Easter 2016

 It's Easter time once again.  The kids enjoy seeing the Easter bunny at the mall so we made our last minute effort to get over there to get their pictures with the furball himself.

 Tommy has no problem with creepy bunnies such as this but Charlotte was still very unsure.  She decided to stand beside the bench and just hold Tommy's hand.  The bunny hardly moved at all.  He was so creepy!

 On Sunday, we dressed in our Sunday clothes and headed to Rensselaer for Easter celebrations.

 This year our celebrations included trying to shoot a rocket.  You can see Adam and Brandon working on Carson's 15 year old rocket by the grain bins trying to get it to launch.  They never succeeded but it was fun to see them try!

 We had an Easter egg hunt for the littles. 

 Charlotte reaped the rewards of her basket.  Outfit change can be credited to my mom.  :)

While the big kids played guitar in the shop, Tommy and Charlotte performed dance routines on the trailer. 

 They crawled through tires. 

 They rode in tractors. 

 Tommy DROVE a tractor!!!!!

 They posed for recreated pictures.  Look at how big he has grown in 2 years.

 Brother and sister side by side too, of course.

I haven't had a chance to download all of Aunt Shiela's pictures but I did at least get this great one.  What a little model. :)

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter 2015!

 Easter time is here again! This year we went full-on Easter-EGGS-travaganza!

We dyed Easter eggs which was confusing for Tommy.  He thought they were dead now since we "died" them.  I can see how he was confused.  :)

We cracked most of the eggs so Charlotte got a few snacks from the ones that weren't salvageable.  

 This was my favorite egg by far.  My ninja turtle egg turned out better than I planned!

 The next morning, the Easter bunny came! Tommy had his first chocolate bunny and dinosaur.  I found this company called Divvies and they have great cookies, candy and popcorn all allergy-free.  Very exciting. This was Tommy's first chocolate for Easter!

 We played with the new fun things in their Easter baskets... like glow-in-the-dark Spiderman and Minnie Mouse masks.  We took this mixed up selfie and I didn't realize until later that that is Charlotte's nose sticking through the eye hole.  Hilarious.

 Then we had our mid-morning sugar crash!

 The family came over and we played outside in the beautiful weather until the food was ready.

 It was then time for the Easter Egg Hunt! I offered the "little girls" (who used to actually be little but are now nearing their teenage years, it's just what we've always called the youngest cousins) Lilli and Isabel, to actually organize the egg hunt this year.  They agreed happily! So it was just Tommy and Charlotte hunting for about 50 eggs.  They LOVED it!!

 Charlotte found this nice spot to sit to take a break during the hunt.  I guess no one can get to her eggs that way!

 Charlotte was an instant pro at finding eggs! Tommy still left in the dust.  But he always came back and handed her every other egg. Such a kind hearted brother.  Charlotte, you are one lucky lil sis! :)

The whole family followed the kiddos around the entire house to collect all the eggs.  (I'm sure we'll find a random egg or two throughout the year that we might have missed)

 This is just one basket! That's a lot of eggs!

 Even though there were only two participants, I think the whole family had a great time hunting!

I know Tommy did! Especially the Mickey Mouse eggs!! Eggs with ears? Wayyyy better than mom's eggs that had random stickers on them.  Mickey Mouse always trumps stickers!

 Also during the day, we celebrated Lilli's birthday.  Lilli has picked up sewing as a new hobby so we all got her sewing stuff for her birthday presents.  Grandma enjoyed sharing her sewing skills with her granddaughter.  I looked over at them during this moment when they were sewing together and said, "Sheesh! Do you think they are related??" HA!

We had a GREAT time on this wonderful Easter holiday.  We were so blessed with such beautiful weather! Happy Easter, everyone!

Back to Easter Weekend...

Yes we have to go back in time.  Sorry the posts are out of order.  It's a long explanation that you don't care to hear so just continue reading and enjoy a blast from the past (two weeks ago). :)
So Easter weekend was a couple weeks ago.  On Saturday we didn't do much until after the kiddos naps.  It was 3:30 pm when we finally left the house.  Tommy wanted to go to the zoo so we headed over for a quick half hour walk-through. 

 Charlotte met the goats for the first time!!

 Tommy still isn't too sure about the goats.  He kept his distance. 

 After the zoo, we headed over to the playground.  It was incredibly busy.  It was the first decent weekend and everyone had the same idea. 

 We had a good time despite the crowd, which included a woman screaming at her daughter named Miracle.  We decided to get the heck out of there and head to another playground. 

 We headed to a much smaller park in West Lafayette.  Tommy realized he loves swinging. 

 Charlotte realized the same!

 Belly swing time!

 Who would have thought she would like swinging so much?

 More sliding! Watch out for that mulch!

 Then we walked over to the pedestrian bridge.

 I wanted to take some pictures to see if this might be a good family picture location. 

 Surely those trees will green up a bit soon!

 The architecture should be a cool backdrop but the shadows created at that time of day may pose a problem.

 

 We got to see a train pull into the station when we were there.  Tommy was super excited about that.

How fun is this picture? Andrew looks powerful crossing the bridge over the train with his brood, no? ;-)

We made a quick pit stop at a cafe/bar (yes both!) downtown. Those college kids working there were very confused seeing a baby in a bar (also coffee shop).  We could only go in one area.  Everyone stared at us while we were there.  Super fun! We didn't stay long.

 Andrew got a mocha and Charlotte wanted to share. 

 We went back for more train viewing as we crossed back over the bridge. It's rare that I'm in a picture so I have to post it!

 See what I mean about the shadows? Maybe not so good for family pictures but fun for random pictures like this. 

 What do you think? With greener landscaping and flowers in those pots, it might make an interesting background for pictures?

Such a beautiful day that day.  Perfect weather for bridge crossing. :) 

 One more landscape pic.  Bear with me. :)

 After we got back to the car, we decided to get dinner.  We were crazy enough to try the mall early evening on Saturday night.  We went to Panera because I knew they had an allergy menu.  It was a big hit!

 Charlotte slept through dinner and woke up in a great mood ready to take on the mall!

We walked around the mall and found this furry friend.  There was no line! We asked Tommy if he wanted to get his picture taken with the Easter bunny.  He said Yes.  We capitalized on this moment.  Tommy NEVER says yes to this kind of stuff. That's why he's never had his picture with Santa.  So for the first time ever, here's a picture of Tommy with a mall character.  They were both about to lose it when the picture was taken.  She used some sort of noisemaker thing and they both were distracted for 3 seconds for a picture.  So no crying! Success!!

 The Easter Bunny visited since the kids were so good for their picture!!

 Charlotte got some new shades! So hilarious.

Tommy got a snake! Who gets a snake for Easter? This guy!

 I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the kids in their Easter clothes.  I did snap a quick one of Charlotte before church. Another Zulily find! I had to buy it.  It was like a tiny pink baby business suit.  Adorable! Someone needs a diaper change though! :)

 After church she changed into something more comfy from Grandma. 

 Tommy rode in the tractor with Grandpa.

 Charlotte got some quality time with Great Grandma Katie and Great Aunt Debbie. 

We had quite the busy Easter weekend.  Happy Easter!