Easter Bunny Cometh

But, why, OH WHY, does he cometh so early? I really shouldn't complain though, 7:40AM is pretty late for Grady. And the poor kid had been awake for at least 15 minutes before this, but he was singing to himself in his crib, so we left him there until Cole woke up too.

Those 15 minutes does help us feel more rested, but as you can see here and further down in a picture of me the rearing of little ones does not make us look pretty.

Check out the eggs they decorated at the Contos Academy last Friday.

So, I mentioned the Bunny came. Indeed he did! Thanks Bunny for the loot.

Bunny must have his fingers on the pulse of our growing pains, because he left a note addressing a major problem we have around here.

Don't worry, that's not a small furry animal attacking Cole, it's just my hair, pre-make up and hair doing.

G-baby makes those ears look good.

Cole did not care to wear the ears, so I showed him how harmless it is. See? Momma wore them and survived.

And then we went outside to blow bubbles. Bubbles. OOOOH, bubbles!

Turns out we weren't the only family members partaking in bubble blowing. Here are three of our favorite cousins, taken at their house outside of Knoxville.  I bet the three of them can whip up a mean bubble storm.  In the coming weeks two of these three have birthdays, and I just can't believe how quickly time has gone by. It feels like yesterday that I was speeding to Knoxville the night Greg was born. More on that in a few weeks.

And if you're wondering, yes, I will be blogging about Easter all week. I'm not that devout, I just have a lot of really good pictures to share.

Easter Warm-Up

We knew the Bunny was coming, and we also knew our boys would not have a clue what do to with the eggs Bunny was going to hide all over our backyard. Luckily we live sammiched between two neighborhoods, and each of these neighborhoods were having egg hunts the day before Easter. An excellent opportunity to teach the boys some egg hunting.

So, after a few cranky AM hours, we set off to our park for Hunt #1. 

About 15 minutes later, we were done. Hunt # 1 was a large hunt, with lots of kids. Lots. Let's just say we live in a "breeding zone", 'cause there are kids everywhere. They did have the field divided into a few smaller sections for different age ranges, and Cole and Grady both quickly got into picking up eggs and putting them in their baskets. Cole even got another little boy to give 'donate' his eggs into Cole's basket. Thanks, dude!

With that many kids, the hunt was over before we knew it. We did a quick mood assessment and decided everyone was still in good enough spirits to move on to Hunt #2. We learned a long time ago that our plans can never be rigid enough to not include a little 'downtime' should a certainly two somebodies not be in a good mood. 

But the chocolate put all in a good mood, and we walked to the other neighborhood. The weather was perfect for outdoor activities, and we all oohed and aaaahed over the  GEEN TEEEES & PINKT FLOOOWAHS. 

Hard to believe they're so big. When Keith turned the stroller around so I could see the boys and take a picture, my mind flashed back to this day, when we took them on their first walk.

 I loved this vine. Anyone know what it is? Clematis is my guess.

 And 5 minutes later, we were at our next hunt. This was a much kinder and gentler hunt, with just a few kids, and shockingly enough, they are all well behaved. We had several minutes before the hunt started, so while the parents chatted, the boys grew anxious. They know knew that there was chocolate and candies waiting in those eggs, and they spied a few eggs peeking out of grass patches, and dammit, they were ready! 

Grady took advantage of the wait time to stare down his opponents. Don't be taking his eggs, Ms. Harper!

 Cole is much more of a nervous wait-er, and was wringing his basket instead.

 Then finally everyone was there and ready to hunt. Some [other] parents wanted a group shot of all the kids. Never a good idea. I've never heard a parent of twins or any kids under 3 say "ooooh. We have a major event here where they kids know they can get candy. Let's have them stand next to other kids they hardly know while a dozen or so parents stare at them and take pictures". It just never works out like you think it will. Unless, of course, the picture you were going for is what you see below. Me, trying to get Cole to stand with the other kids, and Grady giving his ever-present glare. I hope this makes some parent's Easter scrapbook extra special.

 We finally got the go-ahead to hunt, and Cole squealed and ran. Egg-t-s!!

 While his brother went down low, Cole spied something in the tree.

Turns out it was a really cute doggie egg. Cole apparently thinks there is something wrong with these, because he picked up two of them during the hunt, and each time he brought them to me with a look of disgust. He would not put them in his basket. Egg snob.

Dada and Grady scored big in the fufu grass. That first Bandito can shake a leg when he's on the hunt for chocolate. He doesn't add the "t" to the end of egg like his brother does, but Grady does sport a British-like accent and he calls them egg-ah.

With more space to move around and fewer kids, this hunt lasted a good while, and the boys had a blast.

After doing a quick edit of the candy, [really, who puts Jawbreakers in a little kids egg hunt?] several of the families picnicked in the park area.

It was a great start to our Easter weekend. Next up for us was a whole family nap, and if you've been reading this blog, you know what only made the day all the better for me. Tomorrow, we talk about the Bunny's arrival.

The Half-Schells

Last weekend, before we went to Evan's party, we were in Athens visiting the Schells. The Schell's [pictured below with us on our wedding day] are two professors who live in Athens who are near and dear to us. They're a blend of adopted parents, mentors and friends. And they're both professors, so we sometimes refer to them as The Professors or lately, just The Schells. And because we spend so much time at their house, they jokingly call us The Half-Schells, 'cause we're like family, but not. Because of this connection we have with them, we asked them to be the officiants at our wedding, and that's why they are in full academic regalia here.

This past weekend only the female half of the Schells was home, and the boys took the opportunity to monopolize Barbi. Her given name is the more formal version of that name, but its not nearly as easy to say as Barbi, so that's what they called her. 

We all went to a favorite lake and nature trail area in our favorite college town, and Barbi led the way on the boardwalk that crosses the lake.

 We stopped and peered out, and Cole insists he saw a frog.

 

And rested with Dada on a table. Dada claims he used to come out here to study when we were in school, but while we were there this particular Saturday many a cute coed ran by in shortie shorts, so I'm questioning how much "studying" happened.

 It was shockingly cold our at the lake, so after a quick walk around the trail we went in search of some of this.

And we found this heavenly beverage at a really funky place where they roast the beans for the coffee chain above. If you've not been to Athens, you might not recognize it, but there are several locations of this particular establishments in Athens. I, even before my sleep-deprived, kids-having state of constant fatigure, would go to one of the locations to study during college. There were no cute guys running around in shorts, though. 

I loved the funky vibe of this place.

The adults got lattes, the boys got water in their sippies. They did enjoy taking the stirring stick and dipping it into the foam and then licking the stick. A few fingers even made it into the coffee and got rubbed over faces, as you can see below.

 

 Barbi wasn't so sure about the constant flash of the camera.

 We had a great time chatting, but from time to time Cole and I get distracted.

 But we're easily brought back to conversation. Or I am, I should say.Cole is too engrossed in licking latte foam.

Here's the look I usually get from Keith when I lose my concentration.

We're heading back to Athens in a few week so we can also see the other half of the Schells, but we sure had a good time with Barbi. Cole did too, really. He was just busy taking in all the funkiness of the place.

The Third Bandito

This past weekend the third Bandito (see him here, here and here) turned 2. Happy birthday Evan! 

Our clan of four spent the night in Athens on Friday [more on that later] and headed to Madison mid-day Saturday to partake in the celebration. We’ve learned what a party is, and we’ve learned we like what a party is. And we, as parents, hoped that the love of parties was enough to keep Cole and Grady happy during what should be naptime. Could have been great, but could just as easily turn into meltdown city in a hurry.

Thankfully the boys cooperated, and a good time was had by all. Aunt Angela and Uncle Ken decided on a racecar theme for the party. See how generous I am on this blog? Ken gets credit for picking the theme, too. Grammie gets credit for the cake.

While we waited for all the guests to arrive we entertained ourselves by playing with some of Cousin Evan’s toys. He had a really fun beach ball, and thankfully Grampie is a good ball throwing buddy. And he knows his colors, too.

 

 

And Grammie is an excellent snacktime conversationalist. She’ll even go get your food for you and bring it to you as you lounge on the couch.

Once all the guests arrived, it was time for party hats. Evan got his on and did a little dance.

And Cole, under the supervision of Miss Amanda, got his on as well. Here Cole is giving Amanda what I call the forehead hug. The kid loves rubbing his forehead against other people’s. He is rather different, I agree. You might recall that Grady monopolized Amanda at the boys' bday party, but this day Cole claimed her attention as his. Grady looked on after he made it very clear that he did not want to wear the hat.

 

  What? You want a better picture of that cute cupie face? Ok.

Alrighty, enough self indulgence, lets’ get back to the birthday boy. He did a great job blowing out his candles.

Then, with the help of some older party attendees the kids went at the racecar shaped pinata. Amanda's brothers Adam and Alex helped.

And that help was needed, because Cole and Evan did their best, but didn't put any type of dent in the pinata.There may have been a skirmish over yellow bat possesion between the second and third banditos, but Aunt Angela did a fine job refereeing. 

Seeing that it was a birthday party, there was some present opening. Dada was in charge of the camera at this point, and all we have to document that part of the party was not the presents, but Grady chilling with his GG. A while back we all decided that we would call Keith's mom Grammie. We had been calling her Gran GG for a while, but decided Grammie would just be easy. Grady objects, and still calls her GG. He won't be told what to do!

The picture below is too funny not to include, sorry Amanda! The look you see on Amanda's face is Cole & Grady's kryptonite. They laugh hysterically when she does this, and I think its part of the reason they are so attached to her. If only we could move closer to Camp Keller, I feel like we'd have an excellent babysitter on our hands.

Remember how I was worried about the boys not napping and being cranky? Turns out they did just fine for the party, but Keith and I have witness many a skipped nap that resulted in a hellish drive home. So saying that we were apprehensive about the drive home is an understatement. And Grady did give us a good 5 minutes of grumbling and wailing, and prompty fell asleep. Score! Cole fell asleep a few minutes later, leaving me and Keith to drive to our next stop in a cake and ice cream induced haze.