Here comes Peter Cottontail

I must start with a side note: as I was uploading pictures from my camera, I kept thinking, "My kids really don't have many teeth." And the irony is that Lindsey lost another tooth this week since these pictures were taken. The tooth fairy needs to start a checking account for the kids.

We had two weeks of egg hunts and lots and LOTS of candy. The week before Easter the Rivers hosted their annual egg hunt for our group of friends. There seemed to be so many kids there this year, but the number of families in attendance has stayed the same--we obviously just keep having kids. Kate experienced her first hunt, and she quickly learned how to pick up the eggs and put them in her basket. Just as quickly, she learned how to open the eggs and eat the candy. After hunting eggs, Kate set up camp in the Cozy Coupe car and guarded her loot all afternoon. Lindsey and Benton had a blast hunting eggs, eating candy, and playing with their friends.

We also were suckered into buying two cocoons at church that turned into caterpillars that then turned into butterflies. We have trouble keeping anything alive at this house, so I was worried about the butterflies, but they went through the transformation and we set free two butterflies the week of Easter. That, my friends, is evidence of God's miracles.

Benton with his friend Luke.  He was so confused why Luke looks so different than he did last month in St. Louis...

I love when Kate makes this face.  She looks like our own little Easter bunny. 

Lindsey had an egg hunt at school on Thursday, and she brought home more eggs filled with more candy. Then Ms. Lynn made all the kids little baskets full of eggs full of candy. We had tball practice to run off some of the sugar, but Nani was there with Easter happies for the kids that included more candy.

Friday morning I took the kids to the gym to burn off some candy calories, and when I went to pick them up from the nursery they had a sack full of eggs. Turns out the Easter bunny stopped by the gym and brought all the kids eggs filled with candy. Friday afternoon we went to the Rivers' for the kids to dye eggs. The kids were much more interested in jumping on the trampoline, but we insisted that they dye eggs because we have been doing this together for five years now and we had to get a picture of them dying eggs together. Kate kept trying to eat the eggs, so we eventually peeled a cracked egg and let her go to town on it.

Saturday was the church's egg hunt, and our church goes all out for the Easter egg-stravaganza. Tattoos, games, bounce houses, rides, a train, balloon animals, and an egg hunt fill the day's agenda. Once again, the kids had a blast and left two hours later with lots of eggs filled with lots of candy.

Saturday night we had to deal with the issue of the Easter bunny. Lindsey was not fooled into believing that man in a costume brings anything to her house, nor did she think a real rabbit could hide eggs. I'm sure we will have to explain that better next year. But the Easter bunny did show up at our house with hidden eggs (filled with coins, not candy) and baskets of bubbles and trinkets. We went to the 9:30 service at church and I loved seeing a packed church. That's how it should be every week. After church we headed home, then the kids and I went to Tupelo for a big lunch and another egg hunt at my parents' house. The kids got more candy, and my mom had a scavenger hunt planned for the kids to find their baskets. We watched a good ole southerner win the Master's and capped off our Easter weekend with some shopping on Monday.

Love how his tongue is always out.  Always.  Must have something to do with the missing teeth.

Lindsey took this picture for us.  I thought she did a great job with the photography.

...and Benton took this picture for us. 

Three reasons I love being a mom

1. Lindsey
I could not be more proud of Lins. She is the smartest kindergartener I know. She loves to read, just like her mom, and she amazes us with the knowledge she has gained this year. She surpassed her reading goal in school the second week of each nine-weeks period, but she is not competitive. She truly loves to learn. We have never had to push her to do homework or read to us. But beyond her intelligence, Lindsey makes us proud daily because of the caring big sister she is. She never gets jealous when one of the other kids gets attention and is constantly taking care of them. So many times I find her in a chair reading a book to Benton or sharing her toys with Kate. Lindsey is such a loving child, and I want to keep her heart this sweet forever. She is polite, obedient, and loving. At age six, she wants to be either a librarian or an artist like aunt Em when she grows up.

2. Benton
This boy gets funnier by the minute. He has always been a mama's boy, but lately he is learning that dad is more fun for wrestling, hitting golf balls, and watching Star Wars. Daily, he says something that makes us laugh. Every night when we are ready to read books before bed, he runs in and says "Pause!" so we won't start without him. He actually tells us to pause anytime he wants us to wait. He also has gotten in the habit of asking "Why?" at the end of every question he asks. "Why are you doing that? Why?" Every single time. God knew what he was doing putting Benton between two dramatic girls, because he couldn't possibly be more easy going. He often has to tell Lindsey to calm down. While he adores Lindsey, he already fights with Kate over toys and food. Now that Lindsey tests on books at school, Benton declares a new book every night that he wants to test on. Earlier this week, I took Lindsey to school. This was the first time Benton experienced drop off. He was in awe of the playground. Lindsey started crying because she did not want to walk in school by herself (she can be very dramatic), and, under his breath, Benton said, "Next year I not going to cry. I going to jump right out of this car and run to that playground. Every day." He constantly wants to wrestle with David, and he is extremely competitive like his dad. Benton is my precious little man.

3. Kate
Our baby is spunky. She has learned at any early age that being the baby works to her advantage. If someone tells her no, she goes to the next person until she finds someone that will give in to her. She loves to be held and cuddled, so David and I often sneak into her room and rock her. She tries to keep up with L&B and their friends. She does not require a lot of attention, and she really just wants to be part of the action. She makes the funniest faces that are even funnier with her two big front teeth poking out. She is beautiful, and she looks so much like Lindsey at that age. Kate loves to eat everything. We can put anything on her plate and she devours it. While we want to keep her a baby, we love watching her grow and become even more fun at each new phase.

Three reasons I love being a mom.

Happy birthday Lindsey!

Lindsey's sixth birthday was Tuesday, and she had talked for weeks about how excited she was that her mom was coming to eat lunch with her at school on her birthday. I definitely felt the guilt of being a working mom as she reminded me that I had not been there to eat with her ALL YEAR. So the night before her birthday we bought some gaudy cupcakes at Kroger for her class and she could not have been more excited. Plus, she could not wait to celebrate her birthday at school because you get to sit in the birthday chair and wear a birthday crown and everyone sings the birthday song to you.
So she woke up Tuesday and put on her new birthday outfit from Aunt Linda (she asked for a new birthday outfit because she claimed that you are supposed to get a new birthday outfit on your birthday that you can wear that day to school) and I even let her wear flip flops that didn't match because hey, it's her birthday. When 10:45 rolled around, I showed up at her school cafeteria with cupcakes and a happy meal and was greeted by one REALLY happy girl. It was priceless. Her friends talked my ear off the entire 20 minutes of lunch and fought over the cupcakes (why did I get cupcakes with different rings on top? Novice mom mistake) until one intelligent child pointed out to her classmates that "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." I need to laminate that in my classroom. Within two minutes all 21 kids were covered in horrific pink icing and I apologized profusely to the teacher about the inappropriate cupcake choice.
That night we took the kids and Lindsey's friend Madilyn to the bean place (most people call it by its real name, Rancho Grande). The kids ate all the cheese dip their stomachs could handle, then we headed to Gracie Bleu. As we were sitting outside with the kids trying to make sure no one ran out in the road, I reminded David that three kids is plenty.
We came home and had one exhausted birthday girl. Who then woke up 12 hours later with a nasty bug. Oh well. Happy birthday, Lindsey! We are so proud of you!

Ooh la la, Lindsey is six!

Lindsey's sixth birthday party was last Saturday. She decided a month ago she wanted another party at the art center. This was thrilling news because the art center is a fabulous place to have a birthday party and also a very easy place--last year we literally just showed up and they handled everything. But this year she did not just want an art party again, she wanted a Fancy Nancy party. I should explain that she really wanted a reading party, but I had to explain to her that reading is not fun for everyone like it is for her (and her mom!), so she went with her second choice.
We had boas at the party for the artists to wear while they painted, and they painted fancy butterflies. We could see a dramatic improvement in both of our children's artistic abilities over the last party. (Lindsey's one-eyed fish and Benton's brown mess that the art lady turned into a handprint were last year's masterpieces.) Then we had pink cake and pink lemonade, and the kids all left with a pink favor bag full of gaudy plastic jewelry.
Lindsey had the countdown to her birthday for 31 days (thanks B for that calendar...), and the morning of her party she was up at 6:00 asking repeatedly how much longer until her party. Next year her theme will be breakfast and the party will be at 6:00 to avoid the five hours of impatient waiting. The weather was gorgeous at the party, which always seems to happen when we plan an indoor party, so after the party Tripp came over and the kids played outside.
One party down, two to go in 2012.