Happy Easter

We had a nice, relaxing Easter. The kids were quite pleased with the Easter bunny's visit and their contents of their Easter baskets, and we had a fun afternoon doing an egg hunt in the yard and hanging out at the playground.

Tucker and Riley had a great Easter, too. While we were at the playground, they decided to help themselves to the kids' Easter baskets. Luckily, all the chocolate was in wrappers and for some reason, they didn't rip them open, but they did have quite a few jelly beans and broke all the eggs. They got to spend the rest of the day in the backyard, not so much as a punishment, but more because I did not want to end my Easter dealing with the aftermath of upset dog bellies. Claire was still reprimanding them when she went to bed.

Claire saw the loot and started yelling, "Yay! CANDIES!!"
 
Super cool bunny banana eater
 
"OH! I found one!!!"
 
Showing off her eggs
 
Sorting through their eggs...right before they dumped them on the sidewalk
 
Now AFTER dropping their eggs on the sidewalk, Hayden eats jelly beans out of the flower bed. Yum! (Way to take pictures instead of stopping him, Mom & Dad!)
 
Claire's face cracks me up here
 
Inspired by March Madness
 

Easter Eve

We've all been sick and miserable and haven't done a thing the past two weekends, so this morning we were determined to take the kids somewhere fun. The YMCA was having its annual Easter Egg-stravaganza, so we skipped Hayden's swim class, grabbed our baskets, and headed out for some kiddie crowds and plastic eggs. They had games, toys, crafts, face painting, and an Easter bunny that Hayden wanted no part of. To be fair, the bunny had eerily giant teeth and looked like he might eat you.

Games!
 
 
Tunnels!
 
...and face painting! Oh my! After getting her face painted like a bunny, she hopped around the room because...well, that's what bunnies do.
 

Patience, Mommy, patience.

C: Mommy?
Me: Yes?
C: Can I have chocolate?
Me: No, we're going to eat dinner soon.
C: Mommy?
Me: Yes?
C: Can I have chocolate?
Me: Nope.
C: Mommy?
Me: What?
C: I want chocolate.
Me: Claire, you cannot have chocolate right now!
C: Mommy?
Mommy begins to lose it.
Mommy, If I tell the baby I love him, can he hear me?

Three Years Ago...

today, we found ourselves halfway around the world in a country that, the year prior, we couldn't even find on a map. We had been traveling for almost 25 hours and the temperature was -20, but we would've picked that remote frozen tundra over any other place on earth.

An hour after stepping off the airplane, we were sitting in an orphanage, in a office that belonged to the director of the babyhouse, a stout Kazakh woman who we had been warned was not especially friendly to Amerikanskis. At one end of the room was a desk where the director sat, and at the other end was the door that our daughter would soon be carried through. The director peppered us with questions about our trip, our marriage, where we lived, and we politely answered all of them while keeping our eyes fixed on the door at the other end of the room. After the longest 10 minutes of our lives, a woman carried in a tiny, sleepy baby in a lacy white bonnet, and our lives changed forever.

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Happy Valentine's Day, Part II

Baba & Grumps sent the kids Valentine's Day pajamas, but they were backordered and just arrived this weekend. Here are Claire and Hayden, celebrating round two of Valentine's Day...this time around, sadly, without heart-shaped sugar cookies.