In Like A Lion, Out Like A Lamb

While we've had an exceptionally long winter and a very cool early spring, the temperature finally broke 50 degrees at the end of March.  That welcome weather allowed us to escape the confines of the indoors and play in the grass.

The girls were EXTREMELY happy to get some fresh air and the parents were equally as happy to let them burn off some of the energy reserves they've been building up over the last several months.  We took them for a walk, hit up the swings, and showed off at the slides. 

While they all liked being outside, Maddy seemed to enjoy it the most, or at least that's what her face was telling me.  Look for yourself.







Izzy was having an equally enjoyable afteroon.





Sophie and Maddy, exploring the patio furniture (crazy that they're big enough to climb up on the chairs)






Sophie's exploring her facial expressions




We definitely need a fence before this girl runs right out of the backyard


Maddy and her elf shoes




Sophie has quite the personality














Sophie, trying to keep Izzy locked inside






Sophie, mimicking her parents as she attempts to clean the patio furniture










Izzy, waving her finger and singing "No more monkeys jumping on the bed"




While not a regular in our blog posts, we couldn't make it through many of the days without Corrine.  Corrine has been helping us with the girls since late last summer.  She loves the girls and helps us keep our sanity :)

Happy Easter 2013

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Easter weekend.  We kicked off the weekend with a massive parent/child Easter egg hunt and wrapped it up with a big family dinner.  The girls are still a little too young to really get it, but they had fun just being outside.  It's all just training for next year.

We brought home most of Meg's mom dining room set and Meg was able to set up our table with the same china she grew up with at her house--a tradition that she wants to pass on to our girls.


Aunt Mary painstakingly took the time to create name tags for everyone.  The best part is that we can use them for every dinner we host.










Meg made Easter baskets (lower right) for each of her little cousins.


We held a staged egg hunt in our back yard, which allowed me to get some great shots of the girls.






Sophie and Maddy



Meg and Izzy


The "real" egg hunt was a completely different experience.  Tons of parents of 1-2 year olds, lined up along both foul lines of a baseball field, waiting for someone to blow the whistle.  I never would've imagined that a bunch of sub-two-year-olds could clear an entire field full of eggs in less than 90 seconds.  The truth?  They can't, but a bunch over-eager parents sure the heck can.  I have never seen so many adults going so absolutely crazy that they didn't even take the time to let their kids pick up their own eggs.  C'mon people.  Let your kids have some fun and learn to do it themselves.

In the end, we got a couple of eggs for each girl then hung around and waited for everyone to leave so the girls could run around the field without the risk of being scooped up by another parent and put into their kid's Easter basket.



Maddy and Izzy


Besides Izzy's slight meltdown (captured below), the girls had a ton of fun even though they all had a constant stream of snot running from their noses to their mouths.


Sophie, trying to catch up to Maddy to share her egg.







Maddy, running free and looking for any overlooked eggs


Sophie, opening up her first egg


Izzy, looking for someone to come wipe her nose.




Meg, Izzy, & Maddy


Maddy



Izzy




This little lady has been nothing but smiles lately.




After dinner, Meg decided to give Sophie some chocolate.  Dad was not consulted.  As you can see in the series of shots, below, chocolate can be directly connected with meltdowns in children (for what it's worth it can also be directly connected with some awesome memories and photos, too).






Sophie's reaction when mom tells her it's all gone




The other girls were being held by other relatives, but Sophie was fully committed to trying new foods.  Not only did she try chocolate, but also had her first whipped cream fight with Kelly (by the way, Kelly, thanks for being Sophie's whipped cream canvas).