Time to play catch-up

...catch-up on our sleep that is!
(For me, anyways!)

Friday:
We hit up Earth Fair in the afternoon and the School Carnival at night

The school carnival is a huge undertaking, and this being our first time, we were impressed at the amount of activities, games, food and entertainment that went into it. It was fun hanging out at the school and getting to know some of Kayla's classmates and their parents.  Girls would scream each other's names, and run up and hug each other in the hall and take off running this way and that; we were mere pawns in her hectic social life only hoping to keep up. Khloe even got a few shout-outs from her "friends" too. 

Honestly Aaron was so excited I thought he would implode (apparently he's a HUGE fan of carnivals! Who knew?) - cake walks, a DJ, pizza, raffles, he loved it all. However, Aaron left disappointed because he didn't win the raffle basket he wanted, but thankfully Kayla didn't win the bunny (Yes, a real bunny).

Saturday:
It was back to swim lessons and back to Earth Fair again

These girls made pledges for the Earth Promise Tree to recycle more and to not litter

 Yours truly spreading words of wisdom about the earth :)

Sunday:
The girls saw Shrek The Musical, put on by the students at the high school Performing Arts Center

Christmas

Well, not quite Christmas, but close. Getting a bin full of "new" clothes from your cousin in April is almost like Christmas! Thanks Cassidy for sharing your clothes with Khloe! She loves every bit of them, and she's had every piece on at least once already! We're especially grateful for the warm spring jacket- that arrived just in time!

This one especially is her favorite. She asks to wear it day and night. 

 Now Mom, let me take a pretty picture. 

Oh! So pretty Khloe!

 More 'pretty' poses.

What a goof!

He has risen!

HE HAS RISEN INDEED!

Found this note written by Kayla on her easel in the playroom. Made my day.

Aaron and Kayla continued their tradition, since Kayla was 3 years old, that Kayla requests her Daddy sleep with her all night on Easter Eve. She said, "I"m so happy to be able to cuddle with my Daddy all night!" Such a sweetie! How can Daddy say 'no' to that? He doesn't!

Easter baskets,

and showing off Easter basket goodies

 This followed up by an extra powerful, energetic church service,
followed up by an Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa A's home

 Woohoo Khloe! More eggs this time! Gettin' the hang of it!

This is how you might feel if you had three consecutive family weekend days filled with fresh air, sunshine, multiple Easter egg hunts, no naps, friend play dates, birthday gift opening, way too much candy, no naps, egg dyeing, (Did I mention NO NAPS?), and so much more. 

You're so exhausted baby girl! It'll be early bedtime for you tonight, and tomorrow we'll look forward to going back to our slower routine. It was a berry good birthday week so full of love and fun!

Hello, three

We were looking forward to today! So much fun packed into one day! And finally, today you're three! It won't happen that your birthday always falls on Easter weekend, but everything we did today felt like a fun celebration of your birthday. 

First on the agenda at the crack of dawn, birthday presents!
You got a Hello Kitty piano book, Lalaloopsy doll, and two outfits with matching outfits for your American Girl doll.

 "Are there more birthday presents?"

 Your new outfit made you so happy!

Next up, a birthday swim lesson.

Third on the agenda - and all before noon - a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt!

 Such fun neighborhood friends! These girls are such a great group of VERY nice girls. Lexie, the bunny in the back, was our hostess.

Wish every birthday could be celebrated by finding colorful plastic eggs filled with candy! 

Actually, now that I think about it, this might be confusing if your birthday does not always include a neighborhood Easter party with friends.

 Khloe cracked everyone up with her egg "hunting". She mostly passed up ALL the eggs. Look Khloe, over there, get those eggs! She'd run past 15 of them to get to the furthest one. It made no sense! The front yard was the "easy" eggs spread out across the lawn and the back and side yards were the tricky ones for the bigger kids. At the very end, older girls were helping her by picking up eggs and putting them in her basket and she'd pick it right back up and put it down. Haha! She even passed some if "they had dirt on them". (Since when is she afraid of a little dirt? This coming from the girl that sticks out her hand and asks to hold a dead fly or ladybug we might find in the house). 

The first moment an egg fell apart in her basket and she saw there was CANDY inside, she was ready to sit down on the spot but I somehow convinced her to pick up at least a few more before she quit. In the end, out of hundreds of eggs, I think she ended up with probably 6 eggs. 

Score! Not so with Sotoria and Kayla!

 Sortin' the candy

All that snow from a few days prior? Gone!

After the egg hunt and four hours later of hanging out with neighbors on a hot sunny deck, we headed home to color eggs, but surprise! Kristi came home! She was definitely more excited to color eggs than the girls. She took it VERY seriously.

 Dyeing eggs is the PERFECT activity for a two year old... er three year old... because there is INSTANT gratification. Drop in white egg, seconds later retrieve a colored egg! Voila! This kept my busy-body's attention for 10 WHOLE minutes!

 Meanwhile these two were at it until all four dozen eggs were done. 

 Khloe's masterpieces

And even after the six and under crowd had finished their eggs and moved on... there was still one very serious egg-dye-r still at it... and very happy too!

And finally, a final birthday surprise treat from Daddy.

 Good job decorating these in secret Kayla and Daddy! You did a good job together! What a cute surprise for all of us! I love them!

(By the way, if you haven't had a Twinkie in like 25 years and the last thing you remember about them is that they were soooo much fun to eat and tasted soooo good... that's a product of being 13 and its all in your head. Take it from us, it was a HUGE let down. I know, it shocked us too. They don't taste good at all. I'll save you the calories and money. Don't waste your time.)

However, Twinkies make cute birthday minion treats for our little minion!

Happy birthday sweet angel! We always said you'd be surprised to turn three today since you thought you were already five. But it seems you grew up so much in just one day. We love you SO much!