Happy Easter!

Our Easter celebration started on Friday morning when the girls and I had an "egg day". It was one of those days when we didn't have any plans and so we needed a theme to get us excited. Eggs it was! We started by learning about real eggs and what they're all about. Have I mentioned how much I love the Internet and YouTube for things like this? We found some videos of baby chicks hatching and also of fish hatching and then we even found some short clips called "Who lays eggs?" or something along those lines. I know for a fact that Anna learned a lot :)

Then we had a good book to help with the transition from real eggs to Easter eggs. Once that transition was made, we had lots of fun doing all sorts of crafts and egg hunts. Anna even set one up for Kate and I in which she put a snack of goldfish and raisins inside the eggs before she hid them for us.

Saturday dawned beautiful, or at least much rainy and cloudy than the previous several days had been. I took the girls to Olbrich Gardens to check out the next round of blooming flowers while Matt had some time to do some projects around the house. These pictures are from our trip to Olbrich.

These two LOVE the rose garden, where there is a tower overlooking much of the gardens. They enjoy looking out at everything, but they REALLY enjoy running down the ramp again and again.


Glued-to-mom's-side Kate.


Independent Anna.


The girls already know how to melt my heart. They spontaneously reached for one another's hands, and then looked up at me with a "do you see this?" kind of look.



Eating snacks after running around for an hour or so.



We had a blessed Easter here at our home. We started our morning with the girls' discovering their basket with little goodies from grandparents and parents. Then, since Anna was up at 6 a.m., we decided to try to make life easier and go to the 8 o'clock service at church. Anna has graduated from simply telling people "Happy Easter" to having the dialogue of "Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!" She was very excited to be able to sing Alleluia again, especially when I told her she could just sing the word alleluia for all of the songs during church :)

We had brunch afterwards, came home, made food, and cleaned things up before friends came over for the afternoon and evening. We tried the strategy of feeding the kids first before the adults sat down to eat and this time it worked! All seven kids played in the basement for close to an hour while the grown ups sat around eating and visiting. Wow!

Two side stories ... Kate's tantrums have begun. So far they are fairly mild and short lived, but we know that those characteristics may change. At the same time, Anna's tantrums are slowing down. She seems to have a better ability to pull herself away from the edge before she goes over completely, if you know what I mean :)

Also, the thumb sucking cessation strategies are working! (That sounds more medical than it really is.) Anna had done an amazing job of exhibiting self-control and will usually catch herself before she "goes for the thumb". The current rule, that we actually call "Dr. Shearer's rule", is that she may only suck her thumb in her bed, which means at bedtime or when she goes to take a break. Someday we'll have to tackle that, too, but not yet :)

Urgh!

This morning it snowed, rained, sleeted, and even thundered. After last year's early and permanent spring, this year is SO frustrating! We get a few nice days, and then a week of winter-like weather again (or at least that what it feels like). I know spring will come sooner or later, but we'd rather have it be sooner. Life is so much bigger and more interesting when you can be outside to play, too!

In the midst of our indoor-ness, we've had some silly moments. For example, on Saturday morning the whole family built some elaborate tents and caves in the basement with blankets, slides, coffee tables, pillows, etc. The experience brought back good childhood memories for both Matt and me :) Also, the girls have enjoyed making one another laugh a lot, often at mealtimes. Here's a photo of some of their antics.


Anna informed us on Saturday that our pastor came to their Sunday School class last week and asked all the kids if they would help be a part of the parade for Jesus at the beginning of church on Palm Sunday. We didn't know much about it, but at least Anna remembered. She proudly held up her palm and "followed all the instructions" (as she told us afterwards).


Anna seems to be pretty well educated this year about all of the goings-on at Easter, thanks in part to some great Easter books and our Lenten devotions. She and I have made a point of doing our Lenten devotions together in the afternoons while Kate is sleeping. One day last week I caught her telling a story with some of her stuffed animals in which she kept refering to Jesus and Judas.

Speaking of telling stories, yesterday at the grocery store Anna told a story the entire time we were shopping about all of the food that she saw. For example, "The Mommy coffee can went running down the aisle and picked up the baby spaghetti and carried it all the way to the tortillas who then tumbled around and spun over to the eggs ... etc." Many of her motion words also had actions. I hope Anna always brightens the day of other people we see when we're out and about :)

Yesterday we were able to go to a Dave Landau show after several months of simply singing his songs. Anna was thrilled, but Kate was pretty wary. I don't think she really remembered what it meant to go to a Dave Landau show and so she wasn't herself, even though she knew every single song he sang. Anna tried very hard to include Kate and help her get comfortable, to the point of asking Dave to sing "Apples and Bananas" (one of Kate's favorites), but it never really worked.

Besides the variable weather, we've had a few struggles lately in our house, too. Kate is still wearing underwear, but she is still having one or two accidents a day. Last week we thought it stemmed from a mild cold she was fighting, but it would be nice not to have to deal with so many. Oh, well. She's still young. At least they truly seem to be accidents and not purposeful messes.

Also, we decided to take the plunge with Anna and try very consciously to help her stop sucking her thumb during the day. She's been doing it less and less over the past year, but since she hasn't been wearing gloves anymore when we go out, she's started sucking her thumb in the van again. We're trying a mainly positive rewards track in which she earns pennies for all of the times she doesn't suck her thumb, and also for chores that she does. Then she gets the pennies taken away if she sucks her thumb when she shouldn't. When she earns enough pennies, she can "buy" some Lightning McQueen merchandise that we bought just for this purpose. So far she seems to be trying very, very hard. We're trying to keep the most positive light on the whole situation because we know this will be very difficult for her and require lots of practice.

Finally, I have had the opportunity to have some quieter time in my life recently. On Saturday morning I did some shopping without any kids along and it was extremely freeing and relaxing :) Then today Anna had an afternoon playdate so it was just Kate and I running an errand and then home for lunch and naps. And Kate took an almost 3 hour nap! I almost didn't know what to do with myself ... almost :) I think I see more of these afternoon playdates in our future :)

Spring (!) and more (!)

Spring has finally sprung here in Madison! We have been waiting SO long for days like this ... daily trips to playgrounds, no hats or gloves or boots, being able to play outside after dinner, flowers blooming ...


I think we could finally say about midweek last week that spring was finally here. By the weekend we had a true heat wave come through (it reached 80 degrees on Sunday!), and today is just beautiful.


The girls have been truly excited about all of the signs of spring; they remind me every day how special this time of year is :) They love checking on the flowers that are coming up and looking for sprouts in the ground or buds on the trees. They're also very in tune to the different birds that are out and about, thanks in part to our weekend at Grandpa and Grandma's.

One fun thing we've done this year is designate some of our stuffed animals as "outside toys". This way the girls can bring some of their make-believe and pretend games outdoors with them. Horns (Anna's cow) and Lake (Kate's coyote) have been to many playgrounds already this spring. I think they're going to need a good washing one of these days.


We had a playdate cancelled this morning so the girls and I headed to the state park for a hike. What a beautiful morning! Anna is getting to be a pretty good hiker, but she still gets tired by the end of our hikes. This morning tired her out enough to take a nap this afternoon (which is why I'm able to post something on the blog right now). Kate, on the other hand, is good for about 5 or 10 minutes, and then wants to ride in the backpack most of the rest of the time. We'll keep working on it, for her sake and mine :)


I'm getting a bit antsy about planting the garden this year. Last spring was much earlier and warmer than this year's and by mid-April last year I had about a third of the garden planted. This year I have only one row of peas planted and some spinach and lettuce in. The rest will be able to go in soon, right?

In addition to the arrival of spring, we're dealing with lots of decisions in our house right now. For those of you who didn't know, we're planning on putting on an addition and remodeling the kitchen this summer. It certainly adds excitement and also a bit of anxiety about the decision making process to our lives. We can't wait to enjoy a larger kitchen and dining area!

A weekend up north

This past Thursday after Bible Study the girls and I made the trek up north to visit my parents for a few days. Overall, the weekend was good and we made lots of memories, but we're still recovering a bit from all of the sleep disturbances ...

Here's a few snapshots of our adventures:

We experienced a few days of playing in the snow again, after having been snow free for several weeks in Madison. Anna liked sledding by herself, and then being pulled around by Grandpa.

Kate liked eating snow.

Anna and Grandma showed each other a variety of voga poses. (Many of Anna's were of her own creation.)

Kate figured out how to look at the camera and say "cheese!"

In the absence of Matt, the girls decided to pile on top of Grandpa.

We all enjoyed the tasty food that Grandpa and Grandma provided for us.

Anna still likes cooking in the kitchen with Grandma.

It's a LONG, slushy walk up to the sugar shack for maple syrup making time.

Anna helped Kim collect some sap to be boiled down to make maple syrup.

Kate was pretty worn out by the time we were ready to leave.

I also learned that Anna can sleep in a full sized bed on overnights and that Kate needs to be trained out of the pack and play before our next overnight trip anywhere. We also learned that we need to be more aware and prepared on longer trips for a potty trained Kate who has a very tiny bladder ...

Now bring on spring ... PLEASE!