Easter 2013

Easter weekend was so nice in our new house this year! The neighborhood Easter egg hunt was very nice (and civilized). In our old neighborhood, the parents were cray cray. I swear they would go nuts over the idea of free candy and were elbowing people to help themselves their kids get some candy. We did it one year in the old neighborhood and didn't go back. It's just not fun when your kid gets run over for some jelly beans. We decided to give our new hood a chance and it was super nice! There was only one crazy parent but isn't there always one (she actually yelled out...."we called that one"....as Paige approached an egg. hahaha)??? One of 50+ parents ain't bad! We really are enjoying our new neighbors and our whole neighborhood. It's a refreshing change of pace around here!

We also decorated Easter eggs for the first time ever!! Just Claire and I. Paige can help next year. I was kind of petrified of dye and a big mess but it turned out to be pretty awesome. We will definitely do it every year. Thanks to Pinterest, the sharpie drawings on the eggs was a big hit! (tip: coloring plain white eggs is the easiest)

Easter morning the kids searched for eggs in our beautifully landscaped dirt backyard. Thank goodness for a few scattered weeds to "hide" some eggs behind! Later that day, the girls donned their pretty dresses (yearly gifts from all of their aunties) and we went to Tom and Carla's for our usual Easter celebration. I love Tia (Carla)....she has gone from having cute Easter baskets of goodies to just hiding gifts behind trees along with the eggs. It's pretty comical to see bunny bath loofahs hanging in the lime tree! The girls sure do love it and we love having an awesome dinner watching the sunset! Family time is the very best!!

Spring Break

PINETOP, AZ ROADTRIP!!!!!!

 

I took the girls on a random adventure up to Pinetop, AZ during Spring Break for 2 days. It was VERY last minute. Claire said she wanted to do something fun and go see the mountains. She was dying to find snow too but I was certain we wouldn't so I didn't pack for snow. Turns out...there was SNOW not too far from Pinetop at the Sunrise Ski Park. So, back to the beginning, we packed up the car and booked a hotel room. Eric was going to be busy with work for the next 2 days so off we went. After 3 hours of driving through some scary mountains because I apparently took the "scary way" according the hotel receptionist, we made it Pinetop. It's a country place and I like that. It's also a bit sketchy and old too and that kind of freaked me out but overall it's a pretty cool town. It has cute places to eat, grocery stores, a Wal-mart, and a Home Depot so it's pretty "happening" there. You don't feel like you are in the middle of nowhere event though you really are. There are small lakes to fish in and lots of nature to explore but we didn't really get in to that on this trip.

 

Paige was a little sketched out by our hotel room and immediately said as we walked in..."Paige scared". I knew this would be the beginning of her being a bit of a challenge. She didn't like sleeping in the hotel or bathing or anything really. I realized I had bit off a little more than I could chew taking both girls alone. Sharing a room with young kids ain't easy. All you parents who have been down this road will understand. No one sleeps good and the next day you are cranky pants! The only person who is the exception to this is my husband because he could sleep standing up and sleeps like a rock. I sleep like a cat on a hot tin roof...always on alert with every noise! Our first full day in Pinetop we drove to see some snow. The girls really did enjoy touching the snow and building a snowman. We were dressed like city folk but we made it work. Some wet boots and tennis shoes never hurt anyone! I am proud of us girls for taking this adventure and trying something new. We did enjoy the experience overall. We found a great cafe called Darby's that is awesome for breakfast and a cool pizza place. The next time we go to Pinetop we will have to rent a cabin and go as a whole family. It's a pretty cool place and I would totally recommend it to anyone!