Easter

Our Easter was many things this year: A celebration, stressful, unexpected, my birthday (yep, hate it), and full of the usual things. . . Easter Bunny goodies, a jon jon, crisp weather, the frantic pre-church photo shoot, and the frantic post-church finishing of dishes and transporting way too much stuff to the car.

I was so giddy about Easter morning. I thought the toddler was going to be so excited! In his Easter basket, he had a box of chalk, army men, two containers of bubbles, his favorite movie (Despicable Me), an etch-a-sketch, a Cookie Monster note pad, and a set of plastic golf clubs. In each of the Easter eggs, I put one M&M.

When the toddler finally shuffled into the living room--how shall I phrase this?--the word "underwhelmed" came to mind. If I could have translated his thoughts, it was something along the lines of: "Why is there all this stuff in the living room?"

The toddler didn't want to go around collecting the eggs, so I brought a few to him. I told him to open one, and he hesitantly placed the M&M in his mouth. Less than two second later, he spit the green, dripping M&M onto the carpet, and declared it "yucky!" Great. So, I ended up walking around picking up all the eggs, opening them, and dumping the M&Ms into my large bag of trail mix. During that time, the toddler found that it was quite entertaining to place the little chocolate candies on the coffee table and smash them with the bubble containers. And during all of this, my poor husband could barely stay awake after being at the hospital at 4:30 AM six days in a row for his surgery rotation.

Cue disappointed momma who was up until 2:00 AM doing Easter things.

Cue frantic/frazzled pre-church photo shoot.

Look at their expressions! The.exact.same!

Well, at least the toddler decided to face the camera.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch with our family after church (while--hallelujah!--the toddler slept on the floor at my aunt's house). When we came home, I took some cute pictures of my little Easter man. Love him. :)

I hope your Easter was wonderful!

A Trolley Good Time

On Friday, my friend Christi and I loaded up the kiddos and decided to head downtown to check out the trolley!

We had read on the website that there were two, separate trolley lines. One was 15 minutes and one was 35 minutes. We both agreed that the 35-minute trolley ride sounding daunting with three children under the age of two. I know that my son has the attention span of. . . well, of a two year old. I didn't think he would last for 35 minutes.

We were so wrong! The toddlers loved it. I'm pretty sure we could have ridden around in the trolley for an hour, and they would have been perfectly content.

The toddler kept saying, "Trolley! Trolley!" And he would excitedly point out things, shouting, "Big building! Children! School bus!" He ate.it.up.

And the grand total? $1.00

Sooooo worth it! :)

Snickerdoodles And Staying Up Late

I've been whoa-momma craving snickerdoodles lately. So tonight, the toddler got to stay up late and help his momma with some yummy baking! He loves to cook with me. I hand him a spatula, let him watch every step of the process (his favorite is always when I crack the eggs and when I turn on the mixer), and he is totally into it! (You're welcome, future daughter-in-law, for a husband who knows how to cook!)

Cooking makes the toddler so happy (as does staying up waaaaay past his bedtime) that he begins to talk about his favorite thing: "Big fire rockets." We talked about them while we baked, and he explained just exactly how they launch--complete with sound effects and hand motions. Fascinating stuff.

Future astronaut. Or future rocket scientist. Just watch. :)

I love baking with my baby. He learns new words, and we get to work on something together. Tonight, he learned "foil," "spatula," and "mixer."

And hello what momma doesn't like gettin' some sugar in the kitchen!?

Okay, okay, onto the recipe!

You will need:

• 2 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• 1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp. of sugar
• 2 tsp. of ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

3. Put butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar in the mixer and mix until fluffy. Mix in eggs. Gradually mix in flour mixture.

4. In a small bowl, mix remaining 2 tbsp. of sugar and 2 tsp. of cinnamon. Roll dough into ping pong sized balls and roll around in cinnamon mixture.

5. Bake for 15 minutes, and enjoy!

Of course, as with anything in life, snickerdoodles are best enjoyed when you're up three hours past your bedtime and you're wearing pirate pajamas.



Spring Into Summer

I'm sorry. I must have missed the memo. Were we starting the summer in March this year!?!

I'm scared to imagine how terrifying/miserable/apocalyptic it's going to be in, say, July or August if it already feels like this in April!

My parents have opened their pool. "Floaties" is on my refrigerator pad grocery/items-to-buy list. Climbing to the top of Pinnacle has now become a heat issue rather than a stamina issue. The AC is set to Auto/71. And we're playing with the garden hose and getting wet, people. Oh, and if you're on BeeGee's front porch swing, you're going to be fending off mosquitoes. All signs point to summer.