Catch Up: Easter

Easter was a blast this year. I love doing things with Sammy now that he knows what's going on and can get really excited about them.

Saturday we went to a little community Easter egg hunt. It was awesome! But so, SO packed.

We had the most amazing luck - we got there with literally seconds to spare before the big hunt. I had just enough time to give Sammy the last-minute egg hunting instructions before he went for it. That's him in the brown shirt.

Our age group was the first to go, so while the other groups were waiting we took advantage of the gap and met the Easter bunny. There were only TWO people in line in front of us! Miracle! He ADORED the Easter bunny and wanted to sit there watching him for a while after our picture.
It wasn't long, though, before he spotted this amazing behemoth of a playground, and he was off. For the next half hour. I know it doesn't look huge, but it was. HUGE. That's a full-grown person in the background! We stayed until it was so overrun with midget people he could barely turn around anymore.

The next morning was Easter, and we celebrated before Daddy had to go to work. We dyed of Easter eggs, which was a big, BIG hit. Even if it was really hard to wait for them to be done.

Lucy and Daddy watched from the sidelines whilst the dying was going on. They had a great time just enjoying the vinegar fumes.

She looked so cute in her Easter onesie that I made for her! And she really loved her little Easter bunny toy.

Sammy went on his annual Easter basket scavenger hunt, which we recorded on video rather than pictures and now I can't load them to blogger. Ah, well. The boys spent a little while playing with Sam's new train set before we kissed Dad goodbye and got ready for church. Notice that Paul is the one doing the actual playing, haha.

Easter outfits! LOVE them!! My favorite was when I put Lucy's dress on her Sam ran in and said "She looks like Cinderella, mommy!" He sure loves his sister.

After church and naps we headed to Chris' parents' house for the annual Easter egg hunt in their yard

and a delicious Easter feast, including carrot soup! A good time was had by all, but especially at the (hyperactive) kids table.

Much playing and visiting followed - love this picture of Brennan on the vintage roller horse.

So much excitement made for lots of good sleep that night - Happy Easter to mommy! :)

love, mary

Catch Up: Descanso Gardens Again

Last year I took Sam & Haley to Descanso Gardens and swore I'd come back every year. It's breathtakingly beautiful and in April, almost everything in the whole place is in bloom. This year we went as a family, and even Paul loved it.

In my favorite part, the Lilac garden, there were butterflies everywhere dancing around in the aroma. Sam was fascinated.

Lucy loved the Lilacs, too.

We hoofed it uphill with the double stroller to the Boddy House, which is officially exactly what I want my home to look like someday. I love the details in here!! Keep dreaming. :)

This was part of the beautiful bathroom

and this is a close-up of the (fabric) wall - I'm obsessed with this! It gave it such a crazy wonderful feel in the room while adding some beautiful texture.

We took a pit stop at the restroom and Sam started playing with Lucy, kissing and hugging and talking at her. He can't get enough of the girl, I love it!

Then back out to beautiful nature. We all loved the poppies so much - such vibrant color!

At the pond Sam was going nuts - turtles and giant goldfish? What heaven is this??

But perhaps his favorite part of the whole day? The giant pinecone someone planted on this tree. So much for enjoying natural beauty hahaha.

Family photo op at the fountain in the rose garden

Tulips!! Love me some tulips. Lucy was overcome and had to bask in the tulip bed.

Sammy decided he wanted to hold Lucy for a shot. "Hold" is really a subjective term...

MAN I love my beautiful family!

and this just has to melt your heart.

As we were leaving we saw the most adorable family of ducks! The mama was heading over to the pond to join her baby daddy, but there was this little rock wall in the way and her babies couldn't hop over. She tried to be patient while they figured out a way over, but eventually got fed up (wouldn't know how that feels) and ditched them for Mr. D. The babies all freaked out, but darn it if every single one of them didn't figure out some way or another up over that little wall to their mom. No, I will not ditch my kids to see if this works. Even if I am a little bit tempted.

It was a great day. Can't wait to see what next year brings!

love, mary

Catch Up: Aquarium of the Pacific

We had a lot happen after Lucy's arrival, and I want to make sure it's all documented. Please humor me as I play catch up! :)

We took a day and went down to Long Beach to see the Aquarium of the Pacific. It was SO cool! Paul had to drag me away from the membership desk. :)

The first thing you see is this life-size model of a blue whale and her calf. HUGE.

Photo Op!

Then on to some seriously awesome indoor aquariums. Every time we saw a crab we went "Hey! Heeeeeey! HEEEEEY" like the crabs on Finding Nemo - Sam really thinks this is what crabs say.

The jellyfish tanks were my favorite part - they are so surprisingly beautiful!

Sam loved the Sea Otters - I couldn't get a picture of either one of them still enough to nix blurring!

Our second stop was the Aviary. This part surprised me - Aviary? I thought this was an aquarium? We almost skipped it - I am SO glad we didn't! The birds in this aviary are left to fly around free and they will land on you! We bought a little cup of "nectar" (some sort of sugar drink in a Horchata mixing machine) and helped Sam feed the birdies. SO cool. I snapped a million pictures because I just thought it was so, so cool to have birds landing on us.
Next was the shallow outdoor pools full of Manta Rays and sharks. They let you touch everything in there and it's just stinkin' awesome. We spent a loooong time here and I only got 2 pictures because we were so busy petting sharks. Petting sharks!

This is also where we learned that female sharks lay unfertilized eggs all the times, like hens! So odd. There were a couple in the tank but I was too chicken (ha! chicken.) to touch them.

Several thorough hand-washings later, we took off for the big shark tank. No petting here. There was a shark that seriously looked like Bruce from Nemo (lots of Nemo references - need to find a new movie) and we were totally fascinated with those gnarly looking teeth. Really gives you the heebie jeebies!

Lastly, we saw the Seals & Sea Lions show, which was so amazing I can't possibly do it justice. All of the awesome tricks, flips and jumps, clapping and barking and just...cool. We shot video of it, but Blogger is ridiculous and won't upload them. Boo.

If you're in LA, go to the Aquarium. It felt a little pricey going in, but coming out we definitely thought it was worth the splurge!

love, mary