Don't Call the Fire Dept. - It's Just Breakfast

I am not by any means the most stellar cook but I don't feel like I'm a candidate for the show Worst Cooks in America either. 

The first meal I cooked for my now husband, around 16 years ago, was dreadfully awful and he now considers me pretty good. I mean it was plain, dry chicken that tasted like cardboard, along with dry stuffing, and under cooked brownies with hard burned edges. I couldn't have made it worse if I tried. It was a mess, but he ate it as if it was the best meal he'd ever had. He really can be sweet, but lets not tell him I said that. So for those next years I put in a lot of effort to be good, or at least better. Although my kids would still prefer to eat frozen chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese from a box. 

One of my husband's favorite meals is breakfast and one of the hardest parts for me about making breakfast is the timing - to get the over-easy eggs done about 10 seconds after the toast pops so
you have a small window to spread the butter so it melts evenly. Having everything timed perfectly while the dog is underfoot and the kids are wanting entirely different things...Fruit Loops for Kyle, buttered muffins for Morgan, and Lane still isn't sure what he wants but wants to see what looks best. 

Anyway, our toaster we've had from most of this 16 years, it works so there is no need for a newer one. Actually we even have an extra but I just don't use it. There is just one small issue with the current one, when you use it twice in a row, it smokes and then sets off the smoke detectors. This has happened in several houses, but I'm pretty sure the kids and Matt don't know the one use of the toaster rule. But each time I do it, I have this small hope that it will change, it won't, but it doesn't stop me for trying it again and again and setting off the shrill sound over and over. 

The running joke is that when I inevitably set it off, everyone knows that breakfast is ready. Just the other morning, the screeching sounded and Matt came down the steps laughing, saying I didn't need to alert him breakfast was done, he was on his way. At the table Matt mentioned maybe we should get a new toaster, I told him we have an extra, and Lane interjected and said no, no, no we can't use a new one because the smoke detector is his alarm during the summer. 

Matt started laughing and teasing me about how sad that statement truly was. I mean maybe I could be on my own show, No Need To Call The Fire Dept. Has kind of a nice ring to it, doesn't it?!

Peanut Butter Jelly

Our daughter has always been very, very specific about her Peanut Butter Jelly. Traditionally, I am the one to have always made the sandwich and I like triangles versus squares. But...since she was old enough to say what she wanted for lunch, she has been very demanding about her Peanut Butter Jelly being cut into squares. If you've ever raised a toddler, then you know, squares it is! 

I cut sandwiches in a diagonal, even if it's only half a sandwich, the one piece of bread gets cuts diagonally and then placed on top of the other. Morgan, is fine with this as long as it's turkey, salami, or a grilled cheese but not a Peanut Butter Jelly. And there isn't an 'and' involved in that sandwich, not a PB&J, not a Peanut Butter AND Jelly, it's just Peanut Butter Jelly. All the time, every time she says it.

When she was about 3 years old, her dad decided to make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. He made it with two full slices and didn't cut off the crust. Can you imagine?! She absolutely refused to eat it because it was not Peanut Butter Jelly. My husband was then locked into an argument with a toddler convinced it wasn't the right thing. After numerous times of trying to convince her that he made her what she wanted, he then asked how mommy makes it. She promptly got up and took half of the sandwich off the plate. Bonus points for the husband that cut straight down the middle. Then she pointed to the crust and made a face, he assumed correctly that mommy cuts off the crust. He placed the plate in front of her and she said, "still not like mommy's." He asked her why and she said it wasn't two pieces. He said you took the other off the plate she said no it's only this, but two pieces. He asked her if he could cut it. Toddlers are something! When he successfully cut it into two pieces, she happily squealed, "NOW, that's Peanut Butter Jelly!"

Skip ahead 4 years...

Yesterday, my mom was at the house and made her lunch. When I got home and my mom left, I asked both her and Kyle what they had for lunch.

Morgan mentioned that Nana made her a sandwich but did it wrong. I knew...I knew right then what kind of sandwich she asked for. I said well how did Nana make your Peanut Butter Jelly. 

Morgan: "Well first she cut the bread wrong, I told her you only use one piece, but she cut it wrong." (My mom cut into a diagonal) "Then she put too much peanut butter on and I kept looking at her, and I tried to look at her nice but I didn't know why she was doing it wrong. I figured I'd have to eat it because I didn't want to waste the bread but it was gross. Mom, she put the jelly on the same side she put the peanut butter, then just put the bread on top. She didn't even put enough jelly on it!" A breath and then, "I mean who puts the jelly on top of the peanut butter on one side?"

Okay, so because I know how ridiculous this all is, I did egg it on...with comments like "who does that?" and "why would she think that's right?" and finally ended with "I just don't know why people can't make a Peanut Butter Jelly right!"

Morgan then responded that even her dad can't do it right. She was so disgusted that it was just hilarious. 

Last night after she went to sleep, I couldn't wait to tell Matt all about this...because he very clearly remembers the toddler, "NOW that's Peanut Butter Jelly!" 

As I'm holding my stomach from laughing so hard, I mentioned to Matt, oh my can you imagine her poor husband?! 

Matt turned dead around and said, "That's me...I'm the husband. She's you, and I'm the poor husband! I don't know what you are talking about...her poor husband. You two are the same, she's you and this is the stuff you do. I am that guy."

He's just upset that I'm the only one that can make her sandwich the 'right' way!

Living Poop

Before winter Matt and I were outside talking and we noticed that Barkley, our then 6 month old puppy, was in the back yard trying to play with something that was moving. He would put his snout down to the ground and whip his head back up while he jumped his front paws around. Matt and I both guessed it was a frog because it's the way he acted days before with a frog in the driveway. Rearing his head back when the frog jumped away, or "at him" as he thought to play. Judging by the continued pawing and jumping Matt told Kyle to go save the frog from Barkley's torturing. 

Kyle, who likes the frogs in the yard, trudged through the yard to try to get the frog and not upset Barkley, who might turn and jump on him and place him on the ground for taking 'his toy!' Kyle began looking all around but acting like he couldn't see the frog. Matt and I both said, "oh Kyle just get it, it's a frog, it's right there!" He hollered back up, that he didn't see a frog! At this point, I'm thinking, oh great, now he doesn't want to touch frogs. I wonder what his older brother said that caused this. Matt and I are pointing to the area in the yard that the dog is jumping around, where he can see the movement in the grass and Kyle was still so adamant that he couldn't see a frog. 

All at once we were all looking at the same spot and it moved, Kyle yelled that it's not a frog! Matt asked him what it was if not a frog? Then Matt turns to me and he was asking me as much as himself "Is it a snake? It's probably a tiny snake. Go see if it's a snake." I started to walk towards Kyle and Matt told me to get the shovel, I laughed out loud. I may be walking to see what it is, but I am certainly not touching it, killing it, moving it; I'm just looking. At this point Kyle was walking back up to us and Matt asked him again, "well...what is it?"

Kyle looked right back at him and with all the seriousness in the world says,

    "I'll tell you what it is, I'll tell you...It's living poop! It's not a frog, it's not a snake, it's living poop!"

I busted out laughing, like uncontrollably laughing. Kyle did not think it was funny and looked at me like I was out of my mind for laughing about this. I laughed so hard my face hurt and I had tears in my eyes because he was so serious and confident that he discovered what it was. 

Matt's like what is he talking about, laughing at me because while it was funny to him too, my bent over holding my belly while Kyle looked perturbed was quite the scene. I mean, Kyle was so positive. 

Matt grabbed the shovel and we both walked/jogged to discover what 'living poop' looked like. 

For all of you that don't know what 'living poop' looks like...well...it looks like a ground mole!

I guess that's just what a day living in the country can look like. 

Competitive

I am most certainly not an 'everyone gets an award (participation) trophy;' more of an 'if you want it, then you earn it' person. So... when I play games with the kids, I am not a mom that just lets you win. I do not tease or become a sore winner, but you do not cry if you lose, you just try harder. But I have been known to allow my 5-year-old some help during a game, and maybe select the raised card in his hand during Old Maid.

When I was young, I remember now and then playing games with my mom and dad and receiving the game of Life. I had finally whined enough for my parents to play, because Life is a longer game that parents tend to save for another time, and unfortunately my dad won. He jumped around upon winning, dancing and yelling, "you lose at Life! I am the CHAMPION! I win Life!" Of course, he was teasing.

While I don't act quite like that, I still am competitive and it's hard for me to lose, I don't like it. I really don't like it, and yes maybe my dad's behavior aided in my competitiveness. 

This Christmas my son Lane (12 years old) received Chinese Checkers, and upon him opening his gift, I remembered being a kid and playing with my great-grandma multiple times a day. Along with those fond memories I was looking forward to playing with my son. However, my son was not as excited and eventually mentioned he didn't want to play. After about two weeks with an unopened box, my husband said he would play but didn't quite remember the rules, so he'd review the directions. We set up the board while Morgan (age 7) and Kyle (age 5) watched and whined they wanted to play. Anytime my husband moved a marble, the kids automatically assumed he was winning, and being that he wasn't, he conveniently didn't correct them except for one small whisper that mom was doing better. 

During the game, Matt mentioned several times that if he practiced and started to strategize better, he'd crush me. Did I mention that I haven't played since I've been a kid? Can you see how silly my competitiveness can become?

I did win, as you can tell, and actually smoked my husband, as he finished by moving all his marbles into the star section and claiming to the two little ones that it was a tie.

Which was fine, until...

...a day later when we were all eating dinner and Lane brought up the game. He asked me if I finally found someone that would play. Morgan informed him that dad played mom. My husband hurried to add that he "smoked mom but it's okay because she didn't stand a chance!" Lane started laughing and I didn't correct Matt because I knew he'd then say I couldn't just let it go, I'd have to let the kids know I won. Then I'd feel like it's just a game and not that big of a deal if the kids know who really won. As Matt continued to tease me about how I lost and need to try harder, the little ones chimed in by saying, "yeah dad put all his marbles in really fast!" Lane of course loved it and continued to laugh about mom losing.

While I wanted to say, "your dad put those marbles in really fast because the game was over, and mom won, " I knew I couldn't say a thing without Matt then really teasing me about how competitive I can be. 

But you know what, "I did win!" 

Phew, at least I feel a little better :)

Dinner Table

Our family still sits down at the dinner table almost every single night to eat. Nothing formal, we use a lot of throw away plates, but we try to all sit as a family each night. Matt does when he’s home and not on a crazy shift. Typically we talk a lot about the kids school, who said what, who they talked to or played with, who is in what grade, etc. They attend a small school and know most if not all of the kids, so my husband and I have gotten to ‘know’ the kids as much as we can through Lane and Morgan.

The other night Morgan casually mentioned that there are several kids in her school that are neutered. Yep, everyone stopped eating and just looked at each other to make sure we all heard the same word, neutered, and that Morgan said it. Kyle didn’t care or know what it meant so he resumed with his dinner. The rest of us weren’t about to let this go! I asked Morgan to repeat what she said. 

“Yeah a couple kids in my school are neutered.”

Lane, 12 years old, looks at me and knowing what this is, mainly because we just had our dog neutered a couple months ago, starts to laugh and is ready to lose it. They both attend the same school. 

Matt mentions that it can’t be what she means to say. And I told her that no one in the school is neutered and she couldn’t possibly know any of this. 

She insisted that kids are neutered. Because she kept saying it, of course, it became funnier! Matt asked her where she even heard the word, to which she promptly responded with, “my teachers say it!” Lane is now rolling with laughter.

I asked her to name the kids she thinks are neutered. When she named the few she knew, Lane yells, “Morgan they are tutored! Not neutered, TUTORED!”

And the classic Morgan response, “yeah, well, same thing!”

Not Acceptable

 Over the holiday season our family went to Siesta Key and usually when we fly (which isn’t that often) we fly out of Pittsburgh, but this time we had planned to fly out of Harrisburg. The airport in Pittsburgh is just a little closer with driving distance but a much bigger airport and didn’t have a direct flight into Sarasota. So even though Harrisburg is a little farther we thought it would be better. Let me clarify, the adults thought it would be better, the kids hate the car, so they wanted the shortest drive possible. 

Morgan thinks a 15 minute ride in the car anywhere is too long, like going to the grocery store is a hassle for her. 

The kids knew ahead of time that we would have about a two and a half hour car ride to get to the airport but that I would take snacks and they each had activities for the car and plane. We were only about 15 minutes from the house when it started. 

Kyle started messing with Morgan, he crossed the imaginary line in the car and touched her coat several times. Morgan responded at the top of her lungs with, “Kyle, you remember when I had corona?! Well, this is the coat I wore, it’s covered in covid Kyle...covered in covid! Now it's the rona coat.”

Matt told her to calm down and she couldn’t say things like that! I’m trying my best to not laugh out loud and telling Kyle to stay on his side and not mess with her. 

I looked at Matt and said it’s too early in the car ride for this! 

We got about another mile or two and we both hear Kyle say, “I’m just tellin’ you now, if they make me sit in the middle seat on the plane, I’m whipping out my nerf guns and whackin’ and stackin’!” 

Matt turns around and yells, “these conversations are not acceptable!” 

I’m laughing and when Matt sees me, his face breaks into a smile and he shakes his head. Hindsight - maybe laughing and joking about the Tiger King wasn’t such a great idea. 

Surprisingly, we did manage to get on the plane after making sure Kyle didn’t take his nerf guns. 

Christmas Cookies

Each year I make some kind of Christmas cookies, while other years, I get a little ambitious and make more than 20 dozen to deliver and share. This year was an ambitious year so when my mother-in-law and sister-in-law said they were making sugar cookies I didn't know if my kids would be up for it. However, a chance to go to their aunts house, well they were out the door. They of course brought a plate full home, even though I know they probably had a dozen between the three of them. Or at least had a pound of icing to sample. Kyle had a lot on his shirt that he was saving for later. 

Anyway, these cookies took a little longer to consume because of all the Christmas goodies that continue to fill my pantry. (That's why I make my cookies early, so I know they are eaten.) I pack my husband's lunch each day for work and the kids have all gotten accustomed to figuring out a dessert to pack. Lane doesn't participate as much anymore but when he was little he did a lot with a special note. The other night I started to place things in his lunch and Morgan and Kyle decided they would each pack a cookie. 

The next morning, Morgan asked "Dad, did you like the cookies?" I was walking away from the kids, passing my husband, as he started to say, "oh yes, absolutely I loved them," and I whispered that Morgan packed the reindeer and Kyle the tree, so that he could comment individually, which he did. You could see both children's smiles.

Later that evening, we were all in the living room and the kid's van driver called, asking if he could stop to give all of the kids a gift, even though Kyle isn't even in school yet. (Our van driver is one of the nicest and sweetest people; he just is a genuine person.) After ending the call, I looked to my husband and said, "I don't even have anything made for him, I guess maybe I could give him a couple cookies the kids made." There were just a handful left. 

As soon as I said it he responded with...

"No you can't do that, those cookies are gross, they are old! And stale! You cannot give him those! They're over two weeks old!"

Morgan's head swiveled right to her dad and yelled, "YOU SAID THOSE COOKIES WERE GREAT!"

I had to hide my face and leave the room because I was laughing so hard. My husband rarely makes a mistake like this, like once every 10 years, but boy when he does...he makes it count. 

He tried to recover by saying, "well they were great yesterday honey, but today they went bad!" 

Seriously I had tears from laughing so hard. As Morgan looks away from him, he imitates pulling his foot out of his mouth. 

I packed the dessert today. :) 

Filthy Animal

This year our family spent Thanksgiving at home because of the coronavirus pandemic and even though I made a full dinner/lunch it didn't quite feel like a normal Thanksgiving holiday, so I think each one of us was ready to start with the magic and celebration of Christmas. I mean the kids had talked about their Advent calendars and were more excited to start those than anything turkey. After our lunch the kids talked about watching a Christmas movie, Lane had talked the Morgan and Kyle into watching Home Alone, and then the following day they could watch Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. 

The Christmas movie watching has turned into a daily, evening occurrence, and the movie has consistently been Home Alone. If Home Alone has been on television during the day, well...we obviously need to have it playing, even if we are in and out of the living room. It must play! The only slight break is if one of The Santa Claus movies are on. Now, I'm not really complaining because I do enjoy all of the above movies; I may feel differently by the time December 25th rolls around but for the time being, I'm good. 

However, when Kyle, 5 years old, is arguing with Lane, 12 years old, and suddenly screams "stop it you filthy animal!" we may need to reevaluate and limit Kyle on how much Home Alone he's viewing. Or maybe when we are all sitting down at dinner and the conversation turns into comparing dad to Marv and Harry as a legitimate conversation...well maybe we should start watching a different movie?! Anyone up for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? 

2017 In Review

Before school with the threat
that if he didn't smile,
I'd wait until the bus came
to hug and kiss him. 

So just a little about what's happened this year. 

Lane

He left second grade with straight A’s and one of the highest Accelerated Reader points in the school. Each book he reads is worth a certain amount of points and after he finishes the book, he takes a quiz to receive the points. He read a couple books in the Harry Potter series which led to his Halloween costume. He played baseball in the spring and his team went undefeated for the season, while being named Pinto baseball champions in their league. He then went on to play tackle football for the first time, and well…he learned a lot. He started third grade with a great class that seems to work well in groups, Christmas Around the World with 11 different countries will finish out the first half of school. Lane is also wrestling through the winter and finds joy in practicing with his 4-year-old sister…Morgan, however, doesn’t find it nearly as entertaining. 

No More School

This week is now the third week of school for my son and well, to be very honest, I hate school. Does my son know how much I don't want him to go - no, he looks forward to each day. Especially certain days with computer lab and gym. And he really enjoys riding the bus, especially in the morning. Even after the eleventh day, I still feel like a little piece of my heart is being ripped at when he walks out the door.

Last week I thought, okay, second week and I'm doing much better than the collapse of a weeping/sobbing mess on the driveway as my husband coaxed, "it'll get easier." For two weeks, I could handle it, I did handle it, but now, I'm ready to be done. For those two weeks, it gave my son something to do, a break from his little sister, he got to meet new friends, and got to do fun things...but I just want it to be over.

Nail Polish

This only shows a little of the mess. 

Baby sister really enjoys dumping, throwing, and pitching items out of a container. Whether that's my purse, a basket, or toy boxes, everything gets removed.

It's actually cute when she throws it out and over her little head. Well it's cute cute the first time, even the second time, but after the fifth time in different rooms, it's not quite so adorable. It gets to be a little exhausting but she thinks it's great and has so much fun.

I have had a bag in the bedroom sitting on the floor that had a variety of things in it: a jump rope, a toothbrush, bottles of nail polish, and kid tub tablets (the ones that change the color of the bath water). Well baby sister loved ripping the items out of the bag whenever she was in my room so I never emptied the bag to put things in their spot. It kept her occupied.

Silly Momma!!!

A couple of days ago my husband and son were fixing something in the master bathroom, I was putting laundry away, and baby sister was emptying the bag. Giggling and throwing things out. Just as I reached into the closet to put towels aways I heard the crack of glass. She took two nail polish bottles and smacked them together with all of her one-year-old might.

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted

In early June we went on vacation, two weeks after the birthday party madness, and in these two weeks our family jumped around singing "...vacation's all I ever wanted..." Well I jumped and sang, my husband, not so much of the jumping. We had a lot of things going on before vacation, the birthday party, my son's preschool graduation, baseball ending with a huge tournament, and we didn't have a lot of time to obsess over the details of vacation...like the biggest decision...when do we leave?

Driving to the Outer Banks and in the car for 10 hours with two kids. Um, when do we start the drive? My husband and I had a huge discussion over this and what we thought was best based on previous experiences that seemed to fail. We eventually decided to leave at 3:30 a.m. and move the kids from their beds to the car in hopes they'd sleep until we needed to stop for breakfast. To say that I worried about the drive is the understatement of the year. My kids typically don't travel well, I don't travel well...I just don't like being in the car for a long period of time...my poor husband. BUT, everyone did amazingly well. I couldn't have asked for a better road trip. The baby girl slept, my son was entertained with The Lego Movie and games, we stopped twice - once for breakfast and once to stretch before arriving in North Carolina. I'm still a little shocked about the traveling. 

As for the actual vacation, our family had such a great time. Our son loved playing in the pool and building sandcastles on the beach and the baby girl loved sitting near the ocean and having the waves splash over her legs. 

Hanging out at the little pool.

Big brother did a really good job pulling baby sister in her boat. 

Stealing brother's sand toys.

Sandcastles.

A visit from a little friend.

Playing lifeguard.

Building more sandcastles.

Chocolate covered marshmallows from Forbes Candies.

Baby sister in her boat.

Swimming in the big pool. 

Birthday Party Fun

I can say that I haven't posted because it's summer and we love to be outside, or that my son is no longer in preschool, or even the baby is getting older and more active but the truth is...I haven't posted because well, I've been lackadaisical about it. I also have been posting pictures on Instagram, which is great because it reminds me to take photos, please consider checking it out.

asvonavec on Instagram!

Our family has actually had a lot going on, at the end of May we had a shared birthday party for the kiddos and I probably went a little overboard. Last year our son turned five but I just had the baby girl so we didn't have a big party. We had some family over for pizza and cake but little friends weren't invited. I actually had planned to have family at our house the weekend I was in the hospital, so we postponed the small celebration. Anyway, I felt a ton of guilt because our son had asked to invite his class and friends, and I couldn't do it. So this year we made up for it. Plus it was the baby girl's first birthday.

A Couple of Lessons Learned

As parents, we spend a lot of time teaching our kids. Whether it’s to say “ma-ma" or "da-da” or trying to teach them how to read and how ‘no’ and ‘know’ sound the same but mean something entirely different. Each day they are learning and it’s our job to help them to the best of our ability. But they teach us too!

The top three that I learned the hard way a couple weeks ago were:

1. Mom is completely uncool.

She might show a glimmer of hope to be cool, when we are cruising in the car, with the windows down, sunglasses on, radio turned way up, and listening to Alabama’s Reckless song...

“Let’s roll the windows down turn the radio up

Let the wind blow through our hair

Love is reckless, lets get reckless tonight.”

Well it’s like Fight Club, and everyone knows that the first rule of Fight Club is you do NOT talk about Fight Club. So even though mom may show a smidgen of coolness it all goes out the window when she tells someone else about this car ride. Oh and did I mention my son is only 5 years old?!

Duct Tape 'Em Down

Spring is here - flowers, fresh cut grass, and bike riding.

When my son was 3 years old we purchased a bike with training wheels. We would go outside and ride which meant my son would sit on the seat and hold the handle bars while I pushed him. For whatever reason he kept refusing to keep his feet on the pedals, let alone help by pedaling. Sometimes the pedals would spin by themselves, sometimes they wouldn't, but he would not keep his feet on them, he'd even go as far as to raise his legs and prop them on the front tire fender.

As a baby he had riding toys and we'd push him around the house and he'd prop his feet on the front so he didn't have to do any work and his feet wouldn't brush the carpet. You can see...the baby sister has the same idea, hold her legs up and let momma do the pushing.

Anyway, back to my 3 year old son, I was tired of pushing all the time and more was tired that he wasn't trying to learn to do it himself. SO...I went into the garage in search of duct tape. One way or another he was keeping his feet on those pedals. Yes, I duct taped his feet onto the pedals so he'd learn to bicycle his legs, even if he wasn't pedaling with force, he was going to do the motion. My husband pulled into the driveway and looked at me, looked at my son, looked back up at me shaking his head and asked "what in the world are you doing?" For me it was quite simple, I was fixing the problem. My husband really tried not to laugh and call me crazy. After three days of this, my son learned to keep his feet circling.

Now he's 5 years old and he's been riding his bike as much as he can. About two weeks ago, he asked my husband to take the training wheels off. Without any discussion my husband walked into the garage to get a tool to remove them. Um...my first thought was no, no, no....I can't hold him upright on the bike while he pedals and hold the baby. He loves his bike and it's too soon, I don't want him frustrated with riding. But and here's the big but - I didn't say a word, I kept quiet. Which if you know me well, this was huge! Me, quiet about something I didn't think was a good idea, this was/is rare.

Easter Eggs

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.

My son's break lasts until Friday so he's still in relax and eat all the candy he can mode. He has also continually talked about the Easter Egg Hunt he had at my aunt's. And is constantly telling his baby sister how much better he is at finding eggs than she is - he's 5, she's 10 months.

When my son was almost two, my husband and I took him to a community egg hunt close to where we lived and I had my eyes opened. I had never heard of people just scattering all the eggs on the ground or watched adults race for eggs while knocking over little, tiny kids. They were claiming to help their kids but...well when you are knocking over toddlers, you aren't just helping. My husband tried to stand by one egg and let our son walk to it, however it was quickly picked up by an adult. It looked as if my husband may rip it back out of her hand, but he clenched his jaw and found another egg. Let me mention that because we didn't expect the adults picking up eggs, finding just one was a little harder than you may think. People run! And I'm not referring to the kids. Anyway, he found one egg, brought it close to my son, set it down to let our son "find" it. We cheered for him and then abruptly left. I never wanted to experience that again!

The following years I found much smaller hunts but it was always the same, eggs just scattered on the ground, no hidden eggs while little kids search. I also found ones that adults don't hunt, I mean help. (Unless it's actually helping the little, little kids.) We also hide eggs in our yard for our son to find because he likes searching and then we switch - he hides them for one of us to find.

This year, my aunt invited us to her house for dinner and an egg hunt. I knew he would love this! I knew I would love this.

Photos from the Weekend

Sharing some of our weekend pictures. 

Field trip Friday -  my son got to milk a cow…

…and feed a baby calf.

Riding a bike without training wheels. 

Saturday - Kiddos before the Miracle Bunny Race. 

Baby girl and dad at the race. 

Momma and her two ducks. 

My son racing in the Bunny Hop. 

And instead of doing the 5K after the bunny race he chose to get his face painted and play. (Oh and please disregard all the junk in the garage.)

Baby girl. 

Sunday - Early Easter Basket

"Nana! You want me to wear what?!"

"I am TRYING to look at my book."

"Momma, I don't want this hat on!"

"I'll smile now that I don't have to wear that hat!"