Catch Up Post

This posting will be one of those "we have been doing a lot of activities lately, but none so exciting that require an entire blog post dedicated to them".  First is Olivia's school's spring music concert "A Bit Off Broadway".  Olivia is in the pink in the back left corner.  She was a lot of fun to watch during this concert as she is an extremely expressive girl and would take a flourishing bow after every single song.  More than a few parents stopped us after the show to comment on her flair!

The local zoo had an exotic animal day for Olivia's class.  She was brave enough to pet the cobra.

And our exotic animals - Enid (left) and Rogue (who is no longer a kitten but still the most curious cat I have ever owned - and I grew up with many many cats).  This is about how close they will get to each other and remain friendly.  Still fighting over dominance issues.

One of Ethan's preschool classmates had a circus birthday party and was nice enough to allow Olivia to attend, too.  This is a great shot of her hair in the potato sack race.  She has on butterfly princess facepaint.

Ethan (in the black/red shirt) with his vampire face paint (we still don't know why that was selected over a superhero) watching the clown's magic show.

And lastly, Ethan at his preschool's zoo field trip.  The peacocks at this zoo have always been generous with showing off their tail feathers.  It makes for the best pictures!

Ethan and Joe feeding the goats.

Ethan and his best school friend Michael watching the Bald Eagle.

We must always pose on this turtle (and the hippo by the playground).

And here is the adorable baby monkey at the zoo!  I have no idea why our zoo, who is in desperate need of more visitors, did not play this new addition up to the fullest!  I only read about it last month in the paper, but it was born late 2011.  It was adorable watching it run just so far away from its mother and then hugging her for dear life.  I think that a full ad campaign should have been done for this little guy!



Happy Easter

Happy Easter!  Our holiday consisted of the usual preparations...coloring eggs, egg hunts, and lots of candy.  Olivia and Ethan are starting to put some thought into coloring their eggs.  Not too long ago they would just put one egg into each color and call them done.  Either that or take one egg and repeatedly dunk it into various colors to make an appealing shade of gray.  Now both are using tape, glitter, wax crayons, and attempting to make stripes.

Olivia's bunny drawing.

We can only hope that Ethan will be an Illini one day!!

Ethan and Olivia's finished egg masterpieces.

Our church, St. John's Lutheran, held a fun Easter egg hunt and games for the kids.  Here is Olivia's age group taking off at the beginning of the hunt.

Ethan playing the Easter egg toss game.

Ethan's preschool held an Easter egg hunt after school.  He was very proud of his finds.

Ethan and some classmates opening the eggs to see what was inside.

We made Easter basket cupcakes - just need some licorice and jellybeans for the top (and green colored coconut for the grass, but we all hate coconut).

The cupcakes were tie dyed!  Pink, green, and yellow.  They were a HUGE hit with all of the kids.

The kids' finished cupcakes.

Easter morning and the bunny came!  Ethan didn't know where to begin...the candy, the chocolate bunny, the Trash Pack toys (his new favorite toy to collect).

And the bunny came for Olivia, too, and even left goodies from her favorite toy line - Monster High.

Olivia hoped and hoped that the Easter bunny would bring her the "Too Tall Chocolate Bunny".  Even though it was not my first choice to buy this waxy looking generic chocolate, she talked about it nonstop.  Olivia took this one huge bite, commented "this tastes very funny" and then threw it away.  Yep, we are a chocolate snob family and proud of it! 

The Easter Bunny knew that it was too cold outside for an early morning egg hunt, so the eggs were hidden in the basement to find.

Ethan and Olivia in their Easter outfits.  Guess why Olivia picked this dress?

We hosted Joe's extended family for Easter.  Here are the cousins starting their egg hunt.

After Olivia found all of the eggs in the playhouse, she took the slide down.

Hmmm, was it Joe or Troy who hid this egg just out of reach?  This had the three girls focused for several minutes on how to get it down, while Ethan ran around collecting all of the easy to reach eggs!

Ethan making sure that he has accounted for all of his candy.

Olivia enjoying her egg hunt finds.

A few of the cousins.