3 Years of Easter Baskets

Easter 2009

Easter 2008

Easter 2007

Happy Easter:)

Easter Saturday Morning - a little early so Todd wouldn't miss the girls and their baskets.


Elisabeth's basket....
Bella's basket...





Playing at Kirstin's house on Easter Day.


Swimming at the hotel pool.

Bella and Uncle Blake.
You are never too old to play with Barbies:)

Alison with her pride and joy, Jackie:)

After the fall...




Blake and Alison



We had a wonderful Easter this year. My brother (Blake) invited us to his sister-in-laws house for Easter dinner, thinking that we wouldn't accept, but SURPRISE, we did!!! He even threatened tons of people we wouldn't know - but we still accepted! HA! Anyway, Todd offered to stay home with the 7 dogs so mom and I could take the girls on an overnight vacation to Lancaster. We got to go to Cosco, my favorite store in the whole world, swim in the hotel pool, visit a new mall (always fun), and spend Easter with my brother and his wife and her family.

Oh...and I got to laugh my ass off when my mother, trying to escape with her 12th lemon bar without getting caught, ran right into the screen door and ripped it out it's track and sent it flying across the deck. She hit it so hard, she actually left part of her bar on the screen. Alison's brother-in-law ,and owner of the screen, offered to power wash it off after we left.

Bella was dressed like a winter princess (it is too cold in PA to actually wear a traditional Easter dress) in a hot pink tutu and matching black sweater. She took off across the yard to play on the swing set and decided to go by way of the mesh-covered pool, thinking it was part of the ground. Wrong. Once she hit the middle of it, the mesh gave way and down she went. By the time I got to her, she was laying face down in a large puddle of water. We were all jealous that she got to change out of her dress-up clothes and into her jeans and t-shirt:)

Happy EARLY Birthday to Moi!

Guess who got a nice, new, beautiful SLR DIGITAL CAMERA delivered to HER door from her darling HUSBAND??????? I know it was 2 months and 10 days early but who gives a crap???? Oh...the answer is ME!!!!!! Check out my first set of pictures:)

Ho Hum....

Drinking wonton soup from a straw:) A daddy invention.

My attempt at taking Elisabeth's picture....


Nothing new to report. Clean house is still clean:) Bella is sleeping MUCH better (knock on wood)-we have cut out her naps except for 1 or 2 a week depending on how tired she is. We have been going to a indoor play place and for 2 hours, she runs her little legs off. Love it. Elisabeth is starting outdoor soccer soon-she nabbed her favorite #4 purple t-shirt before any of the other girls get to pick. A perk to having your father be the coach:)

If I had my Nikon D60 camera,

I would have posted BEAUTIFUL pictures of our WONDERFULweekend) But, alas, I have not yet raised the funds to purchase this FANTASTIC camera. Some day.

Yesterday I spent the majority of the day cleaning out Elisabeth's closet full of doo-dads. The kid collects anything and everything that means something to her. "OH...you can't toss that, Aunt Rebekah gave it to me when I was 4." "You can't throw that away, a friend gave it to me in 2nd grade." "I found those on the beach in Portland." Nothing like her mother-I pitch everything. She has a small basket for all the really important things so that she can 'look at them once in awhile' (her words). We also went through 3 shelves of books and 2 boxes of toys. Oh, how happy it makes me to make things nice and clean and organized:)

Today we cleaned the entire house with all the windows open and the breeze blowing in. Awesome. We also tackled the yard AND the garage. True happiness. The whole time the kids played outside:) If I had pictures, they would have been awesome.

A Compliment

Today we ran into one of Elisabeth's lunch ladies (I am sure there is a more politically correct term for her-not sure what it is, though....maybe 'eating helper', 'dining assistant', 'food paraprofessional', 'eater oversee-er'). Elisabeth threw her arms around her and was all smiles. Apparently, Elisabeth has become quite close with Helen and Russ (the lunch helpers). Helen stopped me and told me what a beautiful girl Elisabeth was and how well behaved she acted during lunch. She also told me that I had done a 'good job' raising her:) I better take those compliments when I can get them...once Helen meets Isabella at the ripe old age of 12, I am sure she will be running the other way...screaming!!

Mother of the Year or not??

Playing with her new game. She just waits until the butterflies land and then picks them up.
She was into helping Mama with the dishes. I had more water on the floor than in the sink.
Drowning her Easter egg....blue dye on the table, on her hands, on her face, on the floor...
Elisabeth being the ultimate big sister....

My parents sent Elisabeth a HUGE chicken or bunny every year for 11 years....luckily they only come out once a year:)
I would like to think that I would get the Mother of the Year Award today, if I was awarding myself this kind of award. It all started with packing Elisabeth a yummy lunch, getting both kids' breakfast, letting Bella sleep in (for a total of 13 hours), dropping Bella off late, helping Elisabeth with homework, making a nice home-cooked meal for the 3rd night in a row (Coconut chicken, rice pilaf, yellow beans, salad, and strawberry shortcake), coloring Easter eggs, decorating the house for Easter, and wrapping the night up with taking the kids to play at Fun Unleashed. I am being quite narcissistic but it is great looking back and realizing why I am tired. Oh...and throw in a full days worth of work, too!!

Reasons I may not get the award: I let Todd pick up Isabella an hour later that I usually get her so I could run home and have a nap, I "helped" Elisabeth with her homework by giving her the answers to her spelling errors so I could stop the insanity of listening to her spell, I threatened Isabella with no Fun Unleashed unless she ate one piece of chicken, I threatened Isabella with no EleFun (a game) if she didn't slide down the slide at Fun Unleashed, I told Elisabeth to shove Isabella down the slide at Fun Unleashed in hopes that she would get over her fear, I threatened no EleFun unless she stopped blithering in my ear (she was quite P.O.d she was forced down the slide), even though she continued to bawl, I still stopped at WalMart and got her damn game, and finally-I dropped the bowl of crushed strawberries on the floor as I was attempting to make dessert for us. IF I had secured the lid on the container (which I NEVER do), this wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't need to do a load of laundry tonight before the stains set in on my jeans and fleece jacket.

I don't think today my day for an award. Being a mom is reward enough.

I should have sent her to the funeral.....

Bonnie's husband's aunt died so they needed yesterday off to go to the funeral. I should have thrown Isabella in the car with them. The morning started off okay-I was going to stay home with her until 11:30 and then Todd was going to take over. Everything was going fine until I told her to clean up her princess purse and to stop standing on the window sill. You would have thought I had asked her to clean up all the garbage in NYC. The whining! The complaining! She even tried to slug me in the leg to show her disapproval. Then I broke the news that we were meeting Todd at the tax place and go to lunch. WHOOOOO HOOOOOOO! She told me she wasn't going and she was going to stay home alone. I was tempted to threaten the monsters she is so scared about at night but I thought better of myself. I asked her if she really wanted to stay alone and she said 'yes'. Stupid me THOUGHT she would follow me downstairs after a change of heart. I THOUGHT she would chase me down after I announced I was, in fact, getting in the car (I said this multiple times). By this time, I was HOT and MAD and didn't quite know how to deal with her. I marched upstairs to find her feet sticking out from beneath my bed. Ugh. I pulled her out and threw her over my shoulder and tossed her in the car-HOTTER AND MADDER. The entire drive, this is all I heard--"I don't want to see Daddy. I don't want to eat with Daddy. I don't want to go to taxes. I don't want to be in the car. I don't want to see Daddy. I WANT TO STAY HOME."

Fast forward to the tax place-I offer to leave her with the secretary seeing that LOVES little children and FINDS her whining, moaning little self so adorable. Todd has to remove her sprawled out form from the office couch and put her in my car-with her knickers still in a knot. Lunch was pretty much the same. Todd tried to cajole her out of her mood by throwing her into the air. Not a good choice. She started to bawl. I finally told him to ignore her and just eat. Not 20 seconds later, she reached over and took his hand. Must have been the hot dog he gave her.

After that morning, I was pretty happy to return to work!