Oh Man!

The cartoon Dora the Explorer has become a favorite in our house. Recently, Kinsie has started repeating the character Swiper's favorite line "Oh man!". I haven't been able to catch it on video yet, but it is very funny to hear her say it, especially when she does not get her way about something! We even heard her in bed the other night saying it because she didn't feel it was quite time for her to have to go to bed!

Play Ball!

Caden is participating in a six week t-ball program at one of the local activity complexes. It is very entertaining watching a large number of three and four year-olds learning how to play baseball! The coach is a former major league baseball player and he is great with the kids. Caden is learning how to throw correctly, field the ball, hit and run the bases.

Taking a crack at the ball...the one he hit is actually out in the field,

not the one laying on the ground behind him!!
Getting ready to field the ball.

After fielding the ball, Caden tried to outrun the hitter to first base.

Getting some instruction from Daddy.

"Baby Backpack"

Lately Caden and Kinsie have been having fun playing with the Cabbage Patch dolls that were mine as a child. We came across two "baby backpacks", as Kinsie calls them, and they love carrying the dolls around in them. It's very cute as when Kinsie puts one on it is about as long as her! These are some photos that we took of them after bath time the other night. They wanted to carry the dolls downstairs in their backpacks and then they sat holding them while watching Dancing With the Stars.

Blank Park Zoo

Caden, Kinsie and I spent a great morning at the Blank Park Zoo. This was our first trip to the zoo this season and both of the kids really enjoyed it! Caden remembered that we could feed the animals at the petting zoo, so this was definitely his favorite part of the morning! He was very excited to purchase the food and allow the animals to eat it from the palm of his hand, something he was not so sure about doing last summer! Kinsie was not quite as adventurous and enjoyed her view from the stroller! They also enjoyed playing on the park equipment and eating lunch at the zoo!

Caden feeding a swan in the pond!
The ducks were very friendly, staying close to our feet,
which Kinsie thought was very funny!

Caden wanted to make sure all of the goats had a snack,

so he tried to feed each of them their own handful of food!

Easter Sunday

On Sunday we had another Easter egg hunt at my aunt and uncle's house. The Easter Bunny was VERY generous and left a lot of candy and money eggs around the yard! The kids had so much fun finding all of the treasures and we came home with a lot of goodies!

Anxiously waiting to start the hunt!
Caden ran in the opposite direction of all of the other kids and found three very large eggs right away! He had to empty his bucket on the ground to make room for more!

After the Easter egg hunt we shared a delicious dinner

prepared by my aunt and my mom!

Kinsie and Great-Grandma Twilla

Kinsie and Great-Grandpa Bill

The Children's Table

Play Time at Grandma's

Kinsie and Adden were very worn out from a busy morning and afternoon, so while they were resting Caden, Addie and Adler played outside at my parent's house. Cass put the swings up for them, which they loved. It is so nice to be able to sit outside and watch them run and play without the worry of a busy street nearby!

Tingley Easter Egg Hunt

After planting the garden and lunch at my aunt and uncle's house, we took all of the children to the Easter egg hunt in Tingley. The nine cousins range in age from one to seven and are paired in age, so atleast two of them were in each age group. Unfortunately, Caden and Kinse were in different groups and I had the camera so I do not have any photos of Caden for this posting. This was our nephew Adden's first Easter egg hunt.

He was more interested in playing with his bucket than picking up eggs!
Kinsie thought her Easter bag was pretty neat!

Some of the eggs had slips of paper attached to them as coupons for quarters!

Kinsie liked to look each piece of candy over before placing it in her bag!

It was as if she was trying to decide whether or not she would like it!

Family Garden

We had a great Easter weekend at the farm!

On Saturday morning many of our family members gathered at the family garden to do some planting. Each year my Grandpa Bill puts out a beautiful, large garden and since we were all gathered at the farm for the weekend we wanted to help with the planting. Although the kids at first found it fun to play in the dirt, they slowly drifted into the yard to play, leaving the adults to complete the task!

A Trip to the Beauty Salon

Kinsie had her first trip to the beauty salon this morning! She
went to see my beautician to get her first professional hair cut. I
had slightly trimmed the ends of her hair once before, but this was
her first actual cut. I was unsure as to how she would react, but she was
such a big girl and sat in the chair all by herself. She did a great
job! She thought it was fun to see her own reflection in the mirror and
kept saying "pretty"!

Easter Eggs

With Easter right around the corner we decided to color our eggs yesterday. Caden was very careful with his eggs and would only take them out of the dye when they were just the right color...according to him! His favorite color was blue, so we ended up with several blue eggs! Kinsie thought it was fun to put the egg in the dye and then take it out over and over! They both had a lot of fun and we ended up with eighteen decorated eggs!