Early Easter Fun

Since it's spring break & because the big kids are out of school we were able to explore our creative side with some fun & tasty Easter creations over at the Rener's with Ava, Caroline, Mary Claire, Sydney, & Maddy. And Aunt Joy & Aunt Sarah of course...and Rachel stopped by for awhile, too. I hadn't really prepped Matt at all before we went over there because usually when I tell him we're going to go see his cousins or Ava he freaks out he's so excited & wants to see them RIGHT NOW. So, when he walked in the door yesterday he was surprised and very pleased to see all those girls sitting at the table decorating plastic eggs. When it was Matt's turn to dye his second egg he chose the color green (the 1st time it was pink) and with a thud and a splash his egg dropped into the dye and made a horrible cracking sound. So reckless he is unlike all the girls who ever so gently lowered their eggs into the water. Sigh. Stickers were put on eggs, duckies were put on cards, ceramic eggs were artfully painted, and then it was time for lunch. Guess who was the first one to eat? Yep, Matt. While the little ones napped, we baked sugar cookies and let the big girls frost and decorate them. The candy bowls were quickly emptied, icing was licked, and many cookies were consumed in the process. My favorite were Caroline's and you might see why. Her cookies were piled high with frosting and covered in a thick blanket of sprinkles and there were so many candy eggs nestled on top of all that that they kept wanting to fall off. More is always better when sugar is concerned.

Matt then woke up from his nap to find all the girls lined up in the window getting their toenails painted. I thought he might be interested enough to go and sit with them at least and perhaps ask to have his painted too, but he was content to watch them from the chair & cut up fruit.

High on sugar and perhaps the nail polish fumes, the kids ran around in the backyard. That evening Matt got his second bath of the week with a lady-friend; this time it was Ava. They played in there until the water turned cold.

The kids went nite-nite and the adults enjoyed some Chili's take-out and Lost. Dude!!! That show is crazy.

The other day Alicia had a playgroup at her house and made either the grave mistake or brilliant choice (depending on how you look at it) to provide lunch for us all. Feed them and they will come; I've never seen a bigger group of mommies & kids in one place! It was a good time. And with all that yummy food there Matt decided he'd rather lunch on pretzels and fruit snacks. Ugh.