Enjoying the Easter presents

After getting back from Izzy's and taking naps, the kids played in the back yard with their new Easter presents. Both kids love bubbles, and Alice has progressed to the stage where she can sometimes blow them, and sometimes not immediately spill the whole bottle.

Simon demands to have bubbles as well, but he hasn't quite got the hang of blowing them yet: he puts the wand on his lips and we have to keep telling him, "No tasting! Yucky!"  He loves to put the wand in and out of the bottle though, and quickly ends up spilling the whole thing.  He also broke the wand. But, he had fun.

Alice wanted to plant her pea seeds, but in the process managed to spill the majority of them in the pine needles on her way to the dirt plot that we lovingly call her garden.

Simon also had fun with his new chalk. He makes a few lines here and there, but mostly likes to hold it.  I personally loathe their love of chalk and bubbles, because they get so sticky and dusty, but oh well.

I got the hand-me-down tricycle out the attic for Simon recently, but he hasn't quite got the hang of pushing it with his feet yet. You can also see the bubbles (circles) Alice drew on the bricks.

All in all, it was a beautiful day and happy Easter.

Easter egg hunt at Izzy's

Every Easter, one of Alice's classmate's family hosts a big Easter egg hunt and invites the daycare kids and other miscellaneous kids they know.  They have a lot of property, so they section one area off for the little kids to get eggs, and another big field for the older kids to run around and find eggs.

Simon really had the hang of the egg gathering process, and was able to be a little more efficient than this morning since he wasn't holding a butterfly in one hand.

Meanwhile, on the big field, Alice and the older kids ran around and had a good time finding eggs.

Alice's good friend Grayson (who has recently switched to a different daycare) was there, so she had fun playing with him.

 

Simon also enjoyed playing with the toys, such as the water table they set out.

And no spring day would be complete without jumping in a giant pile of leaves and getting covered in dust and dirt.

Easter morning

Alice was very excited Easter morning, and got dressed really quickly so she and Simon could come out to the living room to see their baskets and find eggs.

All in all, Simon did much better at the egg-gathering than expected, and Alice did much better with the egg-sharing than expected.

After the majority of eggs were gathered, I helped set up a processing table for Alice to open all the eggs.  There was one container for candy, one for tattoos, and one for small toys. Then she had to put the empty egg back together and put it in the white bag.  She really did a good job following all the steps.  Simon helped, too.

Once the plastic eggs were all opened, Alice was ready for breakfast. When she saw the plate Zac had prepared for her, she said, "Oh goodie!  Strawberry mountains and eggs!"

After breakfast, there was one final Easter ritual to partake in: Peeps.

Easter Eve

In anticipation of Easter, Alice wore her ears (and, inexplicably, some butterfly wings) for bedtime snack.

Once the kids were in bed, I got the baskets ready and the stuffed the eggs with tattoos, small toys, and gummies (Zac was doing dishes and making the recipe for the potluck tomorrow).  Then we hid the eggs around the living room and went to bed.

The Largest Dinosaurs

The special exhibit at the science museum, called The Largest Dinosaurs, was about the expire, so we made plans to meet with Grandpa Arcaro and family to see the exhibit together. While we were waiting for them to arrive, we spent a fair amount of time roaming the normal exhibits at the museum. We always feel so fortunate to have this wonderful resource so close.

The Largest Dinosaurs exhibit itself was quite interesting, although somewhat underwhelming, and since the kids flit about so much, we couldn't really read all the signage and learn as much as we would have liked. Perhaps the reason this exhibit did not impress us that much is because the regular exhibits at the museum are so good.

Simon got tuckered out around noon, so we took the kids home for lunch and a nap, while the Arc-Burbs stayed longer to explore the museum. The kids painted for a while after their nap, to pass the time until Grandpa Arcaro and family came back to our house for supper.

Good Friday

Friday, daycare was closed, so I took the day off work to stay home with the kids.  The weather was beautiful and warm, so we played outside a lot, but also inside.  One funny thing was that because it was so warm, I had the back door and windows open, and the kids kept freaking out when light-weight inanimate objects like balloons and curtains would start moving seemingly on their own.

Alice found a new way to eat a banana.

Simon found some wooden coasters with fruit on them, and played with them most of the day.

In the toy box, there is a bag where I put cards that the kids get; Simon spend a long time looking through all of them. One of his favorites was the polar bear with a candy cane.

After a while, Alice came over to see what Simon was up to.  Notice how once she is done, he imitates what she was doing.

Simon also spent some time rearranging the Easter-themed window clings.

Alice showed me the cow face she had made at school.

Simon loves to go in the little house and peak out the windows.

After nap, they played with playdough for a while.

Then we went back outside and played in the back yard some more.

Bush fire at daycare

I got a call from daycare around 4:00 on Thursday, just as I was about to leave to pick up the kids anyway.  The teacher said there had been a small fire from an electrical line in the parking lot that caught some bushes on fire, and the school's power was cut, so I needed to come get the kids early.

In hindsight, I suppose I should have been more alarmed by the word "fire" but what I actually worried about was the kids' school Easter egg hunt that I thought had been scheduled for 4:00.  The teacher may have thought it odd that I asked not about the safety of the children or the school, but whether or not the kids had had a chance to find the eggs.  She assured me that the kids had already finished their Easter egg hunt that morning (turns out I'm still reading the newsletter from Alice's old classroom, not her current one).

When I arrived at school and saw the parking lot blocked off and a fire engine, it was then that I finally thought, "Oh, this could have been dangerous!"  I suppose part of the reason I under-reacted is because that's what I tend to do, but also because earlier this week I had had to pick the kids up early because of some power-line-related electrical fire in the same neighborhood as the school that had resulted in the school losing power. A month or two ago a building at Alice's daycare's previous location (now vacant) had a fire, so maybe by this point it just didn't seem that surprising that things were catching fire.

When I picked the kids up, they were happily playing in the large field adjacent to the property.  As we passed the fire engine in the parking lot on our way out, Alice asked, "Why do all my schools keep burning?"  All I could say in response was, "Good question."

Simon is in red climbing up the hill; Alice is running in a purple plaid shirt in the far back.

Simon in the school sand

We get a sense of what Simon really likes by what sacrifices he is willing to make for it.  Normally, when we drop Simon off at school, he is not happy about being set down or handed over to a teacher.  However, one day when Zac dropped him off, there were some crayons out on the table, and he wriggled out of Zac's hold prematurely because he wanted the crayons so bad.

Similarly, when we pick him up at school at the end of the day, he gets very upset if we try to put him down again.  The exception is if there are some interesting toys to play with in Alice's classroom or if it is outside. He loves being outside, so when Zac picked up Alice today, and she was playing in the sand, Simon was quite content to be put down.

Simon is the boy on the left and Alice is in the polka-dot coat.