Pre-Easter Rundown.

Trying to catch up on Easter before the next holiday gets here! Lots of pictures to share!

We had a great Easter holiday. Dry, semi-warm weather and lots of friends and family to celebrate with. We headed to the Great North on Friday and had a nice pizza dinner with Dickie, Noonie, Uncle Stevie (who will hence forth be known as Stinkiedoo) and Aunt Emily.

We stayed with Grammy and Papa Frank this trip and Saturday morning we had some fun coloring eggs. Gillian had picked out a cool "glitter dye" set at the grocery store LONG before Easter, so we were READY.



Look how patient she appears to be.




Getting close!


Apparently we have no "finished" egg pictures! They turned out very pretty. The colors were quite intense and the glitter was pretty. Not so nice when you try to peel and eat the egg, maybe?

After eggs we met some "old" hometown friends and their kiddos at the Brockway playground for some fun. These diggers got a good workout!









Both kiddos took good naps that afternoon! Then we headed to Great-Grandma and Great-Papa's house for (a DELICIOUS) Easter dinner and an egg hunt with Sarah and Ben!





All warmed up and ready for Easter now!

LOUISE!

Or A-weeze as G often calls her. One of our favorite buddies. She's a sweet little baby. Although she poops a lot. She also plays a mean "Baby Simba" in the Lion King productions.

Hello Mr. Peacock!

One nice day last week, when it wasn't snowing like it was today, we hit the park and visited our friend peacock for the first time this year!

First up, we fed the ducks and geese. Colin would just throw giant chunks of bread in the water. But Gillian would take her time and rip off tiny little bites to throw. Lasted longer that way. I can you this, the ducks and geese don't care what size the bread is!



Then we visited our buddy Mr. Peacock and his nervous-Nelly Peahen.



After seeing all the fowl, we took our bikes down to the bike park. We were the only ones there so we took advantage of all the space and RACED. Colin calls his red bike Lightening McQueen and Gillian calls her blue bike Holly Shiftwell and they like to RACE. And Gillian wins every time. EVERY time. It's not that Colin is slow. It's that he's unfocused. Gillian stares down the finish line and is intensely focused. Colin? Not so much. He prefers to "enjoy the view" while he moseys his way across the parking lot. It's pretty funny to watch. I need to get a video of it!

The kids got tired of racing after a bit so we walked across the road to a little playground and bridge to play before lunch. There was more racing. Foot racing this time!



Yep. They took good naps that day. Love those active, outdoor mornings.

Bridge Builders

Colin and Daddy built this "pedestrian bridge" one night before bed. Colin got a step by step lesson is constructing the tetrahedrons (I just had to ask again what they were called) to make the bridge piers. He's catching on!

Birds, Birthdays, and Trains

A weekend or two ago (so behind on the blog) the kids were invited to their first "friend" birthday party by their classmate Alana. The party was at the Pittsburgh Aviary. We hadn't had a chance to get the kids to the Aviary before this, and for very good reason: Mommy doesn't like birds. At all. Unless they are well caged or on the other side of glass. At the Aviary they have free flying bird exhibits and that just sounded creepy to me.

The invitation was fortuitous though, as Colin has been BEGGING to ride the "new part of the trolley" for weeks. And lucky him, the new part of the trolley line takes you over to the North Shore and a nice, short walk from the Aviary. So, we combined two fun things into one day!

So, we parked at the local station and waited for a train. And it was chilly. Later in the day it was quite nice and warm, but the morning started a bit cooler than I had been expected. Colin took it well though:


We had a great time on the train and took in all the sights. We greatly enjoyed our trip under the Allegheny River, even though Colin was SURE that the tunnel was going to be like the polar bear tunnel at the zoo and we'd be able to SEE the water as we passed under.

Alana's party was a PENGUIN PARTY! We actually had a real, live penguin come visit our party room!



And we had some snacks. It was technically lunch, but Colin refused to acknowledge that and insisted it was a SNACK.


Gillian and I hung around the party and watch Alana open her gifts. Gillian and Alana have very similar tastes, so G was impressed with her haul! Colin was ready to move on though, so he and Daddy explored the Aviary for a while.

When they came back it was time for cake! Yum. Gillian really enjoyed that too. By then the party was winding down, so we headed out and all four of us went to see the rest of the Aviary. Which was quite stinky. Yet another reason to dislike birds. We did see some cool birds though. And none of them flew at me or pooped on me, so that was a success.

And look how cool these flamingos are!


So, now we've been to the Aviary. And need not return. We did have a good time on the trolley though! I KNOW we'll be back on that!

When I Grow Up

This is one of Colin's current favorite phrases....

"When I grow up, I'm going to....."

....drive a tow truck.
....be a firefighter.
....have a motorcycle and drive fast.
....be an engineer like Daddy.
....be an engineer. Like on a train.
....be an astronaut.
....drive a trolley.

Busy boy.

And Gillian? She never tells us what she wants to be when she grows up. I asked once and she told me she was going to be a ballerina. But she never brought it up again.

Flower Show Fun

Last weekend we had the pleasure of meeting Grammy, Papa Frank, Uncle D, and Aunt Cedes at Phipps Conservatory. We had been meaning to get the kids to Phipps for a while and with the spring flower show starting, it was perfect timing.


Checking out the plant globe with Grammy.

Some pretties:






The kids had a very good time. They actually checked out some of the plants and enjoyed the pathways. Colin also really like the windmill set up in "The Netherlands" room with all the tulips.


Apparently Colin and Uncle D were very photogenic.


Phipps had a cute little "farmer's market" set up with booths of vegetables and fruit, shopping carts, and check outs. Very fun.


We were pushing buttons (always a favorite) that controlled the fountain. Fun times.

Oh, one other funny from the day. As we wandered through the Desert Room, Colin was pointing and chatting away. Then all of a sudden he stopped dead in his tracks and just STARED at this ceiling tall cactus. He whispered, "What is THAT?" And then he literally CLIMBED up my body onto my shoulder. He was majorly FREAKED by that cactus. Thankfully he was easily calmed once we scooted past it. Ok, so no western adventures for him!