Easter celebrations- June

On Saturday morning, mama and Miss Becky locked Audrey, the dogs and I in the toy room and colored eggs with the big kids. I was not pleased.

Henry had a good time dyeing his egg and had some very pretty ones until he started redipping his eggs in all the different colors.

Both he and Grace were very patient about sharing the colors and had fun using the little wire egg lifters.

There were a couple reprimands of "Don't put your fingers in the cup," but Henry came out fairly dye free.

We liked the blue and green eggs the best.

We had the extreme good fortune of being invited to the neighborhood easter egg hunt.

Here are the rules: if you want to hunt, fill your yard with eggs and the neighborhood kids would travel around the neighborhood and have a separate hunt at every house.

Things got better when we realized 10 kids showed up for the hunt and at least 15 yards were full of eggs.

Things got really great when the organizer didn't want the little kids (4and under) trampled by the big kids. So most of the time, we got a yard entirely to ourselves.

And our heads almost exploded when we opened the eggs and found out that all the childless couples had filled their eggs with at least 3 pieces of candy each. And not just jelly beans. We're talking good stuff like peanut butter cups, nerds, and M&Ms.

Someone caught a butterfly and mama had a tiny panic attack. Papa took this picture. mama wouldn't dream of getting close to it, even if I love butterflies.

Some older girls came along to help the little kids with the hunt. We had fun looking for eggs together.

I didn't get as many eggs as Henry because I insisted on opening every egg I found. But no one cared because i would run around the yards yelling "Eeg! Eeg! Eeeg!" until someone pointed one out for me.

Afterwards, I was very tired and needed carried back tot he house.

We got home and counted out loot. Mama said we could each have 3 eggs after supper, not knowing that equaled over 10 pieces of candy. We were all so loud, the grown-ups were happy to let us have a little computer time.

Thanks for having us up for the weekend, Audrey and Grace!

Back to NC- Henry.

Spring Break (which means no break from me) and the looming wild onions in the yard begging to be mowed proved to be too much for mama and papa. We had to get out of town- fast. Luckily, our North Carolina friends were up for a loud weekend of 4 kids/

It's been really hot down here. It's been above 80 degrees every day since last Thursday, so mama broke out all of the summer clothes and has been having fun showing off Junie's long, skinny legs.

We drove up to the Triad on Thursday night. June and i were so excited, we barely got any sleep in the car, even though we didn't get there until 10:30. I slept about 45 minutes. June didn't sleep at all. You'd figure that we'd be tired, but we only slept in until about 8am.

It was so fun having Audrey and June together. They are both getting tall and starting to talk.

We spent all morning outside enjoying the warm weather. Mama was happy to be within 40 minutes of a mall and took off with Miss Becky to get some shopping done, though she decided she doesn't miss the traffic of living in a city. Why is Hanes Mall Boulevard always packed?

Grace and I were happy to be together again. At the end of last summer, we were both very good at pushing each other's buttons. Though we're still both loud and high energy, we did get along most of the weekend.

June and Audrey got along well too. We were outside all morning until the grown-ups said everyone needed a nap. After a quiet afternoon (mama went out shopping again), papa offered to take Grace, June and I to the castle park. The rest of the adults eagerly accepted his proposal. Mama thinks she got the better deal staying at home with 2 adults and only one toddler.

She forgot how fun it is to only have one kid around. Audrey spent the entire time playing in the water fountain. It started with a sip.

And soon turned into full immersion.

Then she ran straight for a pile of dirt. If filth is a good measure of fun, it was a great day. Audrey had at least 4 outfit changes and June and I left a ring in the bathtub.

Easter Egg Hunt- June.

The zoo was so fun and we were so tired from staying up late, Henry and I both got up extra early.

I wanted my blankie and nuk, so I went upstairs to my bed to get it. When I brought it back downstairs, mama said no. I was not pleased with this decision.

Before mama knew how wiped out we'd be, she promised Henry he could go to an Easter parade that started at 2pm. I stayed at home and took a 4 and a half hour nap. Mama hoped it would rain and they'd cancel the parade, but the weather held off.

We got to the parade a little early, so we sat down to wait.

While they waited, mama played around with the manual setting on her little camera.

Click on the picture to zoom in and you might see some of the freckles that are starting to form on Henry's nose.

Here's the first half of the parade.

There was a dance group and this was the second half of the parade. No wonder they only shut down a block of Pendleton.

The big finale was the Easter Bunny. He personally passed out a piece of candy to every kid there.

After the parade, all the kids immediately lined up for the hunt. Luckily, there were 2,000 eggs for about 200 kids. Henry was excited about the hunt and took off when the siren blew.

He got about 16 eggs!

They were saving the eggs for next year's hunt, so Henry emptied out all of his loot. After the hunt, he painted a sun catcher and watched sack races, tug of wars, and egg tosses. His boldness hd worn off by then and he refused to take part in any of the races.

Riverbanks Zoo- Henry.

On Saturday morning, we got up early and set out for Columbia. Mama said we were going to the zoo! We met up with her friend from high school, Mister Brent, and his family.

I was so excited to ride the train and as soon as our friends arrived, I grabbed Braeden and we rode the train together.

Junie thought the goats were so funny. Unfortunately, none of us kids were that excited about the animals. My favorite part of the zoo was reading the map and bossing people around to where we'd go next.

But the zoo had tons of other fun things to do. There was a little picnic area full of sticks to bang against trees. June was the only one to get a stick to the head, but she was okay.

We spent a lot of time playing at the playground. June loved going down the slide.

Even papa got in on the fun.

Braeden had fun too, even though we kept him up from taking a nap.

We think the mid-day Icee helped. Braeden also has a brand new little brother named Avery. He's only 2 and a half weeks old. Mama didn't get any pictures of him because if he wasn't snoozing in his car seat, mama wasn't letting go of him. And at only 8 pounds, he was quite easy to tow around. Mama held the baby so much that June must have thought he was ours. Whenever Braden got close to Avery, she gave him an earful to stay away from our baby.

Back at the playground, June practiced climbing up the slide.

And sliding back down.

Adjacent to the zoo is a very nice botanical garden. We made the walk over, despite the fact that all of us kids were pretty tired.

I had fun running through the gardens and looking at the fountains.

It was a great time to be at the gardens. Everything was in bloom.

We found a little kid-sized house to play in while mama looked around the garden show that was going on. We got there right as the show was closing down and she got a great deal on an Abelia bush for by the front steps.

She took June to go pick up the bush, but June was easily distracted.

But she did sit still for this cute shot.

We had to walk back to the zoo to get to our cars. I really wanted to ride the tram back, so while everyone else walked back, mama and I waited 20 minutes for the tram to show up. when it did come, everyone ran so fast to it that the seats were instantly filled. Mama and I couldn't find a single one. Mama told me we'd have to walk back, because she certainly wasn't waiting another 20 minutes in line only to get pushed out of the way by people too lazy to walk 3/10th of a mile downhill back to the zoo. I was on the verge of the biggest meltdown known to man when two teenagers flagged us down and offered us their seats on the tram. What nice kids! Mama is never going to say anything bad about teenagers and their skinny jeans again. They certainly helped us divert a huge disaster.

After the zoo, we went back to Braeden's house for some pizza and to play outside. For as tired as we all were, we really were wound up. We left at 8 and June and I both managed to stay awake until 10pm. So much for wearing us out for the ride home.

Posing- June.

Mama loves these jammies on me. They make my belly look even bigger than normal.

Mama lets us watch the video of the baby whenever we want. Any guesses on whether its a boy or girl?

Thursday night was a very special pancake night. Instead of syrup, we got to dip our pancakes in whipped cream. Big hit. Plus, mama didn't have to scrape syrup off the table.

Mama saw a little girl with two big braids and tried to replicate it on me. I wasn't so cooperative sitting still for my braid. Plus, my nose was runny, so my hair was gross from all the snot I'd rubbed in it.

I was in fine form after supper and spent some time posing for the camera.

Another favorite of mine.

Papa joined me on the floor for some cuddling and tickles.

We worked on my handwriting, but it has a long way to go.

Papa was helping before he was ambushed.

And prepared to be ambushed yourself- by extreme cuteness.