Recap of April-May Happenings

Easter seems like so long ago and yet I have no posted pics to show for it.....until now.

Our Easter was actually great except for a little bloody finger issue with  Maddie, who thought a crayon sharpener was for fingers also.  We weathered through a tornado near our house, and the kids learned to take shelter.  We had a beach trip and several parties.  And even met some new friends.   I'll let the pics and captions do the talking:

Here, after the bloody finger incident, Maddie finally returns to the decorating table to sprinkle crayon shavings over a still-warm boiled egg.  The egg turned out great, Maddie learned that not all Easter eggs are plastic and Dora band-aids saved the finger.

Maddie dyeing an egg for the first time....she loved it!

"Hey, there's a basket in the planter."

Maddie helping Mason find his Easter basket.

On Easter day, we went to my family's annual Easter Egg Hunt at Great-Grandma's house.
Here, Mason sees how many balls he can carry.  He is such a boy!  

This was the first year Mason really "got it" and he had fun finding all the eggs, but there's some heavy competition now -- four great grandkids and counting....

All the great grandkids (Maddie, Brendan, Mason and little Noah).

Cheese face.  He knows what "cheese" means and
uses his cheeks to their full potential (smile)!

Uh, are we out of these toddler snacks??  Mason is a huge snacker but not great meal eater....We have tried everything and the pediatrician says to keep doing what we are doing. He is not wasting away, though.

Self portrait of Mommy and Mason snuggling.  Such a sweet boy.

Mason helped set up for a party by removing all the juice boxes from the ice tub.....
He probably would have removed the wine bottles also if he could've lifted them!

One of Mason's favorite things to do is put a bucket on his head....
hey, whatever makes him happy makes us happy.

You da woman, Mommy!

  Mason during his nightly naked time.  Maddie and Mason both have a few minutes every night before bath or dressing for bed where they run around naked like wild things.  If Mason doesn't get his "naked time," he gets very, very, very upset.

OK, I'm sure I'll get some emails about this, but sometimes I miss doing little girl hair. Maddie won't let me do much with hers and uh, Mason's was getting kind of long and I was playing with it.  And the pigtails just happened.  But isn't he beautiful just the same?? 
And yes, I plan to keep these photos forever and show them to his first girlfriend.  I think she will laugh with me, no?

Strawberry pickin'.  Maddie was happy for about 3.5 minutes until strawberry juice got on her hat.  She had a tantrum, had to be taken to the car, and I finished picking with Mason.  Not one of our finer family moments.

Mason helping me fill the buckets.  He was actually a huge help to me. 
I'm glad someone enjoyed themselves!

Trying to wrangle the kids for a photo in front of the giant strawberry.  No go.

A few weeks ago, we managed to make it to Emerald Isle for a long weekend at my Aunt and Uncle's place. We had some concerns about Mason sleeping, but he fell into a routine the second night.  As usual, Maddie loves the water and wants to be in it almost every second.
Mason was hesitant and preferred to be held the entire time.

I love this photo of Maddie.  She's wiping sand from her hands because as we all know, beach sand doesn't belong on your hands.....cracks me up.

Dancing in the sand while we're getting the umbrella set up.

The first day was super windy, so Mason kept his shirt on and toddled around with the beach toys.

And had a blast feeding snacks to Frank!

My Aunt left a huge Care Bear collection at the beach house.  It did not go to waste.  Maddie made a nice little nest with some of them during the lazy morning TV time.

Mason tries on Frank's sun hat.

At a local gift shop, Maddie picked out a sparkly cape (for princess dress-up of course) and Mason selected a Brachiosaurus.

Maddie is posing with  her shark's tooth necklace.  Frank spent some time combing the beach for a shark's tooth for Maddie and found one!  Then he made a necklace with it and gave it to her.  She may be a priss, but she wears that necklace every single day.....even with her pinkest dress!

Here are a few pics from Maddie's Gymnastics Showcase.  All the kids in her preschool class go to gymnastics once per week.  They showed the parents what they learned this year.

Yay for Maddie!

Maddie goofing with her buddies before they strut their stuff.

Posing with her ribbon.  She definitely knows how to ham it up!

Camping out time!  Frank has promised Maddie for many months that they would camp out in the backyard together.  Well, the time came a few weeks ago.  She's obviously prepared, and a walking contradiction.  But I love how it's all cool with her.  Let's see:

*Keen hiking shoes: check
*Eyelet lace socks: check
*Pink dress with bows: check

*Boots ring: check
*Shark's tooth necklace: check

First taste of homemade s'mores before the camp out.  Yum!!

Frank roasts the marshmallows to perfection over the fire pit.

Every camper needs a Care Bear, right?  She's ready to turn in for the night.  Incidentally, Frank thought they'd be back in the house by midnight. He was wrong; she slept outside the entire night!!! Go Maddie!!

Memorial Day water play with Stella Dot.

Maddie's friend Salem practices her beach pinup.  She's so funny...

Mason tries to see if he can push the beach ball sprinkler around the yard using only his belly.  And he did!

The three of them are oblivious to each other.  In their own little worlds.

Salem, Maddie and Stella Dot -- water buddies!

Next post: Dance recital and Dinosaur trail visit!