Easter 2014

I have been pretty sick lately and Easter really snuck up on us this year.  I wasn't able to walk enough to go to a store to buy anythings for the kids' baskets, so I ordered the basics online (chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, a DVD for Dorothy, and a birdhouse kit for Malcolm).  I did finally get on some medication that made it so that I could do a quick stop at Target (it really did have to be quick and direct, and that never happens there) and I picked up a couple of other small things likes Peeps on a stick, glitter glue, flower and veggie seeds, and small activity pads.

 Malcolm's basket.  It is barely after 9:00am and he and Kevin are in the basement working on the birdhouse.  I suspect the seeds will all be planted before lunch time.  Malcolm got sunflower and carrot seeds and Dorothy got pumpkin and zinnia seeds.

 Dorothy's basket.  In her hand is a Kinder Egg that we brought back from our trip to London last year.  We brought back a few, but have been saving them for special occasions.  When Malcolm saw it in his basket he exclaimed, "British eggs!"  We only have two eggs left for some other time.

 Yes, we have Easter morning in Christmas pajamas.

 More Christmas pjs, and the wintery movie "Frozen."  We saw it in the theater, and she wasn't so sure about it then, but has been full of questions about it for a couple of months now, and is interested in seeing it again.  It will probably be much less intense at home than at the theater.  Malcolm wants nothing to do with it.

 New clothes!  They each insisted on bringing their special friend out with them for the egg hunt.  Color coordinating with Blue Donkey and Pink Blankie (we are not creative namers) was completely coincidental. 

 I don't have many pictures of Malcolm because he hunts eggs lightening fast.

 Dorothy is a bit more slow in her searching.  She will also run past 3-4 eggs to get to one that she sees that is far away.

It is too bad it is partly covered, but the brown patch on her dress is a rabbit.  The head is covered by her sweater and the tail wraps around to the back.  It is so cute on her, which is good, because I spent entirely too much for it with the justification that she should be able to wear it for two years.

 She is so serious that it's hard to get "happy" pictures of her.

 Time to break open the eggs and see your stash.  Dorothy always seems to find the eggs with money in them, much to Malcolm's disappointment.

 Admiring his haul.

Our friends taped a note to our kitchen window letting us know that the Easter Bunny had hidden 6 bottles of wine in our yard.  We hid beer (terrible beer that has been passed back and forth a couple of times because no one will drink it.) at their house one year and they returned the favor this year.  Here, Kevin has found two of the bottles.

Best Easter ever!

We don't do much else for Easter, except go out for pizza.  All in all, a very good day.

Egg Dyeing

We have had a lot going on and I wasn't even able to get to the store to buy eggs until Thursday night, so dyeing eggs was delayed a bit, but we got them done just in time!  I love that they are old enough now to do most of it on their own.  I love getting to enjoy how excited they get over trying new colors and drawing on the eggs with crayons.  So cute!

 Getting to work.  It's always difficult to choose the first color you want to do.

 Busy, busy.  We divided their eggs up equally into separate cartons because they don't work at the same pace.  Dorothy would have all the eggs dyed before Malcolm finished his first one.

I think every egg had at least a few crayon marks on it, including one that has "chicken pox" and another with a "queen's face because it is dyed royal purple.

She was concentrating so hard.

 I think we only had one egg crack while lowering it into the dye; not bad for 4 and 6 year olds.  Dorothy did ask for help a couple of times, but she did most of them herself.

 Malcolm was very good at getting the eggs in the cups.

 Checking to see if her egg is dark enough yet.

Checking out the drying eggs.  I asked each kid which was their favorite egg, and they both had 5-6 favorites.  It's too bad that I'm the only person in the house who will eat hard boiled eggs.  The kids love dyeing them, and even cracking, peeling, and slicing them, but I can't get anyone to help me eat them.

First Baton Twirling Class

Dorothy had her first baton twirling class tonight!  It actually started last week, but she was sick and had to miss it.  I'm not sure which of us was more excited for her class tonight, but it might have been her.  I started taking twirling lessons when I was four too, and I hope she likes it enough to stick with it long enough to get to some of the really fun aspects.

She is the only one signed up for her 4-6 year old class.  The next class has several students in it, but they are 7-11 years old, and the class ends late enough that I'm afraid she would be too tired to pay attention very well.  She will be in class by herself for now (Unless anyone local would like to join us!) so I hope she won't get too bored essentially having a private lesson every week.  The older team girls are also there during her class time, warming up and practicing and she could not stop watching them!  She didn't want to leave when her class was over because they were still practicing.

She didn't use her wrist for the motions, but used her whole arm instead.  She tried really hard though and followed all the directions as best she could.  It's going to take a while for some of this to sink in.

She has just recently "mastered" standing on one foot, so passing under the leg was a bit of a challenge.

Getting ready to drop it behind her back.  She has the right idea, but gravity is quicker than her getting her hands down to catch the baton.

She paid attention really well for being the only one and having the big girls practicing behind her.  I was pretty proud of her.

She carries things under her chin all the time (no, I have no idea why), so she was a natural for this one.

This particular one did not go as planned.

Not a proper salute, but bonus points for cuteness.

After class she wanted to stay and watch the big girls and I had to practically drag her out of there.  One of the big girls gave her a high five after her class, and Dorothy has proclaimed her her friend (but we don't know her name yet).