Easter 2013

 I had been looking forward to Easter for exactly 365 days - Last Easter was just horrible and I really wanted this year to be fun.   Luckily, the weather held up and we had sun and lots of Easter fun!!

Saturday, we did our traditional egg-dyeing and since it was nice out, we headed out to Omi and Poppy's picnic table by the spring and got ready.  

The boys had a blast coloring their eggs and they definitely had very different strategies.  Ryan made each of his eggs a different color and decorated them all differently.  He even requested that he sit separately so he could surprise us all at the end so he had his own area, his own dye and went to work

Ryan was the creator of my FAVORITE egg, the one he proudly said he made just for me. 

(My second favorite egg was made by Uncle Brian - he tried to make a Chewbacca egg since the kids are really into Star Wars now and his was definitely won the prize for most creative.)

Dylan had a very different strategy than Ryan - he wanted all of his eggs to be "Robin's eggs" and it took much convincing (and 6 eggs) to get Dylan to use a dye that wasn't blue.

In total, I think we decorated 2 or 3 dozen eggs and everyone got in on the action.

The next morning, the Easter Bunny had come and left baskets for the boys and took all of the eggs for hiding.   A few hours later, Jay and the boys went to the supermarket for Omi to get some stuff for dinner and while I was inside getting snacks together, would you believe that the Easter Bunny came back and hid all of the eggs in the yard?   The boys came running in to the house screaming "Quick quick we need our baskets - he was here!!!!"  So we all went outside, and I tried to get a good picture of the boys before they took off  but they were too excited to sit still:  "Hurry up Mommy, just take the picture"

Then it was time for "Ready, set, GO!!" and off they ran!

Eggs were everywhere!! There were the hard-boiled eggs and more than 100 plastic eggs filled with chocolate, jelly beans or candy.  The eggs were in places high and low, some easy to find and others hidden and once again, the boys had totally different strategies for collecting them.   Ryan's goal was to get as many eggs as possible, running as fast as he could all over the yard, even using shuffle-steps when eggs were near each other, all the while keeping one eye on Dylan and where the next egg was. 

Dylan quickly realized that he was not interested in the hard-boiled eggs, only in the ones with candy so he would shake each egg when he found it.   If it made no noise, he often put it back on the ground and kept going or he called over to me and said "here mommy, this one is for you" lol.   Each time he found a candy egg, he stopped and tried to eat all of the jelly beans.  After a short time, Dylan finally realized the difference by sight and when he saw the hard-boiled eggs, he stopped even picking them up and walked right by them pretending they were not even there lol

He only deviated from the strategy a few times when he saw a really hard to get egg and took those as a challenge.

 After the eggs were all found (I am pretty sure at least one is missing), Omi told each boy that she had a clue for them to a hidden Easter basket.  I helped Dylan and read him his clues and Ryan read all of his himself with only a little help from Omi.

 Once both baskets were found, the kids were happy to go inside and play with their new things while the rest of us got dinner ready, relaxed and just hung out.  I was so happy that the weekend turned out well and most importantly, I am glad that Jay, Ryan, Dylan and I were all together and got to celebrate as a family!!!

If I do have any blog readers out there, I hope that you guys had a Happy Easter - I know we sure did!

Spring Break - Part 1

Last week, Ryan was off from school for spring break and Jay and I were fortunate to be able to take the time off too.   By the time we got our acts together and started looking for flights (basically to anywhere with a beach) anything we found was a fortune so we decided to stay local and take a bunch of day trips.   We kicked the weekend off by taking the kids over to our our old high school with Omi and Poppy for an Easter Egg hunt.  When we got there, NOBODY was there but within minutes, hundreds of people were there and the kids had a blast.   I didn't get many pictures but it was a fun time!

  There aren't any pictures of Dylan from the hunt because he really only wanted to eat his candy.   During a break, Ryan opened an egg that had a crabby patty in it (ia crabby patty is a fruit snack shaped like a hamburger and is a SpiongeBob Squarepants treat).  Well, after that, Dylan went out to get eggs when it was his age groups time and opened each egg as he picked it up.   On the third egg, he held up his hands and yelled "YES!!!! Crabby Patty!" and walked right off the field, passing a whole pile of eggs along the way. 

Monday we went bowling and then Tuesday, we went to Six Flags Great Adventure for the day.   We have never been there other than during summer and it was great - it was not crowded at all and the kids got to go on a bunch of the rides multiple times without getting off.  First ride we went on were the parachutes:

There were a bunch of roller coasters that the kids couldn't go on and there were a few that Ryan was tall enough for but Dylan was not.   I thought that they would get really upset about it but neither kid complained about not being tall enough and both claimed that by the end of the summer, they would grow enough to go on more rides.  (Dylan is about 41 inches now and Ryan is about 46)  They did love running up to the height signs to see if they were tall enough.

One of the big favorites for the day was the ride Tango.  Both kids were tall enough to ride although I had to go with Dylan - they each went on it over 10 times.  

 

While we were on the ride, we realized that Rolling Thunder was right near by and Ryan was tall enough!! (Dylan wasn't) Because the lines were so short, Ryan got to go on with me while Jay and Dylan played at the arcade and then we swapped and I went on to tango another twenty times with Dylan while Jay and Ryan went back on Rolling Thunder.

On each side of the partk, there were little kids sections that were perfect for the boys, especially Dylan.  While Ryan went on another coaster with Jay, Dylan and I went to check out one of them.  Dylan looked at the rides and immediately turned to me and said "Let's go to the plane one and don't call me Dylan - I am Captain Jones now, you can be everyone else"   His Indiana Jones obsession continued while on the ride as he screamed at me "Marion, put your camera away and stop taking pictures.   This is the snake pit and you need to do something"

In one of the kids sections, there was a mini roller coaster - I had to ride with Dylan but Ryan jumped right in the front row and said "The front row is the best and I am totally going by myself"

Because this ride was not crowded either, each time we pulled in to the "station", the kids would scream "AGAIN AGAIN" to the ride attendant, who let the kids go again and again as they cheered. I am sure that the kids would have stayed on all day if I let them. 

Towards the end of the day, the kids asked if they could play a few games.  We let them each play a bowling game and they each won a hat, Ryan's was the Green Lantern and Dylan's was Batman.  Then Ryan BEGGED to "climb the ladder"

We explained over and over that it was really hard, that he would not be able to do it but he was SURE he could and begged us to trust him.  We finally gave in and of course he couldn't do it, but I know that he was so proud that he got to try.   I guess based on the game that Ryan picked, I should not have been surprised by Dylan's choice.

He could barely pick up the hammer but since every play guaranteed a winner, we let him try - why not when the prize would be the cape that complimented his hat?   and then of course we gave in and let Ryan try too.  Once everyone had their capes, we all decided it was time to head out.  After a little dance party at the entrance during which both boys displayed their fabulous moves, we left and both boys talked the whole way to the car about what they would/wouldn't ride again next time.  Everyone had a great day and the boys can't wait to go back! Who wants to join us next time?

 

stay tuned.. spring break part 2 to follow....

Circus Arts

When Ryan told us a few months ago that his class at school was taking "Circus Arts", I have to admit the first thing I thought was "What kind of school are we sending him to?"   After seeing his Circus performance today, I am so glad he had the chance to take such a fun class.   The show was adorable, hilarious and Ryan was wonderful!!

Ryan did not tell us anything about the show- how the class prepared for it or what exactly his role was so you can imagine our surprise when we sat in my seat and looked across the row and saw the CUTEST clown we have ever seen!

Ryan never told us that he had a costume (he said his costume was that he needed to wear a solid shirt) or that he was wearing makeup (which he reminded me multiple times tonight was not makeup, but was actually face paint). 

 All four 1st grade classes participated in the Circus and there were 14 different acts -  ribbon twirlers, feather balancers, platter spinners, hula hoopers and robots to name a few.

Finally, halfway through the show, it was Ryan's groups turn: The Strongest Clown and the Roustabouts

In the Routabout skit, the circus workers (roustabouts) are being disruptive to the strongest woman who is practicing weightlifting.   She would ask them "What are you doing?" to which they answered "We are hammering", "we are dancing" "we are pulling rope" or "We are shoveling elephant poo" lol.   The strong woman would say "You can't do that here" and the boys would answer "We can't do that here? Soooorrrryy" before they would dance off to Gangnam Style to a different spot. 

 It was so obvious that the kids were really enjoying themselves and it was definitely a great role for Ryan - the sillier you were, the better!

Ryan - you were the cutest clown and we are all so proud of you.  Your dance moves were fantastic and we loved that you smiled and looked so happy the whole time. When we left, I asked Dylan what he thought of the circus and he said "That was wonderful - I think Ryan was 100 thumbs up!!"

Daddy and I couldn't agree more - Great job Ryan!!  If you get to do a circus show again in second grade, I promise we will all be in the first row cheering for you.