Easter 2011

Easter has now come and gone.

It was a good one - dare I say even perfect?

I caught some little bunnies in the woods...

Sunday morning, I even made sure we all coordinated.

It almost felt like family picture day or something.

But it was fun - and truth be told, I coordinate what my girl and I wear to church pretty much every week. I'm kinda weird like that.

Obviously I did a little photo sesh with the kids. I made them wear bunny ears and encouraged them to run through sunny trails at the park (it didn't take much encouraging - they love being outside! Even in a dress and a tie!). I just couldn't resist. I haven't decided if someday they'll hate me for all the photos I take of them, or love me for capturing them so often. Time will tell...in the meantime, I love it!

Below, you will find some photos of what our real Easter Egg Hunt was like. The kids ditched the bunny ears mid-way through the hunt, and so as not to loose them, I wore a pair and made Jacob wear some, too. (as you can imagine, he loved wearing them - what a good sport!).

The kids went bonkers over the candy.

We never have candy at home (only ice-cream :)

and really it was aspen's first taste - see her little cheeks stuffed full of jelly beans?

mmm hmm.

Saturday was seriously AMAZING. 78 degrees. Sunny.

HEAVENLY! We SO needed that vitamin D!!!

Jacob had to work a bit in the morning, and then we went to an Easter Egg Hunt with some friends.

We spend the afternoon hiking with the kids (good thing we have TWO backpacks!) and playing at the beach, searching in the tidepools at Discovery Park as it was low tide.

Jacob was going to try to sneak away and get me flowers for Easter. It's hard to be sneaky when you only have one car. In the end, I told him I would rather go have a burger after our lovely hike than flowers. I know, I'm weird like that. And lucky for me, I get flowers often enough that I figured I could live without them this Easter. He just laughed at me, and we took the kidlets to Red Robin. They love it there! I ordered the same thing I always order (whiskey river bbq burger). It hit the spot.

I thought, "this is one of the best days of my life."

I haven't thought that in a while.

I am SO happy that I am feeling better, more like my usual self.

Seriously, can't describe how happy I am to be feeling better.

And Easter?

A blessed day. Of course we found some surprises in our Easter baskets this morning, but I tried really hard not to go overboard. In fact, I had the idea that maybe next year we will start a tradition of doing the Easter baskets all on Saturday so we can focus a little more clearly on Sunday.

It's hard to explain why we celebrate Easter to a 1 year old and a 2 year old. We talked with Sawyer about it. The best I could do in a simple way, was to tell him that Jesus died, and went away. And that later, he came back. And his friends were sooo happy to see him. And it was a special gift - for all of us. Now, Sawyer knows that Jesus is our friend, so after some thought, he said "is he going to come to our townhouse to see us too because we are his friends?"

I just smiled and told him, "maybe someday, but not today."

and he said, "I am happy!"

Oh, children. Bless their sweet, innocent, ever-faithful souls.

I hope your Easter weekend was something spectacular in it's own way. Something fun, and something to remember.

A girl and her pearls...

For Aspen's birthday, one of her little friends gave her a trio of lovely "pearls". At first, she wasn't very interested in the jewelry. Now, however, she is quite obsessed.

I love this girl so so much!

3 cheers for Nature School!

I've been meaning to write something about our Nature School for quite sometime...so here is a little about our special school.

You might call it "outdoor school" everyday.

or

"field trips" every single day.

because

if you go to Nature School, you do not sit in a classroom, or hang up your coat, or stash your backpack in a cubby. Nope.

At Nature School...We get OUTSIDE, exploring our Natural World, every single day of school!

My friend, Sara Egbert is an a-mazing lady (Mommy extraordinaire not to mention a background in horticulture). Earlier this year, she single-handedly opened Nature School. She plans lessons, projects, songs, stories, art activities - the list goes on - basically, a whole curriculum for pre-schoolers (and their siblings and parents) to learn in, of, and all about our beautiful earth.

A few weeks ago, some of the parents got together with Sara, and sewed these cute little "Nature Backpacks" Later, Sara and I got together and made a plan to freezer-paper-stencil each child's name on their backpack, and then we cut out all sorts of different things found in nature (bugs, trees, flowers, etc.) and each child chose one or two and we then appliqued them to each backpack. They turned out cute ;) But the really fun part, is what is inside!

Sara ordered a bug net, some mini magnifying glasses, and magnifying specimen boxes (for bugs or plants) to put in each child's bag.

Watch out, Aspen! This morning...

Sawyer tested his bug net out on his little sister...

Rain or shine, our little class meets weekly (soon to be twice a week) in a different location - anywhere from city parks, to beaches, to gardens, to the zoo. Sara has been so pro-active about her students, providing amazing opportunities for the kids to experience things like...visiting a kind citizen's backyard in Magnolia where they got to observe - through a huge telescope - the Great Blue Heron's building over 40 nests, guided tours from local non-profit volunteer organizations about local habitats, growing our own seeds, and even some education on campus at the University of Washington. She even arranged - and the city agreed - to give our kids a 10x10 plot of land in one of the city's community p-patch gardens, to tend and cultivate and learn to grow our own little garden.

My plan this morning was actually to take a few photos of our class enjoying the Botanical Gardens this morning...but of course wouldn't you know it after I lugged my big ole' camera all the way to Bellevue...my battery was dead when we got there. So...more photos to come :) Maybe we'll get some of them working in the new garden (time to pull weeds and prep!)

Nature school is all about getting DIRTY, MUDDY, and WET. But as Spring approaches, we are excited to shed our raincoats and wellies to enjoy the earth as she warms right up into summer. Nature school is year-round and much of what we learn about is inspired directly by the natural changes occuring in the world around us...falling leaves, buds, blossoms. blooms, beaches, rocks, bugs, little animals - and everything that goes along with our senses - colors, sights, sounds, smells, even taste - it is just so wonderful. Seriously, I cannot say enough good things about this marvelous little school. I feel so lucky we get to be a part of it.

Our wonderful teacher was also recently invited, along with her family, to some special meetings taking place...I am uncertain of the details but I think the gist of it is that people have been saying wonderful things about Nature School and there is talk of working with Sara to model this school so that other people in other neighborhoods can enjoy what we do having such a wonderful school for our children.

A special thanks to Sara, for all the time, effort, and heart that she puts into Nature School. We *HEART* you, Sara!

ps-If you would like to view a wonderful documentary which takes an honest look at some of the consequences of a childhood removed largely from the natural world in place of "today's world" which is hugely virtual...take a look at Play Again. Sara and her family let us borrow it, and there was recently a screening of it at our flagship REI store. I highly recommend it!