Kylie's Egg Hunt

We got to my folks place for Easter dinner about an hour ahead so we could hide eggs for Kylie. The sun was still shining, but the storm clouds were gathering. We were definitely keeping our fingers crossed as we waited for Travis and Kylie to arrive. We were sooooo lucky. As the egg hunt finished up I made the comment to mine brither that the air smelled like rain. Five minutes after we went inside the clouds cut loose. Whew!

Silly girl. Does this look like an Easter bonnet to you? Hmmm. Must have left that bonnet at the same place you left your Easter dress.

Kylie set off to find her 50 candy filled eggs. They were hidden the whole way around the house. She did pretty good, but we ended up back in the back yard to find the remaining 10 eggs.

I like these pictures. You can tell Kylie is really having a good time.

Duck under those limbs, sister!

We dumped 26 found eggs out of her basket and sent her back out to find the rest of them.

I love this picture of Dad and Kylie having a conversation about the picture coasters. I'm not sure who was telling whom about the pictures. What a great shot!

Gwen's Egg Hunt

Wouldn't you know it. The weather was overcast and drizzly all day long until an hour before G. was coming for her egg hunt. The it was all about letting the sunshine. Grrrr. We had already hidden the eggs in the house. Oh well, it wasn't the first time we were forced to hide/hunt eggs indoors.

There were 50 candy filled eggs and as always, she found 49 pretty handily and we were all left searching the house for that one remaining egg that was hidden just a little too good.

After Gwen found all the eggs, I had prepared a little scavenger hunt for Gwen to find her basket filled with other stuff. I had found some great deals at Hallmark's "sidewalk" sale at Strawberry

Square. A few little things I knew she would enjoy. I made a few of the clues a little more difficult but she still followed the clues pretty handily.

Hey, what's the point of hunting all those eggs if you can't partake?

For Gwen a large part of Easter is all about the dress. She didn't like the firsgt one I bought her. It wasn't poufy enough, glittery enough, girlie enough. We hiked everywhere at the Capital City Mall and finally, at the last store possible, Penny's, we found the perfect Easter dress. It aptly bore the Cinderella label, had plenty of poufy skirts, and lots of sequins letting the dress glitter in the light. It was perfect and as you can see, she looked beautiful!

Happy Birthday Kera!

Somehow it seems that we've had big family celebrations for everyone's birthday except Kera's. Although we do celebrate Travis's and Chris's December birthdays on Christmas Eve. But I felt terrible when Kera asked if we were having a dinner for her because we had them for everyone but her. I hope we made up for it on her birthday, April 23.

I asked Kera what she wanted for her birthday meal and she chose fetuccini alfredo with roasted root vegetables. I added a salad and Chris took care of obtaining the vegan Boston cream cake which was really yummy.

Kera provided a list of things she wanted for her birthday. I think we knocked a big chunk out of her list with a few pairs of running shorts, a tank, and a skirt, not to mention the dirt for her raised vegetable beds. Lots of gifts and heartfelt cards.

We were eating dessert when Gwen sidled up beside me and asked if we could play her favorite game Who Gnu. We had such a good time...except for the part where the geezers kept winning!
I love that Gary can't read with his glasses on any better than I can!

Happy birthday, Kera. Now please slow them down girl because you're making me feel really old! Love you.

Rain Rain Go Away

The Saturday before Easter I headed off with my friend Sue to Hershey Theatre to see Hair while Brent invited his friend Mark for dinner and music. We all expected to have an enjoyable evening. I arrived home to see the garage door open and a cart in the middle of the garage. Curious. I opened the door into the mud room and saw the kitchen window open and two hoses running through the kitchen. Yikes.

Neighbor Deb had come over earlier to ask for Brent's help. Apparently the runoff water was going from Colonial Road, across their patient parking lot, and right into their office. Brent checked our basement to find it damp before heading over to help Deb. When he came back there was 3 inches of water in the basement. We kept 3 sump pumps and several fans running all night long to get as much water out as possible and start to dry things out.

Thank goodness Kera, Chris and Gwen came over to help us clean up on Sunday. Gwen took all these pictures to capture the moment.

Brent apparently had a cardboard box collection all over the basement floor. Who knew. After this mess Kera threatened Brent with dire consequences if such a thing occurred again!

We accomplished in several hours what it would have taken Brent and I days to finish.

We took everything to the garage and piled it high onto the neighbors cart. Brent and Loren took 900 pounds to the dump!

The Hunger Games

Some of the bulletin boards I participate in often discuss books people are reading. The Hunger Games, which is the first in a trilogy, is one of the books often touted. Like the Twilight series, it's classified in the Young Adult (translated teen) section of the book store. I have finally narrowed down my book choices enough to go spend the Christmas gift card my friend Jason gave me. If you know me, you know I have a list of books I want to read that could loop around my houseAnyway, Saturday in the torrential downpour I headed off to have breakfast with my folks and do a little shopping with my Mom. Here it is April and this gift card is burning a hold in my pocket. I knew I wanted Mark Bittman's new cookbook Food Matters (A Guide to Conscious
Eating) and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I figured that would eat up my card. But, I got lucky and The Hunger Games was actually available in paperback. This meant I could get another book too. I chose the latest Nora Roberts, The Search. I was afraid to get the second book in The Hunger Games series just in case I didn't like it. Sunday, after cleaning up the flooded basement (the topic of another post), I headed out to the dreaded grocery store where I purchased the ingredients for Chickpea Stew with Roasted Chicken from Bittman's book. It was a little time consuming to make but it was super yummy. By this time I was halfway through The Hunger Games and could hardly put the book down. I see either a trip to the book store or an Amazon order in my very near future.

Scrapapalooza

Scrapapalooza is the term Matt coined for a scrapbooking weekend at the Miller resort. Kim, Sandy and I scrap our little hearts out beginning on Friday night and wrap it up Sunday evening. Two weekends ago, after 2+ days of scrapping, I had 26 pages to show for my effort. A new record. I got caught up on a lot of 2008/2009 photos and 7 Disney pages. Yes, I'm still working on the Disney trip with Gwen several years ago. What a fantastic weekend!

At Ten Months

Brent put pedals on his old mountain bike and got it set up to match my spin bike. I've been wondering if I could actually ride a real bike and have been anxious to give it a try. I think Brent is happier with the outcome than I am (and doesn't that just sound familiar?). I was a little bit afraid and quite frankly, my left leg hurt. Not at the knee, but still along the side where the bones/ligaments/muscles all join. I didn't go far, just down the street a little and back again. On the lighter side, Brent says I should feel really good that at 10 months I was able to get on a real bike and pedal around a little. He feels that with time and effort it should get easier. With nicer weather coming, I'm hoping this is something I will be able to do.

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

What do you think of Kylie's Easter bonnet? HaHa! Such a little clown. This was the first year that Kylie was here for our neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It's always very nice and this year was no exception. The weather left a lot to be desired, but we got lucky not to have rain.

Everyone in the neighborhood meets at the pond and waits for the Easter Bunny to come skipping down. Kylie looks very excited as she sees the Easter Bunny coming. All the kids follow the Bunny and head up to the church where the actual egg hunt is held.

Kylie started out a little slowly but got into the spirit of the event as time went on. When all the other kids were finished hunting eggs, Kylie found all sorts of eggs in the tan bark in the playground!

Despite her slow start, she ended up with a good bucketful and was excited to show the Easter Bunny her eggs.

We emptied her candy into her basket and returned the eggs to the tub to be reused next year. Kylie loves horses so of course that's what she wanted painted on her face. It turned out great and Kylie was very pleased.

We headed back to our place for a few rousing games of Hello Kitty Go Fish. We totally enjoyed the afternoon with Kylie.

Follow Up to the Wine Tasting

Not only did we receive a thank you note from RJ Harris and his lovely wife Bonnie, but they sent us a gift card to PA Wine and Spirits! How nice was that??!!

Book It

25 Books Read: March - 9 February - 9 January - 7 Ok, this month I apparently read quite a few romances. Sheesh, isn't reading those supposed to increase the romance in your life? Where is that, I want to know! I hope this trend doesn't continue or I may have to issue a public apology. !@#$@