Grace Elise & Holtz Reagan: Baa Baa Black Sheep, Easter and Grace's 6th Birthday!

Now, I know my kiddos are adorable, but look at this face! This is a 4 week old lamb that belongs to my kids's babysitter Ele. She brought it over to play in our backyard with the kids and some of their friends the Friday before Easter. Holtz even got to feed it with a bottle! So cute!

I know this picture isn't in focus but I find it so hilarious I break out in laughter every time I see it. The cute little lamb looks as if it's ready to have more to eat than just a bottle. I'm not sure what was going on in this picture but I'm certain that Holtz wasn't running from the lamb- it was the sweetest little animal. It sure looks like Holtz is running like hell to get away from it though. Did you notice the lambs tongue licking it's lips?? Run Holtz Run!!!

Grace with her friends Megan and Savannah- I forgot to put in my last post a story about the haircut I gave Holtz. I decided to give him a haircut myself and after grabbing the kitchen scissors and heading upstairs, Grace said, "Mommy, don't you know that Santa is watching?" ha ha- I always told her that to keep her from cutting her own hair. I explained to her that I thought Santa would understand considering Easter was coming up and I didn't have a car to take Holtz to get his haircut (Evan was out of town). Thinking I was in the clear, I proceeded with cutting Holtz's hair again reminding Grace and Holtz that they should never ever do it and that this was just a special circumstance. I'm not kidding, the next day, Holtz grabbed a pair of scissors and cut his own hair. I about died! Luckily it was just a tiny bit off the top. Guess I learned my lesson. Never cut hair here at home.

"You lookin' at me?" You've got to enlarge this photo- ha ha ha!

Holtz and his bff Lolo-

Ring around the rosie with Savannah-

Finally, it's a pig pile!

Time to decorate Easter Eggs! This year, we attempted to dye brown eggs. Grace giving the appropriate 'Easter bunny' ears to Holtz.

Here are the prepared eggs. We used some rubber bands to make white stripes on the eggs, used crayon to draw designs and of course draw Grace (brown eyes) and Holtz (blue eyes) eggs.

Dip, dip, dip...wait, wait, wait...

and wait...

Wow- BEAUTIFUL! These were, by far, the most beautiful eggs! We used food coloring with water and vinegar and in one of the cups, I also added a little vegetable oil. This made the egg look marbled. Some we did a solid color, some two colors...

The most beautiful colored eggs- so rich in color!

Eggs are done...now time to decorate the house for the Easter Bunny's visit tonight!

I am on the brand new social committee in our neighborhood. We are responsible for planning events for the neighborhood. I have volunteered my time to just come up with ideas for the events and then others are the ones to put it on and either use some of my ideas or not to plan the details of the specific event. The first event was an Easter egg hunt at the neighborhood clubhouse. I actually didn't go to the hunt but Evan took the kids. We had no idea how many people were going to show up and I guess they were extremely short on eggs. Poor Grace didn't even get any! Talk about traumatic! Luckily, her buddy Abigail, gave her one of hers. For some reason, they held the hunt for the 3 and under group at the same time as the 4 to 8 group so Holtz didn't get to participate either. Bummer but was a learning experience. Don't you just love Holtz's new camera smile. Oh lordy-

Could it be??? Yes, the Easter Bunny came to the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt! Grace was thrilled to see him...Holtz, on the other hand, wasn't quite sure what to think! Can Grace pull Holtz up to meet him?

Nope! But our buddy Justin (Megan and Lolo's dad) helped.

Grace looking sweet...Holtz isn't so sure about all of this Easter Bunny business. He has his big sister's hand though...so he's A-ok.

No Easter Bunny...don't get any closer... It took Holtz about 2 seconds after this to get the heck out of there :) Afterwards, Grace said, "The Easter Bunny looked like somebody dressed up in a costume." We said, "well, maybe it was one of the Easter Bunny's helpers" to which she replied, "No, it was the Easter Bunny." Got to love her!

We had our friend's over for dinner afterwards. These two pics were taken after dinner before everybody headed home. In this picture is Lauren and Megan Wedeking, Abigail Hiens, and Holtz and Grace.

Will the Easter Bunny come tonight??

Yes! The Easter Bunny came to Sandersville Road! And, look at that, there are hidden eggs (smile)! Wake up kids!

Although Grace didn't get any eggs at the neighborhood hunt, she found LOTS of eggs at our house!

Oh Ralph...

Holtz always shoves as much food in his mouth as possible these days. He also has recently started making a whimpering noise when he's faking being sad. It's so dramatic...not sure where he learned it. On a positive note, he has started helping us brush his teeth. He has mastered how to spit while brushing so has graduated to fluoridated toothpaste.

We headed to my Dad's and Billie's house afterwards for lunch. Billie's daughter, Kate, and her family were there too. I know this is kind-of corny but I think my Dad's house is so beautiful in this picture. Very Easter-ey.

Guess what! The Easter Bunny came to visit Dad's house as well...and there was an Easter egg hunt! Here is Grandpa and Holtz!

This is Kate's youngest daughter, Julie. I wish she lived closer to babysit- she is an absolute doll!

Grace found eggs at this hunt too!

So, Dad is now raising chickens (shhh, not for eggs...to eat)! Ha- the kids LOVED them!

Poor Mike needed a ride to Lexington to catch a flight and had to squeeze in the back. I took this picture right before leaving my Dads. The kids were both zonked with-in 5 minutes so not only was Mikey squished but he was forced to be silent!

Talking about Easter, let's not forgot who was born on Easter Sunday 6 years ago. That's right...Grace is 6! For the first time, instead of having her party at our house (and me doing all of the decorations and cake), we had the party at Legacy Gymnastics which is where she's taken lessons for several years. I had the hardest time weeding out friends so we pretty much invited everyone. The kids, and parents, at Grace's school have been so good to us (helping Grace with her adjustment into kindergarten)...how could I leave any of them out? Not possible... On top of her new friends, she had all of her buddies from the neighborhood too! Hello Big Party! All of the kids had a BLAST! Here's a picture from the beginning in the small gym.

You can't see, but Grace is jumping on a trampoline in this picture below...and her buddy, Thomas, is cheering her on. Sweet!

And now, in the big gym. Grace is in the pink leotard and blue shorts jumping into the foam pit.

More trampoline.

This is one of Grace's classmates's younger brother, Francis. He and Holtz had a blast playing in the water fountain. I know I probably shouldn't have let them but how could I not...it was precious! I wish I had a recording of Holtz laughing here- it was the best- so funny!

After the hour of gym play time, the kids went to the party room for an hour to have pizza and cake. Here is Grace's DQ Ice-cream cake.

Do you see all of the kids looking like they are blowing the candle's out with Grace? She has the best cutest friends. We did decide to wait to open up the presents until we got home because the poor kids would be so bored.

Dad and Billie drove down just for the party- thanks!

The day after the party was a beautiful day! We went out to Panera Bread for breakfast and then played out back most of the day. Here is Holtz being messy!

And Grace being clean :)

We made the kids virgin strawberry daiquiris (with whipped cream on top)...ha ha ha.

Grammie with her daiquiri... Another thing Holtz has started doing that I don't know where he learned it is saying God Dam*it. At first, we were sure that he was saying something else and we just didn't understand him (because where in the heck would he have learned it- thanks Daddy) but after hearing him say it several times we are pretty certain that GD is what he is saying. I guess the good thing about all of this (on top of it being somewhat hilarious) is that he uses it in context. Peanut butter on his hand...GD. Spilled milk...GD. Seriously! I was for sure he was going to drop the GD bomb in front of my uber religious mom while she was in town but somehow we lucked out. Instead he started chanting Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Barack Obama...he may as well have been staying GD in front of her. Ha ha ha- well, at least we can laugh about it! Well, mom wasn't laughing, but she may after reading this post.

Cheech with his daiquiri- omg. This was spilled from the virgin drinks :)

"Mom, I swear I'm not taking sand up to the clubhouse to dump all over the floor..."

And now, Monday April 16th , Birthday Day, has arrived. Here is Grace getting ready to head out to school.

Opening presents from us after school...

I let her pick out another DQ ice-cream cake for home since her other one was finished at the party.

Helping Holtz lick a candle- she is such a good loving big sister.

Cracking herself up- hilarious!

Since getting her tonsils out, Grace has been waking up with a dry pull up in the mornings (for like 6 days in a row). She must truly be getting better sleep! We tried, for the first time in a long time to have her wear underpants last night and dang if she didn't wake up with a wet bed! We'll try again tonight. Big girl Grace! Looks like we are in the homestretch!

Holtz's goose egg on his head, from the baseball bat incident, has led to two black eyes. This picture looks kind-of bad but it doesn't even do it justice!