The hunt is on........

Saturday, April 4th, was a beautiful day for an Easter egg hunt at the park district. It was sunny and a bit chilly.....but nice enough out. We lined up in the middle of two different fields of eggs. There were 2000 eggs on each side, however, it was not divided up according to age groups. (and there were TONS of people) I started thinking...this is not going to be good...poor Mason is not going to get any eggs. The Easter bunny arrived on Thomas the Train! The count down began......and off the kids went. Mason wanted to run on his own, so I ran a few feet in front of him encouraging him to go faster.I would stop to point at an egg for him, but ended up picking it up or some other child would have snagged it. He ended up with 3 eggs. Parker and Jackson each had about 15. Mason was quite excited afterwards that to sit on the train and get his picture taken with Thomas.

Sunday was our egg hunt at the church. It was divided into 3 different age categories. The prognosis seemed better for this hunt, as there were 5000 eggs...and less kids. The countdown began.....and Mason was able to fill his small basket with eggs---completely to the top --and all on his own. Parker and Jackson were also able to get about 20 eggs each.

Happy Birthday Dear Jackson......

Jackson--my sweet, silly, adventerous child---is now 7. I was able to go to his class on his birthday and take in treats and then volunteer for a while. He chose Cosmic Brownies as the treat--which was a BIG hit in the class. Mike actually had to work at the station on the day of Jackson's birthday, so we decided to go up there with cake, ice cream and balloons and have dinner and cake with Daddy. The boys LOVE to climb all over the trucks and see where Daddy works..........I asked Jackson what theme he wanted for his birthday party. No theme, he says, just yellow.......Yellow?? hmmmm.... So I made a cake with yellow sprinkles and since Jackson loves legos so much , he made a cannon or ship of some sorts and we put it on top of the cake. We surprised him with his very own Nintendo DS for his birthday gift. He wanted to take a few friends to the roller skating rink to celebrate his birthday. The kids had a great time. (I was exhausted.)

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

We were going to meet my sister at the mall over spring break. Mason says "I happy Jenna and Alissa not have school". Mason found out we were going to the mall and was asking to see the animals at the mall. I finally realized he meant the Easter Bunny. With every store we went in to he asked for the Easer Bunny. Finally we head over there--and the bunny was on lunch. We had 20 minutes to kill while we waited for him to come back. I could not leave the mall without letting him see him , afterall I had promised. Finally he arrives back, we walk up to see him and Mason becomes shy and clingy. He puts his head on my shoulder and hides his eyes. I whispered into his ear--that the Easter Bunny had candy..."really?" his eyes light up...."OK" he says and goes and sits on his lap.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.....

I took the boys to the zoo over spring break. Corri, Sydney and Ava Trotter went with us. Mason was so thrilled to hear that cuz he just loves the girls...."I like Sydney and Ava"- he says......It was a beautiful day to go. I always ask each of them we went get there what animal do they really want to see so no-one is disappointed when we leave. Parker always asks to see the bats when we go, for some reason they are a fascination of his...... Mason wanted to see the "kigers" (tigers)........And Jackson wouldn't tell me one specific animal that he wanted to see. We were able to see the elephants get fed. The tiger was quite amusing playing in the moat of water and then he would all of a sudden leap out walk around and jump back in. The polar bears were quite lazy--as you can tell by the picture.

Mathieson Park

My kids love hiking. And they especially love going to Mathieson park. It is out in Utica, not too far from the Starved Rock park. It is a beautiful park with waterfalls to see, mini caves to climb in, and sunken barrels to use as stepping stones. There are trails to walk on , or ways to go off path if you choose (as my family does). The boys loved climbing up the hills and sliding down on their behinds......can you say dirty pants?? I know I put alot of pictures on here, but some of them are too neat to not share. The kids were excited to find a big huge piece of ice in one of the caves. Mike saw this big huge rock wall and just had to see how high he could climb...he is still a child at heart..... The boys (well all of us) feet slipped into the water and we all went home with wet socks, shoes and pants. We had a wonderful time!

Hearts At Home

This is the second year that I have had the opportunity to attend Hearts at Home. To explain what it is here is an excerpt from their site "Hearts at Home is a Christ-centered organization that encourages, educates, and equips women in the profession of motherhood. " I attended the conference down in Bloomington on March 13-15. They offer women the chance to attend workshops based on parenting, marriage, finances, organization, spiritual growth and even fashion. It is an amazing event to attend. You learn, laugh and cry all in the same weekend. Many women from my church attended. I was able to go with my friends Kristin, Corri, Lisa, and Jen (to name a few). We heard Kevin Leman speak and Lisa and I were able to get our books signed by him and get a picture with him. We also heard an entertaining Christian childrens band called the Go Fish guys. They were so friendly when we wanted a picture with them.

The Go Fish Guys

outside on the college campus

Lisa and I with Kevin Leman

Kevin Leman speaking

http://www.hearts-at-home.org/

Jelly Belly Factory Tour

We wanted to get away after this long, very cold miserable winter......so we went up to Gurnee with the Trotters to stay over night in a hotel, swim, and then tour the Jelly Belly factory. The boys love swimming and were happy to spend a couple hours in the pool on Saturday night.

Sunday we drove about 15 minutes to the Jelly Belly factory. You climb aboard this train (which Mason was sooooooo excited about) and they drive you around the storage area for the candies and tell you all the history and info. Some was a bit boring , while some of the information was interesting (such as how the candy is made). A free sample of the candies were given after the tour. You exit out of the tour into the store. The boys were excited to be able to taste some really disgusting flavors--baby wipes, vomit, ear wax, boogers...to name a few......