Easter Egg Hunt

This year for Easter, we stayed home. Not because we had to because someone was sick. Not because there wasn't anywhere to go. But because we decided that that would be nice for a change. We were able to go to our own church, sleep in our own beds, and were able to relax on a holiday. Very nice :)

I've included a video of the kids on their Easter egg hunt that morning. They absolutely loved it - which we totally expected. The kids haven't eaten all of their plunder yet, but they got a good start on it that day. They love their candy or "nanny" as Aiden calls it! Yes, I am sure that Mikaela did not know that word when she was that young, but what do you do when the older one has something and you know that it must be something pretty tasty? You ask if you can have some too, and mommy and daddy might say yes. So Aiden has had his share of "nanny" for two holidays now (maybe three...) Haha!

Hope you enjoy seeing our morning:

Here are some pictures of decorating eggs:

The decorating process actually went really smoothly. I was afraid that Aiden was going to be too excited and not able to be contained, but since we had him color on the eggs with a crayon first, he didn't care so much that Daddy was doing the dipping part. Mikaela got to dip a few too. No one spilled and everyone had a turn. And here's what we ended up with...

Here are some pictures of Easter morning:

Aside from Mikaela complaining that her ear hurt (and we confirmed it was an ear infection when we went to the doctor early Monday morning), we had a wonderful holiday. It also made us realize that the kids are getting older every minute. Next month Mikaela will be four, and Aiden will be two in a couple months.

Where does the time go?

Butterflies at Oakland Mall

Today I took the kids to the Oakland Mall to visit their free butterfly exhibit. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, but I don't know how I would have taken pictures anyway because I was holding Aiden most of the time while we were in the actual exhibit. When we arrived and got our free tickets, we were told that the next 'tour' would not be until over an hour from then, but I decided it would be worth it, and I drove 20 minutes to see this, and had been wanting to go for over a week!

They said that we could do a craft and/or go play in the play area just outside until it was our time to go. So we headed over to the craft area which was bustling with kids (several school tours were there, which I did not know was going to be the case) and both Aiden and Mikaela got to color a picture of a butterfly. Then I cut them out for them and punched a hole in it's middle. With a few pieces of tape, a section of a cut drinking straw, and a string, the butterflies were rigged up to flap their wings. The one above is Aiden's and the one below is Mikaela's. Really fun, cute, and easy to do.



Then after that we headed to the play area. It consisted of a big long alligator shaped climber/slide and a curled up snake tunnel, a few frog sculptures, turtle sculptures, a humongous pink hippo, among other things to climb on and run around. The kids played on those for at least an hour and would have continued to do so if it hadn't been our time to go in the butterfly 'greenhouse.'

We were given some base rules before entering like - "Watch out that you don't step on any of them." "Don't swat at them if they land on you and you don't like it." "Don't pick them up by their wings." Etc. Etc. We were allowed to hold them after being properly instructed on how to pick them up the correct way.

Mikaela held at least three or four different ones. She would hold one for a while and then she would ask for me to help her put it down only to immediately ask again to hold another. She was really good - I thought maybe she would freak out and there would be an 'incident.' But 'twas not the case :)

Aiden so desperately wanted to hold one too, but he was just not as gentle and usually ended up scaring the poor things. But he did enjoy their fluttering all around him after he spooked them. One ended up landing on his shoe and he just didn't know what to do about that. He was a little frightened I think, but then later on he thought it was funny.

It was really warm in the little room. They had fruit and Gatorade feeding areas set up for the butterflies, and we were told that since that is not what their natural food looks like, they have a hard time finding it, unless they happen to land on it. So therefore, the ones eating were not fair game to pick up. After we were done, we were told to make sure no "hitch-hikers" had joined us, and we exited through the screen door to the outside busy world again.

The kids enjoyed one mini-merry-go-round ride and then it was off to the car. Aiden fell asleep in the car on the way home, but Mikaela chatted about our adventure the whole way back. The little guy was so pooped out he didn't even wake up when I pulled him out of the car. I knew pushing a nap for Mikaela would be pointless today since she was too excited so she got a snack and then got to do one of her favorite things - playing with Mommy's dollhouse (which will soon be hers....stayed tuned later in May for more on that!)

I hope they do this again next year - I would take them again!

Kamikaze Daddy

So lately, Daddy and the kids have been having fun building "airplanes" out of mega blocks (and some of them are quite impressive I must say). They love it when Daddy chases them with his plane and "dive-bombs" at them. Squeals and screams of delight echo throughout the house as he follows them up and down the stairs and around the house. They can't get enough (and Andy enjoys it too).

Here are a couple shots of one landing and then fueling up:

(if you were wondering...the tapping technique is key to a successful fill-up! ;)

Here are some other creations recently made in the Weller household as well:

(Don't worry - Andy didn't cry very long after Aiden demolished his extreme tower....)

Mmmmm.....what do I smell?

Cookies!

My kids love "helping" me in the kitchen, even when it would be easier to just do it myself. But we all love making cookies and muffins, and these two times Aiden helped out too. yum-o!

And here they are enjoying the fruits of their labor :)