Happy Easter!

The kids had a fabulous time at the church egg hunt; the weather was PERFECT, and we met up with some out-of-town friends, so it turned out to be a great day.

Entertaining herself while waiting patiently for the egg hunt. During the actual hunt, Leah was so content with the ten or so eggs she initially collected. I actually had to encourage her to get a few more (to reach a dozen). There were even more she could have picked up, but since she didn't want more, I didn't push it. So proud that she was happy with the few she had!

My little tough guy. Funny, though, how NOT so tough he looks with an Easter bunny basket on his head.

Too busy enjoying snowcones to even look at the camera. Prior to this, they had visited the petting farm before roping me into a moonbounce train. They tried going through, but got stuck at the slide, so I went in with them. After that, Hunter took a turn in a regular moonbounce. My little daredevil kept trying to do flips and somersaults.

Modeling their bunny hats. Kinda hard to smile with a mouthful of candy!

Can you see the ice cream cone on her cheek?

"I get to ride on the rainbow pony!"

Leah models her Easter dress and some of the goodies (jewelry) from her basket. Neither Leah nor Hunter expected a basket, so they didn't even ask about one, which was really a blessing. They know the true meaning of Easter, so when we pulled out their baskets at lunchtime, they were genuinely excited and thankful.

And you can't forget the earrings! Well, sticker earrings. She's not quite ready (neither is Daddy!) for the real thing.

Our tomb cake. The kids helped me make this the day before. This, coupled with a hunt for Easter eggs filled with trail mix and a scripture, really helped us celebrate Christ's resurrection and the glorious gift of salvation. He is risen indeed!

First REAL Haircut

Remember that incident with the Vaseline that I blogged about a few posts back? Well, because I butchered Hunter's hair (though I guess it wasn't too bad), he was in need of a real haircut. So, when my in-laws came down for Leah's birthday, they brought their clippers in an effort to fix Hunter's hair.

Whenever I trim Leah's hair/bangs, she wiggles and squirms, prolonging the time it takes to finish (and frustrating me to no end). I half expected Hunter to act that way when Mel (my mother-in-law) pulled out the clippers, but, to my surprise, he was perfect. While Grandma Mel trimmed, he sat perfectly still and without complaint. Such a big boy! Guess he was living up to how he would look: when Mel was done, gone was my baby boy, and in his place stood a (little) BIG boy. So handsome!

You'd think he was used to clippers by how still he sat, but this was his first time.

My handsome "little" boy. No more baby look!

Happy 5th Birthday, Leah!

Leah turned 5 March 10. There were days when 5 seemed so far off, yet she's now 5 and then some. (My friends with older kids warned me about time sneaking up like that!)

Since this was a milestone birthday, we threw Leah a party with a couple of her friends. (Actually, her birthday was more like the party that wouldn't end, since we celebrated three different times.) Where did she want to celebrate? Where does any kid? Chuck E. Cheese, of course! We bit the bullet and had CEC host/organize/etc. the whole thing rather than us trying to piecemeal order food, buy tokens, etc. This turned out to be a wise decision on our part. The funny thing is, Leah wasn't really interested in all the fun birthday extras. She refused to hi-five or even look at CEC when he appeared, instead scowling at the camera at the mere suggestion of looking at him. She also passed on the ticket blaster, even though Scott offered to go in with her. (Thankfully, Hunter was more than willing to try it out; when it was over, he said, "I want to do that again!") Still, Leah and her friends enjoyed themselves.

Party #2 was a family party with the grandparents. One of the highlights of the party happened to be a cat card. This was no ordinary card, oh no. This card was a cat's face, and when you pulled down on the "chin" (tab), the cat sings (meows) "Happy Birthday". Kid you not, Leah played that card over and over and over. (And in fact, she still has it in her room, and is known to eagerly show it to friends who might come over.) She'd ask, "Do you want to hear the cat card?" (Guess it was rhetorical, since no one ever had a chance to answer.)

Party #3 wasn't exactly a party, but it did occur on her actual birthday. Although we had celebrated the weekend before, I couldn't let her special day pass by without doing anything to commemorate it. So, based on her choice, she, Hunter, and I celebrated with some Sweet Frog (a wise choice, I must add).

What a joy celebrating this not-so-little girl who is such a blessing in my life!

Per her request: pink & purple cat cupcakes

Trying out the CEC birthday goodies (an inflatable token tiara & guitar balloon) while waiting for her friends to arrive.

Carter, Moira, Hunter, Leah, & Kate: Just give us our tokens and let us go play!

 

Hilarious! Who knew CEC could make a child scowl?

Scott rockin' out on the air guitar in an attempt to get Leah to do take over. Obviously she was more concerned with other things...

like eating her pizza and watching the CEC show on TV.

Karate chop!

Scott grabbed tickets while Hunter stood there laughing.

The annual birthday flowers for my beautiful girl.

There's the cat card!

Leah was kind enough to ask Hunter if he would like to help her open her gifts.

Like the wrapping job?

Trying out her new wheels.

Look who else had to try 'em out?

Happy Birthday, Leah!

Rip-roaring ready to go! She took off down the street on her bike, and couldn't get enough of it. (Fast forward to a month later, and she wants to do anything BUT ride her bike.)

Final hugs and kisses with Papa, Grandma Mel, and Grandma Teddy before they had to head home.

Hunter wanted to be a part of Leah's official birthday photo, too. 

Slick

Ahhh, I have learned my lesson when it comes to allowing the kids to play together during their rest. Not a good idea (at least at this age). Apparently, even the most obedient, compliant children can find a way to get into trouble, as evidenced by Leah and Hunter on Saturday afternoon in March.

Now keep in mind that I did have both monitors on, and could hear the kids, but, as most any mom will tell you, you don't focus on every single word. Instead, I listen for if the kids need help with something or seem to be in distress/upset. Since I never heard anything but giggles and happy sounding kids, well, I thought nothing of what was taking place upstairs.

Which is why I was floored and speechless when I walked upstairs to get the kids up. My first clue should have been hearing Hunter say, "Mommy, look at my hair!" But again, I paid no mind... until I SAW his hair plastered to his head with Vaseline. And not just a little bit-- almost an entire large tub of Vaseline.

"We were playing hairdresser, Mommy," Leah informed me with a grin, proud of her work, (at least scissors weren't involved) while I surveyed the mess before me: Vaseline smeared on the walls, the dog kennel, the carpet, the footstool. I just wanted to sit and cry (for Scott was working that night) or shout but instead I just opted for: "Get into the bath. Right now," which the kids happily obliged.

The Vaseline was so thick, that I couldn't even comb it; Hunter's hair did not MOVE. I sudsed him up and rinsed about five times but to no avail. At that point, I figured the only way to get it out of his hair was to reduce the amount of hair to begin with, so I grabbed the hair shears and started snipping here and there, my goal simply to shorten the hair so that I could work out the grease helmet. (Thankfully, the random snipping didn't result in the butchering I had anticipated; his haircut wasn't perfect, but it certainly wasn't as obviously bad as I had expected.)

Suds and rinse again. And again. Then I remembered: Google it. Course, I didn't want to step away from the tub long enough to run downstairs, conduct a search, and run upstairs all the while leaving the kids unsupervised. So, thanks to a phone call and my dad, I soon had a solution: olive oil, Dawn dish soap, and conditioner.

Well, that worked, but again, it required several cycles to make a difference. When I thought I had washed it all out, I pulled two very wrinkled kids out of the tub, got them dressed, then took them to my parents' house so that I could clean up the mess in Hunter's room. Not until we arrived at their house did I notice that their hair (for apparently Leah had a bit of Vaseline in it, too) still looked wet. And when I picked them up about an hour later, I noticed the same thing. After all that scrubbing and sudsing and repeating, their hair STILL HAD VASELINE IN IT!

But at that point, I knew it could wait for the morrow, for I was done.

And so, what have I learned from all this?
1. Even good kids have their moments.
2. Rest time is to be an independent "activity".
3. Don't leave a tub of Vaseline (lotion, shampoo, toothpaste, etc) unsupervised in reach of curious children.

Not the clearest photo, but you get the idea. This is how I found him after Leah had "styled" his hair.

At least HE was all smiles, despite several shampoos and an impromptu haircut.

Notice the empty tub. That's how much was on my boy's head. 

And this is what his hair looked like THE NEXT MORNING!

But how could I stay angry at a face like this?