Easter Egging

Brigid had so much fun with all of the Christmas activities we did in December that I've been trying to make sure I have at least a couple of activities on hand for each of the other holidays throughout the rest of the year. We always have a couple of hours in afternoon, just the two of us, when Caitlin naps after school is out, and so far, we've made valentines and spring pictures, decorated foam flowers and shamrocks, and painted wooden butterflies. With Easter coming up quickly, dying eggs was the next obvious activity choice for us to tackle. Since I didn't know when Brigid would be in the mood to dye the eggs (and then hunt for those eggs, since that's just how Brigid rolls...), I bought some of those cardboard eggs that are supposed to be dyeable, just so I wouldn't misplace a real egg somewhere in the house, then forget about it. 

Because that is absolutely something I would do, and nobody needs to stumble across something like that a few months down the road...

Anyway, the eggs took to the dye about as much as I expected, which is to say not really at all, but Brigid had fun with it, and I guess that's what matters in all of this. It's not like they have to be perfect or anything. 

(If I keep telling myself that my projects don't have to be perfect, I'll start to believe it, right?)

And now, if you'll excuse me, we're off to start training for the church Easter egg hunt, because the organizers seem to frown upon me following Brigid around and blocking her competition from finding all of the eggs, so I'm just going to have to teach her how to throw her own elbows. SOMEBODY needs to be responsible for bringing me some candy home. 

 

My Little Leprechauns!

A happy St. Patrick's Day from my favorite little Irish babies!

What Was Happening While I Was Gone

Life got more than a little busy around here at the end of the year, between work deadlines, holiday activities, traveling, and the general mess of Christmas preparations, and as a result, I took an accidental break from blogging that went longer than I'd expected. And even though I missed it (and even though my mom and dad missed it enough to ask me when I would be getting back to it...), I'm glad I took the break.

But I still need to document my fun times, because if a family has fun, but it doesn't appear on the internet, did the fun actually happen? I don't want to test that theory.

First, we Fall-ed and Halloween-ed. We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch, (reluctantly, in Brigid's case) carved the pumpkins we picked up there, and trick-or-treated with the other 15 kids in our cul-de-sac on Halloween, dressed as Vampire-Elsa, of course.

Oh. And I had this guy watching me through my office window all fall. So, that was something...

For Thanksgiving, we drove up to Indiana for the week, which I think will become our new annual tradition, so that we can be at our own home with the girls for Christmas morning every year. Plus, this gives us a chance to celebrate Caitlin's birthday with my family during the years when Thanksgiving falls later in November. I would like it noted that I did a MUCH better job on Caitlin's second birthday than I did on her first, and I think I should get points for that. (Even if I did just recycle Brigid's 5th birthday theme from two months earlier...)

And we went ahead and visited Santa Claus, while we were up there, for the annual picture my sisters and I have taken for our parents. It's kind of funny to think about how the number in our group has doubled since the first time we did this together, maybe 10 years ago. And yet, it's still nothing but girls in my family... 

When we returned from Indiana, there was Baby's First Dance Recital (and if you try to tell me that Brigid doesn't still qualify as a baby, I will tell you to shut your mouth right this very moment...) waiting for us. I have never, ever seen Brigid look as cute as she did in that dance recital costume, and considering just how cute she is all of the time, that's really saying something.

Oh, hey. Then we went to Disney for a few days. We hadn't been since we were there last year during the home-sale crisis of 2013, so I was excited to get back, at Christmas time, when I was in a better frame of mind. And I was in a better frame of mind...until Caitlin spiked a fever and had another febrile seizure AS WE WERE WALKING IN TO HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS. That was not the best time.

But, uh, the rest of the trip was good...

Then there was Christmas, involving a trip to see Santa (again) (and apparently Shrek and Donkey live in the North Pole, now? I don't even know.) and more presents than my two little stinkers probably deserved. 

And that was the rest of our 2014. I think maybe I'm caught up now? Here's to staying a little more on top of things in 2015...

It's a Party!

In our old neighborhood, there was a family across the way from us that had, by far, the best Halloween set-up around, with a bunch of skeletons sitting around a campfire with beers and marshmallows. It was fantastic, and I think Steve was always a little jealous that he hadn't come up with the idea first.

So, when we moved into a new neighborhood? You'd better believe that idea came with us. I went to Costco on opening weekend to load up on skeletons, because these suckers sell out if you're not quick to the pallet. It turns out that six skeletons is the maximum number that can be loaded into a Costco cart, and you'd better have someone coming along with you, because there's not way you're navigating all of that creepiness around the store on your own. You just push that cart and pray to all that nobody accidentally stumbles into your path, because they WILL be run down by six boxes of bones.

The yard turned out amazingly well, though, and all of the neighbors now think Steve is just the MOST creative Halloween decorator there is.

Come on over! You know you've always wanted to go camping with a bunch of creepy people...

Queen Elsa

Brigid's Easter basket was a little Frozen-heavy this year, but we honestly couldn't help ourselves. This was the first time Brigid had become really interested in a movie (or, you know, completely and totally OBSESSED with a movie, as the case may be), and listening to her sing along with the soundtrack or watching her pretend to turn our floors into an ice rink or being asked to act out the part of Princess Anna in the ice castle to her own very impressive Queen Elsa (complete with dialogue prompts from the queen along the way, since Princess Anna couldn't quite remember her lines as well as she should at this point) meant that anything Frozen we were able to get our hands on was coming home with us, moderation be damned.

Steve put in some time to track down everything we knew Brigid would want, since Disney seemed to have a problem with production (or *cough*just wanted to drive up demand*cough*), and there was never anything available in any of the stores or online. The dress arrived after one of Steve's set-the-alarm-early-to-wake-up-when-Disney-updates-online-stock evenings, while the Elsa doll was a product of his joining a Facebook group of parents that just wanted to help each other find whatever it was they were looking for, without paying the Ebay scalper prices. I'm impressed, and a little exhausted, looking at the work he put into this whole thing. It's a shame he only got credit for the dress, since the doll came from the big bunny, himself...

Brigid thanked us for getting her the ice dress 'just in time', since she's decided she wants to be Elsa for Halloween, and even if her concept of time is just a touch off, the sentiment was nice. Caitlin ended up with a corresponding Anna costume, so we'll have a matching pair come October, but I kind of refuse to let her wear it at this point because, well...Caitlin is Caitlin. I'd at least like to have her wear it once, when she maybe, sort of understands what she's wearing, before she completely destroys it, you know?