Easter with the fam

Easter morning

Discovering a find on the hunt

Playing with a new matching egg game

Very pleased with the Easter Bunny's selection of Calico Critters

Mmm....candy

Our little boy wonder

William may not be a man of many words, but he has incredible focus and determination with pretty good spatial skills to boot!

The kiddos

I went upstairs to get Lily's clothes for school and came back down to a little boy sitting on top of his high chair just as happy as can be. Note: He was left sitting IN the high chair. This little guy is going to give me a run for my money.

Lily attended a birthday party at ColdStone Creamery today. I would have never thought of this venue for a birthday party, but it was great. The kids took a "behind the scenes" tour and learned how they make their own ice cream. They then got to pick out their ice cream flavor and mix in 2 toppings behind the counter, like the professionals. :) What a great idea!

We have had a very full weekend so far with lots of family adventures, and I'll update with more pics and stories soon!

Stinky!

2011 Easter egg decorating

Concentrating on her technique

Our Jackson Pollock-inspired Easter eggs (Lily's left; mine right)

We experimented with a lot of different decorating techniques this year. This one involved acrylic paint applied to crumpled aluminum foil which was then wrapped around the egg. Lily probably liked this technique the best, but I would not recommend acrylic paint for really young kids since it is not a washable paint.

I thought this decorating idea was genius due to its simplicity and use of things you already have (and no mess!) After you boil the eggs, you simply use crayons to decorate the warm eggs. The wax melts onto the shell and makes it really easy to create fun designs. It is also more fun than just dipping them into dye and having to wait forever for the dye to take.

The eggs I made for Lily & William

Lily really wanted to make animal critters out of Easter eggs, so we used plastic eggs to make a few. Lily set this up so that the dog is chasing the cat, and the cat is chasing the mouse. :)

The "double seater" according to Lily

We love perennials!

A couple weekends ago, we (read: Carl) were inspired to do a little yardwork. We finally raked all the leaves out of our flowerbeds. From the Fall, you ask? Oh yes, from the Fall. I'd like to say we did this strategically to insulate the flowebeds for the winter, but really it was just a matter of priorities (read: laziness). We were shocked to uncover some beautiful flowers already well underway for the Spring. This will make planting a few annuals here and there this year a breeze! We haven't mulched yet due to the annuals that still need to go in, so you'll have to focus on the flowers below and ignore everything around them.