Easter Sunday

1 Peter 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... (NIV)

Our family hopes that amidst the bunnies, chocolates, baskets, and Easter toys; that you were able to remember, reflect, and recognize the importance of the true meaning of Easter.
A basket in the dishwasher!!! We told Evan the older he got, the harder the basket would be to find!
6:00 a.m. is a respectable hour to eat chocolate!
All dressed up for church....
We are continuing my mom's tradition of putting a book in the Easter basket. Evan got his first chapter book and he really got into it today. Both Evan and Ann-Marie received CD players (good for this summer's LONG car drive to Iowa). After church, we found them enjoying their new goodies together.

Easter Egg Hunt

We woke up this morning to a covering of snow! This is no reason to cancel Easter Egg hunts though! We were planning on going to Evan's school, which is two blocks from our house, for their Easter Egg Hunt. It is put on by the local township, so it is a very small town event.
We weren't sure what to expect, but there were about 30 children there. In Alec's age bracket, 0-3 yr. olds, there were only two! They brought in hay bales on a pick-up truck, threw the hay bales on the ground and threw the eggs into the hay bales. Each age bracket had their own hay pile to look through.
Ann-Marie was in the 3-4 yr. old group. She said her hands were FREEZING!
Evan was in the 7-10 yr. old group. This was the most active group, yet they were still low-key.
And afterwards, everyone enjoyed doughnuts and candy. Alec double-fisted the treats, of course.

Pre-Easter happenings

Ann-Marie had her Easter party at school on Wednesday, which I was able to help out with. Here's a picture of her and one of her very good friends, Sam (her other good friend, who is Sam's identical twin, Max, was sick that day). We had to take Ann-Marie to the dr. again before the party for ANOTHER ear infection. She is scheduled for tubes to be put in her ears on April 3 and hopefully that will help her conquer the ear infections.
We dyed Easter Eggs on Wednesday night....obviously Alec was VERY excited.

And on Friday, we went into work with Darrell. He works in an office above a specialty mall called Station Square in Pittsburgh. While Darrell was doing some work, the kids and I played. We got to eat lunch with Darrell at a Chinese restaurant. It was a nice day, other than Darrell was recovering from the flu and was not feeling 100 percent.

Ketchup IS a food group

Evan took these pictures of Alec getting into the refrigerator last night to retrieve his FAVORITE food - ketchup!

a little about Ann-Marie

I couldn't resist a picture of Ann-Marie in our favorite Sunday outfit. This outfit is really Ann-Marie's style: not too girly and fun. We're getting to the one month countdown to Ann-Marie's 5th birthday! It seems everything she says lately is, "When I turn 5....." and boy does she have BIG plans for when she is 5! We're slowly losing our preschool girl...she's rapidly turning into a school-ager. One of her bottom teeth has even started to become loose and she's been wiggling it almost every day.

Signs of Spring...

I know, it's a couple more weeks until Spring (did I hear 10 days?) but we had a peek here today with 60 degree weather. As soon as Evan got off the school bus, off to the park we went! I forgot the camera, but it was a great, sunny, blue-skied day! Evan ran around after Alec because he wanted to make sure he would be o.k. (there were A LOT of big kids running around), Ann-Marie played on the swings most of the time, but it was Alec who was the most fun to watch. It looked like someone had been winding up the Energizer Bunny all winter and finally let him loose! All three children enjoy being outdoors (Mom included) but it is Alec who NEEDS to be outdoors. I know we are going to get some more bad weather even after Spring comes, but you will be able to find us outside more and more as we get these "glimmers into summer!"

Mom musings

I noticed this weekend that most of the time, Evan calls me "mom." It seems that we have moved beyond the "mommy" or "momma" stage to a more mature version of what he will be calling me for the rest of his life. Now, in the scheme of things, it is not that big of a deal. But I wonder how many of these little transitions to adulthood my kids are moving through on a daily basis and I miss them. So I wanted to document this one, to remind me to slow down, appreciate my days with my children, and to keep my eyes open to, not only the really big transitions, but also the seemingly small ones. Life goes too fast, and I really will someday miss these days of hearing "MOMMY!!!!"

Nope, that's not Alec, it's Evan at age 2! A trip down memory lane.

Falling snow and teeth

We got a "light dusting" of snow on leap day. It took the area somewhat by surprise so we had no delays or cancellations, but it was not fun being out on the road. By the time preschool had ended, I couldn't get the van out of the driveway. Thankfully, Darrell was nearby and already had the car out so he could pick preschool kids up from school.
Here's a shot from our garage...poor Darrell has shoveled many, many times this past week. Our area is not known for being flat, and our driveway proves it. It is also gravel, not asphalt or paved, which is proving to be challenging in this weather. The kids love it when I "rev up" the minivan to make it up our driveway...sometimes it takes three or more tries!
I couldn't resist this picture of the boys taking a bath together. Evan has been taking more showers lately, so who knows when their last bath together will be!
And finally, falling teeth....Evan last two teeth over the weekend. Now he looks like a very cute Jack-o'-lantern!