Death of an Easter Bunny

See these cute baskets? I have used them for years. The duck was originally Lucas and then it was passed down to Addie after Grandma Char got him the baseball one.

I think my love of these baskets and internal thriftiness caused Lucas to get to thinking a bit too much this morning.

I started noticing at Christmas that Lucas was asking a lot of questions about Santa and the entire logic behind it. I am think Jeremy and I did a pretty good job figuring out how to avoid the tough questions. This morning Lucas opened his basket with a puzzled look on his face the entire time. He started to ask a question here or there but then would pause. After the baskets were open and we had moved on to organizing the money and candy Lucas came to me and asked the question I knew was no longer far off. Mom, is the Easter bunny real? Hump, I say. This of coarse is not going to work as an answer. I ask why do you ask? Maybe I can keep him a little kid a bit longer. He said, well it is in the same basket as downstairs that we get every year and the same eggs we always use in the bag in the storage room. Oh great, I am so caught. I said well maybe we leave it out for the bunny at night. He said, yeah I don't believe that because I saw that grass stuff in the office yesterday and now it is in our baskets. Alright, snoop, I fessed up. I think I got out of it lucky because I did not have to give over any other figures. Santa and the tooth fairy are safe. I threatened him with a tongue removal if he told his sister or another person at church and he seemed a bit scared, at least for the morning.

This getting bigger stuff can sure be a heart breaker.

Easter Baskets

Our morning started off with Easter Baskets. Lucas got a new game for his DS and Addie Jo got some sparkle flip flops. They were both super excited.

Some of their eggs had money in them, change only, and Addie just loves money.

Addie woke Luke up so they could do their baskets. He stumbled down the steps and was barley awake when Addie handed him his basket. It only took a second though for him to get excited.

I think this is about the time Addie Jo figured out that if she left Lucas to sleep she could of had the goodies of two baskets. I think next year he may be on his own.

Coloring Eggs

Today we colored Easter eggs. Everyone had a great time. The only complaint was that they ran out of eggs to fast. Only Addie and Daddy have shown an interest in eating the hard boiled eggs. Lucas had to find a trash can rather quickly after his taste test.

Such deep concretion on the coloring efforts. It took about two eggs before Lucas figured out he could mix colors and use more than one on each eggs.

Not one egg was cracked in the coloring process.

A lovely finished product. As you can see Addie Jo's Easter cupcake made it into the pictures also.

HOPE YOU HAVE A HAPPY EASTER

Dress up time

Friday we Aunt Carrie and I made a switch. She took Lucas to the movies and Hunter hung out at our place. The plan was a bit delayed as the kids and I were stuck at the grocery store because a storm blew into town rather suddenly. I say blew into town and that is a major understatement. We were locked into the grocery store as the wind was blowing so hard the produce department was wet and there was no way I could push a cart out of the store. When we were finally able to leave I had to dodge several limbs on the road. Shortly after we got home everything was back to normal and the sun was out. It was just crazy.

While I unloaded groceries from the car GG played with the kids. Maybe I should say the kids played with her. Addie decided t do dress up on GG. You see Hunter just does not have enough hair to play hair with him.

GG was a great sport about it all!!

Can you hear me?

Addie is starting to enjoy talking on the phone. As you can see from these pictures she is one that likes to multi task why talking on the phone.

The only issue we seem to be having right now is that it does nt matter if someone is talking on the other end or not. I guess we should just be happy she has moved on to the house phone and is leaving our cell phones alone!!

Quote of the day

GG just said "Addie has never met a remote she did not love"

Amen to that!

Spring snow

Your calendar may say the first day of spring but mother nature had other plans today. I did not make a big deal out of the fact we were to get snow because I was afraid it may miss us. I hate sad snowless faces in the morning. We woke up to about three inches and it is still snowing. It is a very wet snow but the kids wanted to play so I sent them on their way. After all if you read other posts I was not about to let the adventure to get the snow gear go to waste.




Taralyn just can't beleive it is snowing on the first day of spring!!

Look at these cuties. They had so much fun playing in the snow together.



It will soon be hot cocco time. I hear the door opening and complaints of being all wet.

Think twice before you act

This weekend we are lucky enough to have Taralyn with us. Lucas and Addie are having a blast every second. So much fun in fact that they both feel asleep on the way home from Wal-Mart today. As I am sure your weather person has told you KC got snow today. It is pretty awesome. Snow on the weekend, no matter what time of year makes me happy. Carrie told me if it snowed I could grab T's snow clothes from the downstairs closet. Great, we have over 3 inches and more outside time is great for both the kids and myself.

I stopped by a little while ago to grab her snow clothes and that is when it happened. As I was opening the garage door I was running through the number combinations to dis arm the alarm in my head. I was not really sure but come on she has told it to me a couple weeks ago so how could I forget already. I typed in what I thought it was, no luck. Oh hum, must have done it wrong. Did it again, still wrong. I was on time 5 when I realized I was screwed. Panic sets in and I try it one more time, a different set of numbers but it was too late. This unbelievable noise starts coming from the alarm or some other source or from the depths of hell. It hurt my brain in a place I did not even know existed. The noise is such it causes all brain waves to cease in ones head. I could not think of what to do next. Just in that moment the phone rang. Oh yes, Carrie told me about this. This would be the alarm company. Hurry, run for the phone. Ahhhhh, ahhhhh, where is the phone. This is so not my house. Where is the phone. ahhh, ahh. Up stairs down stairs. No phone, and then it stops ringings. I have a flash of myself in prison trying to explain who the heck I am and I just wanted the kids to have fun. I run for my cell phone in the truck. Call Carrie. The folks call her and she was nice enough to call the cops off. I entered the correct number, calmly and slowly. Grabbed the snow clothes and headed back to my home.

I am now going to be a good student and practice writing the correct code 100 times on a piece of paper so this never occurs again.

If you need a house sitter, this is my warning advice.....think twice before you ask someone like me with a memory the size of a pea!!

If you need to enter a home make sure you know what you are doing or your ears may be ringing for house after your mistake!!

Outside time

Today is the last day of winter. It felt like the first day of spring. Tomorrow is the first day of spring. It is to feel like the middle of winter. There is no denying the snow is coming. The wind has picked up, the cloudy skies are here and the temperature is dropping.

I shoved the kids outside right after school to get in some outside time because this might be it for a while. After all I wore sandals to work today and no way I was going to wear them and then hide out in front of the fireplace.


This is where the picture of Addie riding her bike goes. Yeah, I am so not fast enough to catch her.

Don't worry I am persistent. I finally got her on her bike. She has figured out that going backwards on the pedals not only ticks her off but makes her stop quickly. She is now a crusin check!

Taralyn and Lucas opted for a nice game of basketball.

Addie tried to draw T away with the lure of soccer but it did not work.

. Ah, forget basketball.....

We are now back inside. Inside for the weekend. Warm and cozy.

And the trip is out

Well the news it out. I can now tell the world since the kids know. The Long's are going to Disney World. Jeremy and I managed to get this tripped planned and even sneak in a few surprises. We are going to go in May. We have thought and thought about the best way to let the kids know. This is a hard delima. It costs a lot of money to go to Disney so it seemed like the build of excitement should be as great of a good percentage of the money spent. Logical in my adult brain. I decided a scavengers hunt was the best way to go. Create clues of various Disney items wrapped up in packages and let them figure it out as they went. I received Magical Express information, Disney Maps, luggage tags, books on Disney, airplane tips and so on. Best way to do this is via Luke reading the hint and Addie carrying it back to the living room to see their excited little faces. I pitched my plan to Jeremy and he was in for it. This was going to be amazing, a true hit. I could feel the joy under my skin.
Problem number 1. Time. Time seems to sneak away from me on the weekends. Sunday was no exception. By the time I got all this together the kids were cranky about not getting to go outside.
Problem number 2. Clues. It is hard to get the right clue on the right gift and figure out where to hide all the stuff without anyone finding it before you can begin.
So we finally get to start. We sit the kids down and let them know we are going to go on vacation, an early vacation before school it out. I forgot this would upset Lucas and he hates to miss school. I thought Addie would take it better but she was upset about not going to daycare. Strike 1.
Ok, so we are going. Do you want to know where? Yeah, yeah. (Great the excitement is building back up)


Jeremy explains the scavenger hunt idea and how it will work. Addie is immediately upset that she can't read the clues, because she can't read. Luke is upset he can't carry the package back. (Great, off to a fantastic start)



Jeremy decided to read the first clue. Luke is mad. They head off together to find it. It was in the washer by the way. Addie arrives in the living room 20 seconds later because Lucas touches it it was over, just over. She is on the floor crying. (Great, we did not make it even a minute. My personal joy of going on vacation with these happy children, undetectable)



After a recovery period we send them off for their second clue. Jeremy asks why we could not just say we are going to Disney. Done, over.

Calm and excitement are starting to kick in. They were starting to get into it. They had to go upstairs, they had to go downstairs.



We made the decision to get all the clues in the living room at once and then let them open them up. Addie was so excited when she figured out she was going to see Mickey and Cinderella. It was the gushy feeling I was after. Luke reminded us we had already been to Disney before.

It is not the reaction I thought we were going to get by any means. I guess that is how the best plans turn out. It taught me a lesson that we will take Disney a bit slower when we are at the parks that was the joy and pleasure of making it there can sink in every day.

Then the next vacation we take, we will just plurt it out or heck not even tell them until we are on the road!!

And they keep coming

The teeth keep coming out. Lucas lost his first front tooth this week. He was so excited!! The tooth fairy brought an amazing $3 for this tooth. I'm not sure what he was thinking. Lucas asked why the tooth fairy decided to bring all that money in quarters because fairies are so tiny and the quarters would weigh so much. Before I could say anything Jeremy piped in with he must be on a new work out program and wanted to get some extra exercises.
I am guessing it could be somewhat related to the fact an unnamed set of parents fell asleep watching television waiting for some child to fall asleep first. Once they woke up in a startle everything was done in a daze in order to get back to bed as soon as possible. That is just a guess though.

Here is Lucas being over joyed at the fact his tooth fell out!!

Winter Olympics

Do I like snow? No
Do I like the cold? No
Do I have a reputation for being a superior athlete? NO
Do I follow a ton of sports? No

Then why is it I am totally and completely addicted to watching the Olympics? I have DVR'd them I have ignored my children to watch the last stone being thrown in a tight curling match. I have watched commercials during live broadcasts of the luge and bobsled so I did not miss a single run.

I tell myself I should feel better about this because Jeremy is also sleep deprived from the Olympic coverage. The kids get a glazed over look on their face and cheer like crazed loonies when the US is in the running for a metal. We spend time looking up sports we know nothing about on the Internet so we can cheer and root on athletes with an understanding of why they wear skies longer then their height. We freak out when they almost forget to put on the goggles or don't have their coat zipped up all the way. That one right there, that causes yelling from Addie!! Lucas hates when the different countries wear similar colors and have to wear the Olympic bib and you can't really tell who is who.

Even as I try to type this I am watching large hill Nordic event and the US appears to have the energy to make a run for the gold. Don't even think about sleep folks. This could be a good ending! After this we have the final for freestyle skiing and I think I am going to have to set the DVR again because they moved the semifinals of women's curling to 3am. Who thought that was good programing? I know the US is not in it but the Canada women are impressive.

Just think 2 more years and I will be sleep deprived again watching the summer Olympics.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!! and my DVR

Gymnastics

Addie's gymnastics class has moved from Friday to Monday so it is harder for me to go watch every class but since Monday was President's Day Lucas and I were able to watch the entire time. Addie loves her gymnastics!!