Of all the windows in the house...

Apparently this one has the best view.

From Mom

Dear G,

This past week storms have been raging through our area. And not during the day, but at night when we are sleeping. The thunder has been deafening and the lightning seriously is brighter than if every single light in the house was on. I go down to your room to check on you because it certainly woke me up. And there you are, sleeping peacefully. Not a flinch. You don't even roll over.

I'm so so lucky!

Love,
Mom

Easter morning

Happy Easter!
Naturally, this would be the first day in a long time he would sleep in!
So our hunt didn't get rolling until 9am!!
You read that?
9 AM!!

The Easter Bunny needs a lesson on hiding stuff. This was way too easy!

And he just had to bring a chocolate bunny, didn't he?

 

I absolutely LOVE the bed head in the morning.

Although I think it's about time for yet another haircut.

 

After finding most of the eggs, a quick breather by Daddy was needed in order to scope the living room for the rest.

Twenty seconds later, he was off to find more!

I think I spy one you missed...

 

 Nope! Found it! 

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, gets by this kid.

Checking out the goods.

Whatcha got there, peanut?

Mmmmm, jellybeans!

See this box with a chocolate bunny?

See the look on this 2 year old face?

 

The bunny and box never stood a chance!

Easter breakfast?? 

Why not.

What else did EB bring you, Gavin?

Elefun! 

Yes!

We love games!

The elephant trunk blows butterflies for you to catch in your net.

We are working on actually moving our body to catch them.

Silly butterflies won't flutter down into his outstretched net.

Darn you butterflies!

Happy Easter, all!
We are now off to the grandparents.

Egg tiiiiiime!

After the Tree Farm and a nap, we headed to the quarry for a special egg hunt and egg coloring!
You didn't have to tell these kids twice to go hunt!

They wanted to trade baskets.
So my son is carrying around a pink Minnie Mouse basket.
Who cares what the basket looks like, Mom. This one holds more eggs!
Genius!

Look at them go! Almost looks G has pushed P over and is launching himself over her to get to the next egg, doesn't it? He didn't. Trust me, no one was hurt and pushed in the collecting of eggs.

They are such buddies.
They even plot together.

You go this way...I'll go that way.

 

Look at all these eggs!

Heading back to check out their loot.

Coloring some Easter pictures outside while we set up the coloring station. The temperature continued to be wonderful into the evening. Yes!

The Easter Bunny is coming tonight!

Such artists :)

This year we tried a new coloring method by using tissue paper and water. All that was needed was some pieces of bright colored tissue paper, a dish of water and some hard-boiled eggs.

Dip the pieces in water and then "paper-mache" the egg.

The idea seemed genius to start, but quickly turned into a bowl of wet paper and slopped on squishy eggs. I mean, I had to squeeze excess water off them before setting them up to dry. Perhaps, it wasn't as an easy idea as I hoped.

But they had fun!

And the colors did indeed transfer onto the egg.
But not nearly as bright as I had imagined.

So we ran with another idea I learned this year and used some whisks.
No dropped eggs here!

Independent people were able to color eggs themselves!

What fun we had today!

Country Lane Tree Farm

Once again, we were able to make it to the Country Lane Tree Farm in Genoa, OH. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen this year since they were only offering 3 days. Last weekend was cold and yucky out and so we passed. But I saw that this weekend was going to be gorgeous, so I quickly called to see if any time slots were left. And yes, time slots were ALL wide open! So I picked noon. There is a hayride every hour to the Christmas tree patch, where they have plastic eggs scattered everywhere to find. However, because of the inches and inches of rain we've gotten the last few days, the egg hunt was held in a barn this year. Even more exciting, it was in a straw maze. 

We arrived minutes after noon due to being stopped by a train literally FEET from the farm. So by the time we parked and walked up, the hayride was pulling away. I'm talking we missed it by 1-2 minutes. Easy peasy, they told us to jump on the 1:00 ride instead and to go eat and check out the farm until then. While checking in, this fella walks up nearby and says "Hey, check me out! I like you guys!" "Look.At.Me!" I had to wonder...Do peacocks charge? He was real pretty, pictures with a barn shadow don't do much good for beauty, but he was very cool to look at....and then we backed away...

 We checked out these guys. I like to refer to them as big furry slugs. They just look so odd to me when lying down. (with their heads up and legs tucked nicely underneath) At least the picture I have show the legs outstretched.  They seemed interested in us too. 

 Next up were the silly swans. They too, were enjoying the beautiful day by soaking up rays from their swim tub.

 And obviously the highlight of the farm....the PLAYGROUND! Yep, we drove nearly thirty minutes and spent fifteen bucks so we could play on some old McDonalds playground equipment. 

But it's tradition! (well, it's year two out here...it might become tradition)

 And the sun was shining on us all afternoon!

 Not quite enough to dry up all the mud from the weeks worth of rain though.

 So we played a bit, then went in for lunch. Hotdogs, applesauce, chips and Capri Suns. Yes, we DID pay money to drive out this way and eat the exact same thing we might have had at home today :)

 (but at home we wouldn't have been able to feed a cow)

Gavin was jumpy when the cows leaned in for the bread so he would throw it over their heads. We now know that cows do not fetch bread. If it's not out of your hand, it's gone.

 As expected, this was as close to the poor Easter Bunny sweating in his fur as we would go. 

 (at home we wouldn't have run through this straw maze looking for eggs)

(or GIANT bubbles to blow)

(or bunnies to pet) 

 (and we sure don't have a merry-go-round at home)

Happy day-before Easter everyone!

Might have been a tad bit muddy, but the temperature was perfect!