Easter Weekend....just a tad late

The countdown to Easter at our house was full of excitement this year.  I'm not sure why...Ian and I don't make a huge deal out of it.  We don't even go to church (on Easter...or...ever, really).  But the girls were excited.  We dyed eggs the day before, which was fun and left their Easter baskets out for the bunny to find, fill with toys and jelly beans, and hide eggs all over the living room.

Something weird is going on with Blogger, and I can't correctly upload vertical orientation photos, so the super cute one of Cora is going to be left off, unfortunately.

The Monday after Easter Ian and I both took off of school so that we could head west to Lincoln, NE to visit my brother and his family.  That Tuesday he had his deployment ceremony, and that Friday he left for a training base somewhere stateside (maybe Indiana?) for a couple of weeks before he heads overseas to Afghanistan for what could be a year.  This trip was a lot of "firsts" for the girls: it was their first long car trip (we went to Des Moines - a 2 hour drive - once when they were about 9 months or so, but that doesn't really count), their first night away from home that wasn't at Grandma & Papas (either side), or Aunt Katie's, their first stay in a hotel, their first time hiking (which, unfortunately I don't have pictures), their first time staying up late to roast marshmallows, their first time to eat S'mores, and their first trip to a Children's Museum.  I think that's it for the firsts...Oh...wait, I forgot a highlight that really stands out to them as a fantastic memory of the trip: it was their first time to eat "colored cereal" aka - Fruit Loops.  That was something special :-) Here are some of the captured highlights from the trip. 

Here they are with their (soon-to-be) Aunt Sarah and (soon-to-be) cousin Kiley.

Eatin S'mores - Cora wasn't thrilled with the stickiness of them.

With Uncle Dave.  Everyone is having a better time than they look in this picture. I promise.

See?

  

Grocery store at the Children's museum, we only had a little over an hour there, and they could have spent five.  The first floor was set up like a little town: a grocery store, doctor's office, pizza parlour, vet's office, fire truck and police motorcycle, bank, etc.  The girls liked the doctor's office the best, because they had babies to play with there, and babies are the best. things. ever.

The lower level was cool, too, but unfortunately we found it just as we were getting ready to go - a large performing stage with costumes, etc.  Oh my, they were sad to leave it.

We're going to all miss Dave very much as he is  away overseas.  But we are proud of him, and looking forward to his return.

Dancin' Machines

I've been hoping to get the girls involved in some sort of dance class - they both love to dance, and (especially Evaline) love to perform.  Our local Parks and Rec has one class a week, but only offers it on Wednesday mornings.  This is something that I consider absolutely and completely unfair.  I understand having something during the day so that kids who's mom/dad don't work can go to...but what about the rest of us??  I'd been holding out hope for the summer, because I'm lucky that I don't have to work in June or July...I thought perhaps they'd get to go to dance class then.  No such luck, it would seem that the class is only held during the school year.  And there really aren't other options available for three-year-olds: all the other classes/sports/etc don't start until 4 years old at the earliest.  Not a fan, Cedar Rapids.  Not. a. fan.

Last weekend Evaline asked me to turn on some music in the upstairs "miscelaneous" room (it will one day be one of their rooms, if they decide that they are done sharing a room).  I complied, and a little later, this is what I found - they had both pulled out their tutus, and had found my yoga mat - which apparently they've figured out is used for excersice is some way (I have no idea how they've made this discovery, Lord knows they've never seen me use it!). (You can also see, from this video, that Eva is easily distracted.)

How many "x" chromosomes can you fit in one house?

I'm not sure what the official scientific data would say, but apparently, in our house, there is room for two more!  We had our ultrasound today, and found out that we're going to have (another) girl!  Of course, I've heard too many stories about people who know people - I've never known anyone personally - who has had a mis-read gender on an ultrasound...so I still won't be painting any rooms pink.  But, then again, I wasn't planning on painting the room pink, regardless.

So, now that there will another girl added to the mix, Ian will be outnumbered four to one...but I still probably won't have anyone to cuddle with on the couch.  I'm sure that this one will undoubtedly be a "Daddy's Girl", too. 

We are about 95% sure about a name for her, but aren't sharing until she arrives (we have to keep something a surprise). 

Want to see her? (warning, the new ultrasounds have a 3-D option which is really cool...but kinda creepy, too.)

Happy Easter!

I've decided to make a return from my bloggin hiatus.  My goal is to make this a regular (or at the very least, semi-regular) thing once again.  I've missed it, and it encourages me to make an effor to take more pictures of the girls (something which I am terrible about).  If you are one of the three or four people to have visited my other blog/recipe collection, I've started that one up again, too...only I've moved it...it is slightly changed and is now located here http://fromsugartospice.wordpress.com/

The past several months have been crazy-busy with work (I've been teaching Advanced Placement Economics, a project which has been a killer....considering that I've only ever taken two coures in Econ - once about 12 years ago and another around 6 years ago), and when I came home, the very last thing that I wanted to do was open the computer. 

The pregnancy on top of that has drained me even further.  It took until around week 16 (I'm around 19 1/2 right now) to feel anywhere near normal...and not just nausea and fatigue.  For about three months I lost interest in, well, almost everything.  I think I went that long without baking cookies...and you know somethings got to be wrong when I'm not baking.  But...I feel like I'm back.  And that's a very good thing (perhaps not for my waistline...but my waistline is going to expanding anyway over the next five months, right?).  Speaking of being 19 1/2 weeks pregnant...I have an ultrasound later this week....so stay tuned for news as to how many "x" chromosomes this little creature has! 

We've been back in our regular routine after spring break for a week, and have 8 weeks (or, 38 days...which sounds shorter) to go until summer and I'm pretty excited.  Spring break home with the girls was fun (although I think that Ian was going a tad stir-crazy, he's not as good about staying home as I am...I could regularly go a full week without leaving the house - except to go outside/on a walk/etc), and we (girls included) are very much looking forward to more time at home together, and more time running and playing outside.  Over break we got a few projects done around the house - I'm almost done with the girls' room, and got about half of our pictures hung up on the wall (its only been....what? 6 months?), we picked out and ordered carpet for our living room (I'm so very excited that I will only have to live with the laminate flooring in there for another three weeks!), and I began planting my garden.  Its just a small raised bed, about 4x12 feet, we thought about putting in two but decided that since we will have a newborn in the middle of the "harvest" it would be best not to overextend ourselves.  We build the bed last fall, and filled it this year (maybe everyone knows this and I'm just out of the loop...but...news for Cedar Rapids/Linn County folks - you can get all the free compost you want at the Linn County Compost Center over by Mount Trashmore), and at the end of break I planted spinach, three types of lettuce, radishes and peas.  I also started some peppers, chiles, and tomatoes indoors.  (I should have done those several months ago but, well, see my previous paragraph.) The radishes and lettuce are beginning to sprout...so excited to see how this experiment will turn out!

This week has been all talk about Easter.  The girls are so very excited for the Easter Bunny to come tonight, and to get to hunt eggs and everything that goes with it.  We dyed eggs this afternoon, which was fun - instead of buying the dunking-type of dye this year, we bought some paint-on kind and they loved it:

 I had to include this one (above)...for the LONGEST time, it has been awful trying to get both girls looking at the camera with pleasant faces, let alone a smile (probably part of the reason we don't take many pictures).  So I asked the girls not to say "cheese" but instead to smile, like they were happy about something...apparently this is Evaline's "Happy Face"

And here, they wanted to show off their finished eggs...and their messy hands :-)

Here's wishing you a very happy Easter!