Happy 5th Birthday Noah!

April 26th was Noah's 5th Birthday!  Time has certainly flown by.

We had a wonderful, wonderful day!

When Noah woke up his door was covered in streamers and he was so excited about that.   I had a card at his place at the table, chocolate milk for breakfast and chocolate chip banana pancakes to eat.  We had made cupcakes the day before to take to school.  Noah also got a book/animal combo from Nana for Easter.  The animal is named Watson and he is a talking racoon that responds to keys in the stories.  It is really cool because it seems like Watson is interacting with the book.  Noah's class is studying caterpillars and Watson's book was about caterpillars so he took it in for the day.  He felt like the king of the world with his cupcakes and his chance to share Watson. 

When school was over Maeve and I were waiting with a big animal balloon for him and we went home and we had his favorite lunch, grilled cheese.  We put Maeve to bed and Daddy was home sick.  Noah and I went to the bank to cash a check he got from an aunt, we went to the post office to pick up a package from Afi and Amma and then we went for ice cream, just us.  He got coconut ice cream with M and M's!

He requested pizza for dinner and so we got that.  He played in the yard for hours and then we let him stay up a little later than usual watching his favorite show:  Busytown Mysteries. 

When it was finally time for bed we laid and talked about the day when I realized we had never given him his gift!!!  Paul ran up to the attic to get it for him and he was ECSTATIC! We got him a bean bag chair with his name on it.  He put it on his bed and slept on it!  When he woke up this morning he carried it with him everywhere!! Maeve likes it too!!!

Easter 2011, Part 2

We got up early this morning to get ready for our day. 

Nana came and joined us for pancakes and worship this morning.

We got our first good family photo in a LONG time!!

We went to church and then afterward we had an egg hunt in our backyard. Maeve gets SO excited for each egg. It is adorable!!!!

We quickly changed and headed to Paul's sister's house for lunch with his side of the family. We lined the kids up for the annual photo!

And then, finally when we got home we sat down to give the kids their baskets from us. Happy Easter!!

Easter 2011, Part 1

We spent Saturday at my grandmother's house for Easter with my side of the family. I felt that this whole Easter weekend was an amazing gift. The weather was predicted to be AWFUL and each day turned out to be wonderful.

We headed to Reading and the majority of my family was there. The kids were very well behaved. After lunch we headed outside and had a little Easter egg hunt for them. Noah was much older than the other two but once his bucket was full he put them in the other kids buckets. My children received so much stuff!!! We all sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather and the joy of Easter!!

I also got to really take pictures since there were other hands to help with the kids. I haven't been able to do that in a while so I was so happy!!

Sesame Street Live

One of our good friends offered us an amazing deal to see Sesame Street Live. I think tickets were $10 or $11 each which is a steal! Noah was never really into Sesame Street but Maeve likes Elmo so we thought we'd give it a try for that price.

It was a very weird juxtaposition for me to be there on Good Friday morning as I have spent the past 10 years being mournful at that time. I felt a little guilty and a little odd. When the characters came on, I watched my children's eyes grow wide with wonder and I started to cry. I was so happy for their joy and so happy that they had such a great opportunity. I remembered that God created us for joy and not for sadness and I was able to relax and enjoy it a little bit more.

Maeve was not able to sit still very long but she did well for most of the show. Noah was mesmerized. He got worried every time someone left the stage and he hung on every word. I loved watching him imagine along with the show.

PreK Easter Party 2011

It was a big week for Noah at school. On Tuesday I was invited to come into his class to teach about resurrection. We had a great time reading the Holy Week Story. Then we made Resurrection Rolls. The kids picked up a marshmallow (Jesus) and dipped it in butter, cinnamon, and sugar (for the spices and oils used in the bible) and then they wrapped him up in a crescent roll (tomb). We took the rolls and put them in the oven for 10 minutes. When the kids opened their rolls the marshmallow had disappeared just like Jesus was not in the tomb. I LOVE seeing the kids faces when the marshmallow isn't there! It was a real joy sharing this time with them.

On Wednesday they had their regular party. The kids got to find eggs that were hidden all over the sanctuary (which was a bit of a mental block for me). It is a marvelous trick they use to give each child an egg carton. When their egg carton is full they are done. So perfect!



Then the kids did a really neat snack where they filled a cupcake wrapper with trail mix of pretzels, chocolate chips and chex, then they put some jelly beans on top for eggs, and peeps on top for birds. It was a nest snack! So Cute!!!

They read a story, sang some songs and then they did spoon egg races. Noah had a wonderful time!

Dyeing Eggs 2011

We had a fun time dyeing eggs this year. I wanted to try some natural dyes so we took out what we had lying around.... coffee grounds, carrots, strawberries and spinach. We boiled them and then let them cool with eggs in them. They did not turn out very vibrant, but they looked like real birds eggs so that was awesome. Noah loved the experience and he wanted to try every item in the house! We also used a marbelizing kit that Nana gave us. Noah made his nests for the eggs to go in but before we could grab enough sticks it started to rain (AGAIN!)