Master of the Toilet

Reader Beware (you probably need to have kids to find this worthy of reading):

It was a very big day in our house yesterday! Luke has been potty training for the last couple of weeks and doing really well. He has been wearing his big boy undies proudly for a week or so and staying dry. But yesterday, was the ultimate, he poopied in the toilet! Yay! We had a big party and he wanted balloons so here is the proud boy showing off his spiderman undies and balloons.

Amelia had a big moment yesterday too. She has been reading three and four letter words for a couple of weeks but yesterday we were practicing in her kindergarten readiness workbook and this is what she read to me, "Look at the animals. Draw a ball for each animal." The only word she asked about was each. I couldn't believe it!

Dyeing Easter eggs

We had a great time with Grandma Joan's visit last week. We finally got around to dyeing the eggs, just a few days past Easter. Better late than never! There were six colors to chose from and Luke would pick an egg and stand in front of all the colors and say, "Ummmmm, I think I'll do a red one!" He picked red every time! Look at his little hand clutching the red egg, he wouldn't let it go. Amelia took her sweet time, delicately dipping each egg in multiple colors. Luke would have dyed 24 eggs red in the time it took Amelia to do one, had we not stopped him. As Stephen says almost daily: in Amelia's case the apple fell straight down from the tree. ha ha ha

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful first Easter in Mississippi. After church we went over to our neighbor's house, The Dolans, and had an Easter Extravaganza. There were 14 kids under six, 6 teens/tweens and 19 adults. It was a beautiful day, delicious food and lots of fun for the kids while we celebrated all the joy that Easter brings.

Amelia had collected flowers for Mommy.

Luke looks a little strung out on Easter candy already!
Amelia and I made a bunny cake and Easter baskets for the kids. Grandma Nancy will be proud of us.

The dads set up an Easter egg hunt for the kids and they had a blast running around the yard finding all the eggs. (The big kids had to do the hunt three-legged race style with a partner).
Amelia showing me her egg. My kids are famous for finding one egg and then sitting down and eating the treat from it. They just don't have my competitive spirit, I was like "Come on, let's look for more, there's one over there!" I guess it is good they weren't tackling kids on Easter sunday for little plastic eggs.

Easter Bunny

Keesler Air Force base had a really fun Easter party for the kids. It included a parade, egg hunts and of course the big, fluffy guy himself. The kids had a lot of fun. Daddy was still gone in Ohio training for deployment so he had to miss out on the festivities. For those Midwesterner's out there, yes the kids are wearing beads. Here in the South, beads are not just for Mardi Gras. Beads are given out at Easter Parades, Homecoming Parades, St. Patrick's Day Parades, you name it, and a bead will be thrown at you. We have closets overflowing with beads.

Life's a Beach

This is what we were doing at the end of February, enjoying our own private beach. This is Horn Island and we brought the kids out here with our good friends. We had a great picnic and the kids ran around the beach collecting shells and exploring. On the way out to the island we had dolpins jumping around the boat. We also saw stingrays swimming in the shallow water and when we were in the bayou we saw two alligators! Who needs Sea World? I know, I know all of my midwestern friends are laughing that I used the word bayou and that I even know what a bayou is now.
McKenzie, Luke, Hayden and Amelia enjoying a juice break on the beach. We still can't believe this is where we live!

On the boat, poor Luke just couldn't relax. He actually slept like that the whole boat trip over to the island and after we anchored he stayed in the boat and slept even more. Eventually he woke up and poked his little head up probably thinking how the heck did I end up out in the middle of the Gulf?

God Bless America

Amelia's preschool has an amazing circus production each year. Everything from trapeze artists, lion tamers and clowns are included in the show. Amelia was a scarf girl and sang "God Bless America" while doing a scarf routine. Of course we thought she was the star of the show. In the months leading up to the show God Bless America was heard all throughout the house while she practiced. (She was even caught singing it at the top of her lungs while using the toilet!) Even Luke knows all the words to the song and the scarf routine by now. Thankfully he did not put on the red sequined leotard and blue skirt.