Easter – Page 3

Easter and Kite Fail 2015

April 6, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

Easter 2013:

Easter 2014:

Easter 2015:

The Easter Bunny brought us giant chalk markers! And stuffed animals that look suspiciously like the ones from last year!

Amelia 2014:

Amelia 2015:

Samantha 2014:

Samantha 2015:

After opening Easter baskets, we did a quick Easter egg hunt on the trail out back. Because Easter isn’t complete until we’ve done our fifth egg hunt.

Hmmmm..which one to eat first?

Amelia did things the right way– properly collecting eggs in her basket

Samantha didn’t see the point in collecting eggs to be opened later. She simply picked up eggs, one or two at a time, ate the bunny grahams and threw the egg aside. No sense in wasting time.

Yum.

Hard to say who collected the most eggs. While Samantha was busy eating, Amelia was pretty quick picking up her bounty.

Here comes Amelia Cottontail.

Look! Kites!

Let’s fly one!

We’ve been waiting all spring for enough wind to go kite flying and had grand visions of flying one on Easter; much to our delight, the wind picked up and we scrambled to find a good spot. Enduring the taunting of another family who was successfully flying their Olaf kite without problems, we couldn’t seem to keep our kite flying for more than five minutes.

Kite watching.

Kite watching is better with bunny ears on.

Samantha was pretty confident she could turn our kite-flying woes around.

I got this.

Amelia enjoyed the show from the trail.

And helped retrieve/throw the kite in the air when it inevitably crash landed.

Kite down.

At one point, the kite nose-dived and smacked Amelia right on the head. She was none too pleased.

Good thing we had more eggs to cheer her up.

After many failed attempts at kite flying, we left the trail with our heads down, and tails between our legs, trudging down the trail in defeat past the happy family successfully flying their kite. I think they pitied us.

Despite the kite fail, we had a relaxing Easter and everyone was in better spirits after eating Easter dinner en plein air.

A carrot date muffin or two (or three) may have helped too.

Expert photo-bombing by Amelia.

Happy Easter, girls!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Easter, Uncategorized

Pre-Easter fun with friends

April 4, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

This week, S and A learned all about cool “big girl stuff” (the musical, Wicked, the Pinkalicious book series, binoculars, to name a few) from their friend, Kennedy. Kennedy’s little brother, Sebastian, was nice enough to share his toy lizard with the girls, which they instantly carried around like a pet.

WE’RE SO NOT COOL, MOM. WE NEED BUTTERFLY BINOCULARS.

Dinner with the lovely Smith fam. To their amazement, Amelia ate almost her entire fish taco and Samantha chowed down on my thai peanut quinoa salad and Jake’s chipotle burger.

Shy with food, these girls are not.

We’ve officially ridden carousels dozens of times this month. Time for a carousel detox.

Samantha begged to sit on the horse next to Kennedy.

Ryan is pretty much the only guy other than Jake and Grandpa that Amelia will let carry on their shoulders. For Samantha, only Daddy will do.

Three Easter Egg Hunts in two days? Totally doable. First up, our ward hunt at the park. The other kids were fast, but the girls didn’t seem to mind that they only got three eggs each (or that I traded their jelly beans for bunny grahams).

Next up: neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt with our friends. Thanks Amy, for setting it up!

We were a little late getting to our neighborhood park after nap time, but Camden, Addison and Olivia came to the rescue by dumping out their eggs and hiding them all over again so S and A could participate. Camdyn was particularly instructive as to where the eggs were “hidden.”

Addison was so sweet helping the girls too.

Neighborhood ladies, Olivia, Amelia, Addison, Samantha and Camdyn.

The girls showed Daddy their spoils when he got home from work.

Hunt #3: the official neighborhood Easter celebration. We missed the toddler hunt and joined the nine-year-olds for their round– those eggs were gone in two seconds flat! The girls were happy with their four egg winnings.

C’mon, Amelia– be competitive!

Sister, over there!

Lily was nice enough to share her eggs with Amelia.

Complicit in the annual pony torture.

Several people commented that Amelia rode her horse like she was some kind of queen, waving regally as if we were all her subjects. I have no doubt that’s her master plan.

Out of character, Samantha grinned the entire pony ride.

I had to drag Amelia out of the petting zoo– she wants nothing more than to have her own sheep.

And ducks. Seriously, we need a farm.

After several large doses of hand sanitizer, we ate a picnic lunch. I caved and let the girls have a hot dog instead of the tuna-pita bread sandwich, carrots, and dates I had packed them. Why do I even bother?

Nom nom.

Bunny Queen.

Easter Bunny time! Amelia looked like she was posing for a very serious family portrait, circa- 1890s.

Despite being ok with the other bunnies we’ve met this season, Samantha would have nothing to do with this particular bunny (bad vibes?) unless Jake was holding her.

Samantha was NOT happy I snuck in for a picture with her.

The girls initially wanted to go in the bounce house, but got nervous at the last second. The operators kindly told Jake he could go with the girls if that would help them be less scared. He acted like he was going only out of duty, but let’s be real– he clearly enjoyed the slide more than the girls!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Easter, Uncategorized

2nd Annual Bunny Breakfast 2015

March 30, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

Samantha and Amelia had been talking about meeting the Easter Bunny all morning while we were headed to our Twins’ Club Bunny Breakfast, but when push came to shove, only Amelia was actually happy!

Samantha was NOT amused.

Apparently, the talking bunny did not freak Amelia out:

Even breakfast wouldn’t cheer Samantha up.

When Samantha doesn’t even smile riding on a bunny around the carousel, you know she’s not having a good day.

Samantha is on the right– and actually enjoyed herself a tiny bit!

Samantha was in the zone working on her craft.

Forget breakfast, the Easter Bunny and the carousel– what the girls really wanted to do was ride the escalator. Again. And again.

South Coast was closed for our club, so fortunately, the girls could run around without annoying too many people. The other parents of multiples were in the same boat and didn’t bat an eye.

Amelia’s favorite thing was to wiggle out of my grasp and run down the hallways so she could put her grubby fingers on the glass of the store windows. I don’t know how I managed to raise avid window shoppers already, but they seriously spent a good thirty minutes going to each store and looking in, sometimes banging on the doors to enter, before we pulled them away.

Samantha had a meltdown after we told her she was not allowed to climb over the glass and jump.

From tantrum to giggle fest in 2.5 seconds after she discovered the floor was perfect for sliding on her belly. SO GROSS.

She does this because she knows it annoys me.

Looking through the wishing well.

The camera inside the well showed your own reflection, which the girls found fascinating.

Samantha got upset AGAIN.

Refusing to let anyone pick her up.

Meanwhile, Amelia had fun carrying around her craft bag, riding the carousel a few (dozen) more times and “feeding” all the cute bunnies. She was our happy little creature.

Such a smiley one, that Amelia!

Despite having already eaten eggs and croissants for breakfast, Samantha’s mood improved dramatically after we gave her a bagel to munch on. She sat at a table by herself, totally content, while the rest of us walked around the “garden.” Now you know why she’s typically three pounds heavier than Amelia.

She even came over to give sister a bite.

At the very end of the breakfast, Samantha finally got into the Easter spirit and attempted to enjoy herself– bagel in hand, of course.

Next time, we will give her a bagel right off the bat.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Easter

Bunnies and boating

March 26, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

Last year, when the girls had barely turned one, we took them to meet the Easter Bunny for the first time. Despite having major stranger danger issues with real live people, for whatever reason, they didn’t have any problem whatsoever with creepy mechanical bunnies.

2014:

So weird that they used to have reddish hair.

This year was no exception– the girls were excited to hang with the Easter Bunny!

After meeting the Easter Bunny (“Bye bye, bunny!” the girls chimed over and over), S and A “hunted” for Easter eggs. And by hunted, I mean picked up eggs that were “hidden” in plain sight all over the ground.

The rules were that every kid could only take eight eggs. Lame. In my day, it was survival of the fittest…what are we teaching this generation?!

Yep. That was a hard one to find, Samantha.

Despite my preference against rewarding mediocrity, the girls were so excited with their eight eggs that I couldn’t help but be excited with them.

Carnival games! Again, everyone was a winner and got a prize at the end. What has this world come to?

Sugar cookie decorating.

Samantha is always pretty liberal with the sprinkles.

We checked out the mountain lions at the little zoo near the park so that we didn’t have to hear the girls chant, “Animals! Animals!” one more time. We were wrong. They continued their little song the rest of the day.