Easter and Such

Easter was a great day. We did our famous egg hunt and ate the much anticipated bunny cake. Hey, I even threw in a homemade brunch and Easter dinner to boot.

Today was one of the first 'warm' and sunny days of the year. Wonderful. The boys and I headed outside. Oldest decided to play "Bolt" (he was Penny on a scooter and youngest was Bolt and he was telling youngest, "Bark, Bolt, Bark!!". Too funny. He also said he was Pete Doctor (one of the directors/producers of Pixar). In one of the 'outtake" reels, Pete Doctor rides around Pixar Studios on a scooter. He kept saying to me, "I'm Pete Doctor!". Of course, no one gets it but us.

This morning, out of the blue, middle boy says, "Momma, I love having my brother at my school". I ask him if he sees oldest and he says 'yes'. He told me that he sometimes sits on the swings with oldest and tells him 'hi' and swings with him. Cool.

Pre-Easter Festivities

Okay, I have psychoanalyzed myself. Because of our Christmas snow, lack of an oven and I couldn't get out of the house...I am overcompensating. 150% for Easter.

This morning, the boys and I decorated the much anticipated bunny cake (minus coconut and licorice because my boys and I don't like them; also, I changed it to a 'black and white' bunny and a chocolate cake). I made the changes, not to buck tradition, but because I get tired of eating the whole bunny cake every year by myself. Also, instead of jelly beans, we used Easter M and Ms. I realized I made a mistake by leaving out the M and Ms because Middle boy and Youngest were running around on a sugar high. Seriously.

We also made a new recipe (which I will modify for next year)...Easter nests made of dark chocolate and Rice Krispies with little M and M eggs in them.

All three of the boys got totally got into them. We waited until Oldest's dentist appointment was done to finish decorating the cake. With the nests, Middle boy refused to help until the last minute and then, oldest ran over and said, "Momma, I put the egg in the chocolate" and he did! All three of them finally helped and placed the eggs in the 'nests".

I have just finished making my "Grandma's beans' and the Easter egg casserole. Tomorrow morning during the egg hunt, I will bake the casserole and cinnamon rolls. Then, we'll have Easter dinner of ham (low sodium, of course!), Grandma's beans and rolls. True, the only ones eating any of the food will be hubby and I, but it is the fact that the food is available. Middle boy has said he'll try the cinnamon rolls. I am sure he'll like it because he is a sugar fiend.

Cub Scouts!

On Wednesday, oldest and I went to the cub scout meeting (as usual). This month's theme is "Jurassic Park", which I had hoped would pique his interest. We had the best time ever. Typically, cub scouts is very difficult for him. It is a very social activity and, obviously, he has low social skills. This time was different.

I don't know if he had the promise of seeing "Hannah Montana: The Movie" this weekend or if he was just really into cub scouts.

We started out cub scouts by doing a word search. Oldest and I worked on it together. Then, we listened to the leader discuss dinosaurs from the Jurassic period. Oldest listened quietly. They chose dinosaurs to write a report on a dinosaur. Initially we had chosen a Brachiosaurus. By random choice, we were given the Brachiosaurus. Then, he and I made a dinosaur slide for his scarf. I pounded out the slide and then we made an imprint of an 'egg head' dinosaur. We are letting it dry until the next cub scout meeting (when we will paint it). Finally, we colored 'dinosaur' eggs (Easter eggs).

Oldest didn't have any behavior problems, I didn't have to remind him to focus, it was an amazing cub scout meeting!

Ferry Ride

On our final day of our adventure, we decided to take it easy and take a ferry boat ride from Edmonds to Kingston. No, there isn't much in Kingston, except for a very cute McDonald's that the boys love to go to that has an indoor play area. The boys also love riding the ferry. The youngest boy stays inside, while the oldest goes outside (much quieter and not claustrophobic). Middle boy goes in between.

We had a great time on what youngest calls, "boat ferry".

April Fools!

On April 1st, Oldest boy woke up (he was so cute sleeping on a very plush roll a way bed) and said, "Nana, it's snowing!" and it was. The rest of us thought it was an April Fool's joke. Nope. No such luck.

Vancouver Aquarium

As stop two on our aquarium tour (I think it will be renamed the "water tour"), we went up to Canada and spent two nights at the hotel, going to the Vancouver Aquarium in the middle. The boys love the hotel part of the stay. Having 'tried' out the hotel pool once, we decided it would consistently be 'broken'. This did not stop middle boy from telling me, "why would you stay at a hotel that has a broken pool? That doesn't make sense.". Leave it to him to question authority.

On the 31st, we went to the aquarium and the boys had a great time. The aquarium has belugas, dolphins, a rain forest type room and lots of interesting viewings of animals like sharks and turtles. One particular room, has an aquarium where the you can have a huge turtle swimming above you and sharks above you. That is a favorite.

Youngest and Oldest enjoyed the beluga show from below (much quieter), while middle boy enjoyed it from above. I think he was hoping to get 'splashed' in the "Splash Zone".

All in all, it was a fun day.