Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Shawn woke up looking for eggs, but since the Easter Bunny was out late last night, he/she wasn't prepared as early as he was! Raj took him to Top Golf driving range while Lilly and I kept watch. (Shawn made me promise if Bunny came, we'd leave "A-mmediatly!" so we wouldn't frighten him/her away or ruin the magic.)

No wonder the Easter Bunny hadn't brought the eggs to our house yet - he/she's too busy playing golf! Somehow, while Lilly and I were upstairs, Easter Bunny must've snuck in because when the boys came home, Shawn started screaming, "Eggs! Eggs! They're everywhere!" Hehehe! Lilly and I came downstairs and found eggs scattered around the living room, kitchen, music room, and dining room. 
While trying to track down all the eggs, we found the back door opened, just a bit, with some fuzz stuck to the screen... image.jpegSo THAT's how the E.B. got in! :)

Shawn had a hard time focusing on finding all the eggs because he kept opening them and digging in to their contents. Lilly caught on to the egg hunt pretty quickly and even figured out that they were supposed to go into her basket. It wasn't until later that she understood there were goodies inside the eggs - it was like a sweet epiphany!

We had to ration out the M&Ms to her and Raj even let her sample a few jelly beans, but she clearly preferred the chocolate and candy shell - there was plenty of it dribbled down her chin! She had fun with stickers from the eggs too.

I had a sticker moment ago... Where'd it go?
To get away from the sugar overload, we went to Home Depot for a little while - mostly for gardening supplies: a rake, hedge clippers (large & small), a ladder, furnace filters, mats for the mud room doors, etc. However, when we walked in, the greeter pointed us to free cotton candy. Of course there was! (??) Sure. Why not? Shawn was thrilled to try it for the first time; I was relieved that he decided he had had enough and didn't really care for it after eating about half of it. Anyway, we got everything in our list except for bathroom mirrors for the main floor and basement. A very successful trip aided by very eager (bored) employees.
When we got home we spent a few hours enjoying our yard. Lilly's really getting the hang of the slide and sometimes, after I prop her at the top, she'll even wait for me to get to the bottom to catch her (other times, I'll just hold on to her from the side and guide her to the bottom). Shawn played with his new Iron Man toy on the playset. Baron brought me 3 different balls to fetch, though he decided to actually retrieve only one of them. Raj installed a bracket by our front patio for our flag pole, programmed the number pad on my garage door, and set our new hoses on their stands in the yard. There were times I'd actually reposition myself into the shade because it was a bit warm in the sunshine! That hasn't happened in a very.long.time.

For dinner, because we hadn't had enough sugar today, I cooked a glazed 1/4 spiral ham, herb potatoes, broccoli, and green beans. Raj and I enjoyed beers and Shawn proudly drank milk from a glass cup. Shawn made me giggle when he really laid it on thick by saying, "Mom, you make the best ham and Easter dinner EVER!" I'll take it though!
After dinner, Shawn and Lilly changed into their pajamas and we headed back outside for our first fire-pit lighting. Shawn helped me gather twigs, pinecones, etc. to use as kindling. Shawn was really excited (and cautious) to help me light the fire. Raj helped keep the fire going by bringing out some boxes from our recycle pile. Once the logs took over and we had a great, hot fire going. (We both commented how it was noticeably hotter than what our gas fireplace produces.) And, because we still hadn't had enough sugar today, we made s'mores for dessert. I used super dark chocolate on mine, which no one else cared for - gee, darn. At one point, Lilly tried running away with a Hershey's bar.

Shawn also had fun exploring with my old telescope, though I'm not sure if he actually saw much at all. We eventually started bed time stories outside, but finished inside. It was hard to come in - what a gorgeous day it was! (It'll be even better when we find some patio furniture!) Happy Easter to all and to all a good night!

Better Lawn and Gardens

I think Lilly's trying to say Baron! She was saying, "Bay-ay" every time she saw a picture of a dog while we were looking through a magazine this morning. (I'm guessing that she's associating all dogs with Baron.) Whenever she wanted to go back to see the picture again, she waved her hands around screaming, "Bay-ay!" until I'd go back to the right page. Then she'd point to it and smile. I was able to

 catch a tiny bit of it on camera, but nothing like she was doing earlier.

Raj hired Perez & Sons Lawn Care, Inc., who arrived today. They were very busy trying to reclaim our plants from being overgrown and neglected since (at least) last fall. They cut and fertilized the grass, trimmed bushes and trees, removed dead leaves and grass, and generally cleaned up the garden beds. They even removed 4 small dead/dying trees by the archway by the corner of the kitchen that they think were hurt by the drastic winter. Shawn had fun supervising from a distance - especially watching Mr. Perez using a power blower to clear out the mounds of dead leaves in the flower beds; though, we stayed inside and watched from the windows so as not to be in the way. Raj has the crew on a schedule to come back for mowing, fertilizing, and more plant maintenance. There's still some pruning that I think could've been done today, but it looks remarkably better. Even spending an entire weekend working on it ourselves, Raj and I agreed that we could not have accomplished all that Mr. Perez's crew did in about 4 hours this morning. Still, Raj is sure we won't need Mr. Perez's crew for very long. It is incredibly helpful to get the yard back in shape and see what it's supposed to look like though. Hopefully, we'll learn to maintain it by watching what they do - and we're getting a few yard tools this weekend so I won't need to borrow Shawn's plastic rake anymore!

While the crew worked, Shawn and I marbleized a couple of eggs with nail polish. I initially caught his attention by calling it an experiment, but I had trouble getting our strings to stay inside the eggs, so Shawn had trouble staying interested while I fumbled with them. He also wasn't keen on getting any of the polish on his fingers, but he did like pouring the drops of polish into the water bowl and watching if the globs would float or sink. I don't have a wide selection of colors to choose from, but I think it's still a fun project.

We spent the rest of the day in the back yard. While Lilly took a 3 hour nap, Shawn and I read a few books that we got from the library yesterday. We set up our folding lawn chairs on the back patio and brought out popcorn and drinks and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon sun while the temperatures were in the high 50°Fs.

We spent the rest of the day in the back yard. While Lilly took a 3 hour nap, Shawn and I read a few books that we got from the library yesterday. We set up our folding lawn chairs on the back patio and brought out popcorn and drinks and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon sun while the temperatures were in the high 50°Fs.

Cantigny Park with Opa

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHELLEY!
The morning started off very slowly. Shawn moped and whined about waking up at all and had a hard time getting going. Abby was in a fine mod, but she wasn't interested in eating more than a few bites at breakfast. Meanwhile, Shawn's breakfast inadvertantly greeted him back!

English muffin, cherries, &
scrambled eggs dyed blue

Once we finally got moving, we successfully wore out both kids fairly quickly.

We spent almost four hours walking through gardens at Cantigny Park, admiring flowers, plants, and trees. Shawn and Abby had a fantastic time dodging (well, not really) sprinklers and fountains, following different paths made from rocks, stones, pavement, grass, wood chips… you name it. Opa was an amazing guide through the gardens.  He found wild strawberries that we sampled (though they weren’t very flavorful).  He also introduced the kids to the characters inside the snap dragon flowers.  Abby loved roaring and snapping the flower, but Shawn didn’t like the idea of a dragon biting his finger and kept a watchful distance instead. We found a crabapple tree whose branches formed an almost perfect dome to the ground.  Shawn and Abby called it their ‘Tree Tent’ and could have played in its shade for hours. When we eventually coaxed them out, we found the Idea Garden with all kinds of fun things: a person made out of flower pots, a Big 10 container garden with flowers that matched the schools’ colors, areas designated to the four seasons as well as others planted with the five senses in mind. After all the gardens that we did see, I can only imagine how much of the property we didn’t get to!

The dangling bandaid on Abby's knee couldn't hold on any longer as her pants rubbed passed during a potty break - she was upset for a millisecond, but wasn't concerned about it any other time throughout the day. In fact, she ran and played as much as she did before her fall and did so with no limping, favoring, or even tip-toe walking! There were plenty of distractions to keep her occupied.


We took a break back at the car and enjoyed a picnic lunch under a shadey tree. Even a snooping ant joined us - typical! We used grapes to perfect our chipmunk cheeks.

 

 

Afterwards, we strolled through a an outdoor exhibit of tanks and artillery cannons that Abby and Shawn got to climb all over. Abby was more interested in the pictures on the informational signs and the clovers, sticks, and rocks she collected from the ground than the actual tanks and guns, but she found plenty to captivate her attention. Shawn liked exploring the military machines as if they were playground equipment, in addition to the clovers, sticks, and rocks along the way.

While they were both drained from our walks through the gardens early on, they were thoroughly exhausted on the ride home. Shawn was fast asleep and transferred to bed without batting an eye. Abby opened her eyes as we opened her car door, but just long enough to change her diaper and wipe off some of the dirt that she had magnetized during our adventure.

Meanwhile, Opa treated Baron to a short walk, which he was grateful for on such a nice day. While the kids napped, Opa and I enjoyed our own (well-deserved) 'quiet time' and snack.

When Raj got home, we took Opa to Shawn’s favorite restaurant – Pilot Pete’s. We pointed out the comedic ‘$100 hamburger’ on the menu, though none of us ordered it.

A $100 hamburger trip typically involves
flying a short distance (less than two hours),
eating at an airport restaurant, and flying home.
"$100" originally referred to the approximate
cost of renting or operating a light general aviation aircraft
for the time it took to fly round-trip to a nearby airport.

- Wikipedia

Shawn pointed out the variety of aircraft hanging over our heads and displayed in glass cases. Even when we don’t have a view of the runway, there’s always something to see at Pilot Pete’s, which possibly makes up for the so-so food that they serve!