What we've been doing this spring

Hanging in trees...

Picking up sticks...

Learning about the life cycle of dandelions...

Being stinking adorable...

And leading the church in worship at all 3 weekend assemblies. I am so proud of my boys!

A trip to see the trains at the botanical gardens

Easter Eggs Galore

We had a fun time celebrating Easter this year. I finally remembered to buy some Resurrection Eggs, so we used those to talk about Jesus in the days leading up the Easter. We opened the eggs and discussed the symbols included from the Bible story. The first egg contains a donkey. There are others with a crown of thorns, a leather whip, a die, a linen cloth, a stone, etc. The last egg is empty to represent the empty tomb of Jesus. The boys enjoyed opening the eggs and finding these symbols. Elliott recreated the story using some of the symbols from our eggs and his Batman figures. It was really neat to watch him act out the story with things he had on hand.

We also dyed eggs and decorated them. The boys always have a good time and it's always fun to see what color our fingers will be for the rest of the day.

The boys had several opportunities to hunt for candy-filled Easter eggs. The first was at the park for a family reunion. The day before Easter, we celebrated with Matt's family, and we had a big shindig at our house after church on Easter Sunday. In case you're counting, that's 3 egg hunts. That's a lot of candy for those boys! (I did re-hide most of the eggs for subsequent hunts.)

My Boys

Another Before and After

The pink bathroom is gone! No more pink walls, toilet, and tub! Here are the before and after pictures...

Soundbyte

"We don't eat glitter. Glitter is not food."

I'm Back!

It appears that my efforts to simplify my life have been met with resistance, so I'm back on the blog! My plan is to post a few favorite pictures from the month, and the rest of the album will be available on the Shutterfly site for those really committed fans AKA grandparents. So without further ado...

January was a nice, relaxing month after the hectic holidays. We took the boys to the circus and had a great time. We had several snow days. We also had an unseasonably warm weekend, so we went for a hike and then had lunch at Five Guys. It was my first time to eat there and I was not disappointed. If only they had a drive-thru!

Elliott lost his third tooth - one of his top teeth this time. He looks so cute and goofy with this big gap in his mouth.

Aaron is still amusing us with his made-up words. Instead of lollipop he says "popper." And one night at dinner we told the boys that drinking milk helps their bones to be strong. Now when Aaron finishes his milk, he puts his cup down and proudly declares “Now I have bones!”

Oh, and Commander Cody stopped by and gave us a big cheesy grin.