Wow, these last few weeks have flown by! Do I always say that?? Maybe it's just this stage in life, but it goes ridiculously fast! My little man is almost 4 and my baby girl is now a toddler!! But oh well, I'll stop complaining because life is good :)
If you know me very well, you'll know that I'm really into recycling~ so earth day was super fun! Here were some of our activities:
Watering flowers: "Mowing the lawn":And of COURSE, recycling (you will appreciate this Stefanie :)) !
This was a big moment for Ellie: first ponytail :)She's such a big girl, and likes to do everything herself, including dressing....it doesn't always go well...Around our house, you never know what kind of excitement dinnertime might bring. On one particular night during dinner, Caleb decided to be naughty and earned himself some 'bedroom time'. So we asked him to go up to his room and shut the door and to come out when he was ready to be sweet again. So, he ran up to his room, tears galore, and flung open the door and threw himself into his room....we heard a large "BANG" and then he started crying even harder- "my head! my head!". He was in such a fit of emotion that he ran himself right into the wall and got a huge goose egg on his forehead. Needless to say, that ended the 'bedroom time' and he was instead lying on the kitchen floor with an icepack for the remainder of dinner....so much for that attempt at discipline...haha

We have had a lot of fun at the Great Mall lately~ they have a HUGE train exhibit with tons of model trains and little ones the kids can play with
We also discovered that they have a firefighters museum- They got some good practice for when we went with the Brooks' family to the YMCA fun day. They got to climb around in the firetruck, hold the fireman's coat and gear, and ask questions. Caleb's question was: "Excuse me Mr. Fireman! I have a question! Is that your coat?" hah...
We went inside for a while to do storytime and play games with the other kids. We all know that our kids don't know a stranger. As we were walking out, Caleb saw an older man with a bag of Cheetos and said, "Hey! May I have one of those??" He totally gave one to him, and he ate it....that's our Caleb!
Afterwards, as we were all starving, kids melting down, of COURSE we have to pause to fix a flat tire! Good thing we had the manly men with us~ Jessie and I would have resorted to getting the firemen to help us if we were alone!
We also had a super fun visit with our friends Andy and Alli. Caleb and Ellie had a blast playing with Mason and Brody :) Pizza, friends, toys- it doesn't get much better than that!Trip to Wonderscope with Avalie, Emmie, and Reese:Caleb's friend Rance, who lives a few houses down, got a pretty sweet birthday present this year, and we had to go check it out! An Escalade Powerwheels!I must say, this is a pretty sweet ride...and really FAST- it could literally take a person out! It was hilarious to watch. The license plate reads: LVNLRG! LOL!!!As many of you know, our kids are early risers, especially Caleb! He often sneaks into our room in the morning and wants to snuggle and read his library books in our bed~ who can resist this? (and it buys us some extra sleep time, which is worth every minute!!)
Caleb had his second go-round with the Children's Joyful Noise Choir at church. I think he was more interested in the musicians than actually singing, but it was precious!Palm Sunday was so much fun!
After church that day, we attended a benefit event for the Newhouse Women's Shelter- it was a cake contest and 'bake-off'. These are real cakes!!! It was amazing:Barbeque cake?Some of my favorites:The Friday and Saturday before Easter, we went to Emporia to stay with Grandpa Fred and Grandma Sally- always a highlight!Grandma and Grandpa's famous bear tent:Princess of the Castle:Off to the park:Caleb impressed all of us with his climbing skills:And of course, some Easter goodies!I hope that you all had a blessed Easter. Our family had one of our best Easters yet. Not only was the weather nice, but we had the opportunity to have lunch and to spend the day with several friends from church! It was a day we will not forget, as we were truly touched by the generosity of our friends.
Delicious, delicious lunch!!!Sweet Annika organized several games for the little ones!Easter egg hunt! Ellie was totally into it this year, and had to open each one as she found them:
Caleb's buddy Marcus- they had a blast playing Legos!! Marcus made Caleb feel SO special that day:Caleb joined in on the girls' tea party! LOL
Workin' it! More tea please! Could it get any better? YES! A real live Easter bunny came out to play:And dessert! Of course, Ms. Hedstrom's tasted the best!
During lent this year, we made a set of "Resurrection Eggs" and the kids LOVED it! (Here is the link to the pattern we used: htp://cullensabcs.com/easter-story-resurrection-eggs-activity/)
It was touching to see Caleb tell the story; even Ellie joined in, waving her hands and shouting "Hosanna!" when Caleb told about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the donkey!

As our celebration of Easter Sunday still lingers in our hearts, we have reminders all around of God's new life! We have so much to be thankful for, including this new little life~