Recipe Exchange- AGAIN

Ok, so I have Jen, Melissa, Khrystin and Traci in for the recipe exchange, am I correct?? This is last call!

My little fish!

Madison advanced to the next level in swimming for this session. Thank goodness, because last time would've been our last time if she hadn't. The class she was in before can only be compared to Nathan's baby swim class, in that all they did was get the kids comfortable with water. This entailed sitting in 3 inches of water, playing games for 30 minutes. NOW, she's learning to swim! And in just a few classes, she's almost there! Her first class didn't go well when she was instructed to go under water without holding her nose. She left the class crying, insisting she would never go back. After a lot of talking (and coercing) and a visit to a sporting goods store to check out nose plugs (which were NOT a hit, by the way!), she went back to the class to try again. This time she loved it! I had the priveledge of watching her last night, as usually I am swimming with Nathan in his class at the same time. But Scott got in with Nathan last night, so I took advantage and got Madison on film!

Chellin like a melon...

Both Madison and Nathan are head over heels in love with their cousin, Andy. When he comes over, one or both of them are stuck on him like white on rice. It helps that he is actually really, really good with kids! On this particular day, Andy and Nathan were hanging out together eating watermelon, and being oh so cute. I couldn't help but to snap pictures of the fun!

Mmmmm, watermelon!

What's this, a hat?

Two buddies, hanging out and having fun.

Say cheese!!

Easter celebrations

Saturday morning (4/11) was the community easter egg hunt. The activity wasn't quite conducive to taking pictures. Problem number one was that the egg fields were separated by age groups. Nathan in one, Madison in the other. What is the problem with that, you say? We only brought one camera. No big deal, Scott took the camera with him to Madison's field, and a friend was with me at Nathan's field and snapped some pictures of him for me. Problem number two, a split second before blowing the whistle, the rules on Madison's field were that parents weren't allowed out with the kids. Oops. So Scott just shot some random pics hoping to catch Madison dashing around. Not good pictures, by any means.

Madison and Madelynn at the end of the hunt

Giving some lovin' to the easter bunny

That afternoon, we had a neighborhood hunt in multiple backyards. It's a fun group of kids and we hid the eggs so they had to actually search for them. Get ready, get set.....

GO!

Go, Nathan, go! Enjoying their goods after the race

The next day:

Easter morning, enjoying chocolate at 7am...what better way to start the day?

Nathan checking out his new ride that the Easter bunny brought him!

Then, after Easter, the Community Center had an underwater easter egg hunt last week. It was so much fun! Man, was that chaotic! When the whistle blew, you should've seen the splashing that was going on as kids raced out into the water to retrieve their eggs. Madison got super brave and was diving down to the bottom of the pool to get the golden eggs that had sunk to the bottom. Once it was over, they exhanged their eggs for "money" to spend buying treats in another room. They also had carnival games and a bounce house set up.

Madison trying to manage her bag full of eggs in the water

Look! More eggs!!

Phew! Now that that's done...this post took me waaaay longer than it ever should have. Enjoy it, darnit!

Recipe Exchangers

I haven't forgotten...just been SUPER busy this week. I'll send an email this weekend at some point....start thinking of your recipes!

Getting ready for the Easter Bunny

In anticipation of the Easter Bunny's arrival this weekend, we decorated easter eggs this afternoon. It is NOT an easy feat with a 2 year-old, mind you! You don't really realize exactly how much a toddler wiggles until you have newspaper down to protect your granite counters from spilled oil-based dye water and every movement he makes (which is inevitably every 2.2 seconds) jiggles and pulls the paper sending my heart into palpitations as I watch the colored water cups tip around and splash. But alas, we finished without incident and they are beautiful!

The start of the project

Ta-da!!

We stopped by the mall last week and visited the Easter Bunny. Nathan was somewhat hesitant at first and would only sit on the bench as long as sissy was between him and the big hairy beast on the chair. However, after they had their pictures taken, the bunny gave them lolipops, in which case the Easter Bunny became Nathan's best friend and he quickly hopped up next to him so I could snap a pic with my camera before we left.

We are attending the city Easter Egg Hunt this Saturday morning for some Easter fun. Unfortunately, that Easter Egg Hunt comprises of somebody throwing 1000 absolutely un-hidden eggs out onto a flat field and all the kids nearly get trampled to death when the whistle blows to go. SO, after that fun, we will have an afternoon easter egg hunt in our back yard with the neighborhood kids. I'll take the time to actually hide these eggs, so it is an actual "hunt" for them. It'll be fun! Madison is also going to an underwater easter egg hunt next week.

Nope, we don't let the holidays slip by quietly in this house!