Easter Bunny 2011

Hudson was very excited to learn the Easter Bunny would be visiting his school for a photo op.  However, he seemed a teensy bit less excited when I picked him up after school.  I realized why when he asked me if there was a person inside the Easter Bunny at school.  I could tell he knew the truth so I had to fess up and come up with a quick explanation.  I can't remember my exact response but I kept it simple and to the point.  He seemed very satisfied with what I said and looked forward to future Easter Bunny encounters.  This boy is too smart!  I never questioned these things as a kid.  I happily accepted the fact that the world was full of magical people and creatures that would visit me and leave fun surprises for me to enjoy throughout the year!

London, on the other hand, is not a fan of the Easter Bunny at all just yet but I know she will love filling her basket with eggs when it is time for the egg hunt!

I like, my friend, Beth's interpretation of the Easter Bunny picture: It's like he's saying, "I'm right here.  Just smile, and it will be over soon!"

So many questions, not enough answers...Here are a handful of questions I have received from Hudson regarding the Easter Bunny.

1. Where does the Easter Bunny live?  I mean I know Santa lives at the North Pole, does the Easter Bunny live there too?
   This is the most plausible answer I found: The Easter Bunny lives in a very deep hole in the ground (also called a burrow) which cannot be reached by humans. The exact location of the Easter Bunny's home is top secret, classified information. This is to protect the Easter Bunny's massive stockpiles of colored eggs, jelly beans and chocolate bunnies.

2.  Does the Easter Bunny bring me lots of toys?

3. Does the Easter Bunny talk?  (He remembered taking pictures with the Easter Bunny last year and he noticed the Easter Bunny had a mouth that didn't move.)

4. Does the Easter Bunny have a tongue?

5. Will the Easter Bunny be hiding the eggs at my school too? (I'm not sure how to explain multiple visits from the Easter Bunny but I'm sure I will come up with something once I commit to thinking about it!)

I felt unprepared with all of these questions so I did what any mom would do and I scoured the internet for answers.  I came across some interesting Easter Bunny facts:

The Easter Bunny was introduced to the United States by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 18th century.  The arrival of the Osterhase was considered one of "childhood's greatest pleasures", similar to the arrival of Kris Kringle on Christmas Eve.  According to the tradition, children would build brightly colored nests, often out of caps and bonnets, in secluded areas of their homes. The "Oschter Haws" would, if the children had been good, lay brightly colored eggs in the nest. As the tradition spread, the nest has become the manufactured, modern Easter basket, and the placing of the nest in a secluded area has become the tradition of hiding baskets. (So the Germans are responsible for Kris Kringle and the Easter Bunny!)

Eggs, like rabbits and hares, are fertility symbols of antiquity. Since birds lay eggs and rabbits and hares give birth to large litters in the early spring, these became symbols of the rising fertility of the earth at the Vernal Equinox.

In case you ever wondered...

An interesting study that caught my eye on CNN.com:

Best to worst combinations of siblings, according to British web site Bounty.com:
1. Two girls
2. One boy and one girl

After two girls, the second most satisfactory combination of children was one boy and one girl. 86% of parents with one of each gender said they would honestly say their children were friends. Parents of one girl and one boy also commented that they rarely argue over toys, belongings and who can have what. Our report found one of each gender can also be reasoned with easily, making it easy for mums and dads to quickly sort out problems. The only downside of having a boy and a girl was a lack of shared interest as they grow up.

3. Two boys
4. Three girls
5. Three boys
6. Four boys
7. Two girls and one boy
8. Two boys and one girl
9. Three boys and one girl
10. Three girls and one boy
11. Two boys and two girls
12. Four girls
I also received the following in an email the same day I read this article.  They are not directly related but both have to do with having children so included them on the same post!

I have heard on many occasions that pregnancy is really 10 months instead of 9 months.  This comment never made sense to me but I never had the gumption to sit down and think the math through.  I'm glad someone else did the thinking for me!

This turned into a topic of conversation over coffee. Please see below:
I repeat for the record…women are amazing in their ability to go through this and on behalf of all men, I thank you all.


Ladies,


First let me say that I have great respect for all women who have suffered through the miracle of child birth.


Now…the average human gestation is 40 weeks. Including leap years, the average number of weeks in a month = 4.3482142857142857142857142857143.
(365.25 ÷ 12 ÷ 7)
40 ÷ 4.3482142857142857142857142857143 = 9.1991786447638603696098562628337

I’ll allow for the rounding up to 9.2 months.
9.2 is closer to 9 than it is to 10.

Let The Sun Shine!

We have all been enjoying the longer, sunny days of spring time!  There is actually still plenty of time to play outside when we get home from work/school during the week. 

Here are the kids enjoying their little playset in our backyard:

Shoe Obsession

London has developed a little obsession with Hudson's shoes.  She has always loved shoes but she really loves Hudson's shoes.  If she sees one of his shoes laying around, she will quickly remove her shoes, put his on, and clumsily walk around with big smile on her face.  Every now and then she will try ours on but she definitely prefers her big brother's!

Hudson's 1st Swim Lessons

Hudson started taking swim lessons this month at FINS and loves it!  I can't believe how much he has learned in only two short sessions.  His coach, Coach Marcos, is an excellent teacher.  There are only a total of 3 kids in his class so they get a lot of one-on-one time.  The first day, he had the kids practice falling in the pool, swimming to the side, and pulling themselves out.  Hudson told me his coach would say, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!", and they would have to fall in!  He also learned to swim and float on his back.  His coach taught him the proper stroke by saying, "airplane (arms straight out), soldier (move arms down to your side), then tickle, tickle (move your hands up to your armpits)."  It worked!  He hasn't forgotten anything the coach has told him!  He has learned to blow little bubbles out of his mouth when his face is in the water and he is doing great at holding his breath and swimming underwater.

He is so excited about his swim goggles too!  I think he wore them for the entire 1st day he had them.  Jason was a little embarrassed when Hudson insisted on wearing them when they went into a store too!   As you can see below, he also likes to wear them in the bath tub so he can see during his underwater missions!

Travis' Dairy Farm Birthday Party

Another birthday party we always look forward each year is Travis'!  I told his mom she is one of my creativity idols!! I always wonder how she will out-do herself each year!  I really didn't think last year's painting party could have been topped but I think she trumped it with the dairy farm party.  Her family owns the Seber Dairy farm which is about 5 miles from our house.  It couldn't have been a more perfect day to spend outside enjoying the country life.  I had just as much fun as all of the kids!

The party started out by everyone picking a basket out of a feeding trough as they arrived.  Then we all filled our baskets with fresh strawberries that we picked out of the garden!  Yummy!!

Hudson was thrilled that a lady bug landed on his finger!

They had all sorts of baby birds out for the kids to hold and pet: baby chicks, baby ducks,  & a baby goose.  Hudson's absolutely favorite part of the day was the baby chicks.  He couldn't get enough of them!  He was so gentle.  Actually, he was so worried that he might hurt one of them that he couldn't bring himself to be aggressive enough to catch one.  I would scoop them up and put them in his hands and he would fall in love with each one.  He kept asking me why they didn't have names.  He wanted to name one Fuzzy.  When he would put them down, he was always sure to place them by their food in case they were hungry or thirsty.  He's always so thoughtful! 

He got to pet a bunny:

 He got to feed  a calf with a bottle of milk:

 He and the rest of the kids had endless fun playing in this trough full of corn kernels:

Then it was time to tour the farm on a hay ride!

After all of that playing, it was time to enjoy some yummy food, eat cupcakes, break the pinata, and fill up our awesome goody bags:

We had so much fun on the farm helping Travis celebrate his 4th birthday!  Poor London had to stay home with Daddy because she has been teething and took an extra long nap that day. 

Primrose Spring Bonnet Parade 2011

Primrose held their annual Spring Bonnet Parade.  The kids all make "bonnets" and wear them while they sing songs and parade through the school for the parents to see.  The kids are always so cute and entertaining to watch.
Here comes London:

Here is Hudson singing Little Bunny Foo Foo (they had more of a head band rather than a hat):

These bonnets made me laugh out loud!!  This is Mrs. Anderson's creativity at work!

I thought these were really cute:

Some buzzy bees:

Hudson's class (a lot of the kids were out on spring break):

Reed & Isabella's birthday

We always look forward to going to Reed and Isabella's birthday party each year.  This year it was at the park in Carlton Woods.  Isabella's part of the party was a Tinker Bell theme and her teacher from Primrose was dressed as Tinker Bell. Silvia, their mom, had some of her friends' daughters dress up as the rest of the Tinker Bell's fairy friends.  They danced around all of the little girls and sprinkled fairy dust on them!  Then the girls got to participate in a dance contest.  It was so much fun to watch.  I know I would have been in little girl heaven if I had been at this party when I was 4!!  (I have started to take mental notes at each party that I go to and this year I am totally recruiting some of the teachers to help out at Hudson and London's party!!)

Reed's part of the party was a Star Wars theme.  Obi-wan Kenobi and Darth Vader were there.  They did a fun show but I think they forgot they were talking to little sponges!  They told the boys the word of the day was 'narcissist' while describing Darth Vader.  Not that narcissist is necessarily a bad word but it is not a word I would like my child to use in his vocabulary on a regular basis.  Also, his take home message from Darth and Obi-wan, was "Good girls like bad boys".  Then his follow up question was, "Mama, if good girls like bad boys...what do boys like?".  I think these Star Wars geeks may have been a little bitter.  Geez.  It was still a great time though and the kids had a blast!!!

Bird House

The first nice spring-like weekend we were outside cleaning up all of the dead plants and pulling weeds when I decided to fill up the bird feeder.  After a couple of days, birds of all types were swarming our feeder!  There were also some beautiful tropical looking birds that stopped by to feast on the birdie buffet.  Hudson loved watching the birds from the window and tried very hard to give them all fantastic names.  He told us he wanted to build them a bird house that looked like a robot.  Jason had promised him several months before that they would build a bird house so he decided it was time to follow up on that promise.  Althougth the bird house was not in the shape of a robot, they still had a great time building it and they did a wonderful job!  I'm sure the birds will love it!

Busy Builders:

TGR Exotics

We met up with Terrie, Jeramy, Eli, & Aiden for a fun day at TGR Exotics.  A work friend of mine told me about this place about a year ago and we finally decided to follow through with going.  We looked it up online and realized it is basically just down the road from where we live.  All of this time we never realized we had an exotic animal zoo 5 minutes away from our house!  It was SO cool and we had a GREAT time seeing the awesome animals and hanging out with our awesome friends!  The people that work there are fantastic!  They are very knowledgeable about the animals and they are very good with children.  During the fall, they have a pumpkin patch where the kids can paint pumpkins, go on hayrides, roast hot dogs & make s'mores, and go on camel rides!  You can also book birthday parties there which includes all of that stuff for the birthday party so I foresee this being a future party spot for Hudson and London!!  Terrie & Jeremy have already booked it for Eli!!  Yay! 

We started out by getting to pet some potbelly pigs and a kangaroo.  The kangaroo was a rescue and was missing one of its feet but you would never know.  I didn't realize until it was pointed out because she moved around so well.  She was so sweet and so incredibly soft.

Here is a small array of some of the other animals we saw:

(I forget with this thing is called but it is basically a giant guinea pig!)

Here are Hudson and London petting the potbelly pigs:

Up close and personal with an adorable kangaroo!

I like to move it, move it!  A ring-tailed lemur:

Up close and not-so-personal with a beautiful Tiger:

A cute little anteater:

Some fun videos: