The girls had a really nice Easter yesterday. We began the day with an Easter egg hunt at home in our backyard after the girls found their baskets and had breakfast. The Easter bunny left some fun little garden tools and toys for each of them. We had decorated the eggs on Saturday and they were both very excited about finding the eggs on Sunday. The first egg hunt of the day was conducted in pajamas. Then Cora, Olivia, and I left home to go to Roseville for the rest of the day. There we decorated more eggs with the family: Aunt Jenny, Uncle Steve, Devin, Sean, Breanna, Grandma Sandy, Grandpa Tim, Uncle Brad, Aunt Christine, Piercen, Cianna, Uncle Lance, and Aunt Barbara. The Easter bunny hid those eggs and the little kids went hunting. They had so much fun that the eggs were hid again, although their numbers dwindled some each time they were hid. The little kids even hid the eggs for the grownups to find. We had a very nice dinner and visit together. Here you can see Cora, Olivia, and Cianna enjoying some Easter eggs on the steps. And Cora found an egg with some help from Sean.
The girls had a very busy day, then we drove home in the rain that night. Today was a bright sunny beautiful day that was also full of activity outside. Cora went to preschool and Daddy picked her up on the bike. They rode around and went out to lunch together while Olivia and I had our own little bike ride to the park. I visited a nursery and returned with more trees and plants for the yard, and discovered a tent set up in the backyard and girls taking shelter within after having had a cold dip in the little kiddie pool. Andrew has been busy lately planting things about in the yard; we also visited a nursery last Saturday. Not to mention that Andrew has also been busy with his own little mini nursery, potting volunteer seedlings that come up in the yard and relocating them to desirable positions. Andrew has Spring break this week so we look forward to more playing out in the yard and hopefully more wonderful weather like today!
Here's a post by Cora, she has been missing family members off in Denmark. Since Aunt Cristina's truck is parked outside she thinks that Aunt CC has come to visit, only to be reminded that Aunt CC isn't here right now. So here's a message to Aunt CC, Dave, Uncle Marty, Aunt Ingrid, and Dana from Cora.
Olivia was having fun sneaking up on Daddy and playing while he tried to rest. She proceeded to climb all over him, sliding over him as if he were meant to be a play structure. Cora even joined in, as usually happens when one of them is doing something fun. In fact I'm often surprised at the power of competition among small children, especially siblings. If one of them is doing something, the other wants to also. If one of them has something, the other wants it also. It gets so extreme at times and it can be so frustrating! Cora can be doing so well with sharing and then all of a sudden, that all goes out the window and it's a free for all. Olivia can be surprisingly kind to her sister and willing to share, then other times she will grab and run away obviously aware of how much her sister wants the same item. Luckily when it comes to dealing with other children Cora is much better at sharing and more willing to be diplomatic.
So now I have also found that if I want the girls to do something and I know that they aren't going to want to do it, I just have to change the way I present it. Instead of, "It's time to get out of the bath," it's, "Who wants to be the first out of the bath?" Because no matter what it is, they usually both want to be first! If I ask the girls if they want a banana, they might or might not, they might even ignore me. But if I call out, "Who wants a banana?" then they both come running saying, "Me!" "Me!" If one of them wants something, then the other has to have it too.
Cora really loves to play with water, here she is playing in the kitchen sink, washing things. Of course, both the girls love to play in the water and do so whenever they get the chance. Cora can occupy herself for long periods of time if she's playing in the sink, pouring, filling, soaping, rinsing. If she has clothes on (this time that wasn't an issue) she gets herself all wet, as well as the chair she's standing on (usually my chair) and the surrounding floor. Whenever we go to Cora's preschool, Olivia will usually gravitate to the drinking fountain or the sink, both of which are kid sized, just right for Olivia. Olivia loves to wash her hands, and although Cora loves to play in the water, she doesn't much care to wash her hands. Olivia also loves to brush her teeth, anytime she's in the bathroom, she wants to brush her teeth. Olivia has also been doing great with potty training. She's been doing it all on her own, much like Cora did. If I simply leave her diaper off and her bottom bare, she almost always makes it to the little potty when she needs to go. Sometimes she lets me know that she needs to go and other times she just goes and does it on her own. If I put underwear on her, she will usually wet it, but otherwise she does great. She is already using much fewer diapers these days when we are at home, it will sure be great when we don't have to do diapers anymore!
As for our first day of spring, it was a rainy, cold day, although it started out sunny for a brief time. Rather disappointing considering the beautiful unusually warm weather we had been having before. The girls still had fun outside, playing in the garage. And now the yard has been thoroughly watered and I don't have to worry about that chore! Happy Spring!
We've been pretty busy around here for awhile. Last weekend, March 5th, we went down to Berkeley for Dana's second birthday party. We had such a great time, the weather was perfect, and the girls had a fantastic day. We rode the steam train at Tilden Park for the first time, at least it was a first for the girls and I, Andrew had ridden it before nearly 40 years ago. It was so much fun we did it twice! Cora & Olivia had a lot of fun running around & playing with Dana & Alma, as well as all the rest of the family. Later on we rode the carousel many times, Cora especially liked that and even picked out a favorite horse (a white one with a red rose on its mane). It was a very full, exciting day, followed by a long day outdoors at home on Sunday to round out the weekend.
The weather this past week has been very warm, as high as the upper 80's! It almost seems like our weather is trying to skip over spring and go right to summer. It's even been hot sometimes standing in the sun, so of course Cora & Olivia have been playing out in the yard with water and getting drenched! We've been working & planting in the yard and garden quite a bit this week and are hoping to have a very productive vegetable garden this year. The daffodils are blooming right now and the girls have been enjoying them a lot. Unfortunately both the girls have been sick the latter part of this week, but I'm hoping they will be over it soon. In the following pictures Olivia was doing jumping jacks on the bridge while Cora intently studied the daffodils.
Some Cora quotes:
"You can start treating me like a grown up now. Because I squeezed out ketchup for Mommy." Said at the dinner table March 1.
"Mommy! Please don't hear me! I want to sneak up on you!" March 9.
"Daddy, when will we die? When will we be too old to live anymore?" March 12, while watching a volcano program on the Tembora 1815 eruption. Cora was sick at the time with a fever around 101.
Spring sure seems to be on its way around here, daffodils are blooming, fruit trees are full of blossoms, and everything seems to be full of life. Cora is posing next to a daffodil that she planted all by herself, she even picked the location. If you look closely you can tell that she also planted a little area of grass in the same spot. All around our yard you can see evidence of Cora's grass seed plantings springing up, she had a lot of fun sprinkling seeds around.
The girls and I spent last weekend at Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Tim's house. You can see Olivia copying Uncle Lance (or was Uncle Lance copying Olivia?) while we were there. We had a lot of fun and saw lots of family while we were there. And I even had a day off to spend with a friend while Grandma watched the girls for me!
Today was Cora's first day at a real preschool, called CDL 2 (I keep forgetting what that stands for). I wish I had taken a before and after picture of her because you could tell by looking at her afterwards that she had a great time. Cora played with new friends, dressed up, played outside, jumped on a trampoline, had nutrition (otherwise known as snack), painted a rock (and the newpaper and herself), decorated and ate a cookie, played with great big earthworms, and sang some songs, among other things. She had such a great time that she didn't want to leave. The teachers, Kim, Sandy, Jaclyn, and Melissa, seem to do a great job with the children and things went very well.
