Easter Sunday

AC and Goldilicious - Ready for Easter Service at Grace!

Playing with her Easter loot: trampoline, xylophone and Goldilicious!

I am so proud of us for making it to the early service at church, especially considering all the Easter fun we had this morning.

We had no intention of the Easter Bunny bringing Anna Claire anything as grand as a trampoline, but we found this one for the bargain price of $25 at a consignment sale several weeks ago. We agreed it was too nice a gift to just give for no reason, but her birthday isn't until June and that seemed too far away, so Easter it was!

The xylophone and Goldilicious were also consignment finds which we gave for the same reason. Two bucks each!

Our budding artist received her first box of 64 Crayola crayons with built-in sharpener, a new pack of washable markers, and some construction paper.

Anna Claire also got Easter candy classics like Peeps, a giant Hershey bar, and a dark chocolate bunny (she prefers dark and was that ever hard to find!) The Easter Bunny also brought her an Easter egg hunt. The eggs were filled with Annie's rabbit pretzels and crackers and Jelly Bellies.

Grand total spent on Easter Bunny goodies and gifts: $35.  :)

My Baby Can Read: First Grade Dolch Words

This is not an advertisement by any means, but I am sold on Your Baby Can Read. I'll tell anybody. It really works when you follow the program consistently. Anna Claire will be 4 in June, and we used the program with her from 6 months to 2 years.

The thing that I think many folks don't understand is that the program doesn't have to take up much extra time. Anna Claire watched the videos at mealtimes, and we read the books and cards with her before nap and bedtime - times when we already had a captive audience.

The other misconception I think people have is that they underestimate babies. People think babies just passively sit there drooling on themselves with nothing going on upstairs. They don't understand the "window of opportunity" open to babies and how their brains are sponges at this point, making many, many connections.

Please know, we are not flash cards-in-your-face-parents, though flash cards are a reinforcing tool you can use with the program. Anna Claire has not had flash cards in her face or watched any of the YBCR videos for over a year now, yet the sight words she is able to recognize seem to double each month.

I think this is due to the foundation Your Baby Can Read provides, but it is also due to reading with her very frequently, and at her request (we read at least 2-3 books on most given days). She loves to read!

Every other week, I take Anna Claire to the library and she and I pick 10-12 high interest books based on her current interests and the current seasons and events happening in her life. I also try to choose at least 1-2 books that I think she can read almost entirely herself. Larry and I also encourage her to read as many words as possible on her own in these books, by not supplying words that we know she knows, or are in word families of words she already knows.

I was looking over the First Grade Dolch Word list yesterday, and thought Anna Claire probably would know a lot of them. So just for the heck of it, I gave her the list.

 We only spent 5 minutes on the list, and it's low pressure. I'll say, "Hey Anna Claire, Mommy wants to play a word game with you. Read as many words on this page as you can. If you can read at least 10 of them (knowing she will read more than 10) you'll get a special treat."

 I'm convinced she knows more, but I never push her. When she's done, I'm done. She gets her candy, and I'm a proud Mommy. Win-win!

The circled words are words are words she was able to read. If she attempted the word and missed, I noted the miscue above the Dolch word.

I love her miscues, like "handsome" for "some" and "difficult" for "could." We're not sure if she thought it was the word "difficult" or that it was hard to read. ;)

Most of her miscues made a whole lot of sense, like "where" for "were," "but" for "put," and "bow" for "how."

I looked at the second and third grade word lists and am thinking she'll know as many of those. The word lists can be found here.

Easter Traditions

Dying Eggs
With so many ideas at our fingertips with Pinterest and on the internet, we are finding so many neat ways to make Easter exciting and special for Anna Claire.

But yesterday, we yielded to tradition and dyed Easter eggs. It was super fun! Anna Claire loved coloring the eggs with her crayons and seeing the eggs come out of the dye in different colors.

I was a little apprehensive about using brown organic eggs, wondering how they'd take color, but they turned out great!

Waiting is always the hard part.

How I love this sweet smile!

I should have taken a picture of the other side of the eggs with her designs. Man!

~Voila~ Thanks to my friend Mary for the idea to make eggs with all of our names and the year. We made eggs for the kitties too. :)

Magic Beans
Another tradition we began this year, was planting jelly beans on Easter Eve, and seeing them bloom into lollipops Easter morning. I figure we can do this for a couple more years and still get the "wow" factor. ;) She was amazed this morning and couldn't wait to see!

Digging the holes

Then planting the jelly beans...

"Wow! Wook! They did make wowipops!"

Bunny tracks
At our house, the Easter Bunny leaves several indicators that he's been to our house. Of course he brings sweet girl an Easter basket, but he also leaves the window open, and bunny tracks! We did it last year and it was such a hit, we knew we'd repeat it until it becomes unbelievable to her. The tracks are made using "Easter dust" (also known as flour) and a template made out of a file folder.

The Easter Bunny also decorates the room and leaves an Easter egg hunt in our family room so the Easter fun can continue.

Bunny tracks!

Eggstravaganzoo 2013

Meeting the Easter Bunny after Bunny Breakfast :)

 

 

I was so excited at the beginning of this month to receive the email from the zoo about their Easter events. I booked the "Bunny Breakfast" on the spot, and couldn't wait to take Anna Claire for some zoo-themed Easter fun. In most respects, the "Eggstravaganzoo" did not disappoint. In others, we were disappointed and will likely plan differently for next year (we forgot our umbrella and they were out of pancakes by the 9:30 breakfast, so no pancake bar for us).

 

 

 

 

We call this her "What you talkin' bout Willis?" face.

3 year old egg hunt at the zoo

After the hunt, kiddos took their eggs to redeem for a prize pack.

Brushing the goat at the petting zoo.

They had eggs like this one throughout each exhibit with food inside to entice the animals.

I promise this looks worse than what actually happened. She's just getting up, so don't have to worry about the poor goat.

Funny Things Anna Claire Said This Week

"Daddy, are you going to blow a secret?" (Daddy, are you going to smoke a cigarette?)

"Pop, me and Daddy toot sometimes. It's really funny."

"Mommy, can I have Stanley and Kitty's eggs since they don't have hands like us?" (She explained they can't peel the eggs since they don't have fingers.)

"This isn't a dress, Pop. The skirt isn't attached."

Well...the coast was clear!

I left AC  in the family room by herself about 2-3 minutes while I was getting her bath ready.

I walked in on Anna Claire with her mouth full of something and hiding an almost empty container of gummy worms.

I said, "Anna Claire Averitt, did you sneak all those gummy worms?" 

She replied, "Well...the coast was clear!"

Easter Egg Hunt at Red Barn

Everybody say "Happy Easter!"

On your mark, get set...

Go!

...and they're off!

With wind chill, it was 34 degrees out! Brrr!

"Look at how many I got, Mommy!"

Warming up and getting ready for lunch after the hunt!

Sweet baby chicks hatched this week. So exciting!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

The St. Patrick's Day parade in Erin has become a tradition for us. When Miss Krista, Anna Claire's teacher, invited us last year, we were so excited to have an event to help make this holiday fun and meaningful for her. Nothing really happens here in Clarksvegas for kids for St. Patty's.

The parade kicked off at 11:00, and Erin is about an hour drive for us, so that meant leaving the house at 10, and missing Saturday gymnastics. (not a worry- we can do a make-up class Tuesday).

When we got to Erin, we called Krista who let us know there was not really a choice of where to park. Police were directing parking, and directed us into a massive grassy parking area. We had to drive around and wait in traffic for a bit, but finally got creative and found a spot.

With no cash on hand, thinking a parade is a free event, we decided to be creative when walking Anna Claire by the carnival and food vendors. Besides, we go to a couple of free carnivals identical to this one during the spring and summer. I saw no need to blow big money and wait in long lines on something we will do in a few months for no cost and little wait. We reminded her that she wanted to see the whole parade and then go to Subway for lunch. This satisfied her, with her green bag in hand, ready to score some parade candy.

We finally got to our usual position in front of the courthouse by 10 after 11. There were so many more people at this year's parade. And lots of big kids. I moved us down a bit so Anna Claire would not be bullied by big kids like last year who took all her candy.

Or so I thought. The girls she sat near were about a year or two older than her, and they hoarded all the candy just as bad as the teenagers last year. I may have made a commit that I knew they would hear, and after that they started letting her get some and even giving her some of theirs. I think sometimes kids just don't think. They are just in their own little world.

The candy giving was pretty sparse compared to next year. So if a couple of cars drove by and Anna Claire didn't get candy, she would start to pout and whine. I just kept encouraging her to stay near the front and get in there. By the end of the parade, she was keeping up with the big kids getting candy.

She was super-excited to give a firefighter driving a fire engine a high five.

At the end of the parade we made our way back to the car, excited about our Subway sandwiches. Anna Claire matter-of-factly let us know she would have a ham and cheese with Lays potato chips and a chocolate milk. She LOVES Subway.

On the way back from Erin, Larry asked to stop at Hilltop market. We ended up finding the yummy bread they used to serve at Charlie's Steak House. He was so excited. Anna Claire also got a "special treat" for being a good girl. 

When we got home, I was really mad at myself for avoiding putting sunscreen around her eyes or not putting sunglasses on her. Sunburn all under her eyes! Poor baby!

Aside from the the sunburn, we had a great day with perfect weather. Nice time spent as a family.

Anna Claire's Going to be a Big Sister!

First ultrasound...so it begins!

 

 "I can share my toys with my baby!"

Anna Claire is excited to be a big sister, but also, as you might expect, needs occasional reassurance from us about how this will affect her world.

I'm afraid she really wants a little sister, so we have to remind her that we aren't sure yet. That it could be a girl or a boy. I will be anxious to see how she reacts regardless! 

I am very hopeful that we have an excellent big sister-in-training. Anna Claire has started asking to do many more things herself, from putting on her shoes, to unbuttoning her coat, to brushing her own teeth, to making her own sandwiches.  She has also become Mommy's little helper, happily getting anything I ask for, and bringing me blankets, snacks and pillows just to be sweet. What's been the best is that she is starting to clean up her messes herself.  

I am thinking 4 years apart is the perfect age difference!

 can share my toys with my baby!"