Bunny business

Scene: Our dinner table, the night before Easter

Me: "So, the Easter Bunny will come and visit us while we're at church tomorrow."

Miss Lu: "How come the Easter Bunny won't go to church?"

Mr. Nick: "I always thought he was a Seventh Day Adventist."

Miss Lu: "Wait, he's going to the dentist? Why would he need to do that? He only has two teeth!"

Easter egg hunt

Lucy finally got it this year. 

Most years she just kind of runs around excitedly but avoids picking up eggs. 

Not this year.

Dyeing the eggs

Step one: set up the dye

Step two: create secret designs on the eggs with a wax crayon

Step three: be careful!

Step four: feed the baby carrots so he'll feel included

Step five: Easter Eggs!

Jumping to conclusions

(Photo by my friend Katharine Hansen)

Scene: Urban Park

Miss Lu: (looking up toward the tennis courts) "Wow Mom! Look at that kid jump!"

Me: "That's not a kid, that's a grown-up."

Miss Lu: "No, that's a kid. Grown-ups can't jump!"

Me: "Yes we can!"

Miss Lu: "Show me."

Me: "Now?" (glancing around)

Miss Lu: "Yes!"

Me: (jumps up and down)

Miss Lu: (not at all impressed) "That's not really good. It wasn't very high. See, grownups can't jump."

Me: ...

Mooch

On Wednesday, we met Mr. Nick at Sonic for a family lunch date. The best part of the date occurred after the burgers and fries were consumed and the dollar ice-cream sundaes arrived. Miss Lu, Mr. Nick, and myself happily ate away at our midday treats, unaware that Mr. Calvin, aka the Ice Cream Bandit, was about to make his move.

Suddenly, Calvin (who was sitting in Nick's lap) reached out and grabbed Nick's ice-cream laden spoon, and with remarkable speed began to direct said spoon toward his own baby mouth. 

Nick, whose hands were otherwise occupied between the baby and the sundae, managed to stop the impending loss of his ice cream by intercepting said spoon with his own mouth. 

Calvin, momentarily frustrated, vowed to try again. Until next time ...

Magneto

Miss Lu is obsessed with magnets. Everywhere I go, I find various magnets stuck to lamps, dishwashers, table legs, etc. She can entertain herself for hours with a few magnets: she sticks them together, gets them to repel one another, and then walks around the house looking for new items to test out. Every time she finds something magnetic I hear her shout "Cool! Hey Mom, look at this! It's magnetic! Isn't that great?"

We keep thinking this magnetic hobby will fade, but it's been going strong for at least six months....

What I found on my lamp in the office ... evidence of Lucy's magnetic experiments

Happy Easter!

Which came first ...

(Context: a family discussion on where things come from, how things are made, creation, etc. Lucy keeps asking a question about how something is made, but we're not understanding what she's asking about. So she clarifies.)

Miss Lu: "No, I mean how do you make things that aren't made? You know, like electrons?"

Electrons? Seriously? Even Dr. Nick didn't know how to answer that one :) 

March Madness

I don't even know where to start. We had so much fun in March! 

I took Lucy to the Aquarium in Albuquerque. Her kindergarten class had been studying the ocean that week, so she was pretty excited about the outing. She knew all these facts about sea turtles, which surprised the aquarium volunteer at the large tank.

Calvin's big news for the month was that he started eating solid food. He wasn't too sure about it the first time we tried it ...

... but he caught on pretty quickly. As of today, he's eaten carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, prunes, applesauce, pears, rice cereal, and yogurt. And he's learning to wipe his mouth afterwards. 

The youth in our ward held a fundraising luau dinner, and Nick was in charge of purchasing a bunch of the food, so the day before the dinner we piled the kids in the car and drove down to Albuquerque to go shopping. For fun we went to the Botanical Gardens. They had a fabulous fantasy garden for kids, tropical hothouses, desert gardens, a Japanese garden, and a working farm (among other things). 

Our other big event in March was our spring break trip up to Seattle. Calvin met aunts, uncles, and cousins on all sides!

Lucy was most excited about the fancy dinner party we had for Nana's birthday ... Auntie Juju went all out on the decorations, cake, and favors!

The best part of the evening had to be the look on Nana's face when she saw the iPad we got her!

We tucked in a lot on this trip: visits to old friends, stocking up at Ikea, seeing a specialist (and getting good news) for Lucy's eye, Wacky Six, Balderdash, General Conference, seeing Uncle Steven's new apartment, trips to the Seattle Aquarium with Auntie Juju, 3-hour plane delays, and, of course, making cookies. 

We miss Seattle and our family, but we were pretty happy to get back to our New Mexican sunshine (and Daddy) after a week of rain! We'll be back soon :)