Happy Easter!

One of my kids' favorite holiday traditions comes in the form of a box from Grandpa Turkey Buzzard. The contents of the box are always sweet and wonderful, but the most important part is the packaging. You can tell from the pictures that the box is HUGE, and full to the brim with packing peanuts. All of the treats/activities need to be rescued from the packing peanuts, so it's always an adventure :) I was happy to share this adventure with friends this Easter, because the kids couldn't contain themselves when they got the box during a playdate. These friends started looking nicely at the box, but figured out the plan quickly when O just grabbed handfuls of peanuts and threw them behind her. Snow angels and dumping the box followed quickly, and we had to drag them away after a while, they would have played all day. I let the mess get crazy, and don't worry too much thanks to a shop vac, sweepable carpet, and the fact that a rogue packing peanut is the most tame thing I will find over the next 6 months when I move furniture to vacuum.

Only a few hours later, another UPS truck brought ANOTHER box from Grandma Mary and Grandpa Gary! (I'd like to note here that my mom takes no credit for anything in my dad's boxes :)) This time I made them wait until after dinner when Dad was home, but the box was just as fun to open! These cute bunny face ring pop things were the highlight, their little faces crack me up :)

We took some bubbles outside that evening, Kenzie was so cute about chasing them so slowly that she never had a chance :).

The bigger kids were much more frantic in their bubble-popping efforts

The next morning, Olivia helped Kenzie get 'breakfast'...when I turned around she had this in her mouth.

I don't know if it's hormones or what, but Baby and I couldn't resist the Kit Kats. I didn't share any with the kids, and I honestly can't remember if I even let Alex have any...

Just some cute pictures one morning before school...

When MacKenzie came over and Olivia discovered she could match almost perfectly, we had a quick outfit change before getting on our way to school. These girls are the cutest of friends :).

Easter Weekend started a little bit early for us on Friday because Alex had the day off work. It was also the day before Spring Break started, so we decided to check off a big item from our 'San Francisco Tourist' To Do List. We took the kids down to Pier 39 to explore and enjoy the double decker carousel.

The Pier wouldn't be complete without some sourdough from the Boudin store. The kids enjoyed these cute little animals, and I was happy to finish off all the bread they didn't finish!

The piano stairs! Every time we see these it just makes me want to get all my sisters and mom together for the craziest family performance ever. It would be such a fun time - and a crazy workout - to try to play our favorite family duets together.

The kids really liked looking at and hearing about Alcatraz. I don't know if they have ever heard about prison before, so it piqued their interest :).

We had to go back for another ride on the carousel of course!

One of the aspects of my dad's Easter box was a challenge to the grandkids to use the contents of the box to show him what movie they would like to see with him or for him to get them. My kids chose Aladdin, one of the few classics that we don't own. Eventually I will post the video that the kids made, but here are a couple pictures from that day. It was really funny to see the different personalities that emerged during the production of the video. I was all about simple, planning, and letting the kids do it all. I didn't want to be anywhere except behind the camera. Alex was all about the big picture, trying to make it like the trailer. He wanted it all. The kids mostly wanted the treats, but O was her usual loud helper to anyone who wasn't doing what she decided was 'right'. It was an adventure, but everything we do with 3 young kids is an adventure. It's what we signed up for, and the life that we love.

The next morning was egg decorating time! It's a big deal in my family, and I can't remember a time as a child that we dyed less than 8 dozen eggs. My mom's challenge was keeping it below 12 dozen :). I'm not nearly as artistic as some of my siblings, but we really enjoy passing this tradition on to our children. So far every year has had at least one kid in the ball-throwing phase, and this was no different. Kenzie tasted her egg first, then immediately threw it on the ground. I just gave it back to her with some crayons and called it good :).

O has really come into herself artistically this year, and was totally in her element with egg decorating.

As with everything he does right now, Carter's eggs had a lot of black and not much else. He says he only knows how to 'scribble scrabble', but we are working on his confidence :).

We saved the last dozen or so eggs for a new strategy...shaving cream dying! We were totally impressed with the process, but less than thrilled with the mess and the end result. We will try something else new next year. I think to make this work successfully you need about 20 pairs of gloves and a LOT of food coloring. Ours were pretty tame but they did have that swirl look, and the kids loved rolling the eggs through the dye.

Our colors were also a little weird this year. I must have messed up in the making of the dyes, because we ended up with 3 different blues :). At least our orange worked out!

After we finished dying eggs and hid most of the mess, we oranged it up and headed to the Cal v. OSU baseball game. The game was super hot and crazy busy (it was some version of Little League Day) but we had a great time. After the game they let the kids run the bases, which was a huge hit. Carter got distracted and winded by the end, it was hilarious watching how much O pulled ahead by the end.

After the game we stopped for ice cream and had our usual issues with ordering 2 ice cream cones, 2 ice cream cones with a small amount of ice cream, and 1 empty cone. I have made this order at McDonalds 6 or 7 times throughout the spring, and have paid different amounts and received different blank stares each time. We usually get it worked out, but this time was especially difficult. When we finally got back on the road Alex discovered this surprise in his cone...a paper baked into the actual cone! I wonder how these are made, and how this is possible, but it was a fun surprise.

Kids were almost as worn out as adults when we got home, and were anxious to leave the Easter Bunny some food and head to bed. Their tired eyes in this picture make them look so little!

The next day we woke up early and the Easter Bunny had come! We always let the youngest go first to see what has happened, and Kenzie very determinedly marched to the empty bowls that were waiting for eggs. She was happy to play with them, and had no idea that there was candy and treats on the couch and in all the eggs around the room. The E.B. still hides plastic eggs at our house, which I am very glad for. These eggs take such a beating that I'm terrified to try regular eggs eventually.

Carter was SO excited when he saw that the E.B. brought him new light-up Spiderman shoes...is there anything better?

Olivia, as usual, was all business as she quickly looked through her basket then moved on to finding every egg. She knows what needs to be done and does it quickly :).

Once we pulled Makenzie away from the empty bowls, she discovered my chocolate bunnies. The E.B. always brings me a few, as they are my favorite chocolate of all time. I'm sure you can buy Lindt Milk Chocolate all the time, but my delusion that it's only available in bunny shape during the month of March saves me a few thousand calories each month.

Later that morning Auntie Em came to hang out and cook for the day. I love living by family, especially around holidays. Em is so sweet to always come to us and endure our crazy while we try to chat and hang out and cook a fancy meal for kids who are going to eat the rolls and Jello and go back to throwing Easter Eggs at each other :).

We had one of those crazy meals, cozy around our little table, then hung out for a while before bedtime. Emily showed us all of her pictures from Costa Rica, which has officially joined my bucket list of places to see. The kids love to show off all their skills and the grown ups know that as soon as the kids are asleep we can play a game, so it was a great evening. Did I mention that Em made Strawberry Delight? I could live for weeks on that stuff...

Anyway, here are our bedtime adventures...Carter has these pajamas pants that are quite awkwardly shaped, so Alex found a new way to wear them :).

Not to be one-upped...

Wow...it was a busy weekend! Life feels crazy all the time, but doing a picture recap really shows that life IS crazy. I love my crazy family and all the fun that we get to have between tantrums (from mom and the kids).

This the beautiful mess of curl that we get to see every day. I feel like it's quite likely that she will lose these curls as she gets older, but I love every moment of baby hair that we get...so beautiful!

Just some fun outside play pictures from the last week in March.

And this happened ... I have been having a much different pregnancy this time, which has included a lot of new and not-so fun symptoms. This particular morning I couldn't stop passing out every time I stood up. I went in to get things checked out and found out that baby is growing well and just fine in there. He is apparently resting on a vein or causing some disruption in blood that makes it hard for my brain to get the blood it needs. A few hours in Labor and Delivery at the hospital and very little information later, I went home. Basically I was told that it's not hurting the baby, so everything is fine. I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to do life this way, but that seems less important :).

And this is how March ended...with a reminder that these special times are short-lived, and the long days are worth it for moments like this.