He is Risen!

He is Risen, Indeed! Yesterday Chris set up church, mom and Chris took the girls to the park, and we dyed eggs. Here are some fun pictures of the egg dying that we did. We only had a dozen hard boiled eggs to dye, but that was about the girls attention span so it worked out well. A didn't quite understand that she wasn't supposed to put her fingers in the dye and ended up with multi-colored fingers, which she didn't want.

This morning the Easter Bunny came and hid the colored eggs and some filled with jelly beans! The girls had a couple of Easter baskets (bags since NJ has to take hers on the plane) left for them with a great moniker, "Something you want, Something you need. Something to wear, something to read!"  So each got some bubbles (want), some clothes (need/wear), and a Dr. Seuss book (read). They had a fun time finding the eggs, but were rather done with it after about ten minutes. After the egg hunt we went to church. We helped clean up church, we had lunch and an afternoon nap. :) Here are some pictures from the egg hunt and some on the porch this afternoon.My niece was a bit more cooperative in the picture taking department, so consequently there are a few more of her on this page than A.

Good Friday

Since we got Friday off of work, my mom, my niece, NJ, A and I went to the Biltmore. There were supposed to be blooms everywhere, but as we got close to a foot of snow early in the week (Monday through Wednesday it snowed! :)) I wasn't super surprised that we didn't have flowers to see.

We only went through the lower half of the house, but got to see the swimming pool, bowling lanes and servants' quarters. It was about the attention span of the little girls, so it was a good choice for us. We did manage to play on the grounds a fair amount. We got ice cream in the ice cream parlor and then rolled in the grass, played behind trees, etc just on the grounds. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

The girls got the typical, "You are such a big help for your mom and little sister!" comments to NJ. She would then correct them and say, "She isn't my baby sister. She's my baby cousin!" You can see that they ran and ran and ran! They also went up and down the stairs.

After the Biltmore we went to Build-A-Bear. It was a blast for the girls. NJ picked out a pink kitten and wanted it to meow. A picked out a puppy and wanted it to play Star Wars. We tried very hard to get her to put something else in her puppy, but she would have none of it. She clapped and giggled each time the Star Wars Theme was played. Who knew we had a John Williams fan on our hands? I will try and post some pictures soon of that, but they are on my phone instead of the camera memory card. The best part was driving home we got to see snow, some pretty parts of the Parkway, and the girls CRASHED. I mean they were talking, chattering, giggling and then utter and complete silence. It was quite entertaining for mom and me.

Chris had to work on Friday as he stayed home Wednesday with A, who had been throwing up. She managed to get over the bug fairly quickly as all she did was projectile vomit for about 12 hours. She never ran a temp or anything, just wouldn't/couldn't eat.

A, Ant Hunter Extraordinaire

We have been having the huge black ants that are seeking new colonies in our bathroom lately. Why our bathroom we aren't sure, but that's where they are coming from. They love our tub and the walls of the house. Anytime we put A on the toilet (since she is at about 80% proficient at saying she has to go before she wets her diaper/training pants) she seems to find a handful. We will see none, but she pops up with, "Uh-Oh" which means she spots one moving somewhere. She will also find them and squash them, take them to Chris, and hand them to him so that he can throw them down the toilet or in the trash. She will tell him which one it needs to be. We've discovered that caffeine and ants don't mix well. We also know that squashing them is supposed to leave a pheromone that indicates "don't come this way" to following ants. However, the best way is to vacuum the ants up, as apparently the whole "missing pheromone" indicates more trouble than a dead ant.

This past week was pretty good. Chris got back into the swing of school. His labs went well and he managed to get some stuff done on the equipment at church. I got a lot of stuff done, moved offices (if you can call my new place an office, let's suffice it to say it feels enough like a demotion that I should be looking for a different job), reviewed a few dozen documents for chemistry, had a few meetings, so a basic week.

A had a very exciting week at daycare. She managed to only wet her diaper once, that is including naps and playing outside. Since the weather the beginning of last week was gorgeous they played outside a lot. She apparently likes to climb and will occasionally get "stuck" about a foot off of the ground. She climbs much higher than that here at home and can get down with no problems, so I think she is playing the teacher.

March Madness has brought a lot of excitement here. Both Chris and I are in work brackets, so we'll see who wins. I wasn't doing so badly as of Friday, but that was before Georgetown and Gonzaga lost. I was seriously thinking about going upset crazy, but thought better of it. Who knew that it would be the order of the dance this year? I think both Chris and I are good Big 12 fans and have KU winning it all. A isn't sure what's going on since we are watching basketball over letting her watch Veggietales. She falls asleep to the basketball, but not really to the VeggieTales. She really really likes VeggieTales, so she will sit and hum the theme song for us as we watch our basketball. Since we really only turn the TV on for sports or weather updates I suppose she'll just have to learn. :) I hope your brackets are going well.

St. Pat's Day

Well, we had a fairly boring week. My really good friend from high school, Mel, came and visited us Friday evening to Saturday morning. We cooked, did a bit of exploring at grandfather mountain and went to breakfast before she had to go. She is now in Raleigh on an accreditation board for a small christian school in the Raleigh area. It was fun and very windy up on the mountain! The bridge was definitely "singing" and it was windy enough that it made me a little sick to walk across it from the constant small motion.

Today though has been very low key. Chris had some technical difficulties at church he had to figure out so we were super late getting back this afternoon. Then A and I took a much needed nap. We also went to Lowes to look for green things to plant -- we are going to attempt a garden this summer and are trying to get an idea of how to get it all started. We will apparently have to start with seeds for the vegetables we are wanting, so hopefully they will germinate well. We also have minimal space that is full sun, so we're trying to figure out that conundrum.

Now we are supposedly ready for a new week. With Chris taking the past Thursday/Friday off (since it was Spring Break) it will be a "back in the swing of things" week or two before the Easter break and then the semester ends.

One of the many things we are getting help with these days is dishes. A loves to play in the bubbles and will even rinse a few dishes if she's being attentive. Here is a fun picture of the two of them working to get the dishes done. :)

NC Zoo

Sunday we went to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. It was a bit of a trek for us, but we got to see Chris's brother there. He had flown to visit a friend in Greenville, NC and that was about as in the middle as we would be able to get. We decided driving to see him at the zoo would be better than driving to see him in OK. We had a nice day and overall the zoo was nice. It was just a bit difficult to not compare it to Brookfield. Not that Brookfield was perfect, but over the years it became familiar. The one thing about the NC Zoo is it is VAST. It is in the middle of nowhere in the middle of what was once a tobacco plantation I imagine. They have acres upon acres for enclosures. They also intermingle animals that would co-exist in the wild, for example, rhinos and impala or giraffes, zebras and ostriches. Often the enclosures were so large you could come fairly close to the animals at about a dozen different spots along the rails.

Here are a few pictures of A with her uncle and us around the zoo.

Biltmore in March

Since we weren't super busy last weekend we went to Asheville to see the Biltmore. There weren't a lot of people there so it was nice. We got to take a winery tour and see the 1913 touring car for the Vanderbilt family. It was pretty cool. We also went to the farm and A got to see chickens, horses and goats. As always she wanted to watch a bit before diving off and petting the animals, and eventually she tried to chase the chickens a little. The animals are used to being caught and petted, so it wasn't that big of a deal. It snowed most of the weekend, though none of it really stuck. This weekend looks like it will be a good one and we are planning a zoo visit. Chris's brother is coming to visit someone in NC and we are meeting them at the NC Zoo. It looks like a cool place, but we'll see if it compares with Brookfield.

Veggietales

For a long time veggietales has been a favorite of A's. She claims the theme song is her favorite song and will at least bounce along to it. Tonight the local Chic-fil-a hosted a preview of the new movie, so of course we all treked down to see it and for the door prizes. A got a front row seat with her friend from church. Her friend shared her popcorn. A kept fairly good attention on the movie, but was quite unsure of the cow walking around the room. This veggietales has a great variety of fairy tale parodies and hopefully it will replace the Saint Nicholas one from Christmas (which she will watch ad nauseum).

This week at work was crazy for both Chris and me. The weather has been wild and most days this week we have had interesting weather. A and I have made it up and down the mountain without problems.