Easter Celebration!

We celebrated Jesus Christ's resurrection in Oklahoma last weekend with my family.  We had such a fun time celebrating with family--and Luke especially liked playing with all of his cousins and Grandma and Grandpa all weekend long!

Grandpa made some big bubbles!

I really enjoyed watching them fly away into the sky.

My cousin, Brody, showed me how his bubble gun worked.  His dad won this at Kristin & Michael's Bunco party!

I chased the bubbles Brody made.

My cousin, Traber and I, rode in the wagon together one night, along with Linnea, while we went on a walk in Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood.

Brody and Lilly took turns pulling us.  Kaylee ran alongside but you can't see her in this picture.

We saw a cow along the way.  Linnea was trying to get to the other side of the fence to play with Mr. Cow.

Mommy showed me how to color Easter eggs.  This was my first year to color them because I was too little last year.

Then, Daddy showed me his special techniques.

Lilly was a pro.

After Church on Sunday, we took some family photos.  This is Uncle Jason, Aunt Emily, and my cousins, Kaylee and Brody.

Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Brandy and cousin, Traber.

Aunt Holly, Uncle Ryan, and cousins Lilly and Linnea.

Me and my cousins.  There were too many cameras with flashes and adults making crazy sounds and doing funny dances.  We were confused.

This is my daddy, my mommy and me!

On the afternoon of Easter it was raining, so we found Easter eggs inside of the house instead of outside.  My cousins and I looked for eggs first.  We had a great time.  Then, the adults played a game with an Easter egg.  There were two teams:  the boys and the girls.  One team would have 5 minutes to hide one egg in the living room.  At least a quarter of the egg had to be visible.  The other team would then have one minute to find that egg.  If they found the egg, they would get a point.  There were three rounds, and the team with the most points at the end of the rounds won the game.  The adults were very loud when they played this game.  Us kids kind of got a little scared, because they were very serious about finding that egg and very upset when they didn't find it.  They looked like they had so much fun though, because they were also laughing a lot!  Silly adults!

The true reason we celebrated actually had nothing to do with Easter eggs or bunnies though.  My mommy and daddy told me it is all about Jesus' death and resurrection--that is why we are so happy at Easter.  They told me I will learn more as I grow older.  I am excited to learn more about Him and why he is so important to them.

An Early Easter-Egg Hunt and Family Fun

We visited Mimi and Papa (Drew's parents) and Erica, Andy, Mitchell, Audrey and Lauren (Drew's sister and family) this past weekend and took part in a little early Easter egg hunting action and family fun.  Drew's side of the family always hides Easter eggs inside Mimi and Papa's house, with plastic eggs filled with goodies. 

This year, each of the Grandkids had a different color of egg for which they searched.  I thought this was such a great idea.  Luke got to search for blue eggs and, I must say, he was very quick at spotting them!  One of his favorite things to do was open up the eggs to see what was inside.  What was inside were things that right now only mommy and daddy should eat (and I must say we are enjoying these things).  After the egg hunt, Luke had a miniature Reese's egg in his hand for quite some time without anyone noticing.  It got very warm and began melting.  Suddenly, everyone heard Luke exclaim, "Mmmmmmmmm!"  We all looked over to find Luke's chocolatey hand in his mouth. 

How can I open this piece of chocolate before anyone notices?

I better suck on these fingers quickly before Papa washes the chocolate off my hands.

Audrey kept opening eggs and exclaiming, "Jackpot!"

Ohhhh!!!   I bet there are chocolates in every one of these!

Here Erica, come with me and give me some more chocolate please.

Later, we took a walk to a park with Mimi and Papa.

I did some swinging...

some duck watching while eating the bread papa brought for the ducks...

and sliding down a slide that was much too small for daddy.

I even took a break to smell the roses.

The next day, Mitchell, Audrey and Lauren showed me some slides on the side of a hill that they like.

They also had regular slides too, like this one that Lauren is going down.

We found lots of balloons at the park.

But, a man let them all go away in the sky.

I was very concerned about those balloons.  Audrey, who I call "Didi," told me it would be OK though.  "There are other balloons," she said.

I watched them until they got so tiny that I could no longer see them in the sky.

But, we found some more.  Come on girls, let's go see these other balloons.

We had an excellent time with family this past weekend.  And to top it off, Drew and I even got to go on a date to an Astros baseball game with Erica and Mitchell. Thanks Andy for the tickets--they were excellent.  We were only about 20 rows up from George and Barbara Bush's seats.  George and Barbara were actually at the game as well.  It was such a fun time!

When an 18-month old boy wants to feed himself yogurt....

It looks like this...

Mmmmm..see I do it much better than you mommy.

Wait...this is harder than it looks.

I'll try scooping it like a shovel.

Get in my mouth now, yogurt!

Luke has decided he does not want me to feed him any longer.  I'm pretty sure he thinks he is saying, "I do it myself, Mommy" as he babbles and grabs the spoon.  It is so messy, but I guess he does need to learn how to use the utensils himself.  I expect lots of messy dinners in our future!  But, I am not complaining--we're enjoying every minute of our journey with Mr. Luke.  We love our little guy more and more with each day.

Ridin' the Rails

Last weekend, we took Luke on a special little adventure that we knew he'd love.  We decided to visit the Cedar Rock Railroad.  It was the closest that Luke has ever come to riding on a real train, and anyone that knows Luke well knows that he LOVES trains.  The train is a fantastic quarter-scale train that takes passengers on a relaxing 1.3 mile ride through the nature-filled fields and forests of the Williamson County Regional park.  It was a great 15 minute ride, that went by a little lake, through the woods and even through a tunnel.  And, for $2.50 per ticket, I definitely think this adventure was worth it.

Luke and I, ready for our ride.

The conductor walked by and punched all of our tickets.  Luke thought that was pretty neat.

Luke says, "Go Choo Choo Train, Go!"

Taking it all in...

After the ride, Luke wanted to get a closer look of the train.  Notice he is still holding his ticket.  :-)

 

Bye-Bye, Train!

Click here to read the "Free Fun in Austin" website's review of the train. 

Discovering a New Park with Friends

It's always fun to watch toddler boys play together--they provide great entertainment for us adults.  I got to do this recently, and had such a fun time.   Luke and I met some friends, Sarah and Ford, at lunchtime this week for a play date at an AWESOME park. 

This is a super-cool three story playhouse, that is actually lit inside.

Once Luke discovered it, it was hard to keep him away from the inside of the playhouse.  He kept wanting to crawl up the narrow stairway, which was made for toddlers--not so much for adults.

This was just outside the playhouse--a musical instrument made of varying size metal lids.

Luke's friend, Ford, who is almost 14 months old.

Luke and Ford conquer the slide.

Luke liked going up and down the stairs.  I am trying to teach him how to go down the stairs safely (by holding on to the rail and watching his feet).  He likes to try to run down the stairs, not watching where his feet are going.  Unfortunately, Luke doesn't comprehend the word, careful, yet. 

Ford, on the other hand, is very cautious.  Good job, Ford.

I will say though, that over the past couple of days, Luke has been very careful going down the stairs.  Perhaps he learned from Ford.

Ford and Sarah

Toddler boys are just different than toddler girls.  When boys go to a park, some of their favorite things to do are to find rocks, leaves, and bugs, even with all of the awesome playground equipment.  Here is Ford discovering a cool leaf.

A quick picture on the stagecoach before we left.