Opening Day

Opening Day for the Red's is always a big deal here.  I guess since I'm not a local, I don't understand it, but it is pretty much a holiday 

around here.  People take off work, there are events all day, a parade downtown and then of course, the first baseball game of the season.  David and I went last year and well, I felt like I had 'been there, done that.'  However, David and his love for sports, felt differently and when our neighbor offered to sell us tickets, he had a hard time saying no.  Our compromise was, I would bring Abby and join him for the parade, and he could go to the game with someone else.  Aaah...it was nice.  Abby loved the parade, though it was wet and cold and I didn't have to find a babysitter.  Worked great.

Easter Fun...

I have always wanted to try my hand at a braided bread Easter basket.  I always see pictures of really cute ones in magazines and thought it would be fun.  Well, in the end, I decided it wasn't very fun or successful so unless someone has great tips...that was a one and ONLY attempt.
Here are the girls with our friend Lynn.  She is a sweetheart.  We had to take a picture with them in their Easter Dresses with her because she was overly kind and actually got the girls Easter dresses.  So, thanks Lynn for making my girls look so cute!
Here is my attempt to take a cute Easter pic of the girls...obviously this is as good as it gets.

Abby sportin' her Easter Basket with her good friend 'Pinkie Pie' this was her reward for stopping thumb-sucking.  We worked for months on incentives, punishments, sticker charts,nasty polished, toys etc...and nothing worked.  So, Abby and I sat down to chat to see what she thought would work.  She proceeded to tell me about this toy she had seen in a store months earlier.  I faintly remembered seeing it, but didn't know where we found it, so we got on to Amazon.com and found the pony.  I printed off a picture and she carried that picture around forever.  I told her if she could go two weeks with no thumb, she could have it.  I didn't even have to give her warnings...it worked like a charm.  Thumbsucking was over!  She did great for months, then we tried to get rid of pull-ups at night (she is a very deep sleeper) and out of spite of getting her up to potty one night, she deliberately looked at me, then stuck her thumb back in...and well, nothing has worked since...even taking her toy away.  Oh well, hopefully she'll get over it someday.  I did have a dream a few days later that I had another baby and was adamant  that the baby only take a pacifier!  Hee hee.  Though Abby was such an easy baby because of it....just didn't know it would be so hard to break the habit.  

Jeana posing with her Easter Basket.  She got a cooking nintendo DS game...that she LOVES.

Posing with Easter Bunny at a local church Egg Hunt.

Look what we found!

The girls and I love to make treats for the 'grandmas' who live on our street.  So, we made so yummy Easter Nests to take around....

Of course the spring day we delivered the treats, it was raining hard...so after delivery, the kids made the most of the weather.

Egg Drop

Jeana's school did a 1st grade egg drop from the top of the school roof to see who's eggs would survive.  They had been talking about animals and reptiles and this was a fun end to the science discussions.  The kids were so excited and families got to come watch.  In case you haven't figured it out yet or don't know, the local theme here for the city is flying pigs, weird I know and I don't really get it, but I asked Dave to bring home some goods to wrap the egg in from work.  So, he came up with supplies and the idea (convenient theme for the project,) and left it up to me to create the idea with Jeana.  We had a good time making it and there were lots of really creative containers.  At the end (and all week) we heard that there would be two awards choices, those who's eggs "survived" and those who's eggs "almost survived"  Luckily, Jeana's was a survivor!

Cubby

Last year we went to Disneyland and Sea World.  Of course the souvenirs at Disneyland were double the price, yet the winner of the most popular souvenir was from Sea World and was this silly little polar bear in a purse.  Jeana has carried that thing around with her everywhere, slept with it every night and dressed it a million times over--still!  I guess it was a successful purchase.  The only ironic thing is that the day we were at Sea World, it was so hot, we had seen almost everything and decided to just let them choose a toy then leave.  The only exhibit we hadn't seen was the polar bear...which of course is the toy she chose to help her remember the trip.  

Abby's Ballet Recital

Abby Took Dance lessons with two friends this year through the YMCA.  They all had a great time.  The teacher did a really nice job and always let the parents come and watch the children practice at the end of the lesson.  There were a few battles of getting her to dance, but she always had a good time when there.  I asked her after the recital what she thought of dance. She told me she LOVED it, however, I think part of that came from the excitement of the night because they got a bag full of candy  and they got to dress up in pretty costumes.  What more could you ask for?  The recital theme was Candy Land-- they were peppermint twists.

Grandpa, Grandma and Eva Came to Visit

At the end of March, David's parents came out of to visit and decided to bring the next oldest grandchild with them so the girls could all play.   We had a great time going to the Zoo, having a dress-up tea party at a local bakery and mostly just hanging out.  Grandma and Grandpa also taught my girls how to play card game 'spoons.'  My kids thought it was hilarious.  Of course that is partly b/c they put their own twist to it and every time someone lost they got a letter, the first one to spell the word D-O-N-K-E-Y had to act like one at the end.  Very funny.

Eva joined in on Jeana's dance class while they were here.  They both had a lot of fun and Eva was totally overly enthusiastic.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she left the one hour lesson with a few injuries.

Planting Seeds

For Family Home Evening this week, and since March was almost over, we decided to head to local and oh so popular Home Depot.  The kids helped me pick out seeds and we bought a little start kit for both of them to grow their plants in.  They were mostly excited about the lettuce because it was called, 'Black-Seeded Simpson.'  We also planted cucumbers, sunflowers, tomatoes and corn.