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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Amazing Grace

We have tried to teach Emma and Will songs that are not just silly "kids" music (both secular and Christian), and they continue to impress us with how quickly they learn. We sing some substantial songs before bed each night, and both Emma and Will have learned many hymns from just the repetition of singing them each night. In fact, they often prefer to sing these songs than the "typical" kids songs.

I think we (our culture and us personally) often assume that we have to dumb things down for kids and keep things silly or goofy just to keep kids interested. We sell them short and do them a disservice by not expecting more of them. I am thankful that God gives us so much grace, especially in our parenting! And I'm also thankful that he gives us sweet rewards, like hearing our kids praise him with their songs.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Adorable Will

We had some down time out the other day so I occupied Will by taking some pictures together. He got such a kick out of seeing us on the phone and trying to push the button to take the pictures himself.

The sequence in these photos is pretty funny. First, inquisitive...

then ready to try to take the picture himself...

then giddy with excitement that he was able to do it!

He's also our little car lover. Both he and Emma love the Cars themed shake and go cars, but it is really cute to see the different ways that Will plays with them. Often he ends up like this, off by himself making "vrrroooom" noises!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Time with friends

We got to hang out with the Thompsons for a few hours this past weekend. They were in Delaware for a few very busy days, but we spent Saturday morning visiting during a large community yard sale. The weather was beautiful; a cool spring morning that warmed up nicely. 

Emma, Will, and Kellen enjoyed chasing each other around and particularly blowing (and spilling!) bubbles.


This little container ended up mostly on Kellen :-)

Its been so great to see our kids still get so excited to see each other, even though the visits are often several months in between. Emma loves to love on Kellen.

And this visit he was much more willing to hold hands and let her hug him!

The funny part is that Kellen and Will are closer in age than Emma and Kellen, and they are turning into little trouble makers together....playing with the music...

and enjoying cookies together...

This is such a sweet picture! 

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tea Party

One of Emma's favorite toys is her tea set. It gets even more use now, though Will often plays a little differently than Emma!

The boy way to have a tea party:

And Emma's way:

They do a great job pretending to make and drink tea together. 

Playing pretend is so much fun!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Earrings

Emma recently got her first pair of stick-on earrings. Oh, how I remember these! We had so much fun with sticker earrings when we were little - I remember several Christmas celebrations with the 5 cousins comparing and changing earrings :-)

Needless to say, she was thrilled.


Ok, thrilled might be an understatement.

She kept wanting to feel them and couldn't wait to see the pictures of them on her ears.

And then the posing started...

What a grown-up girl!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Fun Lunch

Emma and Will enjoyed a special lunch the other day - just because! 

I put their different lunch foods in little silicone cupcake holders. I've been trying to get them more used to eating something other than PB&J everyday for lunch.

Emma was very excited and kept talking about "the cute little cups"!

She also finished her salami first. I was shocked; usually she does not do well with lunch meat! 

The menu was salami, hard boiled egg, cheese, craisins, apple, and crackers. Will was thrilled, and of course, his Craisins were gone first!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Emma said

"Mommy, I keep putting two fingers in my nose so I can't breathe!"

Friday, April 6, 2012

An Early Easter

Last weekend we went to Maryland to visit with our family. It was great to get to see (most) everyone.

Will and Oma having fun!

Emma helped Omi to snap green beans for dinner. And Will came over every few minutes to beg another green bean snack. These kids sure do love their veggies!

We went to the playground briefly on Saturday; the weather was a little odd, either bright sun and warm or cloudy and cool. Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in as we got to the playground.

Molly mostly kept her distance from Will. But she did let him pet her and play together some. He is (as Emma likes to tell everyone) "so obsessed with dogs".

And what's in the Easter baskets? New shake and go cars!

Nope, no one liked that at all.

Emma was thrilled to finally get Finn McMissile, and the two of them sat in the hall and played with the cars for a while. Somehow I managed to not get any pictures of Pap-Pap, likely because he was kept busy running the trains!

We went to church with Grandma on Palm Sunday, and Emma and Will had a blast with the easter eggs.

We spent a lot of time outside hunting eggs over and over, and the weather was beautiful.

A picture of me! 

Love Will's dimple.

So many eggs!

Taking a break...

So much fun!

Happy (early) Easter! He is risen!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Easter Egg Hunt!

Today we had a giant Easter egg hunt with the MOMS club. The weather was fantastic and we had a great time. They divided the ages at 2, which was nice because Will didn't get trampled by any overzealous big kids :-)

His egg hunt was first, and Emma did a great job pointing eggs out to him.

She even encouraged him to "pick the big ones"! He loved it, especially when he realized they had candy inside. "candy, candy?" and he just wanted to open them!

Thankfully, most of Will's eggs had things other than candy, so I set him up with an egg full of Goldfish crackers and he watched Emma get her eggs.


She did a great job running with all the big kids after the countdown!

And she counted her eggs (each child got 12) to make sure that she had the right amount.

 Super fun, and we couldn't have asked for better weather!

We had a nice pizza lunch with our playgroup after the eggs were all gathered. Fun, fun morning!