Ready for some sun!

... aren't we all?! Kaitlyn sporting her new Dora sunglasses.

Jesus is Alive!

Aren't those words wonderful? They bring me so much hope and so much comfort; especially after the terrible fire call that I went on on Saturday night. My heart is still hurting for the parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, neighbors, teachers, doctors - for everyone who knew the sweet little boy who's life came to a tragic end. I pray that His promise of eternal life brought his family hope and comfort this Easter Day.

Unfortunately, sweet Kaitlyn's nose decided to not just run, but "pour" on Sunday. She was good as gold though, and if you didn't see how red her nose was or how many times we wiped it, you wouldn't have known she was sick. When Kaitlyn woke up, she immediately wanted to go see if the Easter Bunny had eaten his carrots. She giggled to see some of them gone and some of them nibbled on .. (horrible combination - toothpaste and carrots - yuck! Next year that is Jeff's job! :) ).. And then she spotted her Easter basket and " ... lots of chocolate ... " as she descibed it. The hersey kisses inside the Dora Eggs were by far her favorite, followed by her new Baby Dora doll in a close second. The doll was a hit and entertained her for 75% of the church service so that was great. There was a live goat in church and that kept her entertained for the other 15% and then we got to all jump up and scream and celebrate Jesus - and that kept her entertained for the remainder. What a memorable Easter Sunday Service, that is for sure!

We managed to snap a few pictures of the family before church.

Our sweet princess sitting in the "hair curling chair" waiting for mommy to finish putting curls in her hair. She usually doesn't get paci during the day but she was so stuffy and sick in the morning that I let her have it.

Our family

Kaitlyn and Diego

After church we headed to Jeff's Grandma's house for Easter dinner. Grandma Jo had a neat craft for the kids to do and it turned out to be a tasty treat for dinner. They were called "Resurrection Rolls" and the kids dipped marshmallows in button and cinnamon and sugar and then we helped them seal them in a tomb (roll). Once the rolls were baked the kids peeked inside the "tomb" to find that Jesus (the marshmallow) was gone. Awesome idea, Grandma Jo!

Kaitlyn and her cousins had so much fun playing together on Sunday. Before dinner we played egg and spoon race and hot potato egg. After a delicious lunch, we hid some teddy bears and went on a few bear hunts, played race cars and did some puzzles. Sick as she was, Kaitlyn only ended up napping for about 15 minutes of the ride home and then she was ready to play some more. Thank you Lord for family and the beautiful sunshine; we had a very blessed and wonderful Easter!

Opening Easter goodies from Grandma Jo. All ready for the egg hunt. Playing some silly game that resulted in Diego getting a very scraped up nose! Silly kids!

Easter "Eve" Fun

On Saturday morning we headed out to a local Easter Egg Hunt. We thought it started at 10:30, but when we got there the sign said that it actually started at 11, so we went and played at a local park for a while to waste some time. Kaitlyn had fun playing on the "big kid" playground equipment, even though there were plenty of other things her size. After playing for about 20 minutes, we headed to the hunt. Shortly after 11, Kaitlyn and I lined up with the other kids "3 and under" and waited for the countdown. We even had a strategy ... sprint to the center of the field and start picking up eggs from the middle vs. stopping to pick up all of the ones close to the start. It worked. Kaitlyn had her pick of a bazillion eggs and as you can tell from the picture of her basket, she selectively picked only pink and purple eggs, although as the other kids were approaching us, I got her to grab whatever colors she could. Afterwards, we sat in the sunshine on the sidewalk and "squeezed and dumped" all of the candy into her basket. We returned the eggs and then hopped back in the car to meet Grandma and Grandpa for a "good-bye" lunch at McDonalds. We dined with my folks and my brother and his wife and chatted about the following day's Easter plans. My parents had the best plans of all - flying to Florida for a week - although it meant that we couldn't celebrate Easter with them. They brought along an Easter present for Kaitlyn - A Diego Bubble whistle and two Dora activity books - imagine that?!

After lunch we headed to another Easter Egg hunt. This one was right at the park so we played in the sand for a while and then swang while we waited for the staff to "hide" the eggs.

The Easter Bunny showed up about 20 minutes before the hunt was ready to start so that was quite entertaining. We literally had to pull Kaitlyn away from him; she just kept wanting to give him "high fives"! They got organized and pulled the Easter Bunny off to the side and formed a line for pictures. So we got in line to pass the time. As we were standing in line, Kaitlyn said the most innocent thing.

"Mommy ... that's not the Easter bunny. Thats a PERSON in there ... with a costume on. Because I saw the person's head in the bunny's chin."

Now what do you say to that? Coming from a 3 year old? She was so right ... It was like the costume was missing the slotted piece that goes inside the chin and also serves as a "lookout" for the person in the costume. Thinking quickly, we just affirmed that yes, this was just someone dressed up because the Easter Bunny was back at home getting everyone's Easter basket ready to deliver the next day! Leave it to our sharp little peanut!

We executed our strategy again for this second hunt and it worked like a charm. Instead of running directly into the center though, we rain straight for what looked like a golden egg. There was much more of a crowd at this hunt than the first and as the little kids and their parents started circling in on us, I picked Kaitlyn up and we got out of the way. We went straight for the van to get out of the upcoming traffic nightmare. As we were driving away, I opened the golden egg and inside was a slip of paper that said Grand Prize Winner! So Jeff quick stopped the van and I ran up to the treat table to claim our prize - A huge chocolate bunny and a Dora Easter book - how perfect. Kaitlyn was thrilled!

The rest of the day/evening was low key. We sat together and read the Easter story and did a craft with a tomb that Kaitlyn could roll away. She kept repeating a line from the story throughout the night , "They rolled away the tomb and Jesus was no where to be found." So cute.

Before bed we got a plate of carrots and Kaitlyn sat it by the door for the Easter bunny to snack on.

Spring Photo Shoot ...

Spring pictures of my little princess at almost 35 months ....

White Day

I could tell that Kaitlyn was coming down with something on Friday because she didn't want to get off the couch. We did a few of the activities that I had planned for "blanco" day right while she was sitting on the couch - we skipped most of the others. After lunch she did have a bit more energy so we had some fun with Humpty Dumpty. Kaitlyn read the Humpty Dumpty book to Diego and then we acted it out. She thought it was the most fun to blow Humpty Dumpty off the wall and then kick the wall over .... so that is what we did. Afterwards we made our own Humpty Dumpty craft using some real egg shells. And my Mommy intuition was right ... she now has a full blown head cold. Yuck!

Braids!

Kaitlyn's hair is finally thick enough to put it in some cute french braids. Her hair is super fine so it takes me a few attempts and they are far from perfect, but we now have another "hairdo" to add to the mix.

To the Rescue!

On the dress up hooks in our basement, buried beneath a dozen princess dresses and just as many crowns and bonnets, you will find a toddler sized fireman jacket and a plastic fire hat. Somedays our little peanut decides that she wants to dress up as a princess and have a tea party. But other days she decides that she wants to go on "a fire call" like Mommy and Daddy do. Last week Jeff and I were playing downstairs with Kaitlyn and she decided she wanted to do just that. Daddy helped her get all "geared" up while I staged some fire (felt cut out in the shape of flames) on top of her play house and pretend doctor's office. She put her fire house (paper towel role with blue crepe paper attached to the end) in the back of her fire engine (tractor) and headed to the fire. Then she scooted quickly across the floor and with a true sense of urgency, and a little bit of fun, put the fire out. It was adorable. Our little firefighter princess truly has melted her firefighting parents' hearts!