Easter Morning

It has only taken me a week to get around to these photos from the morning of Easter. We sure had a great morning. I don't ever want my kids to grow up and leave that fun exciting morning stage for all the holidays.


And here is a short video of the morning!

Another Easter Picture

Here is one more Easter picture (this time Owen has his eyes open!)

My Boys

I just love these 3 boys. After all the fun of having 3 girls, I almost couldn't imagine that I would ever have boys, but I knew I wanted some -- just so I could see their Daddy with his boys.

3 girls, 2 boys, who needs a royal wedding? My dreams already came true!

Today in Instagram

Adam and I worked in the yard putting out more grass seed and getting it all ready so that when it started raining (as it was forecast) we would be ready.

It never rained. Instead we had to go out and water it all.

Then we made homemade birdfeeders (directions here). It was a lot of fun and very, very easy. Tomorrow we will hang them all over the tree by the window so that hopefully we can sit inside and watch the birdies feast!


After the girls got home from school we all rushed around and got everything done. And I mean EVERYTHING -- all the homework, all the laundry, every room cleaned up, the garbage taken out -- we were done by 5:00 (why can't we do that everyday?????)

Why did we do it? So we could go into town for 31 cent baskin robbins day and 31 cent Joe's Pizza day! How often can you feed a family of 7 dinner and dessert for $4.65????




I even let the kids go back and get seconds of icecream.

Then we went to the library to return books and listen to a visiting author -- Katherine Paterson -- she wrote Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob, have I loved and many other books that I love. It was so nice to hear about her and her writing. (the kids lasted only a few minutes, but thankfully they just headed to the children's room and found books and played on the computers).

Baby Chicks and some big Chickens

Today we went to our friend's home to see her baby chicks. We have gone to see her chickens each spring here in CT. (Here is a link to last year)

Today was also the hottest day so far! 80 degrees! I worked in the yard and had to force myself not to turn on the AC. I was reminded of this quote from the witch of blackbird pond.

"All at once Kit was aware that this New England, which had shown her the miracle of autumn and the white wonder of snow, had a new secret in store. This time it was a subtle promise, a tantalizing hint of beauty still withheld, a beckoning to her spirit to follow she knew not where. She had forgotten that summer would come again, that the green would spread over the frozen fields, that the earth would be turned up to the sun and the seed sown, and that the meadows would renew themselves. Was this what strengthened these New Englanders to endure the winter, the knowledge that summer's return would be all the richer for the waiting?"

So enjoy these photos.

Adam swinging on the swing

One of the big girl chickens

my favorite tree in spring

Catherine and the little blue crocus -- which reminds me of bluebonnets!

Madelyn holding Millie (at least I think that was her name!)

Catherine holding the chicken

Closeup of the chicken

Madelyn and a baby chick

Catherine and a baby! -- the chicks are just 6 days old


And Adam -- he was trying so hard to be careful. He was also such a helper today working in the yard. I love that boy!

Some fun city pics

We took a lot of pictures in the city -- here is a series I edited to highlight the grunge of the city and also bring out the spring color popping out as well.


Also here is a photo that I "stitched" together in photoshop and learned a valuable lesson -- make sure you take enough pictures to have the data to complete the whole panarama!


We had an enjoyable day today-- back at school and playing outside since it felt like spring today. Too bad there were 4 billion bugs flying around that all wanted to get into my mouth!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderfully warm Easter Sunday. The eggs were hidden and found. The baskets were full of treats. The church service was nice and meaningful. The kids were good. We got in a quick group shot.

and later Owen caught his snooze while helping mommy in the backpack!

Rainy Saturday -- Easter Crafts

Since it rained all day, we did crafts for Easter all day. We colored eggs, made nests out of chocolate, butterscotch, chinese noodles, and jelly beans, and made easter egg cake pops from Bakerella.com.



Here was the inspiration for the cake pops.

Here is what ours actually looked like.


I am pretty certain that bakerella did not have any kids making hers.

Here are pictures of the nests we made.

USS intrepid & Central Park Zoo

Captain's Bridge at the USS intrepid.


Sea Lions and kids at the Central Park Zoo

Spring Break -- Thursday -- Compo beach and New Haven

Thursday was a nice sunny day so we met up with a bunch of friends at compo beach. Despite the sun, it was pretty chilly when the wind would blow. The kids collected shells, walked on the sand and played on the playground.




















Then we went home, got a quick lunch and then Trent got to join us. We headed back to New Haven (to the IKEA) to get the missing swing parts. Since we didn't want to waste the trip we googled other things to do and decided to check out the Knights of Columbus museum. It is a museum about a catholic fraternity that empahisizes charity. We all learned a lot of things that we did not know anything about.



From there we drove around Yale University.

Then we tried out a really yummy Italian restaurant.

Then we went to IKEA, got the pieces we missed the previous day and headed home.