Easter with Familiy

Late this morning, we "kidnapped" my Grandma Shirley from her assisted living facility so she could have Easter dinner with the family.  Troy's parents graciously hosted this afternoon's dinner, and my parents and the girls' Uncle Matt came over, too.  Everyone - especially my grandma - was so glad that we could get together for a holiday dinner.

 Later on, I coerced the girls to pose for some pictures outside in their Easter dresses.

Easter Fun

This afternoon the girls went to Troy's mom's church, where they had all sorts of fun Easter activities for kids.  First the girls had their faces painted.  And then they each went on their own age group's egg hunt.

 I think the girls' favorite activity was painting with sidewalk chalk.

 They each claimed their own egg to decorate.  Here's Julia's egg:

 And here's Evelyn working on her egg:

Red Velvet.....Donut

I'm so glad a Bellevue friend told me about Uptown Bakery.  My friend just told me that they have delicious donuts.  She didn't mention red velvet donuts.  Yum!  (I also had to swing through the Starbucks drive-thru to get my skim chai.)

Bohemian Cafe

Evelyn and I always request lunch at the Bohemian Cafe when we go back to Nebraska.  I've been eating here since I was a little girl.  I'm glad this taste of my childhood is still around so I can get my favorite meal - liver dumpling soup, rye bread, pork tenderloin and sweet and sour cabbage.

Omaha Zoo

Since they were born three months ago, we girls have been following how the set of five lion cubs at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo have been growing.  Julia and Evelyn couldn't wait to see what the looked like in person.  Only one cub was awake this afternoon.

 All the other lions, even the two adults, were napping.  It's hard to discriminate between critters in the picture below!

 A favorite at this zoo is the polar bear.  While observing him from the top, he was chillin' on a rock.  However, by the time we went down to "his" level, he was swimming and doing tricks in the water.

 The petting farm wasn't very busy today, so the girls were able to take their time brushing and petting the goats.

 As was expected on a school day (for the Omaha metro area), we didn't have to fight crowds at the zoo today.  Just lots of fun seeing lots of different animals.

Cut and Curl

Evelyn loves getting her hair done at the John Edwards Salon in Bellevue.  She went in for a trim this morning, and also came out with curly hair.  So cute!

Story Time with Great-Grandma

Evelyn thought her Great-Grandma Shirley would enjoy hearing this story - My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza - and Evelyn wanted to show her how well she could read.  As you can tell by the picture, everyone really enjoyed it.

Story Time Craft

Even though we are visiting family in Nebraska for Spring Break, everyone was busy this morning. But wait!  There was a story time at the Bellevue Public Library at 10:00!  Evelyn joined Julia and me, even though it was for preschoolers.  

In addition to reading stories, doing fingerplays and singing songs, there were several crafts and games available at the end.  The girls chose to make a vase with flowers for Great-Grandma Shirley (since we were planning on visiting her later today).

Flight to Omaha

Last summer, Julia made it clear that she tends not to do well on airplane trips.  So this morning I gave her a small dose of Dramamine about an hour before our plane left.  Just as I thought might happen, Julia zonked right out for the entire 2 1/2-hour flight.  And that's much better than the alternative.  ;)

Snow. Finally

All winter we had been teased with the threat of snow.  And all we ever got were a couple (and I mean less than five) of snows with less than an inch of accumulation.  What did we get on the first official day of Spring Break?  Four inches of snow.

 It was fairly warm today, so I knew the snow wouldn't last long.  We went out in the heavy, wet snow for about 30 minutes.

 We went across the street to play on the playground and then run around the soccer field.

 Evelyn tried building a snowman, but she couldn't make a very big one because there wasn't that much snow.

 After about half an hour, we had to call it a day.  This snow was so wet, we were soaked.  It was fun to finally get to play in the snow, even if it is technically Spring!

Circus!

Where can you go to meet circus performers before the show and have them sign your program book?

 Our favorite circus venue...Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey.

 We got to the circus an hour early, which gave us plenty of time to buy program books (one for each girl), followed by wandering around meeting the performers.  How fun was it for the girls to actually get on one of the motorcycles used in the show?

 And Evelyn loved trying on different glitzy jackets and costumes.

 Each girl got a tattoo on their hand.

 One last picture with some clowns before heading to our seats.  We all loved the show, too - I didn't take any pictures of the show because we have fabulous pictures in our programs.  But let me just say, it was a blast!

National Zoo

Yesterday I was racking my brain, trying to come up with an outdoor Saturday activity.  When I looked at Julia's preschool artwork from Friday morning, the answer was as clear as day.  (By the way, I love how a monkey is hanging from Rapunzel's hair...)

 So, yes, we went to the zoo today.  We saw all of the cats that were on display - lions, the tiger, a clouded leopard and the cheetahs.  I love the picture I got of this guy.  Julia and Evelyn would caption this picture, "Kids!  Dinner is ready!"

 The four sea lions were having a blast, swimming back and forth in the water.  The girls loved watching them swim sideways and upside down.

 As usual, we started our visit at the bottom of the hill, slowly making our way to the top of the hill.  Once there, the girls posed in the zoo sign for the obligatory picture.

 As we made our way back down the hill, we wandered through the Asian exhibits.  These clawed otters were so cute - they all lined up when the zookeeper called them.  She counted all 11 otters (I could only get 10 in my picture), and then said they could go.  Which is exactly what they did - they all took off.  Amazing!

 Such a wonderful day at a fun zoo.  We have enjoyed visiting the National Zoo while living in Maryland, and we will miss the animals (and their exhibits) we have become so familiar with.

Preschool Spring Party

This morning Julia's preschool held their Spring party.  I volunteered to set out the eggs for Julia's class.  Each student had 12 eggs with their names on them, and by the time I was done, 132 eggs were ready to be found.

 Julia was so excited to wear one of her favorite dresses today.  And she couldn't wait to eat the party food.  Well, okay, she couldn't wait to eat the sweet treat with some apple juice.

 Here's a shot of Julia's class table, gobbling up goodies.

 Each preschooler in Julia's class had their own egg carton to fill with eggs.  I held Julia's carton while she wandered around, looking for eggs with her name on them.

 It was really windy and chilly this morning (the wind chill was in the 20s).  Once Julia found all 12 of her eggs, she posed for a picture and then called it a day.  I can't say I blame her!

Shoppers' Colossal Donuts

What does 60 cents buy you at the Shoppers bakery department?  A colossal donut.  And they aren't kidding when they say colossal.

 The girls each had a donut for breakfast this morning (a once-a-month treat).

 We always joke that these donuts are as big as Julia's head...and it's almost the truth!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Two of us girls started the day with green pancakes and green scrambled eggs.  I'm sure you can guess which girl opted not to have a green breakfast...

 Julia and Rosie settled down for some quiet time this morning.

 We spent the day at the mall, mostly shopping for the girls.  However, Evelyn made us stop at the Lego store first, where she bought a couple of animal kits with her allowance money.  Then we pushed on with some serious spring and summer clothes shopping.

Wacky Friday

Once upon a time, the girls got these funny glasses at a kids' birthday party.  Every now and then they resurface...like they did this morning.  I joked with Evelyn that I was going to wear them to substitute teach today, but she nixed that idea.