Easter Weekend

Friday evening I took the kids to meet the Easter bunny at the mall.  My Mom met me there and helped me attempt a photo with the bunny.  We got all the way to the front and the bunny had to take a break.  Luckily he was only gone for 5 minutes and no one freaked out too much.  Claire was excited to sit on the bunny's lap.  Cate was cautious but went along with everything.  Matthew? Not so much.  He first decided to try and play in the mulch and trees that were part of the Easter display.  I put him back on the bench next to the bunny.  The photographer was trying to get everyone to smile.  I'm thinking: "Just take the photo, lady, it's not going to get much better than this".  Matthew hops down off the bench again, this time he's removing patio bricks from the display.  I again pick him up and place him on the bench next to the bunny.  It's not that he's afraid of the bunny, it's just that he's never able to get out of the stroller in a store or mall so when I do let him loose he just goes buck wild.  So the photo lady finally snaps a few photos, I pick one as I'm loading a (kicking a screaming) twin back into the stroller.  Everyone finally settles back down as I'm paying and we're out of there.  Whew.  Maybe this will be easier next year.  Here's the result :0

On Saturday we took the kids to an egg hunt at a park near our house.  They had a barnyard show before the hunt so the kids checked out some of the baby animals.  Claire really liked the baby cow.  Matthew was more interested in the pirate ship play structure that was near the egg hunt area.  Cate was happy to hang out in her carrier.  Finally, it was show time.  We lined up around the edges of the egg hunt area and waited, and waited and waited for the whistle to blow.  Clearly the people organizing this activity do not have children of their own or they would know to start on time.  We were entertained for a minute by an over-zealous 4 year old that ran out and started collecting eggs before the siren went off.  His dad chased after him scooped him up and accidentally knocked off one of his kid's shoes.  The dad set the kid down to get the shoe and the kid ran from him again.  They each fell down a few times and everyone watching received a bit of comic relief.  The siren finally blew and the egg hunt lasted approximately 3 point 4 seconds!  It was over so fast!  Jeremy ran after Matthew who picked up about 6 eggs.  They encountered a little boy that didn't get any so they gave him a few of Matthew's.  Claire and I stayed near the edge and picked up about 7 eggs that the other kids didn't want because they had stickers instead of candy in them.  Good thing Claire seems to like stickers more than she likes candy! 

 Daddy and the Twins heading for the Egg Hunt

 Baby Cate loves the camera

 Meeting the Easter bunny

 Claire loved the baby cow

 Checking out Farmer John's show

 Baby Cate wonders why she can't hunt eggs yet...

 Waiting for the madness to start!

 Claire looking for the best eggs

 Matthew got so excited he took a tumble trying to get his first egg.

 Daddy was a good basket holder for Matthew

 Claire adding to her egg collection

Egg hunting chaos!!!!

Later that afternoon our Multiples group held their annual party so we had more Easter egg fun!  By now the twins were really getting the hang of the egg hunting game and had figured out that the eggs hold candy and they would get a treat each time they found one.  Matthew kept bringing me his egg and saying "more chocolate???"  Claire found an egg that looked like a hippo and she loved it!  She lost it somewhere along the way and kept saying.  "I lost it! I lost it, hippo!"  (Luckily the Easter bunny brought her some new things the next day and she forgot about the hippo).  They enjoyed playing outside and checking out the bubble machine, too!  Although Matthew got a little carried away and almost knocked over the bubble machine.

 Claire has the egg hunting technique down!

 Matthew was trying to open each egg.

 Claire and her hippo!

 Matthew inspecting his treasures 

 Claire wanted to "ride on the dolphin"

The Easter bunny brought everyone a basket on Sunday.  The twins liked their new treasures.  Claire got a pink beanie baby Flamingo.  First she was calling it "Bingo" then "Mingo".  She wanted to show everyone her "Mingo"!  Matthew got a stuffed cow that he was making "Moo" everywhere.  They each got a new pair of sunglasses and some big kid underwear that we will hopefully put to good use at the end of the summer (I don't want to push that issue).  They also each got a set of plastic golf clubs with a little cart and golf balls.  They enjoyed carrying around their baskets and filling them with toys.  We went to meet my Mom and my Grandparents for church.  The kids were pretty good, but the church didn't have a cry room so I'm sure we annoyed everyone within a 10 foot radius of us.  After church we all went to breakfast and then headed back home.  Since the kids took a nap on the way home I decided to drop Jeremy off at home and head to the grocery store (not something I like to do on holidays but it's hard to grocery shop when I work full time and have 3 kids).  After the grocery store we played outside for the rest of the afternoon.  The kids enjoyed playing with their new golf clubs.  Jeremy decided to give them an egg hunt in the backyard that was a little less intense than the other few that we had been to.  They had fun picking up the eggs at their leisure!  Matthew kept bringing me each egg he found and saying "I need more chocolate.  Help you?"  Asking me to help him open the eggs and get the Reese's pieces inside.  We didn't get a ton of projects done around the house this weekend but the kids had fun and it was nice to just relax and do some fun activities.

 Even Cate got in on the golfing action!

 Claire playing in the rough (aka my pansies)

 Matthew is usually a blur in my photos because he doesn't stop moving!

 Matthew mastering putting the golf ball

 Easter egg hunt courtesy of Daddy

 More eggs!

 More chocolate?

Golf and Easter eggs, who could ask for more?



9 Months Old - Cate

Cate's 9 month old milestone was on 4/26/11.  It's been hard to keep up blogging with work and the kids so I'm doing some of this from memory and other things I jotted down.

Cate is a very happy baby!  The only time that's tough for her is bedtime, she doesn't like to be away from us so putting her in her crib at night has been tough.  She still gets up 1 to 2 times a night and needs to be soothed back to sleep.  She's such a cuddly baby and loves to be with Matthew & Claire. 

She's crawling now, so the twins are having to learn to share their things with her.  Most of the time they're happy to let her play with them and share their toys.  Now that the weather's warming up, we hope to get outside more with all the kids. 

Dr. Navai says Cate is doing great!  She's meeting all her milestones and has a great disposition.  She received 2 shots at her well baby visit and was quite a trooper about it!

At her 9 month well check up Cate weighed 19 lbs, 8 oz which is the 50th percentile and is 28 1/4" tall which is the 25~50th percentile for girls her age.  Cate has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth.  She  is a good eater, I've been making her baby food for the last couple months and she really enjoys all her fruits and veggies.  She's tried a few meats that she was just so-so on.  She likes picking up her puffs and cheerios while patiently waiting for her meal.  This month she tried eggs for the first time and they were a big hit!

Here are some 9 month photos of Cate!

This is how Cate likes to travel around the yard:

 Love this hat!

 Testing out Mama's photo props ;)

 Trying eggs.  Say cheese!

 At the Kensington Easter Egg Hunt

 Posing with M&C

 Sweet Baby Cate - she looks so good in hats ;)



Our First Easter Egg Hunt

This year is the first year we've attended an Easter Egg Hunt.  Last year (at a year + a few months) I thought they might get trampled and they really didn't understand the concept so we skipped it.  This year we attended one put on by The American House where my Grandparents live.  It was cold and rainy outside so they held the hunt in their dining room.  Matthew & Claire loved it!  I kept following Matthew because he was opening all the eggs he found and spilling the candy on to the ground.  I finally convinced him to keep looking for more eggs and put them in his bag.  He kept saying "There it is!!!" each time he found another egg.  My Gramma and some of the other ladies were helping Claire.  She was a professional egg-finder and loved putting the eggs in her bag.  My Mom held Cate, who was more than happy to just watch all the excitement.  Check out our photos below!  Next weekend I'd like to take them to "The Great Egg Hunt" at Kensington and to our Multiples' Group Easter party.  Stay tuned!

 Matthew searching for eggs in the plant

 Gramma helping Claire find more eggs

 Gramma and Cate watching all the action

 Claire hunting more eggs

 Claire had lots of helping finding eggs

 Matthew loved looking everywhere for more eggs

 Time out for a photo with the bunny

 Inspecting our treasures

 Claire with the bunny

 My best attempt at a group shot

Cate with the bunny, she wasn't so sure.