This year, Easter was so close to Sunshine's birthday that I nearly forgot to prepare. With my super advanced planning though, I had found a great pin on making marbleized eggs and had all the ingredients on hand (other than the eggs which I ran to the store on Friday to buy!) The kids were so excited to color eggs. This makes me so happy since this was my favorite thing to do with my grandmother growing up. Fast forward to cooled off eggs. This was supposed to be so easy to do. It required shaving cream and food coloring. No problem. I got it all ready. I rolled the first egg to show the kids what to do. Wow, talk about messy! It took each child to do two for me to realize that this was a complete disaster. First, the kids eggs did not look marbleized at all. They looked blue...and so did the kids. The kids' hands were stained blue. Not just a little, but completely stained, front and back. I quickly switched gears and pulled out the tried and true Kool Aid. Unfortunately, since I planned on doing the marble eggs, I only had two colors of Kool Aid left over from last year. Neither child wanted anything to do with the Kool Aid eggs after they saw how bright red my hand turned from it. I don't blame them, they were already blue. I felt bad about the kids not getting to really dye eggs like they were looking forward to, so, off to the store I went again to buy yet another dozen eggs. It's a good thing my kids love hard boiled eggs. It's also a good thing that there are directions on the back of the food coloring box for how to dye eggs. That way I didn't have to go out and buy any other supplies! The second dozen eggs went so much more smoothly and the kids had a great time! Easter morning, the kids were ready to see if the Easter bunny had hidden the eggs we dyed. Sure enough, he did. It was such a beautiful day that the Easter bunny was actually able to hide them outside! After finding all the eggs and having our traditional Easter French Toast breakfast, we got to enjoy the playground before heading to Nana and Papa's for dinner. Sunshine couldn't wait to wear her Easter dress! And then she couldn't wait to change and wear another Easter dress.... I managed to somehow not take a single picture of the kids Easter baskets that they got at Nana and Papa's. Nor did I take any pictures at Nana and Papa's house. Not sure how I managed that one. With that aside, could not have asked for a nicer day!
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My Dearest Baby Boo,
What a year it has been. I can't believe how big your have gotten. It seems like just yesterday you were snuggling on my lap as a tiny baby and now you're such a big girl. This year has been one of growth for you, and no, I'm not just talking height, though you are super tall! You've come so far with math and reading. You've got some of your math facts memorized, you can sound out words, and you know some sight words. I can't tell you how I proud I am of that (that's how it goes when Mommy used to be a teacher!) Aside from academic growth, you've grown in so many other ways as well. Your swimming has really taken off. It makes me super sad for you that you found a swim program you really excel in and they are closing, but you will do great in your new lessons, too. You have also grown in balance and coordination since you have started taking gymnastics. I'm so glad we found a gymnastics program that is such a great fit for you! It really makes me even more proud that you do this on your own. You didn't know any of the girls in your program, and now you are friends with them. You have such a talent for making friends wherever you go. This year as also brought out a side of you that we didn't think you had...the worrier. For such a carefree little girl, you worry so much. This hurts my heart for you. There are so many things in life that you will miss if you worry about all the details. I wish I could take all your troubles away, but then, you would not learn and grow. You worried about sleeping in Florida and you did an awesome job. You worried about starting swim lessons at a new place and found you loved it. Please let Mommy be the adult and do the worrying while you enjoy life. This coming year is going to be filled with so many new adventures for you and I know you worry about them. Please don't fret, little one, I promise it will all be OK. You will be starting dance class and going to summer camp. You will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. That opens up a huge world! You will be meeting so many new friends! Unfortunately, this will also be the first time in 5 years that you and your best friend have been split up, but I promise you that we will still see her. This coming year holds so much adventure and wonder. In one way, I can't wait for you to get started on this new journey, yet in another way, I'm so sad to be losing my baby girl. Just remember, sweet Baby Boo, no matter where life takes you, Mommy and Daddy will always be there for you. We love you more than you will ever know. You are a wonderful girl who brings sunshine into our lives each day. Love you forever. Mommy Live. Laugh. Love. I believe in loving completely, laughing my loudest, and living life to the fullest. I'm trying to teach my children the same. In order to teach my children to live life to the fullest, I need to provide them with opportunities and experiences. This is where is gets tricky. The problem is that damn near everything in life costs money. It's not just as simple as heading out and experiencing life head on. Most people don't think about it. Most people don't need to. Unfortunately, we do. On the flip side, I get to give my children different experiences. They may never get to see Disney World (happiest place on earth, my @$$) but they will be able to do so much more because their lives are left up to their imaginations. This past week was Spring Break. Spring Break usually gives me insight into how my summer is going to go. I have to say, I'm quite looking forward to summer! There were moments where everyone was sick of each other, but there will always be moments like that. Everyone needs time to themselves sometimes, but for the most part, it was a week full of imagination. Monday was going to be our "boring" day. I had chores to do and wanted to get them out of the way. My "plan" was to get everything done by 11:00. Sometimes, you just need to throw your plan out the window when you see positive life experiences taking place. That's what happened. From the moment the kids woke up, they were happy and full of creative juices. They spent the first 3.5 hours of the day playing together with just their imaginations. No toys, other than a few they used as props in their imaginary games. I have never seen two children who can literally play pretend together for that long and that happily. There was so much love and laughter that I hated to break it up, which is why I kept putting off the chores. I really did need to get stuff done, so I had to stop them. Stopping them actually didn't stop them though. They continued their imaginary play all through our errands, and let me tell you, they really weren't fun chores. I have said this many, many times before, but I don't think I can stress it enough...I am so thankful my children are best friends. After an awesome first day, we had an even better second day. We went to visit Nana and Papa. Both aren't feeling too great, but everyone managed to have a fantastic time! Normally, Papa doesn't join us for lunch, but he did this time, so it was an extra special treat. Not to mention we got to eat the counter at a local restaurant, so the kids were in heaven! After lunch, the kids and Nana literally played imaginary games for 2 .5 hours while I got to sit down and just chat with Papa. Since Nana and Papa live semi-close to where Daddy works, we picked him up for dinner. The kids got to meet Daddy's co-workers and they even got to see what some of the stuff Daddy works with does. The weather was absolutely perfect, as well. When we got home, we played outside until bedtime. Even though the yard was too muddy to play in, the kids had a fantastic time running around the driveway and up and down the sidewalk with sticks pretending to be superheros. (Sidenote: Now that Sunshine has found out Wonder Woman is a princess as well, she's all about the superheros) Wednesday proved to be just as great. We headed to lunch with friends and then bowling. After two games, the two littlest kids got a bit bored, but overall, everyone had a fun time. Then, I thought the day would turn and become a hassle. I had to go get taxes done. Man, my kids weren't just troopers, they were fantastic! There were other kids there, whining and complaining, but mine didn't make a peep. So, it was ice cream for them as a super special treat! The kids love the parking garage, so we parked at the very top and looked out over the side. For them, this is great fun, but I'm not sure why. We then walked to get ice cream and ate it in the Square. After they were done, they asked if they could play. There is nothing there to play with, but my fabulous kids once again called upon their imaginations. They pretended that they were a prince and princess in a castle trying to escape from an evil king. I sat and watched them, completely fascinated by them, for the next hour. Thursday was a slower day where the only big thing we did was have lunch with Aunt C. The kids adore her, so it's always nice to go out. Friday, Daddy took off work. We had nothing special really planned, but everything just sort of fell into place nicely. We went swimming in the morning, saw The Muppets Most Wanted in the afternoon, had dinner and friends over in the evening. Saturday was business as usual and then Sunday was more swimming and some hiking. I was actually sad to see Spring Break end. I love watching my kids play. I love the intricate detail of their imaginations. I love seeing how they play off of each others imaginations. I'm looking forward to summer and actually a little sad that we have things planned. i wish I could give them all summer to just dream. On a side note, I know my last post was not all that happy. Sometimes life isn't all that happy. I wanted to point out I really actually did do some things during the month of March. I didn't just sit around and mope. Moping for long is not my style. I take a day or two feel bad, and then get over it. That time I do mope though feels like forever. Here are some of the things we did in March.
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