EASTER MORNING

Late at night on the eve of Easter, as I got ready for bed and checked on my babies, I found them holding hands in their sleep.

Melt. My. Heart.

Easter morning brought confusion for those babies. Long ago, our associate pastor at Community Presbyterian in Atlantic Beach told me of her Easter tradition - hiding each child's Easter basket with a string tied to the handle, which is then zig-zagged around the house for the child to follow in the morning to find their hidden treats. I stowed that idea in the back of my mind and decided this would be a good year to give it a try. Cora had no idea why I handed her a string. And James simply started reeling it in...

Eventually they got the hang of it though, and collected their little piles of yarn as they went through GG's house.

Jackpot!

What was in the baskets this year? More candy than I care to admit, some Pirate's Booty, a puzzle, and four types of bubbles. Hey, our kids love bubbles.

And suckers...

And candy in general, apparently....

After enough candy consumption to constitute breakfast, us adults decided to make pancakes and sausage anyway, so I set the kids up making colored volcanoes at GG's table. This was the first time Cora was allowed to participate. She did great as far as not trying to eat the baking soda or vinegar, and she didn't spill her cups, but she had a hard time using the dropper properly. I ended up helping her quite a bit (filling it so she could then make the volcanoes herself). James loved this activity, as always, and ended up filling his ENTIRE cookie sheet with colors.

Just like they do at home, the kids spent a good portion of their time at GG's racing cars up and down the hallway. This is some hallway though! The family photos go from end to end and all the way up to the ceiling. James loved asking us who all the "people" were.

After a quick change out of syrup-laden clothes, we took the kids outside to play with their bubbles while Gramma hid some Easter eggs for them. The bubble guns were a HUGE hit!

(We're looking forward to doing the glow in the dark bubbles next weekend when the kids are a little calmer and have more down-time)

Cora did GREAT hunting for eggs! She found more than James on her own and went running wild into the open grass to grab as many as she could before he caught on (while he was searching the hedges). Of course, they both took multiple breaks from the hunt in order to consume more candy. And we totally let them. Hey, there are only a few days each year where kids get to splurge on candy: Halloween, Christmas morning, Valentine's Day, and Easter. We remember the joy of being able to eat whatever we wanted on those days and enjoy our spoils, so even though our kids are still little, we decided to just let them have at it. (And once the day was done, we loaded everything into a gallon size Ziploc bag to take to work, to spread the calories around.)

(He shook that little tree to get the egg down - so cute!)

(Sorry Jay, but she cracked me up feeding you those Jelly Bellies. Just like parents for some reason open their mouths wide while spoon feeding their babies, Cora was showing Jay how to do it!)

(James, on the other hand, was too busy POURING the Jelly Bellies into his mouth to share with Daddy.)

Easter Day festivities to be continued in another blog post...

AN EVEN BUSIER DAY

Saturday started off quiet enough, with some pretend boating in the backyard.

Then we went over to cousin Whitney's hair salon for a touch-up for James and a haircut for me!

Then it was back to Cheehaw, where James braved the BMX dirt track with his balance bike.

(It was super cool, but the fun didn't last long. James thought that "The hills are TOO big!", so he walked off the course about halfway through, while Daddy carried the bike back.)

There was just enough energy left in Cora for a picnic and another trip through the playground...

...before she passed out in the Beco. I LOVE that my kids still like to be carried - nothing feels better than having your babies close to your heart!

Cora napped for an hour while we waited for the rest of the gang to show up, and James and his Daddy sat with the conductor, which James thought was too cool! Then we rode the train, of course.

(James nearly fell asleep on the train. Another minute and he'd have been a goner, but the whistle blew as we headed back into the station and he was ready to explore the zoo!

We were quite the motley crew. I've never been to the zoo with such a large group of people before. Not counting daycare field trips, of course. And to think, it was all family. I think there were 21 of us there!

Cora thought the alligators were interesting, and she wasn't the least bit scared. I was though. I swear that platform didn't seem nearly high enough, especially with a group of big grumpy gators hanging out below!

We took an awesome family photo on the gator pier, but I'll have to grab that from Whitney when she posts it. She was head photographer on zoo day. I'm betting she got lots of cute shots of her adorable second cousins too!

And wouldn't you know it, Mister Non-napper made it all the way back to the car, then fell asleep in Daddy's arms in the parking lot...

LIKE GRAMMA

I don't know if I believe it, but people are always telling me that Cora is my mini me. Maybe.

But James confuses them. Is he a mix between Jay and I? Or does he look like someone else? Now and then, we see his Uncle Jamie in him. And sometimes his Uncle Davey too. But folks who follow the blog and see pictures of Jean posted here undoubtedly tell me that James looks like his Gramma. What do y'all think? I'm on board with the comparison.

(Don't mind his squinty-eyed cheezer smile. He was being difficult. As only a 3-year-old can be...)

VISITING GG AND CHEEHAW

We started our day at the rehab facility visiting GG. The kids were pretty well behaved. Luckily, they had Gramma and her books, an old clock, painted toenails, some of GG's chocolates, GG herself, the many armchairs, and an extra wheelchair to play with...

(Cora took the reigns when we took GG for a stroll)

After a couple hours keeping GG and the other folks at the facility entertained, we took the kids over to Cheehaw to burn off their pent-up energy. Such a cool playground!

(Cora got annoyed with my picture taking on this trip and multiple times I caught her mid-sentence telling me "No pictures. No mama. No!")

(If I haven't mentioned it here yet, baby doll can swing on a big kid swing all by herself. I think it started about a month ago, but I don't remember exactly.)

After the park, we retreated to GG's house to meet up with all the Kirkpatricks (except Aunt Sara) and Uncle Gerald for a good Southern BBQ dinner.

Bedtime antics included some downward dog posing and acrobatics by Cora...

A LITTLE BIT TALLER

Cora has outgrown the first skirt I ever made her. Sad, but I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. Teeny little thing barely covers her diaper now... So, since I have a TON of cute fabric just waiting for projects, I decided a few Simple Skirts were in order. Especially now that our spring weather has ended and summer is blowing in. This particular fabric is the same one that I used to make a skirt for Addy way back when. I love the tiny little peace signs, and there are so many colors in it that shirt combos are endless. Bonus! This time I traded out the ribbon trim for double-fold bias tape (1/2"). We'll see how it washes, but the weight of the border definitely helped the skirt to maintain it's shape and hang straight. Another bonus!

LAST SWIM LESSON

The kids had their last swim lesson today. The last official class is on Thursday, but we'll miss it due to Easter weekend travel. We consider the past 2.5 weeks a success and we had a lot of fun. So we're kinda bummed we're missing the last class, but it's ok. We have some time each week to take the kids swimming, so we'll just do our best to keep them in the water regularly, to keep them comfortable with it all, and to hopefully progress. This series of lessons weren't so much to teach the kids to swim or float solo, but they both learned about pool safety (no running, no jumping without mama/daddy ready to catch you), they aren't the least bit afraid of the water (well, maybe James is still cautious, but we consider that a good thing), and they are BOTH finally willing and able to float in a star position on their backs with mama/daddy supporting their heads (the trick to get Cora to do it today was placing a rubber ducky on her belly to balance). We're proud of them for being good sports, trying their best (most of the time, anyway), and pushing through even when they were cold from the chilly water (those after lesson showers became a treat).

Good job guys!

"BOOYA! BACKFIRE!"

A lovely spring afternoon deserves a dip in the pool.

And some earthworm gazing...
Then James decided it would be fun to dump water on Daddy's head. While Daddy was trying to clear out some of the massive leaf piles around the yard. And Cora got in on the action too...But it wasn't long before Daddy retaliated...
As James would say, "Booya! Backfire!"

(And as you can see from the above photo, he didn't mind the payback!)