Easter 2014

The last few years we've been fortunate to have my parents visiting with us for Easter, because it has coincided with my mom's spring break. But Easter was later this year or something, and so we didn't haven any family in town. So it felt a little more low key, but it was still a lovely day. We had participated in some of Rez's Holy Week services, but it's a lot harder to engage all of them with two little ones in the picture. So we tag-teamed Easter Vigil on Saturday, and enjoyed Church together Sunday morning.

I had been thinking about finding Easter baskets for the girls, but our house was built in the 1930's - and thus we have very little storage space and no garage. So I decided to make some "Easter bags" for this girls instead - less space and they can be used throughout the year as book bags, etc. I made some for Judah and Jalayna as well, since they were joining our egg hunt.

Madeline was pretty happy with what showed up in her Easter bag this year - her favorites were the sunglasses, and the color wonder markers and Micky coloring book. She is obsessed with markers and pens, but I never let her play with them because she gets them everywhere. But Color Wonder markers only work on color wonder paper, and alas, no mess! 

This is Madeline with a thumbs up saying "cool dude!" She indeed felt pretty cool working with all these markers. 

We hosted an Easter dinner at our house with some friends from small group, and James prepared Leg of Lamb for the first time. It was delicious! He made several slits in the lamb the night before and stuffed it with garlic and rosemary, and then made a Greek yogurt sauce to go with it. I think he felt like there was room for improvement next year, but I thought it was great!

The Easter egg hunt was fun, although Madeline felt she had to stop with every egg and eat every single piece of candy before she moved onto the next egg. So we eventually had to pick up the pace and cut off the chocolate IV action. 

We spent some time trying to teach Madeline about Easter this year. We gave her the run-down of the Easter story on a couple of different occasions. After having heard the story a few times, I asked Madeline if she could tell me why we celebrate Easter. She had two statements: "Jesus has owies," and "Jesus should say NO to mean people." So yeah, maybe we'll pick up a few more pieces of the story next year! 

"Nana and Grandpa Coming on the Airplane!"

Krista actually stayed with us for 9 days, so her 2nd weekend here overlapped with my parents staying with us. Thankfully the Sunday they were all here turned out the be the warmest day we'd had yet - mid-50's and sunny. So we packed up a picnic lunch and took off for the city, to spend some time at Lincoln Park Zoo and stroll Wicker Park for dinner. We drove in two cars to the zoo, and it was a calatmaty of events, to say the least, in finding parking and meeting up at the zoo. Let's just say it took us well over an hour once we got to the zoo to find parking and meet up together - thank goodness everyone was willing to laugh it off!

So by the time we all met up, it was lunch time and we set up shop for a picnic. Chicago has two zoos, and the Lincoln Park Zoo is free. It's AWESOME! The other zoo is bigger, with more animals, but this zoo is still pretty top-notch - Lions, tigers, gorillas, monkeys, zebras - the whole gamut. And it's location is hard to beat - a beautiful view of the city and a quick walk down to the beach. After basking in the spring sunshine for our picnic, we set out to see the animals.

First we checked out the tiger, who was just taking a nap:

Then we hit up the monkey house - monkeys are always so funny to watch! Madeline wasn't quite sure what to make of some of these monkeys - they really fly around!

And she really wasn't sure what to make of the gorillas - they are HUGE! I love how this guy was just taking a little snooze, kicking his feet up. 

And the Lion is always impressive, of course. 

One of Madeline's favorites (based on her two times at the zoo!) is watching the seals. You can watch them from under water, and they love to swim laps. It is really fun to watch them swim right by you in the water tank.

After we saw some animals, Madeline caught sight of the Carousal and we had to check it out. The first and only movie that Madeline has been into is Mary Poppins, and she loves the Carousal scene. So we waited in the long line to get on this Carousal, and she was chomping at the bit to get on it. Then we got on it, however, and that's when the melt down happened. (also, at this point, we had cruised right through her nap time and she was rather exhausted). A big siren goes off to let you know the Carousal is about to start up, and then these huge Carousal animals start bobbing up and down, and it totally freaked her out! It was kind of hilarious, and she was not about to be put on an animal. Eventually she calmed down and just clung to Nana. But Krista was a good sport and showed Madeline how this works. Maybe next time Madeline will brave riding an animal on the Carousal!

We ended our day in Wicker Park, and fun and trendy neighborhood of Chicago that we've never brought our parents to. Once again, it was a calamity of errors walking around trying to find the restaurants we'd scoped out on Yelp, so we ended up just eating at an Italian place we found. But the food was good and we were all glad to sit down for awhile after walking all day. All in all it was a great day in the city!

After Krista left, my parents stayed on for another week and watched the girls for us. My goodness, we were lucky to have family come watch our girls for three weeks this spring! Madeline and Isabel had a great time with Nana and Grandpa, and for the most part I think they enjoyed hanging with their granddaughters as well. Madeline, as always, gave Nana a run for her money. But they had some fun times, baked some cookies, went to a music class on Wheaton's campus, read lots of books, and went for walks. It would have been nice to have had some warmer days, but c'est la vie. On thier last night here, we took them out to Meson Sabika, our favorite Spanish tapas restaurant in the area, and thanked them for helping us out. It's so fun to get to have a "double date" with them - wish we could do it more often! But we had a great time with them - thanks Nana and Grandpa for coming!

"Auntie Krista Coming on the Airplane!"

Auntie Krista was the 2nd line-up of our spring break visitors, arriving a few weeks after Ama left. Can I just say home much I love my little sis?!?! She is pretty much the coolest 21 year old I know, love her so much! I don't know how many girls give up their college spring break to come babysit their nieces in "Chi-beria"for the week. It's no easy task to watch them all day, every day. But she did a fantastic job! And since she'd recently turned 21, we celebrated her birthday while she was with us. The first night she was in town was our babysitting co-op night, so we took her out for a glass of wine and brick-oven pizza. Then we also did a blind wine tasting one night with a cheese and cracker spread, and four different red wines that we blindly tasted and rated. It was actually the first time James and i have done that as well, so much fun! We did some walks outside when it wasn't way too cold, had lazy evenings with popcorn and the new Sherlock, and had great chats about her classes, theology, her upcoming plans and dreams. I am so blessed by the Lord to have this special young lady in my life, and could not be more proud of her. Not to mention my girls love spending time with their aunt. We love you Krista!

Isabel Therese - Four Months

Isabel Therese, you are four months old already. You had some fun adventures in your fourth month! Your Ama came to visit, you had your second flight to New York to visit friends at StonyBrook School, and your Aunt Krista came to visit.

You are still the sweetest pea! You are so quick to smile, and your little dimple melts me. You love being around people, and are more and more attentive to social situations. Although you don't get fussy very often, sometimes at dinner hour you do start to get fussy (of course when we want to sit down and eat!). But we've started bringing your bouncer to the table, and then you're usually happy as a clam. You just love being around other people, and seeing what is happening. Similarly when I'm trying to do some dishes or prep dinner - if I put your bouncer in the kitchen, you're usually content to watch your mama and listen to me sing to you.

You had such a fun time being with your Ama - and I'm pretty sure she loved spending time with you! Same with your Auntie Krista. As your aunt likes to say, "Isabel is just like a living baby doll." You are so cuddly and have such a precious little face.

You've been growing, growing, growing - at your 4 month appointment you were in the 95th percentile for height and 39th percentile for weight. Similar to your big sister. I was a little nervous that your weight percentile had dropped lower than it was last time, but the Doc said you were growing just fine. And you have some cute chunky thighs to prove you're not too skinny!

Normally I try to take your monthly photos when your sister is napping, but it didn't work out this time. So she couldn't wait to join in the photo shoot. She wanted a two-year sticker, but I didn't get one made for her. Such a funny big sister!

And here are some fun pics of Madeline at four months. Your big sister was doing a bit more moving around than you are at this phase. You have rolled over a few times, but not very often. Madeline, on the other hand, wouldn't stay on her back for her four month photo shoot. But don't worry about it, Isabel. You can move and groove in your own time, and in the meanwhile we'll continue to enjoy your laid-back demeanor while we chase your big sister.