Easter Morning

The Easter Bunny brought Ella a Cinderella doll and Katie a Sleeping Beauty doll, some new pj's, a chocolate bunny, of course, and a bunch of candy-filled Easter eggs.

The girls showing off their new dolls (sorry, not a very good photo).
Checking out all the candy... Katie is the one yawning. She's my morning sleepy-head (but she's also the one that has a harder time falling asleep at night!).
Ella trying her chocolate Easter bunny.
Katie taking a bite...
"Hey! This is HARD TO EAT!"

Hunting Easter Eggs

Our neighborhood is so awesome... remember the Halloween parade in October? Well, they also have an Easter Egg Hunt. Here are a few snapshots of the festivities...

Ella (in blue/purple) and Katie waiting patiently for the big event.
Katie checking out all the eggs on the beach.
You can't really tell from this photo, but the beach is FULL of Easter Eggs (if you look closely you can see little dots of color EVERYWHERE -- those are the eggs!). We were told they put out 600 eggs for the little ones to "find".
And, they're OFF!
Katie making a mad dash to fill her basket.
There's MORE!

Katie's basket is full of a variety of colored Easter Eggs. (Notice the great fake smile she has? But, she forgets to look at the camera!)Ella, you'll notice, has only BLUE Easter Eggs! We were so surprised at the end of the hunt when we looked in her basket and saw ONLY blue eggs. We didn't notice that she was only picking up the blue ones, but apparently she was ignoring all but blue. That child LOVES blue! (I like the other kid in the photo eyeing her basket!)
Going home to enjoy our Easter treats.
We all got a lollipop from the Easter Bunny. This is one time that Ella doesn't like blue. She tried the blue sucker, but went back for a pink one. Mom got the leftovers.

Showing each other our colored tongues.
Now showing DaDa.

The Subtleties of Language

Okay, I don't have the Easter photos up yet (hopefully, will get to that within a few days), but wanted to jot this down while I was thinking of it...

The other night I was singing a bedtime song to Ella and I had already brushed my teeth and had on my retainer. Ella asked me, "Mommy, what that thing called in your mouth?"

"That's a retainer."

"Oh", she said. "Mommy, you sing beautifully with your... um... 'tainer' on."

I said, "Thank you, Honey" (very emphatically) and continued to sing.

A few seconds later she said, "But not VERY beautifully."

I guess she didn't want to give me the wrong impression...

Meeting the Easter Bunny

I took the girls to the mall today to see the Easter Bunny. They decided this wasn't the REAL Easter Bunny because "...there was a girl in there and the Easter bunny is a boy!" Tonight when Bill asked them what the Easter Bunny said to them, Ella said, "arrrrgh! You're big girls!" --which is EXACTLY what the Easter Bunny said as she was picking them up and putting them on her lap!

Ella is in yellow; Katie's in pink.

The Nature Center

The girls go to this little class called "Little Acorns" at the Nature Center near our home. This week, they learned about eggs and things that come from eggs. A friend of Katie & Ella's from school, Anna Yuki, joined them at the Nature Center this week.

Ella, Katie (looking a little distracted already), and Anna Yuki
It appears that we're starting to loose Ella now...
Now, it's Anna Yuki's turn to be distracted by Katie's name tag.
Ms. Betsy is leading the girls in a song about birds... they are supposed to be eggs now.
Out pop their little heads...
Now their tails...
Grow some wings and off they fly...
Now they are returning home to their nest...

Now for the nature walk... Ms Terumi (Ana's mom) is showing the girls the frog eggs in the little pond.
Ms. Betsy showing the girls some animals who come from eggs.
After class, the girls get a chance to play dress up. This is Ella as a beautiful blue butterfly.
Katie dressed up as a yellow butterfly.

Mmmmm, Lickin' the Spoon

Mmmmm, remember when you were a kid and what fun it was to lick the spoon after mom just made a chocolate cake? Well, if not, this should jog your memory...

That's Ella on the left and Katie sticking her tongue out (yes, she's naked! and so is Ella from the bottom down!).... "Oh, this is DELICIOUS, Mommy!"

Ella coveting Katie's whipped-cream-covered-spoon.
Ella has hers now too...

Mmmmmm... these are happy, happy girls...

Ella's Very Own Mardi Gras Parade

Bill and I heard Ella in the bedroom hollering, "Throw me somethin', Mister!" and when we went to check, this is what we saw... Ella on the top of the toy shelf (actually, their old changing table) with her baby doll, pretending to be at a Mardi Gras parade. She had her baby in her "ladder" and she was behind helping catch...

"Put your hands up, Baby, and say, 'throw me somethin'!"
Oops... missed!
Baby's got her ball, now throw me somethin' else!

Peek-a-Boo

Ella playing peek-a-boo with the camera

Happy Birthday to Mommy!

I'm a little behind again... this is from my birthday in Feb. Bill took the girls to pick out a BEAUTIFUL and DELICIOUS (Baskin Robbins - our FAV!) cake for my birthday. Below, they are trying to sing Happy Birthday to me, but they kept getting tickled, as you can see from the adorable smiles on their faces.

Ella (in the tulip shirt) and Katie (lady bug shirt) attempting to sing Happy Birthday to Mommy. (Mom sporting a new hair cut -- not as cute as my LA look, but I guess it'll do -- I'm not flying back to LA anytime soon -- boo hoo! I miss Kristen!!)Taking a deeeeeeeeep breeeaaattthhh... trying to give Ella time to help me blow....

There she goes... everyone helping Mom blow out the candles. Oh my, I'm feeling every bit of... er... cough, cough...