Easter is Coming!

April is full of birthdays for our family.  Auntie Kate's is the day after Maverick's and then Phoebe's is two weeks later.  It is near impossible to believe we now have a 3 and a 6 year old under our roof!  She requested brownies for her actual birthday!

I guess by the time you're six, you've mastered blowing out the birthday candle!  

Thursday when I went to pick up Maverick, one of his friends had just thrown up on the playground, right on one of the teachers.  I can't even count how many times he said "Claire puked on Keisha" on the way home.  With family coming to celebrate birthdays and Easter that weekend, I was dreading another round of stomach yuck headed our way.  So...while driving downtown on Good Friday, I made the wise (!?) decision to just bring him to the office with me and avoid the germs altogether!  We were only open till noon and we had dvds in hand since it was movie day!  He had a blast!

Every time I walked away from my desk, he'd run over and grab the phone thinking he was pretty big stuff!

The InnoTab saved the day (that and snacks!)...

We've been blessed with lots of sunshine lately!  We love our neighbors and the kids decided after all the bubbles they went through, that it was time to wash the Cozy Coupe, picnic table and even the driveways!   I think it's a requirement for all kids under the age of 10 to be enamored with water!  They played for hours!

Saturday morning, we took Auntie with us to the Westfield Egg Drop.  We weren't very interested in the fire trucks but he gave us the obligatory "cheese" photo before racing off to the bounce houses!

Neither kid wanted their face painted or a tattoo so we hung out on the playground till it was time to watch for the helicopter to arrive.

Phoebe has been a fan of the monkey bars for years but this was the first time she actually went across by herself. I guess new talents are bound to pop up when you turn six...

Once the helicopter made six or seven passes, it was time to collect eggs!  

Saturday afternoon, Uncle Steve and Bevin, YiaYia and Papou, and the Greats joined us for an April birthday celebration.  Maverick wanted cake pops.

Phoebe wanted a chocolate cake with candy canes.

And Auntie had YiaYia make strawberry shortcake.

Phoebe must have liked her cake - it ended up all over her face! 

Then presents were opened.  

It was literally like Christmas - the Wallis house will soon be preparing for our neighborhood garage sale in May so it's good timing!

The kiddos LOVED hanging with their auntie all weekend!

Sunday morning after church.  

The kids were anxious to change out of their church clothes so we tried to get pictures as soon as we got to YiaYia and Papou's!  

Did I mention the kiddos LOVE their auntie!?!

While we waited for lunch, the kids were eager to start the egg hunt!

And no Easter celebration would be complete without a Peeps contest!

Thought we'd end the blog with this cute face.  Phoebe got Frozen for her birthday and we've been watching bits of it before bedtime this week.  Ryan snapped this precious picture last night.  Our kids are getting SO big (in fact, Maverick peed on the potty before getting his pjs on - a first at home!) so if we could freeze time for a bit, I think I'd be ok with that...

Spring Break - Part Two

After we saw Nana and Papa off Wednesday morning, we headed out to enjoy the day at one of our favorite local parks.  We had to stop in the greenhouse to visit Chumley.

The kids even allowed me to take a few pictures before we headed off to the playground!

We also got to try out some of our new birthday gifts!

Aunt Carrie's rocket is by far one of our favorites!

After a visit at our neighborhood playground, we hit the trails and luckily had our rain boots on and were able to splash in a few puddles!

The next day started with some sibling snuggles and then we headed off to Turkey Run State Park.

There was still some snow at the park and it was finally melting!

Maverick has a hard time looking at the camera so Phoebe was "helping."

One of the trails we took was a bit too treacherous for us - especially if we wanted to remain dry the rest of the hike - we turned around (but rest assured, we still got wet)!

Lots of exploring to do!

We had a picnic lunch, played Frisbee and even brought our rockets to shoot up into the air.  Then we took another trail before heading towards home.  And since the weather was SO pretty, we decided to eat outside for dinner, too!  Maverick got a nap in on the way back so they were full of energy while we waited for our food.

Our little dancer.

Our little ham.

And no day would be complete without some ice cream!  I think I would opt for something other than cotton candy with mini marshmallows but that combination was a hit with our two!

The next day we hit Sky Zone and they had a blast!  I think they enjoyed jumping into the foam blocks more than anything else.

Jumping was a blast, even for the parents!

But it does tucker you out!

Phoebe impressed us with her basketball skills!

Dodge ball was a huge hit, too!

Saturday morning we got up and rode our bikes to breakfast.  It was a 45 minute trip each way and the kids were troopers in the trailer.  We grabbed a few pictures after breakfast before heading back home!

This project came home in Phoebe's backpack on Monday after she returned to school.  When I asked her if this was a picture of Conner Prairie, she responded with "Yeah, didn't you recognize the goat!?"