Hoppy Easter 2010!

Happy Easter 2010

April 4, 2010: What a wonderful Easter! Our day started out early as I met Chris and the kiddos at the 7:30 Mass. I worked the night before. I had asked to leave early so I can go to Mass, so of course, we had an admission at 6:15 AM! I was super annoyed with that as I never ask to leave early. I got out of work at about 7:40 and still made it to Mass in time for the offering. It was clearly packed, but I knew where Chris and the kids were sitting. As Chris sat in the pews, he was being watched. People were obviously wondering why this man was sitting there with 2 cute little girls dressed alike and one little, nicely dressed boy. People around him were helping him before Communion. After communion, I took the girls to the back with me. Then the man behind him asked if his wife, Monica, could go to the bathroom to check on the girls (assuming Chris sent them alone). Chris was like - Um, they are with my wife. Luckily the kids acted like angels. As we were leaving Mass, some man that was sitting near Chris said something to me, "We were wondering where the Mommy was to these 3 kids sitting alone with their Daddy!" Seriously, how weird is that!

Anyway, we rushed home to see what the Easter Bunny had left. We divided the eggs by area and by color and tried to have the kids go one at a time. Next year I think the Bunny will just do it by color and let them go at once. All the kids really got into it and had fun. Once inside, they peeked in their baskets to find a game each, books, the typical matching swimming suits and flip flops for the girls, and outfits. Asher could care less about his basket - going right for the candy.

We sampled a little candy (having learned that there is a such thing as too much Easter Candy after Alivia tossed her chocolate cross on Thursday night all night. UGH! Chris and I almost decided to cancel Easter Candy after all of that!). Chris and I cleaned up, changed into comfy clothes and headed to my parents farm in Iowa.

My Grandma Marci, Auntie Marsha, and my parents shared a beautiful dinner followed by yet another Easter Egg Hunt. It was a fabulous day with mild temperatures. It was topped off with Chris finally getting his motorcycle home (thanks Dad for sharing your Harley's space with Chris' non Harley!).

I was tucked in bed with Asher by 7:30, sleeping until 7:30 this morning. As an added bonus, we found out after getting Alivia dressed and ready for school that she has today off, too! Yeah!

Hoppy Easter!!

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How did we do?

Easter marks the end of Lent...so how did we do?

Alivia: Goal: Less TV, more reading and journaling.

She maybe watched a little less TV. Alivia has gotten pretty bad with separating herself from us to watch tv. Now, she still separates herself, but is drawing and writing more. I guess that is okay. She requires a lot of alone and quiet time.

Addison: Um, still has the taggie. That is a work in progress. I still remember my parents taking my blanket away. So, needless to say, it is hard for me to take her taggie away. I don't want to be the mean Mommy or anything.

Asher: Success! Asher, for the most part, does not snack in the morning. I just keep him busy and he does not ask. The second he gets into the car, though, he thinks he needs a snack. In those events, I pack grapes to get him by. I am okay with fruit and healthy eating.

Chris: Who knows...I'm not even sure he gave anything up for Lent. He has now given up caffeine, but did not give it up for the entire Lent.

Me: I did reduce computer use, but I am not sure I read more. I have been so busy keeping up with housework and stuff that I just have not gotten back into my reading. We did pray with the kids every. I can gladly report that they all (Asher knows a lot of it!) know the prayer before meals and 2 out of 3 know the Lords Prayer and Hail Mary. That's progress! We did not do a volunteer activity during spring break. What I had in mind just did not seem safe for the kids at their ages. I am still working on coming up with something.

Now for facebook. I found I had to get on the site sometimes just to connect with people the only way I knew how. I did not have some emails in our address book as I just facebooked them. However, as the Lenten Season went on, I learned that I do not feel it is of value. 1.Most of the people are not really my "friends." I had 2 friends post their divorce on facebook (but in not so many words exactly) which I was shocked by, and 3. I had a NONfriend from high school request to be my friend. When this nonfriend made her request, I almost signed in to deactivate my account on the spot. I have not done so yet, nor have I approved her request (and I have no intentions of doing so, either). I have gotten into contact with old friends and people I knew in college this way which has been fun. But, overall, it seems like a live gossip spot and place for narcissistic people. Not sure I should be wasting my time on such things - but it is a good time waster!

Now...on to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!

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Finally...March in Review

Chris & the kids at Shadow Lake

I know...this is quite late. What can I say? I've been on staycation! :)

Better late than never I suppose! We had a busy month finished off with a staycation filled with fun things to do near our home. We took the typical visits to the zoo, forest and the children's museum, then threw in some playing at parks (yeah...it warmed up!), visiting downtown Omaha, going flying, going to the farm, walking around our Lake, swimming, visiting Alivia's old school, going to the dentist (which the girls think is fun!) and more! Addison is now in her big girl bed and loves it. Chris and I can hardly wait to paint the girls' rooms now (sarcasm). We have been working on making our home ours with new fans, some more dirt (outside of course), window treatments, and the closet/drop zone construction is now underway. Someday we will be bored and wish for these busy days, I suppose.

 Now...Rejoice for it's Easter!

MARCH PICTURES

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Party of 6?

Today we were a party of 6! 2 of our nephews, Chris' brothers kids, came to visit us today. Chris' brother had back surgery this week and we were trying to help out with their kids (they have 3 boys but only 2 came today). Henry, who will be 3 the 21st of April and Ben will be 1 May 1. Henry is almost smack dab in the middle of Addison and Asher (8 months from Addi and 7 months apart from Asher). Henry plays well with all of the kids, really, but mostly liked to play with Addison. Asher seemed so much younger than Henry for some reason. Henry is a smart little boy who likes to play guns and Spider Man (and Spidey is Addison's boyfriend, she thinks!). Asher never plays with guns and really has no interest in Spider Man other than knowing who he is and wanting to eat off of the Spider Man plate. Alivia liked to help take care of baby Ben by giving him his binky (even though Ben could care less if he had the binky or not). Ben likes to be held and did not like to not be able to see me. They are cute kids and everyone had fun.

So, what did we do all day? Well, this morning it was cool and a little rainy. So, we colored, jumped on the bouncer, played downstairs, read books, colored and then we played with the toys in the garage for a long time. Henry and Asher liked to trade cars and Henry liked to shoot Addison (who was not sure if she liked being the "Bad guy." Alivia stayed inside coloring. I pushed Ben around in the car before Asher pushed him for a while. Ben really liked that. They spent over an hour in the garage playing.

Lunch was uneventful since the only kiddo who ate was Ben. Now for naptime. Ben appeared tired but did not want to rock in the rocking chair. I gave up after a half hour and decided to take a walk to the park and see if Ben would go to sleep (Ben is usually with Grandma during the day and just falls asleep while being held. He was too busy watching the kids to sleep!). Once in the stroller, Ben was asleep by the time we reached the end of the driveway! We walked up to the park and played for an hour and a half or so until Grandma and Grandpa came to pick up Henry and Ben.

It was a fun day! Alivia said at dinner, "This was yet another fun day!" I hope she had a fun spring break and will bring back some memories with her to school. Now, what will I do for Addison during her spring break? Sleeping and resting sounds good to me. :)

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Staycation Day 4

Our staycation is winding down now, so today I tried to keep things more low key. The kids are growing tired, just as they would on vacation at this point. Addison's preschool teacher told me that Addison just appeared exhausted and asked when I would be picking her up today. How sad!

Anyway, after taking Addison to preschool, Asher, Alivia and I went to Lake Zorinsky. They first played in the park all alone, which was nice. Alivia ran around excitedly like she had not seen a park before. Asher was more low key, investigating everything. After about 45 minutes of play time, we were ready for a little walk around the lake. I was tempted to walk all the way around one side, but I was not sure the kids would last. So, we turned back and went back to the dock area. It warmed up a bit by this point, but it was not too breezy yet. It was fabulous and in the 70s. We could not ask for better  weather for April 1! After checking out the water up close, we went back to play at the park. We were welcomed by 50 other children at this point. It was really crowded, but the kids did not seem to mind. (On another note, for some crazy reason they are cutting down trees at Zorinsky. And, does anyone else find it odd to put in a water park and water slides in what seems like a nature preserve? It just seems odd to me and ruins the beauty of the park. Don't get me wrong...I think we will visit the slides someday. The location just seems all wrong).

We left the park in time to run to Village Point to so I could pick up some sunglasses (I left mine in Chris' car. It was too sunny to continue without sunglasses!). Addison was so excited to see us that she was out the door waiting for me to open the van before I said hi to Mrs. Gohr. Next we went back to Piedmont Park (Addi saw pictures of the park when we visited on Tuesday and wanted to go herself!), but this time we brought a picnic lunch and Addison. Unlike Tuesday when we were the only ones at the park, today it was really crowded. There seemed to be a lot of mean kiddos there with Mommy's on cell phones not paying any attention to their kids. Again, the kids did not seem to mind too much. I could tell everyone was getting tired, so we headed for home to take a nap.

Although everyone napped on the way home, the nap stopped there. I did start unloading the 7 baskets of laundry that I had washed, folded, but had not had time to put away since we had been gone all week. Seriously, our home is a disaster. Being on staycation where you pack up and come home just to dump your stuff and repeat makes keeping up on housework next to impossible. Seriously, tonight I had to go grocery shopping at 9pm!

Anyway, after the lack of quiet time, we returned outside to the windy warm weather. The kids played a while, then skirted each other with water. It was so windy though! We wanted to eat outside, but I was afraid our food would blow away. Speaking of food, tonight marked the first night we grilled out. Chris grilled the kids cheeseburgers (of all things!) which they loved! I think we can officially put the fork in winter - and it is about time!

Today was really the last day of our staycation as tomorrow we will be having guests over. It was a fun, but exhausting week. I recall doing this many activities in a row last summer, but just for fun. I think were home more in the afternoons, though. I am a homebody to a certain extent, but being about to take the kids to fun places (all free, too, as it turned out) made fora  really fun week of memories. I am glad that Alivia was hopefully able to enjoy her spring break and will remember at least a few moments of fun when she returns to school next week. We will miss her though!

So, in summary, we were able to enjoy the zoo, flying, Zorinsky Lake, Piedmont Park, Heartland of America Park, visit Alivia's old school, visit Alivia's new school playground, go to the dentist (what fun, huh?!), walk/bike around Shadow Lake (which is really our life), and play in dirt at home! The weather could not have been better for spring break. We had an amazing week of memories. Now I am getting excited for having Alivia home for summer!

 

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