makes me sad that Kate has so few holiday parties at school, but I'll save that rant for another day! :) Today we get to have fun! Each student was assigned a number and they were to run around only collecting eggs with their number on it. This was set up to make the hunt a little more challenging and also to help keep things fair for everyone.

Ready....set.....GO!!!!

Kate found all of her numbers and then several minutes after the hunt found a few more eggs no one gad found....and her teacher said she got to keep them! Kate was thrilled and went home a very happy girl. :)