An egg-stra good time at home

After church today, we went home and ate a quick lunch.  Then I went outside and hid Grace's Easter basket and our home-dyed eggs outside for Grace to find.

We dyed several eggs at home.  This was one of the first eggs we colored.  It has a cross on it to represent what Easter is all about - Jesus dying on a cross for us and rising again on the third day.

There are hearts representing our love for one another.

And flowers for spring.

The easter bunny.

And birds because Grace loves to watch them out the window and at the pier.

A solid "golden" egg.  It's really more orange than gold, but hey, I tried!

There's even an egg with Grace's name on it.

This is my favorite.  Grace colored it all by herself.  She stuck a square of painters tape on it, and dropped it in the reddish orange dye.  And we left it in there until she told me to take it out.  I just adore it.

And here is Grace's easter basket.  It's actually a small purse filled with plastic bracelets and rings, some flower shaped lollipops, and chocolate bunnies and chicks.

After I finished hiding everything, David brought Grace and Chloe outside.

And the hunt began! 

Grace was so funny during our hunt at home.  She would find an egg, bend over to pick it up, stand up and say, "Yook!  I fown uh egg!"  (Look!  I found an egg!)  Then she would toss it into her basket (managing to crack several), look around and say, "I know dares mohr eggs sum-ware."  (I know there are more eggs somewhere.)

And then she would run over to the next egg.

And bend over or squat down to pick it up.

She would admire it for a moment and say, "Yook!  I fown uh nudder egg!"  (Look!  I found another egg!)

Occasionally, she would sit down and show Chloe all the eggs she found.

Chloe was interested enough to take a peek inside.

Chloe even managed to find her own eggs.

Soon Grace found her basket full of goodies.  When she saw it she just looked at it for a minute and then said, "Yook.  Dares uh bassett."  (Look.  There's a basket.)  And then she looked at it some more.  Apparently, she was debating whether or not to touch it.

She was very hesitant and it took some convincing before she realized that it was for her. 

Once she realized it truly was hers then she was more than happy to investigate it.

Grace was super excited over the lollipops.

And she piled her jewelry on.

She offered to share her basket with Chloe after we allowed her to eat a lollipop.

And then we loaded everything back into her basket and purse and headed inside.  What a great day!

Nature in our backyard

After the Easter egg hunt today, we decided to try our luck at fishing off the pier.

It was gorgeous outside - warm, but not too hot with a strong breeze.  The sky was slightly overcast so the sun wasn't beating down too hard on us.  It felt great!

We spotted a number of birds.  After looking this fellow up, I found that he is a Great White Egret and is sometimes called Great White Heron.  Last year we watched Ally, our local alligator, eat one.  At the time I thought it was some type of crane.  It is certainly a beautiful creature.

Shortly after spotting our white egret, this Great Blue Heron stopped in for a visit. 

Grace enjoyed watching the birds with me while David fished, but she worried that her hat would fly off.  She kept saying, "It's pri-ee wind-ee out here.  I done wun my hat to fie away!"  (It's pretty windy out here.  I don't want my hat to fly away!)  So she kept a tight grip on it and only periodically blew her bubbles.

Then Grace spotted this laughing gull - seriously, that's its name - and pointed him out and told me to take a "pix-ur" (picture). 

Then a storm started to move in so we headed home.  It sure was fun spending another beautiful day outdoors.

Easter egg hunt

Today we went to the Easter egg hunt at our church.

Grace was really excited.

We walked around front.

And followed the signs.

Grace received her arm band and turned her eggs in at the check-in counter.

Then we walked around back where all the inflatables were.

Grace, which one do you want to play on first?  "Hmmmm.  I own no."  (I don't know.)

So we took her to the one with the shortest line and she started crawling up.  Then she got to the top, turned around, and came back down.

Grace, don't you want to play on the inflatable?  "No, tank you."  (No, thank you.)

So we got her a snack (Chick-fil-a nuggets, fruit snacks, and juice) that the church provided and had a little picnic.  We just watched everyone else play on the inflatables.  When we asked Grace if she wanted to go play on them, she just responded with, "No.  I fine."  (No, I'm fine.)

Soon it was time for the egg hunt to begin.  Grace's group was at the playground.

After they opened the gates, Grace took off with her Daddy in tow.

Grace found a nice spot with several eggs.

She was so funny to watch.  She would bend over to pick up the egg

And then stand all the way up to put the egg in her basket.

It didn't take long for all the eggs to be claimed.  Grace ended up with about 20 or so eggs. 

Then we saw a little girl nearby talking to her mommy.  The girl was about 4 or so and only got 1 egg with a sticker inside.  The poor little girl was so sad she was crying and her mother was trying to make her feel better.  Grace went over to the little girl and put some of her eggs into the other girl's basket.  It was so sweet to watch her share her eggs with another child.  She gave away 7 or 8 of her eggs.  Then the little girl gave Grace a big hug and thanked her for sharing with her.  My pregnancy hormones almost had me crying.  The little girl's mother was very impressed and thanked us for sharing with her daughter.  It's amazing how such an unexpected act of kindness can touch a complete stranger (and this mommy) and leave a lasting impression.

  After I got my hormones under control, we opened up Grace's eggs and found a lot of candy.

We let her eat one piece and then we went to play on the playground.

The playground is huge with multiple play areas and picnic tables.

The ground is covered with recycled rubber and that really springy stuff like on track fields.

And part of the playground is even covered under huge sails giving the kids a shady area to play.

Grace adores the playground.  She started climbing up right away.

On the 5 - 12 year old section, I should add.

She went down several of the slides.

And tried to slide down the bumpy ladder.  Ouch!

She climbed up the tunnels.

And went under the riding toys.

Then she scrambled up the swinging ladder (with Daddy's help, of course).

And went down the really big twisty slide! 

It was a beautiful day to have an Easter egg hunt.  Grace had a lot of fun finding the eggs and discovering the little surprises inside each egg.  It was also wonderful playing on the playground and burning off excess energy.  My favorite moment, however, was when Grace showed compassion to a complete stranger - that little girl - by taking some of the eggs that she worked so hard for and sharing them with someone less fortunate than herself.  I will cherish that simple act of generosity forever and let it serve as a reminder that sometimes all it takes is a small act of kindness to leave a lasting impact on someone else. 

Stuffing eggs

After our fun at the pier, we started stuffing eggs for the Easter egg hunt at our church.

Grace said she wanted to help, so we gave her the eggs and let her put the candy inside.

She was very patient and took her time.  She counted out 2 pieces of candy for each egg.

Then she would place the candy inside the egg, close it up, and move on to the next one.

She did a great job and snacked on just 1 piece of candy.

Bubbles and birds

This afternoon we went to the pier to try our luck at fishing.

Grace and I just hung out for a while as David fished.

Soon Grace started getting antsy so I told her I brought her a surprise.

Bubbles!

Grace blew her bubbles and watched them land in the water for the "fishies."

And I enjoyed the sunset while David tried to catch some fish.  He caught a few but no keepers.

Then as we were walking home, we noticed this little guy. 

The pictures are a little grainy and dark, but I didn't want my flash to scare him away.

He's gorgeous.  I'm not certain what type of bird he is, maybe a warbler?  I need to look him up.  In the meantime,  I've decided to keep a photojournal of all the wildlife we find.  Last year we saw bay otters, alligators, cranes, and gulls to name a few.  Who knows what we will see this year? 

Finally our little friend flew off and I took one last picture of the sunset before heading home.  It was quite a beautiful and relaxing day.

An Unexpected Surprise

I have been feeling really great lately except for the enormous protruding belly throwing me completely off balance.  And little Indy has been very active.  Much more active than Grace at this point in my pregnancy.  Then yesterday I started having contractions and a lot pain in my lower back.  They subsided by midafternoon so I wasn't too worried.  But then they started up again last night.  So I called my doctor this morning and he told me to come in to his office immediately so they could check everything out.

After I dropped Grace off at school this morning, I drove across the bay to my doctor's office.  They took me back immediately and hooked me up to the fetal monitoring thing.  Indy was moving around so much the nurse had a hard time hooking the belt up to monitor his/her heartbeat.  Then she thought she heard two heartbeats.  So they decided to do an ultrasound just to be sure.  And surprise, surprise - I'm carrying twins!  I couldn't believe it!  Neither could the nurse or my doctor.  Turns out, baby number 2 was hiding behind Indy.  No wonder my belly has started growing astronomically fast.  And it explains the horrible morning sickness!  And all that extra motion going on in my belly!

So here's a picture of both our babies...  Now that I'm expecting twins I have to take it much easier.  No more picking Grace up or too much exercise.  Thankfully I'm not on bed rest...yet.  I go in for another checkup in two weeks.

Now that you're finally reading this section of my post, April Fools!  I didn't go to the doctor and we're not having twins!