Ahoy there, Mateys!

Emily had a very big idea today. She decided that we needed to build a pirate ship! At first, we tried to convince her that her club house on top of her swing set would be a perfect place to play pirates. However, she wanted to have a ship to sail around on! Sooooo...we got creative and this is the finished result!

The kids were so excited and tomorrow, we'll be making a proper flag for our ship.

Today was also a windy day! Granted, living in Nebraska, we get quite a few of these, so it wasn't anything new. However, what was new was the kids' new kites that Grandma Karen gave to them for Easter. The kites flew pretty well and Christian was just giggling with delight! Thanks, Grandma!

It's All About Family!

Christian is cute. Period. Lately, he's been very into "naming" various characters after members of our family. Everything is either "Mommy/Baby", "Daddy/Baby" or "Emmy and Tee-Tee" (his way of saying Christian).

Example #1: First thing in the morning, we hear him yelling out "Da-Da!" and "Bee-Bee!" (Baby) at the top of his lungs. When we go in there, he's got his Fred and Ted book (by PD Eastman) and is pointing at Fred, who is big. Fred, apparently, is Da-Da. Then, Ted, who is little, is the Bee-Bee. So funny.

Example #2: Snakes, sharks, and trucks. Christian loves for me to draw pictures of Mommy snakes and Baby snakes; Mommy sharks and Baby sharks; Mommy (or Daddy) trucks and Baby trucks. It's totally darling (of course it is, he loves the Mommy snake and I'm the Mommy snake!). Emily also drew him a picture of a big-sister Loch Ness Monster and a little-brother Loch Ness Monster. It now hangs on his bedroom door.

Example #3: Zurg! Christian has two action figures of Zurg (from Toy Story). One is big, hence, the Mommy Zurg. The other, (have you figured it out yet?) is little and is the Baby Zurg.

I just love how he, naturally, will associate anything and everything to his family. It's all he knows and it is just so cute! Period.

Happy Easter!

Today is Easter (or, as Christian thinks of it "Eats-er" because of all of the chocolate he got to eat!) The kids enjoyed their little toys in their Easter baskets and the both liked hunting for eggs. Although, we had to keep reminding them to keep looking for eggs once they found out that the eggs opened and were full of candy. Emily, who doesn't like candy, just liked opening them and then giving the candy to Christian, who, obviously, loved it.

Look at all of my eggs!

Check out that scowl! Yikes! No one better touch his candy!

Then, it was off to church. While we were there, Emily proudly asked Kyle if he knew why we celebrated Easter. She then proceeded to tell him that we celebrated Jesus's "res-ur-rection." (Big word for a little girl!) So, despite the eggs and Bunny, she still remembered what the true meaning of Easter is. Sucha' good girl.
This evening we all drove out to my Grandma's house for a delicious Easter dinner. Our camera's battery went dead, so, no pictures of dinner. However, the kids love going out to Great-Grandma's and we all had a wonderful time. Thanks, Grandma!

Happy Easter to all! (And look, we even managed to take a decent family picture--only one of the kids is scowling!)

Mud Pies Program

This morning I took the kids to a fun little program called the "Mud Pies Program" over at the Fontenelle Forest. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised! The program is for children 5 and under (but since it's Spring Break, I'm pretty sure I saw a few older kids there too). It runs every Monday and Tuesday during the school year from 9:30-11:30 a.m. You can come whenever you want though and leave whenever you need to as well. If you're a member of the Fontenelle Forest, it's $2/child. If you're not a member (as we are not), it's $3/child. Not too bad.

The program is in their downstairs area (which is where Emily loves to go anyway b/c of the dress up stuff). They have their little nature/exploratory area downstairs and they opened up another room that was set up like a preschool room with different stations and project areas. They even had a carpeted area with toys and sensory things for babies-about 18 mo. Oh, and I was impressed that at the "painting station" (easel and all) they even had clean paint shirts for the kids to wear over their clothes. SOOOO organized--two thumbs up from me!

We kept busy for an hour and a half moving between the two rooms. We dressed up like turtles and butterflies, played with play-doh, painted, looked at the bunny, turtles, and snake, and made a couple of cute little crafts. I did not take my camera along (I wanted to just be there to play and not worry about capturing every moment on film), but I did take pictures of the kids' bird's nest craft when we got home. They were both so proud of them and we had a lot of fun putting them together!

In any case, this will definitely be something to remember for this fall when Emily is in preschool every morning and Christian and I need some fun little outing every couple of weeks.

A Weekend of Contrasts

This past weekend was...well, interesting. Despite all of my wishing, the weather took a turn for the worse and both Saturday and Sunday were cold, rainy and yes, even snowy! Even with the rain and crazy wind, Saturday was pretty darn fun.

It was fun for me because on Saturday afternoon, I got to go out with some friends and eat some yummy sushi and enjoy some wonderful company!! Because I'd been nursing for so long, I hadn't been able to attend one of these "Girls Night Out" (well, Saturday afternoon out this time) activities for a while. It was really great...and I think we all ate waaaayyy too much!

Saturday was fun for Emily because she got to spend the afternoon playing over at Grandma Karen's (while Cubby and Christian got to take loooong afternoon naps...which was why Saturday was great for them!). They made an Easter craft and got in some major playing. Thanks, Mom! Emily was smiling the rest of the day. So, those were just a couple of things that made Saturday a sunny day, despite the contrasting weather outside!

Turns out, it was a good thing that we all had something positive to reflect on. Come Sunday, the snow and sickness came raging through. Cubby was so sick--both his stomach and colon were empty in a matter of hours. He couldn't even keep down ice chips. Poor guy! Christian had the runs (sorry if this is too yucky to post) and eventually, Emily started telling me that her tummy hurt too--just before running into the bathroom and throwing up. I was a busy (but, thankfully, healthy) mommy--my cold had just cleared up Saturday! Thankfully, this bug was a very short-lived one. Cubby started feeling remarkably better by about 6:30 Sunday evening and Christian and Emily both are poo and puke free today! Hurray!

Funny enough though, in the midst of all of Sunday's chaos, I decided that we should dye Easter eggs. Hmpf. Granted, I started the egg process before everyone got really sick, but still, it was more work than I really needed that day. However, the kids LOVED it and the dozen eggs I hard-boiled went way too quickly. They really wanted to do more! Maybe next year. They did a great job though and the eggs are very pretty!

Have You Been Here Yet?

This is the new park /playground that the city put up at some point this summer. For those of you who live in-town, it is located just off of Lincoln Street in the Halleck Park area, across from Papio Fun Park. It is massive and the kids were so excited about it that we went twice today. The first time was this afternoon and then we just had to show Daddy the cool new park after dinner. It's perfect for ages 4 and up, but there are some things for the little guys too. However, if you do go there with adventurous soon-to-be two year olds, be prepared to be climbing up the three stories and going down the big and fast slides with them. Fun stuff!

April Fools, Emily-style

So, here are the jokes that Emily played on Cubby and I today:

First, Cubby's:

Emily: Daddy, guess what?

Cubby: What, Emily?

Emily: I ate some Cheerios today!

Cubby: What?! You ate Cheerios?

Emily: April Fools!

Then, mine:

See this?

This is what I saw down the hall by Emily's room. It's only plastic, but from a distance, it looks pretty real...and pretty huge. She had put it there and then told me that there was a huge spider that I needed to get. Good stuff, tapping into one of Mommy's biggest fears!