Easter Weekend, 2012!

Lyla had been looking forward to Easter since her birthday. I suppose starting at around 3 1/2, Lyla became aware of the fact that each year is just packed month-to-month with holidays, birthdays and various celebrations. The minute one holiday/birthday finishes, she asks, "So what's next after this?" She draws attention to the fact that we spend way too much time preparing to celebrate, planning celebrations and then "celebrating." But that's a whole other blog, right?

Thursday was a big day at school for Lyla, because Mommy (the oh-so-wonderful "room mom") came to host a Spring/Easter party. The kiddos hunted eggs, then painted little flower pots and snacked on colorful, sugary egg-shaped cookies. While Ms. Mene read a story, each kiddo from Lyla's class came out with me to plant a little flower in their pot. They were super cute!

We dyed eggs on Friday afternoon at Gia's house. Flint even got to dye one quick egg before he disappeared into the Land of Nap. It was quickly dyed, then quickly smashed. He is quite fond of smashing things lately, it seems. The egg-dyeing was a quick process and seemed a little less thrilling than the new playhouse in the backyard. Soon, the distracted kiddos abandoned their eggs and fled to the great outdoors to play "house."

Later on, we practiced egg hunts inside at Grandma and Pap's. Lyla searched for eggs in the living room, then had just as much fun hiding them and making each one of us go on subsequent hunts, individually.

Saturday, just before Easter, Faryn had her 8th birthday party - a beauty-pageant-themed party, complete with an egg hunt because, well, Easter was the next day! The bigger kids were so mindful of little Lyla and made sure she got her share of eggs. So much so that most of them only had a handful and Lyla ended up sharing with them! It was really sweet! The kids ended the fun afternoon with limo (tractor) rides around the neighborhood, waving to their adoring fans (confused and jealous neighborhood children?).

Sunday morning, Lyla hopped right to searching the house high and low for her hidden Easter basket, and walked Flint around to help him find his. She had to do a bit of detective work and track a small pile of Easter grass toward a kitchen cabinet, where her basket was hidden. Flint's was a bit more obvious, hidden under then entryway table at the front of the house. They were both excited by their goodies, but more so the candy than the small toys or trinkets. Flint had what I believe to be his first taste of an actual piece of plain chocolate. Followed by another taste. And another...

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After breakfast and some family time, Luke headed out to Irving to visit with Great-Grandpa Brunt in the hospital, where he'd been recovering from some recent falls. The kids and I joined him a little later on, after nap time was over. But along the way we stopped at World Market to pick him a "cheering up" present or two, and a few more for Nonna, as well. For Great Grandpa, Lyla selected an old fashioned pop-gun and one of those strong guys - you know the little wooden statues where you push the bottom beneath the base and they collapse? It was pouring down rain, but we managed to sneak in and out of the store in between bouts of cats-and-dogs, and Lyla held tight to her precious gifts for her dear Great-Grandpa.

We made the visit brief, and the timing was just right, as Grandpa was starting to get tired. He seemed in good spirits, though, and it was really great seeing both of the Greats (and Nonna!). Lyla just loves them both. As does Flint, but he was definitely more interested in running laps around the hospital hallway... (which, if you haven't inferred, was the main reason we intended to keep the visit brief).

After we ducked out, we stopped over at Gia's for a family dinner with the Pearson and Davidson crews. And the rain cleared just long enough for us to have a soggy egg hunt outside. The kids were pretty hilarious, really. Lyla has honed her searching skills and is easily 100 times more aware of her surroundings than in years passed. And super sharp. And super excited. Seriously, people, egg hunts are AWESOME! And, remembering back to Lyla's first bipedal egg hunt, I had to do a lot of coaxing and helping, so naturally I was prepared to do much the same with Flint. However! The boy really didn't need much direction other than, "Look, an egg! Put it in there! ..." He caught on immediately and kept right on going. He has had the great advantage of a smarty-pants sister's example to follow from his Day One, though, so I guess it shouldn't surprise me. 

Dinner was delish, and we were all over-stuffed and quite exhausted by the end of the day.
Happy Easter, everyone! Happy Spring!

What Lyla Wants to Know

Why is some bird poop green and other bird poop is white?

Where do boogies come from?

What is Jesus made out of?

Who makes people?

Why did my fishy die?

What happens when you die?

Can I have some candy?

Why are there no blue lights? There are red, yellow and green. Where are the blue ones?

What is that animal called? The one that is stinky and has black and white?

How can trains stay on the train track?

Can I do PBSkids?

What color do you want to paint your bathroom?

I came out of your [va]gina, right? And Flint, too? That's very silly.

Is there poop in that diaper? Can I see it?

What do blue lights mean?

What is electricity?

Can I watch a movie?

What does "adorable" mean?

Can we make popcorn?

Why does Daddy eat meat? What is meat?

What is a church?

Mom, why are you showering? Are we going somewhere?

Will you help me get a dress down from in my closet?

What is next after Valentine's Day?

What is St. Patrick's Day? Is it for PapPap?

Why is there a beep (horn) on your driver (steering wheel)?

Can we go to Donut Dip? You know that new donut store? (Dunkin' Donuts)

How does a mosquito sing?

Do you want to play a game with me?

Why can't I live at Grandma's?

How does a puppy cry? How does a puppy laugh?

I have a brain in my head, right? And scarecrows can't talk, right?

Can you turn on the "Lyla baby song?"

What does "emergency" mean?

Can I play match-game on your phone? Can I make a video? Can I take a picture?

How can you make a dog like our dog talk?

Can you hear what my milk is saying?

What at the power lines for? You don't touch those, right?

Can we paint my toes?

"Adorable" means "really cute," right?

Will you snuggle me?

Can I stay home from school today?

Can we go to the zoo?

Is today a family day? Can I go to school?

Flint, can I have a turn? Can I have it? Flint! Give it to me? FLINT!

Can you call Mac and tell him to paint my ceiling? I wish my ceiling could be like my walls.

What is South America?

Are there poo-pandas at the zoo? ("Poo-panda" = "Kung-fu Panda" = all pandas)

Can we read Critter Books?

When I get big, can I marry Flint?

Why can't a girl and a girl or a boy and a boy get married?

Will you help me clean my room? I need helllllp.

Does that sound good?

Chickie-Chick-Chicks!

In late March, I did a Spring Mini Session Day in which I picked one location and stayed put all morning to photograph several different families. For this special day, I "rented" some baby chicks (yes, I know that's redundant) from the Keller Feed Store to act as adorable props and bring natural smiles to the kiddos' faces. The chicks didn't have to return to their homes (aka a warmer drawer) until 5:00pm, so naturally, I drove them all over Grapevine, Colleyville, Roanoke and Keller to visit just about every child I know. After they had their day in the sun (literally) I took them back to the store, probably both to their relief and disappointment (cause there aren't any bugs to find in the grass in the drawer!).

Lyla adored them, of course, and was a little sad to take them back. She was happy, though, to see where they came from and explore the feed store. They also had rabbits! (!) And guinea pigs. And had I waited a couple weeks to do the sessions, I could have also borrowed some fuzzy lil ducklings.

Flint was mostly indifferent. He was curious, but didn't care much play with them for more than a few seconds. Ya know... 17-month-old attention span...

Four Years!

On March 19th, Lyla Celeste turned 4! This year's birthday was a little different than her previous three. She was aware of it coming up (and asked about it every day for about two months), had her own theme picked out (cowgirl !! ) and understood that her birthday was a celebration of her birth day. We talked about when she was in Mommy's tummy and the day she decided to come out, and she is starting to remember her birthday is March 19th, which is on particular day in the month of March (although there is still plenty of confusion on the difference between months and holidays and seasons).

This year, we opted to celebrate at Rocky Top Ranch in Keller, where the kids could play on an old-school playground, feed farm animals and ride horses! I knew we'd have fun, but I had no idea it would be such a fantastic day! As always, Grandma helped party-plan, organize games, and fancy it up with cowgirl decor. Everything looked awesome!

Grandma's cake decorating skills, again. She makes the best cakes!

The party guests arrived and soon selected their western wear for the day.

 The kids played on the playground while taking turns on the two horses, Wildfire and Goldie (who was really a Pomeranian pony). I had requested a pony thinking that the little kiddos might be intimidated by the horses, however, that wasn't the case at all. I should have listened to the party director at the ranch! Only a couple of kids were too timid to ride, and the rest, especially Lyla, hopped right on and rode proud! At one point, the ranch hand commented on how comfortable Lyla looked on Wildfire, as she wasn't focused simply on riding; she was looking around and enjoying herself, reaching down to stroke her mane, and talking to her while she rode. She was so proud and happy!

 

 

 

Even Brother got to try it out!

 

Giving Wildfire a kiss on the nose. So sweet!

Other party activities included bobbing for apples (which was hilarious), and pin-dropping (which was mostly unsuccessful, apart from Isabella's hole-in-one), gift-opening, cake-eating, pinata breaking and more playing on the playground. What a wonderful day!

 Thanks, Grandma, for all your help planning and executing! Thanks Pap and Uncle John for helping with setup and keeping an eye on Flint so Mommy could enjoy the birthday girl!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY, LYLA!!!!!!!!!!!