Neighborhood Egg Hunt

On Saturday morning, we had our first neighborhood egg hunt. We had beautiful, even warm, weather.  One of my neighbors, Christina, organized the entire party and she did a great job.

We "hid" the eggs on the playground and the grass right before the party.  Christina's husband kept watch until we were ready to start the egg hunt.  We waited until 30 minutes after the party started to give everyone time to arrive.  We also let the kids four and under get a head start on the older kids.

The kids did crafts (tissue paper butterflies and bunny ear hand bands) and decorated cookies.

We had an excellent turn out, especially considering that several families were traveling for spring break.

We had a continental breakfast- doughnuts, pastries, muffins, fruit, and juice.  Chris said Christina's best idea was to bring coffee.  The coffee did seem to be a big hit with adults.

Wesley helped Josiah find Easter eggs.

After the egg hunt, the kids played on the playground.  They also went back inside the clubhouse for more goodies.  I think Josiah may have eaten eight or ten doughnut holes over the two hours he was there.

He also had a cookie or two.

He loved one of our neighbor's motorcycles.

I think the kids and parents really enjoyed the egg hunt. I hope we can do it again next year.

His Best Socks

Wesley and Lydia spent last week with their grandparents. Grandma and Lydia made a stuffed bear that Grandma modeled off of Wesley's much beloved brown bear.

While Grandma was concentrating on sewing the bear and Lydia was watching intently,

Wesley made his own snowman.  He used the pillow stuffing in the pair of socks he had been wearing.  He folded the tops down and colored them with markers.  This one is a lot more colorful than the one I made with him a couple of months ago.  He is more crafty than I thought.

Here is a picture of the kids table on Sunday.  A couple of hours later, we were headed home.

A Cold Hike

 A couple of weeks ago, Wesley's wolf den went on a nature hike and picked up trash at Huntley Meadows.  I don't think the den leader expected it to be so cold when he planned the hike.  It was 45 degrees.

Chris took all three kids on the hike.

He said he spent most of his time worrying that the kids, especially Josiah, would fall in the water.

Thankfully, no one fell in.

 This sweet girl is always posing for the camera.

 There were signs of a lot of beaver activity.

 What was I doing while Chris was out hiking with the kids?  I was at a charity fashion show with a few friends, drinking wine, and shopping.  I think it was my first charity event, other than our school's silent auction.  I was a little nervous about it, but I had a great time! I really wish I had a picture of Erica but I do have one of Susan.

Great Wolf Lodge

On Saturday, we went to Great Wolf Lodge. This was the first time Wesley and Lydia tried MagiQuest.

They loved it.

After they did two quests a piece, we headed to one of our favorite places, Pierce's BBQ.  After lunch, we went to the water park for four hours.  Everyone was exhausted after that, so we just had pizza in our room. After dinner, Wesley and Lydia did more quests with Chris.

The next morning, we got an early start at the water park.  I think these stairs really wore Josiah out.  He climbed up them so many times.  Just like last year, he loved the water slides.  And that is why I love Great Wolf Lodge, all three of our children have loved these water slides and benefited from there not being a height requirement.  Lydia rode the tube slides before she turned two, as did Wesley and Josiah.  

Wesley and Lydia really liked playing in the lazy river and we had trouble getting them out of there.  The love all the slides but I think their favorite thing is the the lazy river.

Wesley wore his new prescription goggles most of the time.

Josiah cried and fussed when we tried to make him do the lazy river.  He really just wanted to do the water slides or play in the pool.  I think he knew floating around on a float would make him fall asleep.

Wesley is now tall enough for the Howlin' Tornado.  Last year, he just missed it because they measure in bare feet.  This is the best picture I could get of it since it is outside the building.  It's the yellow and orange cone.

Josiah looked so little in this four person tube.

He was only six months old when he rode it the first time.

Flashback to 2011.

Doesn't Lydia look so happy?

As I was taking pictures on Sunday morning and waiting for my family to come down the slides, I noticed how happy everyone looked at the end of the slides.  This was especially noticeable on the tube slides.  All the families just seemed to be having the best time.

This was Josiah's first year, to try out the body slides, the ones where you go down without a tube.  I think he liked them.

Lydia was so proud of herself for crossing the lilypads.  

Josiah waited very patiently for Chris and Wesley to exit the Howlin' Tornado.

At one point, Josiah started shivering and one of the lifeguards suggested I put him in the kids hot tub.  He loved that.

After about three hours on Sunday, he started asking to leave because he was so tired.  We all ate lunch at the water park first and all the kids ate really well.  Josiah took a two hour nap in the room while I read a magazine.  By the time, we got back to the water park, the bigger kids were ready to leave but we convinced Wesley to stay another hour with us.

We ate dinner, at one of Wesley's favorite restaurants, Captain George's.  He loves the crab legs!  He only ate crab legs, corn on the cob, and dessert but I think he got his money's worth!

After dinner, Wesley and Lydia did more MagiQuest.

Lydia's poses and facial expressions crack me up.

It was another fun trip and I bet the kids are already looking forward to going again next year.

Blessing Bags

One of the women in my Bible study, read about a great idea for doing a small thing to try to bless others who are less fortunate - Blessing Bags.  Twice our Bible study group has met with all our children and assembled the blessing bags to hand out to people who are begging at intersections.  Like most people, I find it very uncomfortable when someone is standing right beside of my car asking for a handout.  It makes me uncomfortable because I feel like I can't really do anything to help them and I usually have no cash.  In the past, I have handed out granola bars or whatever snack food I have in the car.  Every time, I have handed out a blessing bag, the recipient has seemed grateful to get it.  I try to put a dollar in the bag.

Recently, I asked Chris to pick up the supplies from Costco for us to make bags with our kids.

 We put a bottle of water, snacks, and tic tacs in the bags.

 I plan on having Lydia and Wesley make some cards that say "God loves you" for the bags.

Port Discovery

On Saturday, we headed to Baltimore to visit a great children's museum. We got in free because we have a membership to another museum. Port Discovery is $13.95 per person and I think it is well worth it, especially compared to the $10 per person cost of the National Children's Museum.

You can read about our first visit to Port Discovery here.  We have been one other time, but I didn't blog about it.

We had lunch before we left the house but I knew the kids would need a snack so we stopped at a frozen yogurt place before going to the museum.

There were two different sections of a traveling Wizard of Oz exhibit.  Wesley and Lydia had fun on the climbing wall and spider web.

Lydia served up an early dinner in the diner.

In the second Wizard of Oz exhibit Josiah posed with a tree.  He really liked climbing through a tunnel that was suppose to test your courage.

Wesley pulled the bridge across in the Egypt exhibit.

Josiah loves to be carried.  Every time we hear Josh Wilson's song "Carry Me", Josiah says, "That's my theme song."  Chris mentioned it one time and it really stuck with Josiah and now he says it all the time.

Lydia looked at the cat skeleton.

Wesley and Lydia spent a lot of time in the climbing structure.  When we first got to the museum at 1:30, there were a lot of people but the crowd thinned out and the kids really enjoyed playing.

Josiah loved the sand table in Tot Trails, an area for kids under three.  He played with the sand table for almost thirty minutes.

Wesley spent some time trying to master this ball game.  He was successful once.

Josiah wanted to do the big slide.  When it was his turn, the attendant said, "It's for kids ages five to twelve, but it's up to you."  I said, "He really wants to do it and I think he will be okay."  He loved it.

Lydia got a balloon from one of the museum workers.  I think it was left over from a birthday party.

Here is another picture of part of the climbing structure.

Wesley and Lydia also enjoyed this ball thing.

We were there for three hours.  We didn't go into the water room because I had forgotten to bring a change of shirts for the kids.  They have some rain jackets there for the kids to wear but I find it really works best to bring an extra shirt.  We also didn't do the craft room.  We would have done the craft room if we had stayed longer.

I am glad Wesley isn't yet too old for the children's museums.