Easter 2013

We had an early Easter this year.  It's rough to have your first "spring" Holiday when there's still a nip in the air and a threat of snow in the forecast, and those cute little Easter dresses always seem to have to get covered up with a sweater.  Portraits must be taken in front of what seems to be everlasting winter trees with no signs of spring bursting from their branches.  We made the most of this early Easter, though, and the girls didn't care one little bit that it wasn't warm enough to wear their dresses without the sweaters or have their picture taken in front of barren landscape.  They were happy for Holiday, and happy to be spending it with Meme and Papa!

We arrived at Meme and Papa's house on Friday afternoon.  All the girls (Meme, Jocelyn, Reagan & Mommy made miniature Easter cakes.  These cakes happen to be one of my FAVORITE Easter treats of all time.  It was so fun to make them with my little girls.  Even if we did screw up the cake batter and ended up having to make double the recipe we wanted to make. 

 On Saturday, we went to an Easter event at a park nearby my parents house.  The girls got to hunt in an Easter egg hunt with 150,000 eggs!  They were allowed to pick p as many eggs as they could handle!  It was a really fun event for everyone!

 Saturday evening, we went out to dinner at a restaurant owned by Michael Symon, called the B Spot.  It was a yummy dinner with some pretty decent gourmet burgers!  Afterward we went to Menchies and that was equally as cool, as the girls got to build their very own frozen yogurt sundae.  YUMMO!  We got home and continued in the fun of Easter by dyeing some Easter eggs!

 That night before bed, the girls left their baskets out for the Easter Bunny with some plastic eggs to hide.  They also left the Bunny a thank you note and a plate of carrots.  They thought he may enjoy a little snack while delivering the baskets to all the children.  They are too sweet!

 The next morning the girls were all set to find the eggs and their baskets.

 Jocelyn found Reagan's basket first, and had to search for her basket for quite some time.  She never gave up, though.

After the Easter morning festivities we all went to church, then went back to Meme and Papa's for lunch, and headed back to Pittsburgh to have dinner with the Forrester side of the family. 

The girls got all dressed up in the Easter outfits Grandma bought them and we headed to The Golden Corral  for a buffet-style Easter dinner.  Unfortunately I forgot the camera for dinner, so I have no pictures.  SOrry Grandma!

 It was a SUPER fun and busy Easter and we all had a great time!  Thank so much Meme and Papa for having us and making our Easter so much fun!  We love you!

Babysitters

The girls and I got to babysit baby Luke today!  This was SO exciting for them (okay, I admit--for me too)!

PALS Easter Party

Today was the annual PALS Easter party.  Jocelyn was so excited that she was able to go since she was on Spring break.  The girls ran around and played with friends, had a hearty snack, played some Easter games and Jocelyn sat on the Easter Bunny's lap.  Reagan wouldn't get within 20 feet of the Bunny...a giant bunny is just not her thing!  :)

Spring Snow

We got a snowstorm last night.  That's not exciting when you are REALLY ready for spring, and especially when it really IS spring.  Jocelyn said this spring is like "Christmas spring."  She's got that one right.  Maybe someday we will see green leaves and feel warmer temperatures, but for now we are playing in the snow.  I guess we have to make the best of it!

Dyeing Eggs & Grandma 2's Birthday

Yesterday we went to Grandma's house to dye Easter eggs and celebrate Grandma 2's 84th birthday.  We ate some pizza and got straight to work on the 5 DOZEN eggs we had to get colored!  This was Luke's first egg-dying experience.  I think he was shocked at the number of eggs we were working with!

Jocelyn was really into dying the eggs this year and stayed put at the table until all the eggs were done.  She even wrote her own name on one of the eggs!  

Reagan was hit or miss...coming and going from the table, but definitely more into it than last year.  She dyed a few eggs and was pretty good at it after the first egg that made a big splash into cup.

After all the eggs were done, we enjoyed some birthday cake and ice cream with Grandma 2 for her 84th birthday!

Easter Party x2

The girls were excited to have TWO Easter parties in one day!  Yesterday, Jocelyn's preschool and the Brentwood Library had Easter parties.  Jocelyn and Reagan had a lot of fun at each!

Reagan finding some eggs on her hunt

Making Jesus' tomb

Hand print Easter Flowers

Story time at the Library Party

Decorating (and eating) her own cookie!

Yummy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Learning About Stranger Danger at PALS

Officer Jason came to PALS today to talk to the children and their parents about ways to stay safe in public.  Reagan liked Deputy Jason a lot!

Reagan held 'Check First Charlie'

We learned that it is important to always "check first" when someone offers you anything or when someone wants to take you somewhere--even if it's someone you know!  We also learned that it is important to stay where mom or dad can see you.

The deputy also offered tips to the parents.  Some of these tips were to never call your children by name in public (that would be hard) so that they can't use it to lure your child away, take a picture of your child with your cell phone before any public outing so you have a recent picture with the clothing they were wearing if your child should become separated from you.  It's also important to teach your children to YELL and SCREAM if someone tries to take them away.  They should yell "You are not my mommy (or daddy if it's a man)", and make a huge fuss.

You hate to think about awful things happening to your children, however it's always better to be prepared so that you can be safe rather than sorry!

Goggle Girl

Today Reagan wore goggles!  She is such a silly little girl...

The Clumsy Crocodile

Jocelyn drew a picture from one of her books today at rest time.  I think she did such a great job on this crocodile!

Little Miss Independent

Reagan is a typical "I do it MYSELF" 2-year-old.  She wants to do almost everything herself, even when it drives mommy crazy.  It's just not developmentally appropriate for a 2-year-old to tie their shoes yet!  

One of her major areas of independence is getting dressed and selecting her clothes.  She has a dresser and a closet full of clothes, however, she has her favorites and the majority of those clothes (which were also worn by Jocelyn) are left unworn.  I try not to fight her, but sometimes her outfits are outrageous!  I can name her favorites right now:  For shirts, it's either one of two half-zip, pull-over fleece sweatshirts, her Supergirl T-shirt, or any random non-fitted T-shirt including her 'Future Lancer' tee and her 'I Love Paris' tee.  She usually pairs those with one of three fitted, long sleeve white tees.  Sometimes you will even catch her wearing 3-4 shirts at one time.  Her favorite pants are either the khaki ones you see above, her "zebra" pants, which aren't really zebra print, but blue and white pinstriped, or any pair of jeans.  She tends to like any clothes she would describe as a "boy shirt" or "for boys".  A tom-boy in the making?  Maybe, but that doesn't bode well for hand-me-downs since Jocelyn is definitely a girly-girl!  Sigh...

Oh well, we will take her any way--Boy clothes, girl clothes, outrageous clothes, mismatched clothes--She is too cute and we absolutely love her to pieces!