Reading and Easter Eggs

My kids LOVE reading! When we make our Tuesday trips to the library we have story time (with songs and everything) and then we pick out books. We easily come home with 12 books, but have come home with as many as 20 books in one trip. I had to cut Reed off at 20. We come home, read all the books we checked out, and then read some of them twice. Throughout the week, both Reed and Eve look through and have me read them the books time and time again. It makes me so happy that they love books already!

Well, the other day (ok, this was mid-April), I found Reed and Eve like this:

Apparently, they think the children's books are a little too easy for them and went for the more mature books. Instead of getting mad that they pulled the books off the shelves, I watched them leaf through the pages and just smiled. Reading will hopefully play just as a big of a part in our family in a few years as it does now. We are off to a good start :)

April 23rd was a very fun day for us. We dyed Easter eggs! We had started on our little porch, but realized very quickly that it wouldn't work because little Eve hands just wanted to tip everything over! So, we moved inside to our table and things worked out much better. Our neighbor, Donna, came over, mostly because she loves our kids! She even brought some stickers to put on the eggs! It was a great adventure dyeing our Easter eggs with two toddlers :) 

Reed did a great job being careful with the eggs.

Eve just wanted to stick her hands in it.

Reed finally chose another color besides green and blue!

Retrieving the egg.

The finished product! If you notice, most of the eggs are a green-ish hue. Yes, this is thanks to Reed!

Preschool and Frying Pan Farm

Reed's first two preschool lessons in April turned out to be a blast! He learned about Easter and Zoos/Animals. He was so excited after each week! He really is loving all this learning/playing he is doing with his friends. :) 

Reed showing off his dyed Easter eggs.

The animals they made.

 Friday, April 15th we had a fun little playgroup at Frying Pan Farm! It was a pretty nice day and Reed and Eve LOVED loooking at all the baby animals. We also got a special treat: taking a wagon ride around the farm. This is by far, Reed's favorite thing - he loves wagons and being pulled by tractors. Here is a bit of our adventures at Frying Pan Farm:

Staring at the goats (It was cute - Eve had to squat to see, so Reed got on his knees to see what Eve was seeing)

Bunnies!

Piglets....it  must be comfortable to sleep that way?!

So happy that I am NOT a mother pig.

Hens and Roosters

I love this little face! She was so excited about the cows!

Watching the random geese that fly into the pasture.

The cow!

Eve trying to run like Reed.

Reed actually running.

The play tractor

Of course, Reed had to have a turn...

and another turn

3rd Time's the Charm

Yes, I am still updating April, so here it is!

The month of April was filled with lots of fun activities.

First and foremost, we had our 20-week ultrasound on Friday, April 1st! Baby looks strong and healthy (and they also noted that baby has long legs...always a bonus!) and is a little girl! Look out Reed, 2 little sisters to deal with - poor guy :) We are really excited that everything with the baby looks great developmentally! Yes, there is still just 1 baby (despite my dreams of having twins without me knowing). The only thing that is a potential risk is that my placenta was a little low. I actually get to go in for another ultrasound in a few weeks to make sure it has moved up. It is always exciting for me because then I get to see the baby bigger! I will keep the updates coming. 

The next fun activity came in stages - 3 stages, in fact - and that was the cherry blossoms. This year is was predicted that they would be in peak form just before April. So, the beginning of the Cherry Blossom festival was the last weekend in March. We decided to check out our favorite spot: Kenwood. Unfortunately, there was pretty much nothing there because a sudden cold fron hit. We did not even take one picture nor did we get out of our car. We drove by and shook our heads, then headed back home.

We tried again April 2nd and the result was better, but not fabulous:

This is how pictures turn out when Tyson doesn't warn me.

Still pretty flowers, just so many that still had not bloomed.

Eve still enjoyed herself.

Nothing spectacular (comparing from previous years)

Reed was also less than impressed.

If you look, the blossoms are not pink yet...which means they are still blooming.

I think this was the most bloomed tree we found.

The third stage came on April 7th, when I decided to take the kids and give it one last try. The result was much better than the first two. I guess the third time really is the charm :) Too bad Tyson couldn't be there to enjoy it with us.

See the pink?! So much prettier

Almost all the blossoms had bloomed, so that was a good sign.

Eve had a great time yet again. If only she would have looked up.

Much better

My camera died before I could get some really great pictures, but ah well. We ended up playing at the neighborhood playground for a while and then heading back home for lunch. It was a pretty productive day!

The Rest of March

I am a bit frustrated! Yesterday I spent a good deal of time updating the blog. I saved it, viewed it, and even looked at someone else's blog that is linked to mine (it said I had updated). Well, I got a message from Tyson saying that the blog was not updated. Weird, right? I looked on the blog and sure enough my post was not there. It was not saved in drafts or anywhere that I could see. Funny thing, though, on other people's blogs it still says that I updated my blog yesterday. So, apparently some sort of conspiracy is going on or something :) I will quickly recap the rest of March. It will not be as grand as what I did yesterday, but at least it's here. Hopefully, it does not get erased again. I am still baffled by that!

First - Tyson took the last week of March off work! Yahoo! We finally have some family time :)

March 28th - Kids had a pediatrician appointment. Reed (3-year check-up) weighs 32 pounds and is somehwere between 37 and 38 inches. Eve (15-month check-up) weighs 21 pounds 14 ounces, 31 1/4 inches (although Tyson said he squished her neck when they were measuring, so probably at 31 1/2 since she is still growing out of all her clothes really quickly), and I forget the head circumference, but it was in the 50%ile. Kids are healthy and happy and growing great. Phew :)

March 29th - We head out on our first overnight family trip to the Sweetest Place on Earth - Hershey, PA aka Derry Township. (We have lots of day trips to places, but never done a hotel with our little family. It actually turned out pretty nice). We arrived and as were going down the main street we saw the following:

Yep! The street lamp posts are covered with Hershey's kisses! It adds a nice touch to the little town.

Next we went to Zoo America which is a North American Zoo. It was actually a lot smaller than we thought it would be, but it was nice to just roam around not in a rush. The kids loved looking at all the exhibits and animals. Eve's favorite were definitely the fish or anything swimming. Reed loved the groundhogs, turtles, birds, and pretty much every animal. The zoo was pretty empty, so it was just awesome and relaxing to be there!

Then, we headed off to the Hershey's Factory (not the actual factory - no tours in there - haven't been for 40+ years) and got to ride in a little car. It showed you how they make their chocolate and there were lots of singing cows. Reed LOVED the cows. Eve did not love the cows - she just got really nervous and had to sit on my lap. She would tense up when she saw the singing cows. At the end of that tour, we got a piece of Hershey's chocolate and Reed was hooked! He wanted to go again - we saved that for day 2. We also saw this:

The Reese's racecar! Reed really wanted to drive it, but sadly, we had to say no.

 After leaving Chocolate World, we checked into the hotel, found some dinner, and then went back to "our new home" as Reed called it. He was in heaven! He thought it was the coolest thing to have a new home and sleep in a bed next to mommy and daddy. I was worried he would never go to sleep, but both Reed and Eve were soundly asleep at 8:45 p.m. Not bad for all the changes in sleeping scenery including the fact that we were all in the same room!

March 30th - Day 2 of our Hershey, PA trip. We went on the trolley tour that takes you around the city and tells you all about Milton Hershey. Let me just say that he is an amazing person, as is his wife. The coolest thing that I will bring up (I had all these life lessons pointed out yesterday, but don't have time to duplicate everything) is that they started a school for orphaned boys (at first) that has turned into an elementary, middle, and high school for 1900 underprivileged boys and girls. The Hershey trust pays for everything - room, board, clothes, and even can get the kids a huge grant for college as long as they meet certain requirements. I was simply blown away! What a fantastic idea and program!

Here are some of the things we saw:

This is the main hall of the school

We loved the ceiling!

We were on the trolley with a high school choir (ah the good 'ol days of choir) and they sang "Beautiful Savior." It sounded beautiful!

Hershey Homestead

We received many pieces of chocolate along the way and it was enjoyed by all! When we got back to the factory, Eve and I did a chocolate tasting class while Tyson and Reed  went on the singing cow ride about 4 more times in a row (the facotry was pretty empty that day). I learned a lot about how cocoa beans are transformed into various types of chocolate, why certain chocolate cooks longer, how to taste various aspect of the chocolate (you can taste certain hints of flowers, if the cocoa beans grow near flowers....and things like that) and got even more chocolate. I was pretty much chocolated out! I never thought I would say that, but it's true!

Well the time came to leave and so we took a final snap shot:

Reed did not want to join because he did not want to leave. Then, he saw a green trolley (green is his favorite color) and got excited because he thought we were going to do that again. Here is his reaction when he found out we were going to our own car:

 Yeah, pretty heart broken. But, he really did have a lot of fun! So, first overnight trip measures up to success in my book. We all had fun, relaxed, ate chocolate, and even learned some things along the way!

March 31st - Tyson still ate home! So, we decided to go to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) for a little tour of how they print and process money. It was pretty interesting to hear about it, but the best part was watching the actual workers sit there with stacks upon stacks of bills. They fold them, cut them, count them, bundle them, discard ones that are not printed correctly, and lots of other fun stuff inbetween.

We also measured ourselves in bills! Check it out:

We are all worth a lot in bills!

Incase you want to figure out how you are worth :)