Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We had a great day today!

If I can say so myself, the photo below is a sweet shot. I took this photo today after Amelia and John were finished with their Easter egg hunt in the backyard just as they were headed inside to unveil the loot. Of course John did not want to cooperate with me at all. He was sticking his toungue out and making funny faces, until I told (bribed) him that he would not be able to open a single egg until he took a nice-looking photo for my photo books. Amazing what a little incentive (bribe) will do! And doesn't John look just fabulous wearing his first tie? Love it!

Amelia and John were very interested in hunting eggs today! We went to the early church service and stayed for the family service followed by a short Easter egg hunt. Then Amelia and John were ready for the real thing! As is tradition now, the Easter bunny comes to our house while we are at church. In reality what happens is that Scott drops me off at home for 15 minutes after church while he takes the kids somewhere and then they all return home, and "Poof!", the Easter bunny has come! Amazing how that works! Plus mom gets a pot of coffee brewing, which is a nice bonus. Then, the HUNT!

Amelia looks so happy with her eggs, it's a shame the girl doesn't have any teeth to enjoy the treats inside. More on that later.

Later in the afternoon after the sugar rush had subsided some, we dyed eggs for Easter. I tried to buy the pre-made dye kits at three different stores yesterday but they were all sold out, so we made our own coloring with liquid food coloring, vinegar and water. I actually think these were easier and produced more colorful eggs than the PAAS kits can make.

Below John is not dipping his crayon in the color, he is going to use it to write words on the eggs that will stay after they are dipped in the colored water. What he started to write, but eventually had me do it for him, was "Style Dog!" on his eggs. That is what Scott calls John when he is wearing his much-beloved exercise clothes.

The Easter bunny brought Amelia and John some new shirts. Amelia got a spirit shirt for her school (Peace, Love, UP!), and John got a new Under Armour (a.k.a. "style dog!") exercise shirt. I was pleased to see that they both loved them.

And while I had my camera out, John wanted to do tricks for the camera. Lovely.

Last but not least, our toothless and back-woods-looking beautiful daughter. Amelia lost her third tooth in as many weeks last night and since none of the adult teeth have grown in yet, she is starting to look like a project in malnutrition. Scott calls her the "prettiest jack-o-lantern on the planet!". I think I have to agree.

Amelia doesn't mind a bit. So long as the tooth fairy continues to bring her $$ for each tooth (going rate is $5 per tooth!), she is a happy girl!

Adam and Eve

Today the following conversation took place in the car as we were driving home. Background: I had a commitment tonight that lasted past the childrens' normal dinnertime and they were both pretty cranky by the time we were heading home. I went for the quickest option to try and make them feel better and went through the McDonald's drive-thru for dinner (I know, very unhealthy, but at least they had apple dippers!), but John was about to lose it on the way there. I know he was hungry and tired, but still I was frustrated when he told his sister to "Just shut up Amelia, I am talking right now!". I am not sure Amelia knew the term "shut up" at four-years of age, but I guess that's what being the second kid does for you.

Anyway, I reprimanded John and said that "shut up" is not a nice word. He then (quite intelligently, if I can say so) asked, "But mom, why does the word shut up exist if we're not supposed to say it?"

Hmmm, good question John. And while I was thinking of a potential reply that would make sense Amelia chimed in with, "John, I know why. You know, it has to do with Adam and Eve. They ate the apple and were bad and now we all do bad things."

John replied with, "Who are Adam and Eve?", and Amelia proceeded to tell him the story. John asked questions about why they ate the apple and Amelia explained it well. I couldn't have been more proud.

Though I teach Amelia's sunday school class a few times a month I have never taught this lesson so I can take no claim as having anything to do with her understanding of a very important story. All I can say was that I was proud of her. Amelia is such a good girl and I am grateful for that.

What I am not so grateful for is the fact that I had to enter the number "36" for my age on the treadmill this morning at the gym for the first time. I am not vain about my age at all, but leaping above the 35-year threshold was still a bit of a shock. But Amelia said it well this morning as she sweetly wished me a happy birthday, "Mom, welcome to the world of 36!". Yes, welcome indeed.

Thanks to my family and wonderful friends for your good wishes on my birthday.

Spring is here

Spring is here! One week after the four-inch snowfall and we are back to 70 degree days with lots of sunshine. The tulips are blooming - my favorite! - and life is good. My only regret is not planting any tulip bulbs this year, so I have to enjoy the hard work of others in local parks and on my neighbors' lawns. John and I took a quick trip to the little park around the block this evening, and these are the beautiful tulips we found there.

I wanted a more memorable shot of spring flowers so I decided to include John in the photo. He actually cooperated with me for a change in that I got a decent shot (love it!), but I also have a dozen where he is making the fake-smile smirk that we have seen over and over again for the last month. Anyway, doesn't John look all grown up here? Scott and he went shopping on Friday for "exercise clothes", and ever since John hasn't wanted to take off his Under armour "stretchy shorts and shirts" because he is in love with them. I think he looks rather handsome and athletic in these mature outfits. And then there are the lovely Crocs. We all know how I feel about the Crocs, even though the kids are crazy about them.

Amelia got to try ice skating for the first time this weekend and she did great with it! A classmate celebrated his birthday at a local ice skating rink, and Amelia bravely embraced her first opportunity to skate in ice. I was proud of her and she had a great time!

Lastly, a few shots of the kids joking around last night before bed. Amelia and John were both way-too-wound-up, very hyper and hesitant to go to bed. Of course they had both been up since 6:30 a.m. (early for them!), been to soccer, ballet, ice skating, playing in the backyard, etc. all day, so of course they were exhausted but still they fought the need to go to bed. Scott was preparing yummy grilled steaks and we had just opened a nice bottle of red wine so we put them to bed before 8:00. And quite predictably, both were fast asleep within minutes. Bliss for mom and dad!

Below John is back to his normal "I will ruin all of mommy's pictures" self, and Amelia looks like a (cute!) bag lady with her two missing front teeth. Love it!

Surprise snow

We had an early spring snow in Dallas last weekend. It was the first day of spring, in fact. The weather forecasters were calling for - at most - a dusting or one inch of accumulation. I wasn't expecting much at all. The previous day had been sunny with temperatures near 70 degrees.

Amelia and I attended a ballet performance downtown on Saturday night with friends. Tiny flurries had begun to fall as we were walking to the performance hall and we were excited to see that a dusting of snow had accumulated by the time we left two hours later. The snow was still coming down when I went to bed that evening. I was impressed, thinking that we would wake up to an inch of snow on the ground Sunday morning. I was thinking ahead to the children's excitement about seeing the snow.

Instead of one inch, we were greeted with the following scene in our backyard Sunday morning.

Four inches of fluffy snow! I actually got out a ruler to measure the amount as I was in shock by the volume. This was a pretty, pretty snow, layering white globs of fluff over everything.

Amelia and John got out to enjoy the snow for a few minutes before we went to church. They both seemed to particularly enjoy running in the snow, as it was light and fluffy so you could kick it easily.

John's face looks funny below because he has his toungue out to taste the flakes, as small flurries were still falling that morning.

This snow was apparently also good for eating straight from the ground, as evidenced by Amelia's look below. Despite my pleas of "How gross! That snow is dirty!", both children insisted on picking up globs of snow from the ground and the deck furniture to taste.

The day warmed nicely and most of the snow was gone by early afternoon. But even though this snow was short-lived, we all enjoyed one last look at winter this year. We have had a lot of snow this year for our area. There were four separate events where we received several inches or more of accumulation. Fun! Well, except for the no power event, but that was another matter completely. This last week has definitely felt like spring, and the tulips (my favorite) are in full bloom.

The last week

We were so happy to have Scott's parents, a.k.a. "grandmommy" and "grandaddy", in Dallas with us for a visit last week. They came to visit over Amelia's spring break so that they could have a week of unscheduled fun with the kids. Everyone had a great time, and Amelia and John especially enjoyed soaking up all their attention and energy throughout the week!

Saturday morning was soccer practice, as usual. Here is John lining up on the side of the field with his teammates.
Later in the week we all went bowling. This was an afternoon of firsts for many of us - the first time the kids have gone to a bowling alley and my first time bowling in at least 10 years. We had a good time, though we all realized that bowling in real life is much more challenging than playing the bowling game on the Wii! I was happy that the alley had special equipment for children. They had bumper railings for the gutters and a special ramp for launching the ball down the alley. It's John's turn below.

Below is an adorable shot of John with his grandmommy. We were all relaxing in the backyard as the children played late one afternoon while Scott was prepping the grill for dinner.

Amelia and John below - playing on the swings and posing for the camera.

More fun shots of the children with their grandparents below.

We are so grateful that grandmommy and grandaddy could come to spend the week with us in Dallas!

Big night out

Tonight was the first ever Y Princess dads and daughter dinner for Scott and Amelia's tribe. In lieu of a monthly meeting with regular activities (think arts and crafts, pizza, playtime, at someone's home), the dads decided that they needed to upgrade their events and take the girls to a nice dinner out. You could say that they picked a 4-star steakhouse for the girls' sake (try not to laugh when you think of that) or perhaps, as most of the moms have speculated, because they thought it would be fun for them (with a side effect being that it is fun for the girls too). But in any case, Scott and Amelia joined a group of 7 other dads and their daughters for dinner at a fancy steakhouse tonight.

I do think that the whole idea is pretty neat, not that I am at all a bit jealous of their posh dinner when I had a self-prepared dinner tonight at home, eaten by myself, or anything. No, not a bit.

Anyway, Amelia and I purchased a new dress for the occasion and she has been looking forward to her night out with dad for weeks. Of course I took this as an opportunity for photos, where I had one cooperative member and two uncooperative members. This is in no doubt predictable, but let's just say you can divide the group of cooperative vs. uncooperative by gender and Amelia was my darling angel during the mini photo-taking session.

This photo was taken in our living room, while I was pleading, "Scott, can you be serious for a minute?!? John, please get out of the photo!" Of course, neither boy cooperated. Typical.
Finally I got John to get out of the frame and Scott looks like he would rather be doing any of a dozen different activities here besides posing for a photo with his adorable daughter. But Amelia looks gorgeous as usual. Love the dimples!

Amelia looked so cute in this outfit tonight and she was so proud of herself for selecting this all by herself from the store. The dress is simple - cotton with some grosgrain ribbon around the waist and bottom - but it really looked so cute on her. What a grown-up looking little lady.

And then there is John. What can I say about my beloved John and the whole photo-taking exercise?!? A bit of background on his outfit - I took the children shopping for spring/summer clothing today and John quickly became obsessed with picking out several "sports and exercise clothes" outfits that mimic his much-beloved soccer attire. And then tonight he didn't want to take the clothing off (again, repeat from a few weeks ag0) so here he is in his new shorts and t-shirt for the photo shoot.

Here I am saying, "John, please show mommy how tough you look in your new exercise clothing." And this is what I get.

It's so classic that you could imagine me asking John to make this type of face. But no, he did it all on his own free will despite my pleading for a smile.

Me again, "John, show me how cool your new shorts are!". And this is what I get. This boy is going to be the end of me, I imagine.

Notice the Crocs John is wearing. For whatever reason both Amelia and John have been campaigning for awhile that I purchase Crocs shoes for them. I don't really like the look of Crocs, but I am proud that during the whole fashion trend of wearing Crocs my kids never owned a pair. Now of course the trend has passed but their desire for the colored shoes has not waned, so I caved and bought them each a pair today. I am sure I may regret this at a future date, but they were both so over-the-moon excited that I gave in. I am such a softie.

Soccer

John recently began his first season of organized sports. We enrolled John in a six-week program of soccer for pre-K-aged children through our local YMCA (thinking of you, uncles Lyn and John whenever I see the Y logo!). Because Amelia has been involved in ballet at a privately-owned studio since she was four we never navigated the very popular world of Y sports that exists in our community. Scott and I thought that John's high energy level would be a good fit for team sports so we decided to introduce him to the most popular sports in our area for young boys, soccer (now, starting in February) and T-ball (coming later this spring if he responds well to soccer).

I told John that we signed him up for soccer about a week before the first meeting, which was about the time when we needed to shop for supplies (the children were supposed to have shin guards and a soccer ball as equipment for the sessions). I took Amelia and John with me one Saturday to a local sports store to get John's equipment. I was pleasantly surprised that John was VERY excited about shopping for his soccer gear, which is interesting given that (a) he has never really observed a real soccer match so I don't really know if he even understood what we signed him up for, and (b) his general distaste for shopping in all cases. But once we got to the store and I explained that we were looking for items for his soccer team, John was all over it. John was cooperative and excited about it all, to the point where he wanted to try on his gear immediately when we got home and then refused to take it off that evening for bed.

Below is a shot of John practicing in our backyard on the day we purchased the soccer supplies. Doesn't he look handsome in the soccer "uniform" of shin guards and socks with the black athletic shorts?

And below ia shot from our first day of "practice". John's team meets with another team every Saturday morning for 45 minutes. The first 30 minutes are skills drills led by one coach for both teams where the parents are involved in helping their children learn the tools needed for soccer. I went with John this past Saturday where we worked on passing the ball with our feet, learned never to use our hands, and learned how to stop the ball with our feet.

After the skills drills there was 15 minutes devoted to scrimmage between the two teams. Basically the coach dropped the ball in the middle of the field and explained that one team was to kick towards then goal on one end of the field and then the other team was to take their turn and try to get the ball towards the goal on the other end. The kids tried hard, but they were mostly confused about which goal was theirs and what the boundaries of the field were.

I have heard friends of mine referring to 3 and 4 year-old soccer as "watching a bunch of cattle trying to herd on a field", and this was very true in general for what I observed last Saturday. It was completely hilarious and worth the price of enrollment just for watching this 15 minutes of one weeks' lesson. I can't wait until this week for more laughs!

However, not to brag too much (well, I am bragging some!), John hung in there and was a fierce competitor for his team. While John did not understand all elements of the scrimmage (he seemed to be oblivious to the boundaries of the field in particular, as evidenced by the fact that he was kicking the ball as hard as he could in whatever direction he was running in), he was tough and aggressive and completely wanted to get the ball to the other end of the field. I was so proud! Especially given that several children were crying at this point, pleading to go home, etc., while John stuck in there running until he was red in the face because he was going to be (as he put it) "the fastest, bestest soccer player on my team!". In fact, John even scored a goal. Hurray! He was fast and not at all scared to wrestle the ball away from another child, which is good.

After the cattle-running exercise, I mean the scrimmage, the children all got a snack and got to relax a bit. I wanted John to pose for a cute "first day of soccer" photo. And even though he was dead tired, did John cooperate? No, of course not! John historically has not cooperated for my photos and there was no exception this past Saturday. You can imagine me on the field, "John, please smile for mommy and let's take a cool soccer picture!" Me: "Please, John! No treats after lunch if you can't smile like a handsome boy!" Then I got the following (complete joker face).

After another dozen potos and not an honest smile in the bunch, I got this:

Gotta love it (not really). At least I have five more matches to work the camera angle.

After soccer, and after picking Amelia up from ballet, and after a nice lunch out with grandma and grandpop, we all headed for the park. This was the first day in MONTHS when we have had decent enough weather to spend time outdoors and I wanted to take advantage of it. The kids had a good time and the adults enjoyed the fresh air and time to talk while the children entertained themselves on the playground. Below are Amelia and John on the rocking bumble bee. How can this kid have so much energy STILL?

And here is my sweet Amelia posing in the lion's mouth at the playground. It struck me this past Saturday that at this playground in particular, Amelia might be getting towards the upper end of the age range where slides and swings, etc. are still fun. Even though Amelia looked like she was having fun, the fact that the mean age of the children on the playground was about 4 years old made me realize just how old and grown-up these kids are getting. Sigh.

Overall this was a fun and wonderful weekend. So glad that grandma and grandpop could be with us.