Celebrating Easter

Today we ventured to the "big mall" to have some Easter fun. The local Christian radio station sponsored an egg-specular Easter event and we wanted Claire to get a chance to sit with the Easter bunny!

We gave Claire her bucket to take with us. Anyone surprised that there are princesses on it?



And you have to have an Easter bunny bow!

 We saw birds and reptiles. Claire wasn't sure what to think, but she liked petting the bird.

I had to get a picture of Claire and Charlie with the Purdy's chocolate hedgehog.

Then, I tried to get Claire to pose for some pictures with the Easter decor...that is always an adventure!

Saying, "cheeeeeese!"

We went to Galaxyland while we were waiting for the Easter bunny to arrive.

For the first time ever, Claire chose to drive a car instead of the helicopter.

Claire and Charlie always ride the carousel together...it is their thing!

When we were done, we hurried back to wait in line for the Easter bunny. I was shocked that Claire went right up to him, said "hi Easter bunny!", sat on his lap, and smiled for the camera. This coming from the girl who was afraid of Santa? Wow!
After we got home and Claire took her nap, we dyed Easter eggs.

Claire's favorite part was using the magic crayon!

It was fun to watch her surprise as the eggs came out colored. I hope all of you are enjoying your Easter weekend! I am looking forward to celebrating the real reason for Easter tomorrow at church! And Claire can not wait one more day to wear her new pink dress!

X, Y, and Zed

This weekend has been a big shopping weekend! We got Grayson's mattress and Claire's toddler bed yesterday, which was so exciting! Claire is a bit confused on the fact that she is moving to a new bed, but we think she will be excited to sleep in it once it is set up. We also got Claire a new doll and Fridge Phonics. I was the most excited about the Fridge Phonics...must be the kindergarten teacher in me! Claire didn't care much for it when I showed her the new toy in the store, but once we put it on the refrigerator she has really loved it!

Claire is pretty good at putting the letters into the toy. Then, when you press the letter is tells you its name, sound, and sings a little song while repeating the sound over and over. All of this was super exciting until Claire pressed the music note button to hear the "alphabet song." That's when I noticed that the alphabet song does not say "Z" at the end...it says "ZED!"

The toy says..."Zed says ZZZ, Zed says ZZZ, every letter makes a sound and Zed says ZZZ!!!

I had totally forgotten that it was a Canadian-thing to use "Zed" instead of "Z."

Every time we think we are completely adjusted to living in this new place, something else surprises us!

25 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: I'm 25 Weeks!
Size of Baby: The baby is the size of a rutabaga (weird, huh?)
Total Weight Gain/Loss: I go back to the doctor next week...I really don't want to know...
Maternity Clothes: Happily stylin' in my maternity shirts and jeans!
Gender: It's a BOY! Grayson Earl Mays!
Movement: I feel him a lot! I wonder if Claire was this active...maybe I just forgot?
Cravings:I have moved onto craving baked goods. Right now I keep thinking about banana cake with peanut butter frosting...yum! The other day I made coffee cake. Charlie was so relieved that it didn't contain coffee!
Symptoms: I spend about an hour at night just laying awake. I think it is because I get too hot, and now I am worried because if I am already hot, then what will I do when summer actually comes? Yikes!
Best moment this week: I know this isn't pregnancy related, but we had a full week of 40-50 degree days. I am so thankful for those warmer temps! We now have half a yard without snow, and I can't tell you how nice it is not to be trapped at home with snow-covered roads!

Getting some exercise!

Today Claire and I took off to her first "real" gymnastics class. She was super excited to wear her t-shirt and capri pants we bought. I was really excited too!

When you are two, you have to take a "Parent and Tot" class, so I got the joy of helping Claire with all of her activities. We danced, jumped, went down the slide, hung from the bars, and swung! I don't know who got more exercise..her or me!
I had to laugh, because Claire really showed her personality a couple of times. When we took a break to get water, Claire went running back over to her class and yelled, "Teacher! I come back! Hi Teacher!!" Claire also got really upset when, at the end of class, her Teacher used a fish puppet to "eat" her name tag so she could have it next week. She talked about it the whole way home and kept saying, "Fish eat name tag. Why Fish do that?" If you ask her about gymnastics that is all she will say! Good grief...traumatized by a Fish puppet...ha!

After class snack!

The classes are held in a "bubble." Isn't that funny? We are looking forward to going back next week!

The Thaw

Yesterday we took a walk! The last time we walked was way back in October, so it was definitely nice to be outside! Poor Gus couldn't contain himself. He squeaked half the way and Claire was so excited she kept running up to Charlie and me saying, "Super! super fast! I go super fast!"
I know many of you have been enjoying warm, spring-like temps and nice flowers and all I have to say is 30 degrees and snow still feel like winter here! So, today when it jumped up to 50 degrees with sunshine and we had to take advantage of that good news!

We have been starting to thaw. I can see a patch of grass in our yard and the side roads are slushy. A lot of the garages in our neighborhood are behind the houses and you have to take little side roads to get to them. We are thankful that our garage is attached or we might have never made it out over the winter!

They look fun to drive on, huh?

We have a paved trail through the neighborhood so we walked around the trail to see the pond. Sure enough, it is finally starting to melt.

Check out the bench and fire pit. This was a popular skating rink!

I also had to take a picture to try and show how deep the snow was.

The snow is still pretty deep!

Claire's feet found every puddle!

Want to sit on that bench?

By the time we had made a loop it was freezing again! I know "Old Man Winter" will most likely come back and bring snow again, but I would be willing to pay him to stay away. I keep thinking longingly about my capri pants and flip flops (if it will ever get warm enough to make me want to bare my toes...ha!)