Happy Easter!

We are still recovering!! This year, we hosted Easter lunch at our home and my parents joined us, as well as our good friends the Craigs. After church, we prepared a ham and all the fixings, and the kids had an egg hunt in our backyard. We ended the day watching the Master's...it was a great day!

Dying eggs with Grammy...she loved it. I just got the VERY basic set (and that was hard to find with all the tye-died, marble patterned egg kits). She most enjoyed putting stickers on the eggs.

Katelyn's Easter basket was filled with cheapie toys and snacks. She's not a big sweets fan, so there were crackers and chips and skittles, then bubbles, drawing pads, stickers, jumprope, etc. Brady got baby food, puffs, and a book.

K going through her Easter basket on Sunday morning (I really didn't want her wearing her Christmas pajama's...but that's life with a 4 yr. old).

Egg hunt in our HUGE (ha, ha) backyard with DJ and Daniel.

All eggs are found!

Eating ham and mac and cheese at the kids' table.

Brady slept through most of Easter, but he got to have his favorite sweet potatoes for dinner...mmmmm....

It's a Princess Tea Party

Katelyn was invited to a Princess Tea Party at Trish's Tea in downtown Baldwin Park (a VERY nice area of Orlando, near downtown) to celebrate her friend Kayla's birthday. All the girls were asked to dress as princesses, so we dug up her Cinderella Halloween costume out of her dress-up box.


Dressed up and ready for the birthday party!


The table was set up for each girl in a private room, connected to the main tea room.

Here's K's table setting...a peanut butter sandwich, cut into the shape of a flower, a freshly baked choc. chip cookie, a bowl of goldfish crackers, and Princess fruit snacks.

And K was the only one to finish it ALL!!

And she drank sooooo much tea (a decaf fruit tea that looked and tasted like punch)...I thought she would float home.

Each guest received their own crown and wand.

Mmmm....cake time!

This was the cutest girlie-girl party!! I worried about her behavior, knowing how active she is and the weekend before Bryan took her to an slip and slide birthday party where she hung out in the pool and slip and slide for hours. All the girls were excellent. Kayla's mom was so prepared..she read them a princess story, had them play a few games at the table, and had them learn princess manners (napkins in the lap, sitting back in their chairs, etc.).

Katelyn-isms

We tried braids in K's hair and they looked adorable!!


Katelyn calls her braids, "her brains", so she asks for me to "put her brains in" most mornings!

-Katelyn loves pizza, but only cheese pizza. If she sees pepperoni, she calls them "spiceys". Now I find myself calling pepperoni "spiceys" as well.

-Today it was starting to rain while we were driving home and she told me to put my "swipers" (wipers) on....too much Dora for Katelyn (Swiper is the cheeky fox who takes things
from Dora).

-She told Bryan: "Mickey Mouse really misses me...we have to go to Disneyworld!" (uhh...nice try!).

Oh, life with a four year old!

Easter Egg Hunt

On Sunday, April 5th (Palm Sunday), we partcipated in an Easter Egg Hunt, hosted by our church. This is quite an event!! My best guess is there was 1,000 people there (although I've heard it was closer to 900...but you get the picture). Bryan stayed home with a napping Brady and I took K. With all the people there, the parking was hard to find, so we had to park pretty far from the park. As we were walking towards the park, I heard an announcement and saw some kids running to get eggs. We ran to the park, but luckily, it was only for the 1-2yr. olds. Katelyn's age group was next, so we got ready. She ran so fast into the field, I could barely keep up, passing lots of eggs along the way. She got a few, then at the end, she bumped heads hard with another kid as they reached for the same egg and she stood crying in the field, all the eggs being taken around her. After consoling her, we hit the row of bounce houses, then she played some games with her buddy DJ and ended the egg hunt with getting her face painted.

And she's off...Katelyn takes off for the egg hunt!

Katelyn and DJ enjoyed playing this ring-toss game and getting candy for each try.

K's Sunday School teacher paints her face with an Easter egg of her choice...

And surprise...she selected yellow!

Moments and Sayings I don't want to forget...

Katelyn:

"God told me I need to be a ballerina"--telling this to Bryan and I before church on Sunday.

"God will never let me fall...like He'll catch me if I fall off the monkey bars"--so literal! We tried to explain this so if she did fall and hit the ground she wouldn't distrust God.

"Good girls get to do fun things, like eat ham"...I didn't know eating ham was fun!

When we drop her off at school, she always calls out "goodbye my cheeky monkey" to Brady.

Brady:

Started crawling/scooting last week by laying on his belly, tucking his knees underneath and lunging forward, falling back on his belly. Very slow still, but if he's motivated, he will move!

He is starting to really notice Bacino and always wants to pet her.

He gives sweet kissing noises and babbles "da-da."

Brady is all about banging hard on things, trying to rip paper...mr. rough and tough!

Hunting for Easter Eggs

The finished product!


Katelyn's Sunday School teacher Olivia paints an Easter egg on her cheek. K asked for a yellow egg.



Katelyn and DJ playing a ring-toss game.

And she's off...running to get eggs.

Every spring, our church hosts an Easter Egg Hunt at a local park for the community. You wouldn't believe how many families come out for this egg hunt...my best guess is 1,000 people. There were over 6,000 eggs for the taking. Free bounce houses, games, face-painting...plus free bottled water and popsicles (and we needed it...it was 88 degrees!). Bryan stayed home with a napping Brady while I took K to the egg hunt. Basket in hand, she seemed ready to gather eggs, but instead got so distracted with all there was to do there. I tried to keep her focused, and when her age group was called to the soccer field, she just ran, passing up many eggs. When she reached down to gather some eggs, she bumped heads with someone and stood crying while the eggs were scooped up by everyone else. Not off to a good start...but she really didn't care about getting candy and had a blast in the bounce houses with DJ and playing games with him, then we ended the trip with getting her face painted. It ended up being so much fun! And so nice to have girl time together :-)

For your listening pleasure...

My new friend Kelly is a blogging-whiz and she has a playlist at the bottom of her blog that I love to listen to while I'm reading her updates. I finally had a chance to sit down and figure out how to add a playlist to this blog. I hope you enjoy it! If you scroll down to the very bottom, it lists the songs on the playlist and you can skip around, pick the songs you want to listen to. I selected songs that remind me of Katelyn and Brady (since the blog is 99% about them).

Spring Break Adventures

Katelyn had the week off of school, so we made the most of our week and we were so busy. At first I was not too happy about the break...a whole week with no break, no school for K...but it ended up being a great week. I really enjoyed our time together and realized these days are limited now with real school only 2 yrs. away.

We started the week with a playdate at a new park/playground near our house and met Jeanne, DJ, and Daniel there. Katelyn played HARD and had a blast, while Brady enjoyed his first ride int the baby swing...he LOVED it!! Even better when he leaned forward and tried to eat the edge of the swing (gross!).

Katelyn and DJ ready to play...

Brady enjoying the baby swing at the park!

Hanging out in the baby swing and getting a push from his big sis...

On Tuesday, we were able to meet up with my dear friend Beth from high school, in town on a MUCH needed break with her sweet husband Tom and 6 yr. old son Timmy. Only 3 weeks earlier, their daughter Abby passed away. I couldn't wait to see her and give her a hug in person...what a devastating time for them. This vacation seemed to come at a good time and they seemed to enjoy their Orlando get away. Katelyn and Timmy got along so well!! They are like long lost buddies and enjoyed cruising in a double stroller that Tom pushed around the park and he bought her a shamu stuffed animal that she loves and still sleeps with every night. It was so good to be with Beth, talk to her, and spend time with her. I wish they lived closer!!

Katelyn and Timmy posing with Shamu at the entrance of Sea World.



Cruising in a double stroller...thank you Tom!

Katelyn and Brady watching Shamu underwater....amazing how huge he is!!

Katelyn shows Timmy how to pet the stingrays.

Then Wed. am, we packed up the car and I drove the kids to Tampa to spend a few days with my parents. Katelyn asked to go to the beach on her vacation, so SHE called my parents and suggested a visit. It was a busy visit...playground with papa, then we all visited my grandma in her alzheimer's unit and brought her some ice cream as a treat, then home for a swim in the pool and dinner with my sister Michelle. On Thurs, dad took K out to dunkin' donuts (their hangout), then back to the playground. Mom and I took her and Brady to the beach, but the trip was a bust. The high winds at the beach did not go over well. Brady was intent on getting in the sand and shoving it into his mouth. It took all of our energy to keep him occupied and away from the sand. He did end up getting some on his hands, rubbed his eye...you see where this is going. Katelyn could've stayed there all day (even after being stung by a jellyfish? right away...her leg had a red slash and she cried about the sting, but then she was fine and was busy playing in the sand). We only lasted about a 1/2 hr. before going back to swim in the pool.

I tried to catch them having a sweet moment, watching Olivia together side by side...

Playing candyland with Papa...

Katelyn playing doctor with some stuffed animals by examining them with a flashlight, then with a magnifying glass, and measured with this measuring stick. Interesting exam!!

One of the few smiles from Brady from the week...he's been a cranky boy and starting to deal with separation anxiety.