Big-Girl Bed

Claire and Molly had some major transitions last week. They moved into the same room together, and Claire moved out of her crib and into a bed. Claire's actually doing so much better than I expected! I thought it was going to be an all-night party in there, and constant fighting about staying in bed, but we've had hardly any problems. Molly actually has very little interest in playing once they go to bed, so Claire will try to harass her then give up after a little while. Molly also loves to tell on Claire, which is nice if Claire's getting out of bed, but not if she's telling on her for things like standing up in the bed. We finally had to have a talk that calling for mom was for emergencies only, nothing else. The most effective deterrent for Claire has been the threat of going back to the crib. She gets a chance or two to get out of bed, then it's back to her crib if she keeps doing it. I think she's only had to go back to the crib twice to realize it's not nearly as fun as the bed, so she's been staying in bed.


I snuck in the kid's room and got a picture of them sleeping. There is absolutely zero space in that room. The door doesn't fully open, and the nightstand (which is Claire's dresser) has to overlap the closet to get the door closed. Definitely not an attractive room, and it's horribly mismatched, but that's a worry for another day.

Easter

This year, with Chris working and General Conference, Easter was a little strange for us. The Easter dresses were a little bit of a waste this year since they had to wear them the week before Easter. Oh well, I can't ever complain about fancy new dresses!


The Monday before Easter we had an Easter-themed Family Home Evening. As I was getting ready to explain the Easter story to the kids, I happened to ask if either of them could tell me anything about it. Molly proceeded to regurgitate the entire Easter story, complete with death on the cross and resurrection. Not only was I impressed that she knew it, I was impressed that her attention span in primary was long enough to pick up all the details! Our activity that night was dyeing eggs. Luckily the kit came with stickers and crayons in addition to the dye because Claire had to have many dye "time-outs." She had to have her hands constantly in the dye, and I think at one point I caught her drinking it. We also went to the Easter Pageant at the temple that week, and Molly was totally mesmerized. Claire mostly entertained the people in the row behind us. The kids really were troopers though, considering the pageant didn't even start until an hour past bedtime. After the pageant we were able to get over to the Visitor's Center to catch up with Chris's old mission president, President White. He has just been called to be the Visitor's Center president.




Molly's preschool had an Easter party, and I had to take this picture because Gunner, the boy who is madly in love with Molly, is sitting just to the right of her. Last week he told Molly he was going to marry her. I told Molly to tell him to back off and wait a few years, and she stomped her foot and said "Yeah! I'm just a KID! I'm telling him that TOMORROW!"




Claire got to be involved in the Easter Egg hunt, too. My mother-in-law Kathy made the awesome skirts the girls are wearing. Molly decided to pair the skirt with the Puma's, not me.


Once again, Gunner sitting next to Molly. He and Claire actually had a little altercation over who would get to sit there, and Gunner obviously won.


Molly is definitely the tallest in her class. She just had a well check a couple of weeks ago and she is in the 90th percentile for height!

The Easter Bunny brought our baskets Saturday morning since Chris would be gone Sunday morning. Molly expressed quite a bit of concern about the Easter Bunny coming into the house, so we decided to leave the baskets outside the front door for him to fill so he wouldn't have to come in.


Molly took her eyes off her basket for a minute and Claire shoveled in as many jelly beans as she could before she got caught.


We spent Easter at my parent's. It was such a lazy day that the kids never got out of their jammies (neither did I, but that's pretty typical for me these days). But we definitely had some incredible food; my mom made cinnamon rolls and orange rolls for breakfast and my dad smoked ribs for dinner.


My poor dad trying to keep the kids occupied during conference.


The annual Easter Egg Hunt!

A Month of Birthday Celebrations

This year we didn't do a big birthday party for the girls so we had many mini-parties. The celebration kicked off with Claire's actual birthday. She got this door from Chris and I, which I know might be a little immature for her, but the kids adore it. Next up was Krispy Kreme, which has unfortunately become a birthday tradition, especially since we found out about the free dozen on your birthday. Then we made our way to the train park, where Claire ended up shoeless since somehow only one of her shoes made it into the car. We rounded out the day with cream-filled chocolate cupcakes.






Next up was a Sunday dinner celebration combined with Chris's mom. My sister-in-law Carlie made the kids cakes, which they loved. They got some great presents, especially the awesome tutus from my mother-in-law. For the record, I really dislike Sponge Bob but the only hats they had left at Walmart were Sponge Bob or Transformers so it was the best we could do.








The third party was combined with the kid's cousin Max, who also has a birthday in March. We started off at Chuck-E-Cheese then when back to Sarah's house for some cake and higher-quality pizza from Barro's instead of having to eat the cardboard served at Chuck-E-Cheese.






The last party of the month was Molly's birthday day. She got an easel for her birthday from us, and since it was a preschool day Chris picked up Krispy Kreme and brought it home instead of eating it there. I made some scrambled eggs to go with it so I could feel a little better about myself, but out of the four of us I was the only one who even touched mine. Oh well, I tried. After preschool we went to the Mesquite Groves pool in Chandler. I gave her a few different options of things we could do to celebrate her birthday, but as soon as I mentioned the pool she said "I've been DREAMING of going to that pool!" She didn't miss a beat from where her swimming left off last year; she was swimming like crazy and doing tricks off the diving board. For her birthday treat I made mini raspberry cheesecakes, which she told me she wanted when I showed her a picture of them. Unfortunately when it came time to eat them she scraped off the cheesecake part and just ate the crust.