Aprils Past

April 2004

+

April 2005

April 2006

(Apparently I wasn't taking many pictures in 2007!)

April 2008

The Magic House

Today we headed to Kirkwood to visit the Magic House. They recently expanded and we were excited to check out the new additions. They have a room that is dedicated to story telling.

And an outdoor area related to growing plants. Here the girls are planting seeds to sprout.

This is the beanstalk that you can climb up that is 3 stories high!

Easter Dresses

Here are the girls in their Easter dresses. Sydney's ended up being a little small because I bought it last year at the end of the season. They had fun wearing their hats. They thought it was very funny when the wind would blow them off. (Truth be told, I took these on Monday after Easter. Their hair wasn't fixed or anything, but I hadn't gotten pics of them on Sunday, so I figured this would do!)

Backyard Easter Egg Hunt

We hid eggs for the girls in the backyard. I don't particulary like telling the girls that some magical creature (Easter bunny) snuck into our backyard and hid things, but Mike didn't want me to be a downer, so we just decided that he could tell them whatever he wanted. In the end, I kind of played along. Whatever, I know it won't scar them, I just think it's weird. These eggs has M&Ms and money in them!

Easter Morning

I hid the girl's baskets in my closet so that I could control the opening. Isn't that Type A of me? I just enjoy watching them open their baskets, so I wanted to make sure I was there for it! I had fun filling their baskets full of goodies. Nonnie bought them some cute clothes and kites. Kathryn got a watch (digital) and enjoys telling us what time it is. I bought them Easter hats because they had seen some in the store and enjoyed playing with them. Mike bought me a pink fishing pole and some candy for my basket and I got him running socks and a tackle box (so exciting, right?).

I love the candy and presents part of Easter, but I have also tried to teach them the true meaning of Easter. I found different pictures of Christ in the Ensign (on the cross, in the tomb, resurrected) and taped them to our fridge. We tried to talk about it every day or so. I'm hopeful that something sunk in.

Swimming Lessons

The girls started their swimming lessons this week. Sydney is in Shrimp II and Kathryn is in Level 1. I was in the water with Sydney so I don't have pics of us (my mom does on her camera, but I haven't taken the time to upload them.) Anyway, they were very excited and had a good time. Sydney was a little cold, but Kathryn was just so excited to be there and enthusiastically did everything her teacher, David, asked her to do. (He's the bearded one in the bottom pic.)

Psychedelic Cupcakes

We had a friend over last week and made rainbow cupcakes. I found the idea on a blog that was linked to AllRecipes.com. I had so much fun coloring the cake batter and then the girls layered the different colors in and swirled the tops. They tasted good too! I'm looking forward to making more!

Purina Farm - Easter Village

We finally made it down to Purina Farms in Gray Summitt, Mo. I've always wanted to go and saw an ad in the paper for their Easter Village and thought it would be the perfect time!

They had lots of baby animals for the girls to look at and pet.

Sydney was brave enough to stand by the Easter Bunny. Kathryn was standing behind me!

Easter Egg Hunts

On Friday (4/3) I went to an Adult Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt with some of my friends. I had fun and won a stuffed bunny. After we went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. Nonnie also got here on Friday night after a long drive in from Texas.

On Saturday Nonnie & I took the girls to the O'Fallon Jaycee's Easter Egg Hunt at Civic Park. Nonnie helped Sydney and I helped Kathryn. They were on different fields due to their age.

Kathryn ended up winning the Grand Prize for her age group! (She found the egg that contained the Golden Ticket!) Good thing I coached her well. She kept wanting to hold my hand and I was shouting, "Go! Go! Go! Pick up more eggs!" Here are the girls with their prize. A Mini Golf Course. We came home and set it up (while listening to conference) and the girls played around with it. When, after 30 minutes, they were already losing interest, I decided to take it back to Wal-Mart. So, with the money Kathryn got: a Dora fishing pole, a Diego game for her Leapster2, and some playdough.

More pics from the Art Museum trip

Art Museum 3/27

On Friday we headed down to the St. Louis Art Museum as a family. The girls weren't really interested, but Mike and I had fun looking around.

Frontier Park

The girls and I had a picnic down at Frontier Park. We sat on our blanket on the platform of an old train depot. (The grass was a little damp.) Then the girls played 'campfire' down in the grass and we watched some boats go by. We also played with beach balls, but it was so windy that they kept blowing away!