Easter Continues...

After spending the morning with Lee's family, we dropped in to see our friends the Bouchers.  The girls ran off some sugar in the backyard with Ethan and Owen, as all of the kids enjoyed the great weather, while Lee and I socialized with Janet, Kevin and their parents.  We left the Bouchers as they were about to eat and headed to my parents' house, for a little down time and then a nice, low-key but yummy, Easter dinner with my parents.  And when it was all over, Elizabeth and Emily scored some Easter presents from Grammy and Grandpa and Auntie Kathy, who dropped by as we were leaving.

Elizabeth, Ethan, Owen and Emily - forever friends.

Owen

Elizabeth and Ethan

Emily

Blowing bubbles at Grammy and Grandpa's.

Now these are some tired kids!!

Easter Egg-travaganza

As we do every year, we spent Easter morning celebrating with Lee's extended family.  The food was plentiful and spectacular (as always) and the gifts were ridiculous (as always)!!  Seriously, you would think that it was Christmas, the girls got so much stuff!  They are extraordinarily lucky to have such generous aunts and uncles!  After opening all of their stuff, they headed outside to with Grammy and their cousins to enjoy the beautiful weather and blow bubbles!  More photos here.

Emily, Elizabeth, Lucia and Nolan begin the gift opening frenzy.

Lucia was perfectly happy with the grass in the buckets - she didn't actually need gifts!

Lucia snuggles with Natalia.

Emily loves her bunny ears from Aunt Margie.

Elizabeth anxiously awaits Aunt Denise's return to the house.

Tearing into just some of the presents from Aunt Denise.

Emily loves Goldfish!

Chasing bubbles in the backyard.

Emily loves bubbles too!

Lucia is in heaven!!

An Early Visit from the Easter Bunny

Because we spend Easter in New Hampshire, the Easter Bunny makes a special effort every year to get to our house a day early, to make sure that the girls have the chance to enoy their Easter baskets before making the trip north.  This year, they got a lot of great loot from the Easter Bunny - but no chocolate!  He must have noticed all of the chocolate and candy that they got during the egg hunt the night before and decided to leave chocolate for other kids!

The girls' Easter baskets.

Elizabeth is always the first to notice things....

Emily was thrilled to receive Thomas, to add to their train set.

Both girls got a Princess Tiana nightgown.

Elizabeth shows off her Fancy Nancy book.

First Annual Egg Hunt

Last year, Lee and I put together a little egg hunt for the girls around the house and they really loved it.  This year, with the weather cooperating, we invited seven other children to join them in their hunt and hid close to 250 eggs around our yard.  The kids had a great time searching for the eggs and were incredibly generous to each other, making sure that everyone had enough loot - without any adult intervention or prompting!  This is such a great crew of kids - generous and loving toward each other, kind to younger children - it is really great to watch.  And their parents are pretty fun to hang out with as well!  We hope to make this an annual tradition and the adults have already started dropping hints about having an adult egg hunt after the little ones are done!

The chaos before the egg hunt.

Emily on the run.

Devin finds some eggs.

The twins on the hunt.

  

Tavio seems to be satisfied with just one egg.

Elizabeth and Victoria on the run for more.

Post egg hunt bliss.

The kids empty their eggs and trade loot.

Dinner.

Special Persons Day/Easter Celebration

Last week, Emily's preschool celebrated Easter and Special Persons Day.  We had lunch together and there were various crafts set up around the room (which Emily did with Marie) and the kids sang a little Easter song with Pastor to kick things off.

Singing with her classmates.

She's such a happy girl.

Love that peanut butter and fluff!!

Mardi Gras

Last week, Elizabeth's school hosted a family night with a Mardi Gras theme.  The organizers (Apryl, et al) did a great job and the kids had a great time.  They finally got the chance to wear their Halloween costumes (the school Halloween party was cancelled due to an H1N1 outbreak), which they really loved.  The food was great and the games were tons of fun.  The girls were completely wiped out when they got home - always a sign of a great time!

Laura, one of the terrific organizers.

Elizabeth always lends Emily a comforting arm.

Chaney and Elizabeth

Doing the Macarana.....

Elizabeth in her mardi gras mask.

Emily was somehow able to snag an extra special mask.

First Race of the Season

Last Saturday, I ran the East Haddam April Fools 5K.  It ended up being much colder than anyone expected (not even 25 degrees at race time), but it was sunny and the cold actually made the race fast.  That is, until the last 1/2 mile, which was a long and steady uphill, until about twenty yards before the finish line.  The course itself was the most challenging I've run (quite hilly), so I was just happy to finish strong (no PR) - many people had to stop and walk the last 1/4 mile.  Elizabeth also participated in the Kids Race, finishing third and happy to get a gold ribbon and a gold medal.  She was quite pleased with herself!!

It was freezing at the start.

The 20 yards of non-hill at the end.

While I was running the 5K, Elizabeth (far left) ran the kids race.

Crossing the finish line.

To the victor go the spoils!

The runners - post race.

The Dentist

Emily recently made her first visit to the dentist.  She has resisted going for almost a year - refusing even to sit in the chair during Elizabeth's last visit.  So this time around, we brought out the big guns - we told her that (1) if she didn't get her teeth cleaned, she couldn't have dessert for 6 months (or until the next appointment); (2) that Elizabeth would sit in the chair with her; and (3) that she could bring Lambie for moral support.  As it turns out, Lambie was enough.  She did a great job, as the pictures below demonstrate.

In the dentist chair, all by herself.

She even smiled while getting her teeth cleaned.

Checking out her pearly whites.

Not to be forgotten, Elizabeth got her teeth cleaned too.

Why I Don't Wear My iPod When I Run

Did you hear about the guy that was running on the beach and was killed by a plane that had to make an emergency landing - he was wearing his iPod, so he never heard the plane.  Crazy, huh?  I mean, what are the odds?  Apparently, higher than you might think.  Saturday afternoon, a small plane made an emergency landing in a field about 1/4 mile from our house - smack dab in the middle of my running route.  And that, my friends, is why I don't wear my iPod when I run!!