All of us headed over to Tom and Linda's for Easter dinner this evening. It works out much better to have it on Saturday than Sunday for all. Before we headed over Reese and Riley had decorated plant pots for Linda, and of course Tom, for Easter. They turned out SUPER cute and will have to keep this idea in mind for future gifts!
Reese and Riley loved rough housing with the cousins.... especially when it came to the beaver puppet. Brian, Tara's husband, was a good sport and picked up each kid to have them see on top of the refrigerator! It was super cute, especially when Nicholas tried to help Reese and ended up getting caught under her dress.
After everyone left Linda gave Reese, Riley and Ashton their Easter gifts which consisted of shake and go cars, bubble blowing dogs, t-shirts, capri's and a dry erase Diego book! VERY cool! Thanks Tom/Linda!
Today the Panther Pals had their annual Easter party at the Community Center. We were all a wee bit bummed because even though it was 74 degrees on Sunday, it was a mere 31 today and with a good 3 inches of snow on the grounds.
As art projects the kids covered hollowed out egg shells {Tiffany, Melissa and I blew out the yokes and whites on Monday morning}, made adorable bunny bags that Chris came up with and decorated egg magnets! They had such a good time with all of that, especially since Ma {Linda} helped them with their eggs as I held Ashton {teething, and grumpy} as well as took photos. THANK YOU LINDA!!!!!!
We were able to have an awesome time as the Easter Bunny [Danielle Webel] came to visit the kids and they could have cared less that they had to do an Easter Egg Hunt within the center's halls.
Reese liked to see what all the other kids were doing instead of getting in gear and grabbing up the eggs.. but that's completely her personality it was just funny to see it in action. She was thrilled with the handful of eggs she did find as well as the goodies inside
Reese and Riley BEGGED to color Easter eggs today. We were crazy busy this weekend, but I figured that coloring them while Scott fixed dinner was perfect!
I was a wee bit apprehensive about doing them at the table, but just laying down the ground rules as far as what to touch and not to touch worked well. They knew that I was to help them get the eggs in and mostly out.... by the end they both could put the eggs into their cups and Reese was able to get hers out ok. Riley asked for me to help her.
I brought out the crayons and markers to let them color them before actually dunking them.... and realized that the kid I bought came with a clear wax crayon to decorate the eggs... cool right?! I thought so.... Reese couldn't understand that she would be able to see what she drew once she dunked the egg.... as in it was "Magic!" After I showed her one she yelled out "MAGIC!" and then she was happy to color with a crayon that she "can't see what I'm doing, Mommy!"
Their eggs turned out beautifully!
Reese and Riley also decorated larger paper eggs for Easter cards for the grand parents. They turned out super cute too!
FINALLY, the new session started and Reese is now in the swimming level that will challenge her. I was thrilled, though my heart sank at the beginning as the instructor said her name wasn't on the list, though he misunderstood when we said her name was Reese, not "Grace."
Reese did REALLY well with going under the water and starting to float, etc. I'm looking forward to Reese developing her swimming skills more this session!
Just when I thought that Reese's preschool class couldn't do anything cuter here came their Easter party! I got there with the other parents just as the kids were finishing up some of their art projects.
Reese showed me the cutest little "chick" she made with a hard boiled egg:
As the children finished their projects they then all lined up against the wall and sang "Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail" and when they would get to the part that says "hoping through the bunny trail" they would hop and turn around in a circle to then show that they had a cotton tail stuck where a bunny would have theirs. SO CUTE!
After the song the kids went to wash their hands and came back for their Easter egg hunt and snacks!
Reese was such an awesome big sister for when she got back to Ma's house she shared 1/2 of all her eggs with RILEY! Riley was so thrilled and kept saying "Oh thank you Reesey, thank you thank you!" followed by lots of "WOW!"s.
The kids and I ran some errands earlier this morning, so before lunch I promised the girls I'd take them to the park. They had such a good time going down the "rolling slide".... we would have stayed longer but there were several kids that were getting way out of control and down right dangerous.... so we'd move on to something else, only to have these kids follow. Where were the parents of these kids? Good question. Thankfully Reese and Riley were kinda oblivious to the whole thing, but that's what parents are there to do right?
We'll definitely be heading back here several times during the spring and summer, hopefully it won't be as crazy kid filled.
Reese had a field trip to a local gymnastics facility this morning. I wasn't sure what to expect as Reese has never done a formal gymnastics class before, but as always, she made me so proud, not to mention she had a BLAST!
The coaches from the gym and teachers from the preschool all divided the kids up into 3 big groups and they each then went to their own stations. I'm not sure if anyone has done Little Gym before, but it was a LOT like that. Lots of agility and movement, balancing and flexibility things.
The parents were up on the 2nd story balcony area looking down, I so wished we were able to be in the alligator pit with them!
Today was a beautiful day and we decided to spend it today as a family at the zoo! The girls had a wonderful time showing "Daddy" everything and all their favorite animals and things.
