Easter Parade

Declan's preschool hosted an Easter Parade in the garden the week before Easter.  Each class crafted a special bonnet to wear and they all just looked so precious.  



With the rest of his preK 3 class....

Chief Navel Gazer

  Thanks to my friend Susan for the photos; I forgot my camera. And to straighten out Declan's shorts apparently.

Llama Llama Easter Drama

We went to another egg hunt hosted by a church in our neighborhood.   For those of you keeping score at home, that makes for 5 easter egg hunting blog posts this year.  Even Declan's grandparents are complaining about the repetitive content.   But somehow I find them irresistable.

 

After the egg hunt, it was time for pony rides.  Declan sure picked an ugly pony.

 Wha-a-t? 

First llama ride, he does it like a pro.



There is no audio, but here my sweet boy is thanking the llama for giving him a ride.  He is a good egg.  Declan, not the llama.

I had to include this shot, because it seems that whenever  I get used to living in the South, something comes along to surprise me.  This time it came in the form of a pony drinking Mountain Dew. 

If I didn't see it, I wouldn't have believed it.





Afterwards we went to the petting zoo.

"THINK FAST!!!"

Actual Easter Morning

We had some houseguests staying with us over Easter weekend, the Sweiggart family needed a stopping ground as they relocated from Little Rock to California.   With all the West Coast friend drain that has been going on over the past year, Declan keeps asking when we are going to move to California.  He is beginning to think of it as the Promised Land.  Anyhow, the Easter bunny left baskets in the hallway with some little toys inside for Declan, Aria, and Aspen. 

When they went downstairs, the kids found the Easter Bunny's icing sugar footprints on the front door step.  Apparently he always lays tracks at the Sweiggarts.   It was a great novelty for Declan.

Which may explain why an hour or so later I found Declan by himself on the front porch, with dropped trou, PEEING on the Easter Bunny's footprints because he "wanted to see what would happen".   In the name of scientific inquiry and all that.

 

Followed up with some Easter morning pajama ziplining. As you do.

That night, the Koch family came over for dinner and an egg hunt.  For some reason, when it came time to hunt for eggs, Declan went and put Phoebe's hamburger costume on.  I guess he figured it worked well for her. 

It didn't slow him down any, and he, Aria and Emma managed to find almost all the eggs.  I had stuffed all the blue eggs with personalized clues for each kid, to lead them on a treasure hunt to find a present hidden by the Easter Bunny.

Declan did a great job of putting his clues in order to find the Connect 4 game the Easter Bunny left for him.

Aria solved her puzzle to find a crown. 

The kids really enjoyed solving the puzzles for the treasure hunt, so it was a well-received twist on the regular egg hunt.  Since by the time Easter actually rolls around, most kids have been on half-a-dozen easter egg hunts, and are all jellybeaned up already.   Feel free to take a picture of my great Easter egg hunt innovation with your instagram and pin it to something.  No charge.

First Word

Declan wrote his first spontaneous, uncopied word this week.   Unbidden he took sidewalk chalk and wrote "Stop" in front of our neighbours' garage because he wanted Mac to "Stop".    So let the record show, his first written word was to tell someone else what to do.

Some events unfold just the way you expect them to.

Doggone Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday we partook in the annual Doggie Easter Egg Hunt in Reservoir park.  Declan dressed as a chef and Phoebe as a cheeseburger. 

Homicidal Easter Bunny choking Phoebe

At the starting line, ready to hunt. 

Declan told me on the way to the hunt "Mommy, I am probably going to try one of the doggie treats while we are there"  True to his word, he ate a rather largish dog biscuit in its entirety.

Declan was keen on collecting eggs for Phoebe but she did not need any help.  She was able to ferret them out on her own, pop them open in her mouth and eat the dog treat inside.

Phoebe won a prize in the talent contest:  3rd place in the Fastest Tail Wagger.  She seemed quite pleased with herself.

Look at how that Hamburger stacks up.

A Rise in Soccer Hooliganism

A recent haircut + a hot and sweaty soccer practice = one budding 3 year old hooligan-in-the-making

What you lookin at mate??

Head butt coming your way!

Extreme Room Makeover: Declan edition.

So one of my backburner projects finally got off the ground this past week- redecorating Declan's room. I never did a nursery for him, as we were in a rental house and perpetually on the brink of moving when Declan was born. Then, when we moved into our own house, he was too old for a nursery, and too young for a big boy room. So I waited. I'm good at that. Here is the sorry state of his room as of last week:

This isn't shabby chic, it is Romanian orphanage chic.

The crib is especially impressive, no? The only thing missing is the railcar. A couple of years ago, this crib was banned because it is a drop -side crib, so we remedied the danger by just ripping off the drop side and thereby converting it to a toddler bed, ghetto-style. Based on the looks of his room, it's hard to tell we love him.

So over the last few months I started to collect some things to redecorate, picking out bedding and artwork in a rocketship/outerspace theme. I got a little stalled, so I asked my friend Kricia Palmer to help me put the room together. She is a talented interior designer, who is a delight to work with.  Kricia blogs some great design ideas and tips at Palmer Home.  Kricia helped find the missing furniture pieces and figured out how to lay out everything.   I think it turned out darling, and Declan was tickled pink to come home to a brand new room. 

The clocks are all on different time zones- one for Vancouver, one for Little Rock, one for Copenhagen, which is our next big holiday destination.

This is a spot on the wall to hang Declan's art.  The brightly coloured painting on canvas is one that Declan did at school, that was sold at an Access fundraiser that I was unable to attend, and an "anonymous benefactor" bought Declan's painting for me.  Come forward, Anonymous Benefactor!  I hate not knowing!

I love these retro posters.

Declan's favourite part is the rocketship model!  He loves everything about his new room, 
but don't take my word for it, here's a long video with Declan's reactions to his new digs. 

Declan Busts a Move

So yesterday before swimming lessons I decided to put Declan into the Kids' Zumba class at the Athletic Club, on account of it being free and all.  Not realizing of course that by "Kids" they mean "11 year olds" and  by "11 year olds" I mean "girls".  But Declan didn't seem pay any mind, and gamely made it through the whole class.  Here they are doing the Cupid Shuffle. If you have trouble picking him out, he's the short confused one in the yellow shirt. 

Doctor Declan in the House

So on Thursday,Declan was asked to bring a stuffed animal to school to act as a patient, while the kids learned about how to be a doctor.  Very sweet, until after the lesson, I asked Declan what he treated Monkey for, expecting it to be, I don't know, a sore paw or something.

I especially like that he had to take a lollipop out of his mouth to tell me about it.

Declan Loses at Animal Bingo.

I probably had this coming..