Spring planting

After Liam's last swimming lesson, we stopped at a local nursery to get some manure to start prepping the garden for planting.  (That almost sounded like I knew what I was talking about, didn't it?)

The boys were entertained by a million new things to look at - seeds, bulbs, garden decorations, and this guy.  They got it individually, then they thought it was hilarious to do it together because it made the guy have two faces.


We asked them what veggies we should plant in our garden, and they chose carrots and green beans.  Carrots are a first for us, so we'll see how that works out, but we're always up to trying something new!

Happy Easter

On Easter morning, we got dressed and ready to go to my parents for breakfast before church.  That sneaky Easter bunny left these baskets for the boys.  They were thrilled to see Legos in their basket (I realize this picture doesn't portray 'happy' but they were!)
 

They weren't sure what the headphones were for, but when we showed them how you could connect them to the ipad then hear the movie in the headphones, they were excited.


There was time for a few games of marble bowling before breakfast.  My parents picked up the marble shooter and wooden bowling pins at the marble store, and my dad built this cool box to contain the game.  The boys have so much fun with this, and did well taking turns.


After breakfast, we got ready for church and headed outside for a few pictures with the promise of jelly beans for good smiles.






Liam wanted to sit on Karsten's lap which caused everyone to dissolve in a fit of giggles.






By the time we did group shots, the boys were getting tired of smiling and the promise of jelly beans was not compelling enough.


We still managed to get a few good shots although the smils were a bit forced.


Then we were off to church.  We went about 30 minutes before mass started since it gets so crowded, thankfully we don't have to go as early as we do at Christmas.  The boys did a great job being quiet which is always a gamble at church.

While we were gone at church, the Easter bunny finally made it to Grandma and Papa's house to hide eggs.


The Easter bunny hid Lego mini figures in a few special eggs.








It's a beautiful Easter day and we're so thankful for getting to spend it together!


The mini figures were a hit!


There was a slight moment of panic when Liam discovered his third mini-figure when Karsten hadn't found his third one yet.


Then they played with the mini figures for quite a while.  See all of those little pieces?  Each mini figure had five pieces - a hat or hair, a head, body, pants and an accessory.  When the Easter bunny was building six of these guys at the Lego store, I found it to be quite overwhelming.  So, as kids built mini-figures and abandoned them when their parents told them it was time to leave, I may have claimed their mini-figures as my own.  They were gone and not coming back, and I figured if they liked the guy, then my boys would as well!


Since they were so good at church, the boys got to open their present from Grandma and Papa rather than waiting until later in the day as originally planned.


Legos, Pez and candy - what a fun present!


Papa mentioned that the marble run would be a great place to build Legos since they would be confined.  The boys took that as an invitation to get started immediately.  It was a nice activity for an Easter afternoon.  I may have dozed off for a few minutes while the Legos were being built.

Easter train

There is a train line near our home that offers a variety of themed train rides throughout the year.  The have holiday rides and even bring Thomas the Train to town.  They were offering an Easter train ride, so we decided to give it a try.


The boys were excited for the train ride - they had all sorts of questions about the train.  Many we didn't know but were able to learn on the ride.


We're ready to go!  Thankfully we had a beautiful day!


The train cars were from the 1930's and you could tell they had hauled many passengers in their life.  However, the seats were comfortable and the train was clean.  It was nice that the seats were facing each other - made it easier to chat.

 
The Easter bunny was in one of the train cars and they dismissed a few families at a time to go back and see him.  We had to walk through several train cars to get to him. When going between the cars, you just had to stay on the center of the walkway and not step on a certain area.  I think Scott and I likely had death grips on the boys when we walked between cars!

Karsten was excited to see the Easter bunny (FYI, he informed me that this was NOT the REAL Easter bunny) but Liam would have nothing to do with him.  He was excited as we were walking to see the bunny, but when he got close to the bunny, he burst into tears and wouldn't let go of Scott.


That silly Easter bunny tickled Karsten!


Since people were walking between the train cars to get to the Easter bunny, the train had to move pretty slowly.  This meant that the ride to the site of the egg hunt was about 45 minutes to an hour.  The boys enjoyed looking out the window for a while, but then started to play.


How cute are they?!


When we got to the site of the egg hunt, the boys went to their respective area for the hunt.  Next year they'll be in the same age group for all of these hunts!  My mom and I went with Liam while my dad and Scott went with Karsten.






Scott said Karsten's egg hunt was like a mad dash with the kids sprinting from egg to egg.


He had just found out that Liam found one of the 'special winner' slips in one of his eggs, and he was NOT happy.  Thankfully, when the conductor came to let Liam choose his 'prize', he said Karsten could choose one as well.  That was very kind of them.  Liam selected a kite and Karsten chose a jump rope.


On the way back to the train station, they played a few games on Grandma and Papa's phones.


What a fun day!  Thanks Grandma and Papa!

Supervisor Karsten

Remember that water leak in our sprinkler system?  We got a recommendation from someone I work with and the guy came out today to get it fixed.  Karsten was fascinated with what he was doing in the hole and spent quite a bit of time right here keeping an eye on what was going on.  The guy was a good sport about it, he wasn't super chatty with Karsten, but he was very nice.

Wordless Wednesday - A flower for you, Mommy!

Easter Party

Scott is on spring break this week so he was able to come with me to the Easter party at Karsten's school.  We got there early and helped hide the eggs on the playground while the class colored on eggs.

Once the teacher gave the go ahead, it was madness as the kids darted about the playground discovering all of the eggs.


Each of the kids got to collect eight eggs so there was lots of counting to make sure no one got extra eggs.


Karsten and his friends being silly and having fun.


After the egg hunt, it was time for a quick picture before heading inside for snack time.
 

We signed up to bring the salty treat, so we brought bunny bait - popcorn with pretzels and M&M's drizzled with white chocolate.  Pretty delicious - it's a good thing we used it all for these bags or we would have eaten all of it.


Karsten was excited to snag the 'teacher seat' at one of the tables.


 

So happy we got a smiling picture!


Karsten was pretty happy that Scott was able to come to the party.  One of the boys said that his mom couldn't come today and Karsten got to have his mom AND his dad there.  That got a pretty big grin out of Karsten.