Easter Baskets and Family

I really love holidays, especially when we get to see lots of family! This year we spent Easter with the Perrault side since my brother came home from Colorado. Although, sadly, his reason for coming home was to help my youngest sister move out to Colorado. I will definitely miss seeing her even if it wasn't as often as I would have liked! At least we have a trip to Colorado planned for the spring so we'll see them soon.

Easter morning I was awake before the kids and was able to get in a quick run. Once we were all up and showered, Luke and I sent the kids on a hunt for their Easter baskets! I'd written out little clues that took them to a few places around the house, and Noelle especially loved it! When she found the baskets in my closet she kept saying "thank you, mommy!" They each got some socks (Frozen for Noelle and Thomas the train for Jonah), a ball (Frozen for Noelle and Star Wars for Jonah), bubbles, and Reeses eggs (mostly for me!)

We headed to church and soon after we arrived Noelle hurt her knee/leg playing around in the lobby and decided she would rather sit with us than go to nursery. She did surprisingly well, as long as we kept her fueled with snacks and a pen and paper!

After church we headed home so Jonah could nap (he'd already been cranky most of the weekend and we did not want to skimp on sleep for him!), and then went to my parents once he woke up. My mom had an egg hunt set up for them, and after the three that I had taken them to in the past two weeks, they knew exactly what to do. Noelle ran around the yard picking up as many as she could, and Jonah had help from everyone else pointing out eggs for him. The eggs were full of dimes, nickels, and Reeses cups- pretty much the best thing ever. Jonah agreed and kept stuffing his mouth with chocolate. Definitely a boy after my own heart!

My mom had also hidden Easter baskets for them with more candy, stickers, and tickets for the carousel. Noelle surprisingly ate ham at dinner and Jonah wanted more deviled eggs. Throughout the day, I kept getting excited thinking about my sister's son being a part of everything next year! She bought the suspenders and bow-tie for Jonah and her little guy for next year, as well as a matching headband for Noelle. Cannot wait for matching cousin pictures!

I have absolutely come to love Easter more as God has drawn me closer to Him and given me a greater understanding of His sacrifice for me. There is no greater reason to rejoice than in Jesus' work on the cross. On Friday as we were driving somewhere, I asked Noelle if she knew why we celebrate Easter. To my surprise, she said Jesus! And then she sang me a little song she learned at school, "This is the cross where Jesus died, this is the hill where Mary cried." I pray my little's hearts come to know the impact of this and love Jesus with their lives!

Sunshine and a Foam Pit

One evening last week I had a leadership meeting for MOPS, and left the kids in Luke's care to do the evening routine of bath and bedtime. When Noelle woke up the next morning, she came downstairs, and first thing she said to me was "So, how was your meeting?" My little adult!

The weather last week was glorious! Sunshine and warmth. We spent so much time OUTSIDE! And I think it's safe to say we all loved it. Chalk, bubbles, play ground- we did it all!

We also had a MOPS play date at a trampoline park. It's been about a year since the last time I took them to one, and they both enjoyed themselves. At first Noelle wasn't interested into changing into the special socks, but once she saw everyone else jumping around, she was all over it. We kept going back and forth between the trampoline and the foam pit.

Jonah has been cutting his fourth (and final!) 2nd year molar since last week, and has been crankier than usual, especially upon waking from his nap. Last week, when I knew we still had a good hour before Luke got home from work, and Jonah lost it because I wouldn't let him keep the refrigerator door open to play with the light, I piled them into the car with the plan to just drive around for an hour. Gas waster? Or sanity saver? I choose sanity!

I ended up driving past my sister's house, and even though she wasn't home yet, decided to stop there and let the kids run around her back yard. I can foresee lots of fun times with them running around with their cousin in that yard!

Pink Monkey PJs and a Topknot

Most exciting news: Noelle and Jonah have a baby girl cousin, and I am an AUNT! She was born on March 3 (at 3:03- fun, fun!), and I'm trying to scheme up ways to get down to Nashville so I can hold her. The pictures we've seen are adorable, and it sounds like things are going well so far!

Also, these pink monkey PJs. We got two sets of these footie pajamas in a bag of hand-me downs. They are the exact same size (3T), and both Noelle and Jonah get such a kick out of wearing them at the same time. There are even tears (usually from Jonah) when they are in the wash and can't be worn.

Last week we took a trip to the mall to do our usual play in the play area, and grab Chick Fil A. While I don't mind walking around the mall, I am so looking forward to warm days when we can walk outside, and go to the playground, and take walks with Luke after dinner. We had a dusting of snow last Friday, and this week it's supposed to get up to 70*, so I'm praying the spring weather sticks around.

Over the weekend, Noelle had a birthday party for a set of twin girls in her pre-school class, and it was at Chuck-E-Cheese. I've never taken her before, and it's been awhile since I've been, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, or how she would do. But she loved it! Her favorite was the mini carousel, of course, and she attempted a few games. She seemed to enjoy celebrating her friends with pizza and singing Happy Birthday. And she redeemed her 25 tickets for some Frozen stickers. Can't get much better than that!

And I love her little top knot in this picture. She does NOT like me to brush her hair, let alone put it up. Lately I've been letting her go every three days without a shower/bath because she hates them so much, and she was in dire need of clean hair at this point. So while she was distracted at Nana's house, I pulled it up into a little topknot/bun. Now to decide if we're doing more ballet and get her to wear a bun every week for that...

Ballet Performance

Yesterday was the end of Noelle's first ballet class, and they ended it with a little performance. We knew it would be short (like less than 10 minutes), but we invited the grandparents, and Luke worked from home so that he could join us. My dad was out of town for work, but the other three grandparents came, and I think really enjoyed it!

Last week, I stopped at Goodwill just to look around, and ended up finding a Disney brand leotard for less than $4, and couldn't resist buying it for Noelle! She was definitely excited to wear it for her performance.

The performance was at a different location than where the classes have been held, and Noelle has been saying for the past week that we need to go to a different place. We even drew a little map with "directions" on how to get there (even though I really had no idea where I was going), and Noelle brought it along in the car. The building had a gym with a stage, and the teacher quickly practiced with the girls on entering and exiting the stage.

cheesin for a picture after the performance

Noelle was adorable and hilarious! At one point, she got distracted by something on her finger and just stood there looking at it while the rest of the girls danced around her. Sometimes she spent more time looking at the girls next to her rather than the teacher, who was doing the movements for them to follow. But she had so much fun, and it's making me think we may need to sign her up for the spring session as well!

The ballet portion was danced to Beyonce's "Halo", and the tap dance was to "Oh, What A Night." After it was over, we all headed out to Baugher's for dinner, where Jonah and Noelle downed their apple cider, and Jonah had to be removed because he started screeching for the fun of it!

All in all, we are proud of our little ballerina trying something new, and love that she enjoyed it!