Now that's love

The ever accomodating Uncle Tim agreed to swordfight with Ian after Easter dinner. And let Chris take pictures. I had a VERY good laugh last night looking at the pictures, so I thought I would share a couple.

Happy Easter!

Easter morning started off with presents from Gary and Sue. Here's Cara hopping her hand looking at the bunny on the card.

Lila with her new stuffed sheep.


Ian's card

Ready for church

Ian found his Easter basket!

Cara really enjoyed hunting eggs and putting them in her basket as long as they weren't on the grass. She does NOT like walking in grass!

Lila showing off an egg she found

It is apparently impossible for the five of us to look decent in a picture, so here's one where no one looks good.

After nap Cara wanted her paci, her shoes, and her hat. Then she was ready to color.

Gratuitous Cuteness

Where's Cara?

Peek-a-Boo!

New Bike!

Lila also got a Pinkalicious doll from Aunt Katie.

Then, we told her there was one more present in the basement and Chris brought it up. As soon as she saw it she started yelling "Bike! Bike! Bike!"

It was a new Pinkalicious big girl bike from us.

She immediately wanted to go outside and ride it. It took her a few minutes to get the hang of it, but the she figured it out and could really go. There is even a seat on the back for her Pinkalicious doll.



Here's a video of Lila's first time on her new bike!

4th Birthday Party

On Saturday we had Lila's 4th birthday party with Mom, Dad, Katie, Tim, Jim and Jasna. For an inexplicable reason, she wanted a Diego party-- as in Dora the Explorer's cousin. We started off the party with presents. Lila got a bag of dress up clothes including the kitty outfit complete with ears and a bowtie.

Her new Dora umbrella

Cake Boss I am not, but Lila wanted a Baby Jaguar (Diego's sidekick) cake so I did my best to make it happen.

Making a wish

Blowing out her candles in her Belle dress.

And a video!

Party Week

Lila has had a big week! And it's not over yet. Her school is on Easter Break next week, so she got to celebrate her birthday at school on Tuesday. She looked through my Fun Cupcake Ideas book and picked out pink princess cupcakes. They had sprinkles in them and they were delicious.

She also wore a Princess shirt to match the cupcakes.

Then, today was her Easter Party in her class. Her teacher assigns snack by week and makes sure each kid brings a snack on their birthday week, so that meant that we had snack responsibility for the Easter Party as well. So, cupcake round 2 was yellow cake with cream cheese frosting and Easter egg sprinkles.

Here's Lila in her bunny shirt holding the Easter bucket she decorated at school and the eggs she found.

Next up is Lila's Birthday Party on Saturday and she wants a Baby Jaguar cake. We'll see if I'm up for the challenge!

My Turn

The kids are all doing great! We've tried to take advantage of the few nice days we've had to get outside for bike/trike rides and walks. The girls and I went to a friend's house for a backyard playdate this week, which brightened everyone's day. Otherwise, we've just been carrying on with our same routine with no pictures to show for it.

The rest of this post is going to be about me, so if you only come here for pictures of the kids you can skip this one. :)

Now that you've been warned...

I have had a busy few months that culminated in a very busy weekend. I co-chaired a community project for Junior League called Kids in the Kitchen. You can click here to see the press release, but, in short, we worked with about 80 kids teaching them about nutrition, healthy cooking and exercise. It was a lot of work to plan, but I loved every second of it and the event was a success! And if you'd like to see the recipes that the older kids used to prepare their meals you can click here.

And just for fun, here's a picture of my co-chair, Jessica, and I.

Then, as if that wasn't enough in one weekend, I went out that night to celebrate my friend Tricia's 30th birthday. We went out to dinner and then the rest of the group saw a comedy show.

Me with Emily and Shannon at dinner

I skipped that part because the next day I ran the Shamrock Shuffle. It was a beautiful day to run and a lot of fun, but I was TIRED. I finished in (according to my watch) 47:12, which was slower than I'd hoped. But I finished and hung out and had a beer with some friends and Tim who also ran and finished in a fantastic 44 minutes! Then Katie met up with us and we had lunch before I headed back home.

After the race with my friend Jill and one of her friends.

It's Opening Day!

Go Cubs, go!