Easter at home

The night before Easter, we hid a bunch of eggs all over the main floor of the house, and I laid out their Easter presents on the hearth.

We hadn't really told them much about Easter morning, and didn't have much of a plan for the morning. We left a few eggs and their Easter baskets at the top of the stairs, and went to bed.  We have them pretty well training to not intentionally wake us up in the mornings, and that held true Easter morning as well. By the time we got up, they'd harvested most of the eggs and had gathered them on the kitchen table. It seemed like they'd had a lot of fun with the surprise, and we didn't have to wake up at 6:30am.  It was a win-win.

We went to Izzy's for an egg hunt in the middle of the day, then back at home Zac's dad and Mia came over for supper.

The Cat's House

A pile of cement blocks makes a great playset for kids. They call this the cat's house.

Airport Park

We sadly dropped Nelson and Stana off at the airport Friday evening, and since it was such a beautiful evening, I took the kids to the airport park to play. Simon loved watching the planes take off and land, so this could mark the beginning of a new obsession of his.

He kind of had an epiphany while we were there when he saw tiny airplanes from way up in the sky become giant airplanes on the runway. I think he finally realized that airplanes are enormous.

Spring Break with Grandma and Grandpa Shogren

For spring break this year, Alice was going to be off all week with me and Simon's daycare was closed the last two days of the week. Since spring break is normally when I "get stuff done" I imported my parents for the week to watch Alice and Simon. They came on Monday night and left on Friday night. The weather was glorious all week, and the kids had a grand time playing outside all day every day with Nelson and Stana. They rode bikes, hunted bugs, played in the creek and played at the park. I graded, took care of paperwork, ran errands, and went shopping. Zac and I even had two date nights. It was a great week. The kids were great too. It turns out all they need is to play outside all day with two devoted adults and take good naps.

Dead lizard shrine

Alice and Parker made a shrine on the side of our front porch for a dead lizard.

Simon happy; Simon itchy

Simon is really happy most of the time, and he has the best smile.

But when Zac gives him a haircut, he really hates the feel of the hair  on his neck and face and complains, then whimpers, then cries because he's itchy.

Keeping busy

While I cooked supper, Alice and Parker found the bag of craft supplies and kept busy.

Simon went outside with Zac and kept himself busy in the mud kitchen.

Kids and a creek

Alice had a playdate this afternoon with Anna and Lukas at Laurel Hills Park. We've been there a couple of times before, and it has an awesome, brand new, huge, state-of-the art playground.

But this time, the kids discovered that there is also a pond and a creek, and so of course the kids spent most of the time down there, getting increasingly wet and muddy.  But really, I'd be disappointed if I had a kid who saw a creek and was like, "Nah, I don't want to get in that."

By the time we made them get out, they were all drenched and covered in mud (not pictured). They were freezing too, so they warmed up with a bag of potato chips in the sun.  Oh, to be a kid again.

Windows are the eyes for the soul

Have I mentioned how much I love having big windows and a view? It's especially beautiful now that things are turning green.