Easter

On Easter morning the kids woke up to an egg hunt in the front yard. Which then meant an easter breakfast of jelly beans and sun chips. We spent the morning lounging around and then went to the park. When we got home Abby and Joe painted easter eggs. Once Shawn woke up, the kids found their easter baskets and had another healthy meal of jelly beans and pez candy. Shawn had to work that night and the kids and I went to grandma and grandpa's house for easter dinner. We had a great day and are still detoxing from all the candy.

Rollerskating

Last Saturday we were invited to a a family birthday party at an indoor roller rink. Both Abby and Joe skated and neither of them wanted any help after the initial uneasiness of getting used to having skates on their feet. They both loved it and we had a blast.

Morning at the park

This morning we headed to a local park for a Easter egg hunt. We had a really great time. They had a small petting farm with a pony, baby goats, ducks and bunnies. Abby loved petting the pony and checking out the other animals. Joe, on the other hand, was pretty skittish of it all but enjoyed watching them from a distance. During the egg hunt the kids had to search and search for eggs (the park was running low on eggs) but that made it even more fun because they did lots or exploring and hunting. After the egg hunt we went to play at the park and ended up running into quite a few of our friends and one of our neighbors, so that added to the fun as well. We had a great time and enjoyed a beautiful spring morning.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Yesterday we went to a friend's house to do natural easter egg dyeing. I am so glad she invited us because I wasn't sure what we were gonna do. I knew I wasn't going to do all the work that goes into doing eggs naturally and I didn't want to buy the yucky dye from a drug store. So, fortunately for us my friend Kelly took it upon herself to do all the work and invited us to her house. This is the third year in a row where we have gotten together with a group of friends to do this and I am just so gratful to have such wonderful people in our lives. We had a really great time and the eggs turned out beautiful.

Money/Coins

Abby has recently showed an interest in coins and has started to ask me questions about them. To my embarassment, I couldn't remember the name of the president who is on the nickel, so I looked it up one night and printed out a coloring sheet from the internet. The next morning I showed it to Abby and she was really excited and asked me to print out sheets for the other coins, which I did. She had a lot of fun looking at the sheets and asking questions about them. I offered an idea of finding coins from out coin cup to match the coins on the paper. She enjoyed this but then got stumped when she was trying to find a quarter with an eagle on the back. At first I thought she was finding the wrong coins but then realized that all the quaters we had were the newer quarters commemorating the different states. This led to the idea of collecting a quarter for each state. So, I think we will try and get to the bookstore tomorrow and get a special folder that holds these quarters, she is really excited about this. It is funny because while she was playing with the coins and the coloring sheets I decided to see if she could remember which presidents were on which coins, she guessed a few times and then when she was wrong she started to loose interest and get frustrated. I realized right away that my "testing" of her was a bad idea and had to remind myself to be there to answer her questions or suggest ideas not to be there as her "teacher." This will have to become my mantra as it is way too easy for me to fall into the I know more and I should teach her mode.

Great Day

This week has been rough. I don't know if it was the weather (can't seem to find Spring in MN) or what but I was seriously questioning my sanity and Abby's sanity and specifically I was wondering why the hell I was not sending my kid to school, until yesterday. We had such a great day. We woke up and decided to meet a friend of ours at a nature center. We had to get there early because they weren't going to be there very long. Getting somewhere early can sometimes turn into a disaster because Abby really enjoys her mornings at home but she was excited to meet our chiropractor and her kids. When we first got there we spent time indoors eating snacks and watching the birds. We then decided to head outside to do some exploring. We ended up hiking for about an hour and both kids did great. Abby was super into it and did not complain once. Joe was up and down a lot but mostly down following his big sister. It was so refreshing to be outside on a cool spring morning watching my kids run around and having adult conversation. Afterwards, we went home and Joe took a very early and short nap. Once he woke up I asked Abby if she wanted to go to the homeschooling group and she did. I told her we would be outside at a park and she got super excited. So, I packed more snacks and we spent a couple more hours outside. The kids had a great time and once again this mamma got some adult conversation in! Oh, the necessity of adult interaction, it is amazing how it can make me feel so much better. Once we got home Abby ended up playing with the neighbor kids so by bedtime she was wiped out. We all crashed early. Cheers to a good day!

Joseph

My little babe is growing up so fast!!! He is starting to talk like crazy. He is putting two and three words together and speaking jibberish all the time. I am really glad that I taught him signs because there are so many instances where I am really not sure what he is saying but if he uses a sign I can generally get the idea that he is trying to relay or the request he is making. He is determined to ride a bike too. The weather was nice here for a few days and every day he would demand to get on Abby's bike or scooter and away we would go around the block. He is also super into throwing balls still. He has nearly perfect aim and really surprises people when he throws a ball to them. He is getting a bit more of an idea on how to catch a ball but has a long way to go with that. He is enamored with his sister and loves to sit on the couch with her while she "reads" books to him. I think the saying "a sibling is the greatest gift you can give your child" is so true! We are all so happy to have Joe in our lives.

Doing crafts/projects

Before Christmas I bought some materials to do some "crafty" projects with Abby. I am not really into crafts and it took me over 3 months to get this stiff out because I thought it would be hard to do or to show Abby how to do it. The craft project ideas I got were from Amanda Soule's book The Creative Family. I have really enjoyed this book and love to read Amanda's blog, although at times it makes me feel like I am such a looser because I don't fee like we are very creative in this household. Anyways, Abby found the book the other day and that is what motivated me to get the stuff out. The first day we worked on embroidery. Abby seemed to like it and worked on it for quite awhile. A few days later I brought it out again but she wasn't interested in it but Joe was. To my surprise he really took to it and was able to thread the needle through and back several times. We also worked on making a pillow. Abby initially said she didn't want to do it so I just went ahead and sewed together two pieces of fabric that her and Joe colored. Once the fabric was sewed together I asked Abby to stuff it, which she enjoyed doing. She really liked the final product and wants to make another one. What I am realizing though is that she wants ME to do it. I am looking for ideas that she would enjoy "the process" of creating versus just liking what mom makes. Any ideas????