Easter 2009

I know I'm a little late, but I'm just now getting around to posting about our Easter this year. Doug's parents and sister had been visiting for the previous several days and were to be leaving after Easter Mass.
The morning started off with seeing what the Easter Bunny had left. Madeline was very excited about this, but was patient enough to let me get her in her dress that Marmie sent first. The two of them looked so cute! Ethan was wearing and outfit that his Mom-Mom brought.
Ethan loved his new toy. Madeline saw this when I was at Walmart one day and she was completely in love with it. It was at the end of the isle where the baby food was and she just parked herself on the ground in front of it and played with it the entire time I stocked up on Ethan food. It's really not a very exciting toy when it's still in the box, but I figured if it could entertain her for as long as it did, it would probably be great for Ethan! So I told her we would get it for him for Easter. She thought that was a great idea! (even though she didn't really understand what I was telling her).

The Easter Bunny brought Madeline and Aunt Mary recorders. Actually, the Easter Bunny had sent me a special note that said Madeline could have hers early because she's been such a great big sister, so Madeline had had some practice for a few days before Mary received hers. they played a few songs together before Mary had to head back to MD.

Madeline made sure everyone got plenty of hugs and kisses! I was surprised at how well she handled them leaving. She never got upset. I thought that maybe she just thought they were going to the store and she'd get upset later, but it never happens. I guess she knows she'll see them again soon enough. She did, however, look for Aunt Mary each morning for the next few days.

I asked Madeline if I could take a picture of her in her Easter dress. She's not crazy about getting her picture taken (probably because I overwhelm her with it!), but she said, "with Penny?" I agreed, and this is the best I got.

After Mom-Mom, Poppy, and Aunt Mary left, we opened the boxes from my mom and dad (Marmie and Pop). Madeline LOVED the bunny ears and tail she got!! She wore them the rest of the day!

She even wanted to keep the tail on when we went to the park.

Lamby doesn't normally go to the park with us, but since it was Easter we thought the whole family should go.

Everyone was tuckered out after a long morning and quick trip to the park.

Visit from Family

Doug's parents came to visit from Maryland on Wednesday. For those of you who don't know, Doug and I grew up in MD and moved to GA a little over a year ago. Anyway, Doug's mom, dad and sister, Mary drove here and got in late Wednesday. The kids were already asleep and we couldn't wait until Madeline got to see them in the morning. Of course, Madeline and Ethan were awake before anyone, so we patiently waited for the crew to begin to wake. She was beyond excited to see Mom-Mom, Poppy, and Aunt Mary when they finally started stirring. Actually, we couldn't wait for Aunt Mary to wake up, so we sent in Madeline (and Penny) to give her a nice wake-up call :).
We really enjoyed their visit. It was well-needed and so relaxing. We had beautiful weather for the most part. The storms seemed to hold out for the evenings, so we were able to get out and about and show them Evans and Augusta.

On Thursday we took them to the Riverwalk in Augusta.
Ethan was very good the whole time. He did need a little break for a fill-up, but other than that he was awake the entire time and very happy. He loves to have new and different things to look at. We had him in a stroller some of the time, but he wanted to be held too because he could get a better view of everything.

While I was feeding Ethan, Madeline had some quality time with Aunt Mary. Aunt Mary picked a few beautiful flowers for Madeline's hair. Although she loved the flowers and kept them in her hair quite a bit, I didn't seem to catch any pictures showing her decorated hair.

I had a good time having Mary around. It was so nice having another female adult to chat with on a regular basis.

This is the waterfall that we passed walking up to the Riverwalk. Madeline loves water and always wants to touch it. Here, Mom-Mom is helping her reach.

Madeline loved having so many hands to choose from when we would go for walks. I haven't had my hands free this much in a looooong time.

On Friday we took the family to see the Savannah Lock and Dam. Another beautiful day to enhance the beauty we saw.

I LOVE this picture!! I have a bunch more of him sitting up on this wall looking at the Savannah Rapids and he is as happy as can be in every picture. I'm holding him and Doug took the picture. He had me move my hands down so you couldn't see that someone was holding him, but don't worry, he was safe :)Here's Doug and Ethan looking at the Savannah River and Historic Augusta Canal. You have to be careful around the canal because they have alligators that show up. They even have a sign that informs you how to safely observe alligators. We have yet to see one and I hope it stays that way!

We saw a few turtles at the Riverwalk, but we saw a ton at the Savannah Rapids. Every time we saw one, Madeline would say, "hold one?!" Maybe she needs a pet turtle?? Maybe we should start with a goldfish.Thanks Mary for the photos you took! You rock!

This waterfall was small but beautiful. The kids were mesmerized by it.

Madeline wanted to get closer but I told her it was too dangerous.

Then I turned to see Doug walking/climbing down to show Ethan. At first I was very nervous, but I'm glad we got closer. It wasn't as scary as I thought it'd be and again, the kids loved it!

Thanks again for the pics Mary. I think Doug was the only one who knew you were taking a pic!

Again, Madeline LOVES water. She would have sat here all day and just looked at the water. She liked putting her hand in and watching/feeling the water run through her fingers. She did this for a looooong time.

Then she wanted to put her hair in the water! Shortly after that we left :)

On Saturday morning, Liz and I took Madeline and Ethan to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. They started the morning by telling the kids the story of Jesus' resurrection. Surprisingly, Madeline was a very good listener and seemed to enjoy listening to the story. Then we went into another room to dye eggs (pics didn't turn out). Then we went outside for a little bit to play while they set up a craft inside.

Madeline and Ethan love the swing. Madeline has just recently began to like it. When she was "younger" she was never fond of it. Ethan loves it and would probably sit in the swing all day if I let him!

Having fun with the parachute. You can't see it in the pic, but they through Easter eggs on top of the parachute to bounce in the air.After playing outside for a bit, we went inside to do a craft. Mom-mom helped Madeline decorate an egg. She was supposed to paint some glue on the egg and then stick tissue paper on it, but all she wanted to do was paint with the glue. The girl just LOVES to paint!While we were "painting," eggs were being hidden outside. Madeline was so excited to see so many Easter eggs! I thought she would run all over the place but she just started with the first egg she saw and picked up every one in her path. Some kids ran to look for ones that were hidden better, some kids shook the eggs to make sure it had something in it, and some kids only picked up their favorite colors. Madeline had no preference. She just wanted to pick up eggs! I don't even think she realized goodies were inside until we went inside and Mom-mom helped her empty out her eggs.While we were having Easter fun, Doug took his father to show him Fort Gordon and a few other things. Mary stayed back and worked on some papers she had to do for school. When we all got back home we spent quite a while playing outback: bubbles, drawing, kickball, football, Frisbee, etc.

We had such a wonderful visit with the Harkins and can't wait to have more visitors!

Good Eats

I was holding Ethan at the dinner table today and he reached over and grabbed Madeline's spoon that she had been using to eat her applesauce. He put it right into his mouth and enjoyed sucking the leftover applesauce from the spoon. I've given him spoons before, but this time he seemed to have real good hand-eye coordination so I decided to go ahead and strip him down and let him have at his own bowl of food. I let him keep Madeline's spoon and gave him another one to use because it had a softer end to it and I thought it'd be easier on his gums. My plan was to sneak the other one away, but he did so good with two spoons that I just let him use both...plus it kept his hands from going into the food too much. For those of you who are wondering, he is eating a vegetable and chicken combo. mmm mmm mmm

We went straight to the bathtub of course! Only one thing could have made him happier than making and being in that mess....a bath. Ethan has always enjoyed bathtime, but these days he LOVES a bath. Tonight he cried hysterically when I finally took him out. This isn't the greatest shot of him, but "something" kept showing up in all the other pics, so I just put this one on here :)
I took a video to really who how happy he was during this event.

Musical Moments

Madeline has been fascinated with the flute recently. She would go around the house pretending to play her imaginary flute....sometimes using another object, sometimes just using the air. While we at Target the other day they had recorders for 2 bucks, so I couldn't resist. We picked one up for her and one up for Aunt Mary. Madeline picked out the colors. I told her she had to wait til Easter to play it because that's when Aunt Mary would get hers. But of course, we weren't home very long before Madeline was going around the house pretending to play her flute again, so I caved (this tends to happen a lot). I gave her her recorder and she was in heaven! When Daddy got home from work she wanted to play a song with him...

Ethan's New Sunglasses

We finally got Ethan his own pair of sunglasses. Whenever we're outside or going for a walk he always gets blinded by then sun and I have to resort to using pink sunglasses on him...poor child! Well, now he has his own BLUE sunglasses. They even have cute little baseballs on either side. He was so funny when I put them on for the first time. He got such a kick out of it!

Yesterday, we went to the mall to get the kids' pictures taken with the Easter Bunny. Afterwards, we went to the food court and had Chick-Fil-A. On the way back through Sears to go to the car, I noticed they had one of "those" signs up that said get a free 8x10 at the Portrait Studio...so I figured why not. I took them by there and there was no wait, so they had their photo shoot. They both did great. The girl who took the pictures was awesome. She was so patient and good with Madeline and she had a real good eye for a good pic. I had only intended on getting one free picture, but (of course!) I loved the one of the two of them together so I had to order some copies of that one. I can never get a good picture of the two of them together...usually because Madeline isn't interested in posing with her brother. I also loved the picture of Ethan and decided to order that one too. When Madeline was little I got pictures taken of her all the time, so I figured I should go ahead and order one of Ethan. And I can't order one of Ethan without getting one of just Madeline. So my free print ended up costing me a little more than free.

moral: nothing in life is free (for megan)

This is a picture of Ethan while I was waiting to look at the pictures. He was soooo good the whole time.

Video of Ethan playing

While Madeline was napping today I had Ethan sitting on the rug surrounded by a bunch of toys and he was just having a ball playing with everything. I couldn't get over the fact that he could sit there all by himself and have so much fun. He kept making me laugh so I had to grab the camera to catch a little bit of him playing.

Madeline's 1st visit to the Circus

Our friends, Mrs. Martha and Mr. Dick, gave us 3 tickets to the Circus as well as baby-sitting services for the evening. We can't thank them enough. We had a blast!! It was so nice to have an evening out with Madeline to give her well deserved undivided attention from the both of us. It was such a special evening...not just for her but for us as well.

Before going over to the James Brown Arena in Augusta for The Greatest Show on Earth, we went to Fridays for dinner....uhg...dinner wasn't very good for any of us, but we enjoyed the time out together anyway.

It has been raining like crazy here. We need the rain, but it's getting a little annoying now. Anyway, we had to make a mad-dash for the building once we parked because it was pouring. We shouldn't complain too much because many parts of GA were having tornado warnings. We were just getting a bunch of rain.

Here is Daddy and Maddie outside the James Brown Arena. Can you tell they got a little wet?? It didn't dampen any one's mood though :)
Madeline's grandmother, Marmie, sent her $10 to spend at the circus. She decided she needed and elephant filled with a snow cone! And yes, it cost ten dollars!!!! The prices were ridiculous!

We had awesome seats! We were pretty close to the ring and didn't have any obstacles in our way. And the people all around us were nice :) even the kid in front of us that Madeline kicked in the head was a sweetheart. When I apologized, he said, "oh that's OK...I'm used to it."

Madeline's favorite part was the elephants. Every time we mentioned going to the Circus today, she would say, "go see elephants? go see penguins?"


Doug and I found this guy hilarious and Madeline found Mommy and Daddy funny because they kept laughing. This guy is amazing with a bicycle!

This is the end of the Circus. We couldn't believe Madeline stayed awake and attentive through the whole show. She got tired at the end, but still hung in there. It wasn't over until 9:00...an hour past her bedtime.


This is Madeline waving goodbye to everyone. Can you tell she's sleepy?!

This is in the car on our way home. She's STILL waving goodbye to everyone. She's saying, "I say bye to the clowns...BYE CLOWNS.... I say bye to the tigers....BYE TIGERS...I say bye to the elephants...BYE ELEPHANTS!" She surprisingly stayed awake the whole ride home, even through our stop to pick up Ethan.

Of course, the little princess had to get some souvenirs from her first Circus. You can see her elephant cup from the snow cone. When I took her at intermission to get something from Mommy and Daddy we looked and looked and finally she spotted a coloring book she wanted...and it was the cheapest thing they had!!! I was very happy with that even though four dollars for a coloring book is a rip-off. She also REALLY wanted to sit on this elephant statue they had, but you could only sit on it if you paid to have your picture taken...I caved. It did come with a "free" clown nose though!!