Easter

 So I'm a little late with the Easter pictures.  I have been having to work almost every night after the kids go to bed which is leaving little time for anything else.  But we had a great Easter and here are some pics .

Hadley opening an egg from her basket

Madeleine checking out her basket.

Tommy and his basket

Madeleine - she went back a few decades to celebrate

Preparing for Easter Egg Hunt #1

Tommy slept through the Easter Egg Hunt

Collecting eggs... Madeleine found the most real eggs.  I think next year she might wise up and skip those like the older kids did.

Going though the loot

Cousins

Tommy's first Easter and his first Easter outfit of the day

More cousins

Easter outfit #2... he had a little accident in the first one.  This is an old t-shirt of Uncle Dave's

Family Picture... tommy is in outfit #3 at this point. I  knew there was a reason I packed another nice outfit for him.

Preparing for Easter Egg Hunt #2

Searching for eggs

Playing in Uncle Todd's old cozy coupe

Trying out the new beach towels

Hilton Head here we come!

Summer is here!

Summer is here or at least it feels like it.  We did an Easter Egg Hunt today at Viz and it was very warm.  The last few years the Easter egg hunts have been very chilly.   The girls had fun hunting for eggs although it really isn't much a hunt since they are all laid openly in the grass.  Hadley sprinted to the very end of the field before she started picking up eggs.  Madeleine on the other hand filled her basket very quickly.  The only problem was all the chocolate in the eggs had melted.  It was very messy.  No one planned on 90 degree weather.

We also went on a bike ride this weekend.  Jim's mom came over to watch Tommy so I could go too.  It was a nice way to start the weekend.  We are looking forward to when Tommy is old enough to ride along too.  Although that will mean I will have to start towing Madeleine behind me.

Last weekend Jim and I headed south to Cancun with his work.  It was a our first trip away other than a night here and there.  It was so nice to have a few days to relax.  I loved sitting on the beach, reading a book, having a pina colada.   The kids stayed with my parents and had a good time.

Cancun

Stop at the park on the Saturday morning bike ride

Swinging

I think they were playing monster at this point

Picture with the Easter Bunny... Hadley was not scared at all this year.  I however am still slightly scared of the Easter Bunny.  That face just does not look friendly.

Hadley in the pink on the far end of the field

Showing off their eggs

Tommy and Jim

Cotton Candy!

Spring is here

It sure feels like spring is here and I am very happy to see it.  It reached 80 today and was light until 7:30.  It was so nice to play outside when we got home.  I even got a walk in with Tommy while Jim washed the car and the girls played.  I'm also hoping Tommy doesn't realize we lost an hour.  I would really like to move his sleeping time to 7:30 to 6:30 instead of 6:30 to 5:30.  Day 1 went well except he fell asleep briefly on the walk and didn't want to go to bed at 7:30.

The girls are wrapping up the winter sports they chose to do.  Madeleine had her last ice skating class on Saturday.  She is starting to glide and can skate around the rink.  Hadley has one more week of soccer.  She tells us that it is too long but last week had a different coach and enjoyed the whole class.  Amazing how much difference the coach can make.  We have a few weeks off and then t-ball starts for Madeleine. This will be her first team sport experience and Jim is going to help coach (thanks to me offering for him).   It is a group of kids that she will be in kindergarten with next year which will be nice.

Saturday afternoon we were able to take advantage of the nice weather.  I dropped Jim and the girls off at Creve Couer lake and then drove over to St. Charles where I walked along the river with Tommy.  Jim and the girls rode over and then we had dinner.

Some recent pictures

The girls first Steak N Shake experience.  They loved it but who doesn't love Steak N Shake.

Hadley at ballet class

Tommy checking out grass.  He was very fascinated by it.

Madeleine bouncing at Monkey Joes.

The girls did their own face painting at Messy Play at their school.  That was a big hit. 

Tommy using the princess phone to make some calls.

Bike ride on Saturday

Along the Missouri River in St. Charles 

Tommy enjoying being outside

Tommy loves to play with this dollhouse.  He really enjoys flushing the play toilet over and over again.  This is what happens when you have two sisters.

Hadley is 3!

The past week has been a lot of fun.  It started last Friday with a surprise 70th birthday party for Butch.  Uncle Dave came in for the party too.  Then we had Hadley's 3rd birthday party on Saturday.  It was at the place she is playing soccer at.  They have four large inflatable slides/bounce houses and the soccer field.  Everyone had so much fun bouncing that no one even ventured near the soccer field.  It was a really fun party.  Sunday, I took the kids to the Butterfly house while Jim worked on the basement.  We also went to Steak n Shake with Poppy and PaPa.  Monday evening it snowed and we were able to go sledding.  The girls loved it and would giggle the whole time they were going down the hill.  Then Tuesday was Hadley's real birthday.   Tommy stayed home with Jim's parents and we took the girls out to dinner before dance.  It was watch week at dance so then Jim and I both watched the girls.  Thursday night the girls had a sleepover with PaPa and Poppy.  Today was Hadley's soccer, Madeleine's ice skating and Madeleine went to a birthday party.  

It is hard to believe Hadley is already 3.  She loves to play dress up and baby.  Pretty much as soon as she gets up every morning she wants to put on a costume and pretend she is a baby or take care of her babies. She loves dancing around the house and snuggling.  She is definitely a Daddy's girl. 

The Birthday Girl holding her presents from Madeleine.  She loves Ariel and Pocahontos and now she has their friends to snuggle up with.

Tommy was the only one who played soccer at the party.  I can't believe what a big boy he looks like in this picture.  He is close to being mobile and I think he is really going to be a handful once he crawls.

Madeleine climbing up one of the slides

Hadley in the special birthday chair

Blowing out her candles

Everyone enjoying their cupcakes

Hadley's new easel from Poppy and PaPa

The boys on Valentine's Day, a.k.a Hadley's Birthday

Everyone playing together.  Tommy loves to watch everything his sisters do.

January Fun

This has been an odd January.  We have gone from 60s to snow, 50s to freezing rain.  We have not had any decent snows yet though.  I hope we at least get one good snow this year.  The girls would be so excited.  The other week we had a dusting which caused me to have an hour and half drive to work instead of a 17 minute drive (very icy).  They were so excited to play in it.  This weekend started off with freezing rain for the Friday drive home.  Our driveway and walkway were like ice skating rinks. I did still take the girls up to their school though for movie night.  It was Monsters Inc.  I think Madeleine liked it but Hadley was too busy snacking and visiting with her friends to really watch much.  This morning we had Madeleine's ice skating lesson.  I took Hadley ice skating while Madeleine had her class.  That mostly consisted of Hadley holding onto a bucket and me holding onto Hadley and pushing her and the bucket around.  At least I got some exercise.  Next weekend Hadley starts indoor soccer so our Saturday mornings are going to be busy!

Enjoying the snow.   Madeleine's favorite thing was going down the slide in the back.  She must have slid 5 ft in the snow past the slide.

They also enjoyed making snow angels which quickly changed to making snow Mary and snow Jesus.

More snow fun.. so far this was our big snow of the year..

It was really cold!

Getting the gear on and off took a lot of time

Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder, aka, Hadley and Thomas.  In the last few weeks Thomas has played the role of Flynn Ryder, Jesus, Joseph, the King, the Prince and Flounder.

Thomas loves to sit up and play now.

Hadley brought home the class pet this weekend.  This is Elephant meeting Thomas.  Now we have to write a story about Elephant's adventures at our house.

Thomas' new toy.  We have never had one of these but Thomas loves to bounce.  He had so much fun today in this.

Hadley and me ice skating.   She didn't want to stop but my back certainly did.