Hippity Hoppity Egg Hunt

Charmingfare Farm has an Egg Hunt and since the town didn't have one this year we decided last minute to try this one out. There was an area where you could collect a dozen eggs, and then we took a tractor ride to the reindeer where they gave out "golden eggs" with a raffle ticket inside.. I doubt we'll win the $10,000 prize, but the kids did walk away with a pretty sweet goodie bag! And the Picture People were there taking free pictures with the Easter Bunny so we'll have to go pick ours up at the mall this week.. beats the exorbitant fee for the mall Easter Bunny any day! and all 3 kids actually sat for the picture! No tears! although Cora did give him the hairy eyeball for a bit!

You'll see that I played around with some new editing tools (actions) for Photoshop.. so it's a bit of a photo style jumble!

The Lindt chocolate bunny car was there giving out ears and coupons for a chocolate bunny...

Cora squealed a bunch at the eggs! They were very "egg"citing!

Cole gave the mouse a high-five on our way in AND on the way out.. he's going to love Disney some day!! (at this rate he'll be 25 before we go!)

To the Zoo!

Each year for Caden's birthday Padge and Julie give Caden the gift of an adventure! We've done the Boston Children's Museum and the Aquarium in past years. This year since Caden is learning to skate they were going to take Caden to the outdoor skating rink in Boston.. but unfortunately it melted before we could go! So instead we took advantage of the beautiful weather last Saturday and went to....



Yes.. the Franklin Park Zoo! Us and the rest of the surrounding population! They clearly did not check the weather forecast and only had one person manning the gates so we had to stand in line for what seemed like forever! Luckily there are two lion statues that all the kids in line had fun on!

Still in line, there were no trash barrels to be found.. so Cora carried her diaper around for us. By the way I had her outfit picked out since Thursday, although they were supposed to be different pants that I thought were crops, but ended up being regular long pants, or maybe they are crops just too long.. either way we switched pants!

Into the park at last! Caden as usual was our map guy "leading the way". By the the way Rob really did not want any pictures of our stylish son in his rolled up jeans. The reason we had to roll up his jeans due to the heat is because he refused to by the coolest pants ever that I bought him last year.. beach pants I think they were termed that you can wear rolled up or wear down like regular pants.. even Cole wore his pair which are the same style but termed skater pants. If he only knew how cool he'd be if only he'd let me dress him (at least I think so hehe!)

Cora was probably the most excited by the animals! Screeching and pointing and otherwise VERY excited by it all! Cole used the time at the zoo as an extended snack time.. I kid you not he did not stop eating the entire time we were there! Luckily we brought plenty of snacks!

I don't take many pictures of animals because when I get home I always end up deleting them a couple of months later wondering why I took them in the first place! but his ostrich was staring right at me begging me to take its picture! He was actually kind of scary with his red eyes!

This was a cool tree! Minus the dead leaves it was telling us that spring was finally here!

Cole is my cool dude and will wear pretty much whatever I ask him too.. even if he doesn't want to he is easily convinced otherwise!

Okay.. Mr. Casual is pretty cool too.. at least in my books :)

Rob insisted I get in a picture as proof I was there

And here is our evidence that we had a terrific afternoon! conked out before we got a mile down the rode. Caden put up a good fight... but sleep did win out in the end.

I ♥ Faces: Focusing on Angles Photo Challenge

You saw this photo recently, but Kelly let me know that this weeks photo challenge on I heart faces is angles! I don't expect to win anything, but I thought this was a fun angle so might as well give it a whirl!

Five Year Portraits...

We were back in the JC Penny studio again this weekend getting Caden's portraits taken... this was his best photo session yet! With the promise of jelly beans from Target in his future he was quite cooperative! Only after I sat down for a picture with him first that is... I added it for your amusement at the end. Every time we visit they ask "will Mom be joining 'insert name' in any of the portraits today?" They clearly do not look at the parents attire first! I mean doesn't everyone take pictures in their ratty college sweatshirt?!

This was Caden's favorite and REALLY wanted me to buy it (he liked the 5 in his pocket)... but I liked the next one better so we'll print this one out just for him for a frame for his room!

Spring Ahead!

With the time change last week we got to spend a lot of extra time outside! It is so nice to be able to go out after dinner again for some playtime with our friends across the street and/or a walk around the block!

Cora loves to be outside. She often goes to the door and calls for attention and wiggles the doorknob or brings me her shoes and coat! It is very cute, although seeing as she is still not super stable on the uneven ground of the grass we have lots of dirty knees.. my stain spray is coming in very handy between her and boys grass stains!

Cora's first time out to play as a walker! Also a candidate of what not to wear!!

Wagon ride around the block!

Caden on his birthday scooter!

Cora is a little dare devil.. fortunately we have the original dare devil there to protect her from leaping to danger.

Yay!! sandbox time with friends!

Now if only it will stay warm for good! Staying out til dusk everynight last week was fantastic for the germs! Everyone is finally healthy again! and we've had some great nights sleep with all the fresh air!

Clean

Me? Clean? No!! Not real cleaning, that is no fun! Rob always tells me I need to do more black and white.. and I saw a photo on a photography website recently (don't remember which one sorry!) that had an overhead picture of a kid showering, I loved it so immediately tried it out that night.. With the crisp cleanliness of black and white, and the cleanliness the bath/shower provides we have some nice clean photos!! I actually think I might enlarge some to 5x7's to decorate the kids bathroom.. I've been looking for the perfect thing to go over the empty wall above the toilet, this might be it!

I like how they are practically like mirror images with their expressions!

Lake Front Property?

Who knew we live on Lake Rogers?! But only when we get a deluge of rain... This is our puddle after 24 hours of pumping! In 2006 we watched our puddle grow and thought it was funny.. we wanted to see how big it got.. until it started moving into our basement. Now we are wise and begin pumping off before there is a problem. Hindsight is always 20/20!

Before the rain we had a friendly visitor! Mr. Fox laid in the rays of the sun under the swing set for 6 hours before Rob threw snowballs at it! He came back the next day to lounge in the sun under a tree farther back in the woods. Rob scared him again, and so far we haven't seen him again, but I guess we'll have to wait for this weekend to be sure, the first sunny weekend since we last saw him.