Getting Ready for Easter

I forget how much I really love Spring! In addition to weather being nice, there are just lots of fun things to do this time of year. We "remodeled" our back deck by adding two bright green adirondack chairs and a rug. It makes for a great place to hang out with the boys knowing they are completely contained and can't really make a mess that can't easily be cleaned up. I also had a chance to go buy flowers and have planted 5 big pots of flowers on the porch. I love gardening so this was actually a treat, not work. So far the plants have survived one hard overnight freeze, two toddlers, and two cats who like to munch on live greenery. Anyway - now I actually look forward to the time between arriving home and bedtime when we can hang out on our deck. The next addition will be to rearrange the downstairs patio to incorporate our copper fire pit. We're hoping to be able to roast marshmallows and hot dogs in the evenings.

Other fun things we've been doing include flying lots of kites (I actually found great ones for kids at Target and even Luke can fly it by himself), riding bikes, visiting the ducks and chicks at the farm store, and dyeing Easter eggs with Caitlin. Here are just a few pics:

Every year Tractor Supply celebrates "Chick Days" and has troughs of baby chicks, ducks, and sometimes bunnies. I'm sure the actual intent is for farmers to purchase them, be we always make a visit just to play and then usually end up leaving with a few overpriced, but highly durable steel tractor toys as well.

Grayson actually wanted to hold the ducks by himself this year. He did pretty well!

This, however, is about as close as Luke wanted to get!

Steve is helping Jeremy install chair rail in the new nursery for the soon-to-arrive baby Eli across the street. So to keep the kids out of the construction zone, Kellie and I decided to dye some eggs with the kids at our place. Personally, I thought that given we were using dye with a 1, 2, and 3 year old, it all came out pretty well.

Not bad for toddlers with only limited assistance from their mommies!