Easter Egg Hunts

Much to Eli's delight, he had three Easter egg hunts this year.  The first was two weeks ago--even before his birthday--at the University of Houston.  The second was at playgroup (they do one every year).  The third was here at home.  He loves showing off his egg-finding skills!  And they are improving.  We used to have to show him where to find most of the eggs, and the hunt took a while.  Now he can find most of them by himself, and he does it in a matter of minutes.  I never thought I'd use an Easter egg hunt as proof of my little boy growing up, but I find proof everywhere lately. 

The University of Houston had several egg hunts for different age groups.  Since it was a week before Eli's birthday, we debated about whether to put him in the 0-3 age group or the 4-8 age group.  We were a little worried that the older age group might not give Eli a fair chance of finding eggs, so we put him in the younger.  We should have done the older because it was a little too easy for him. 

Eli was a little scared of this giant bunny and very reluctantly agreed to take a picture.

This one was at playgroup, and Eli did not want to hold still for a picture.  He wanted to see what goodies he had found, of course.

Since Eli is much more into art projects now, he had much more fun decorating the dyed eggs this year.

We only did half a dozen eggs.  There are only so many hard-boiled eggs three people can eat. :-)  I usually end up making potato salad.

Eli was counting his eggs to make sure he found all that we had hidden around the house.

 Whopper's candy robin's eggs!  I couldn't resist teaching Eli about how they make beautiful and tasty lip color.  He loved it!

As if we didn't have enough treats, huh?  Actually, I made these for my nursery kids.

BIRTHDAY BOY!

It has now been four years since Eli joined our family.  What a blessing and a joy he is!  Our BIG birthday boy was a little sick, but he didn't let that stop him from enjoying the day.  In fact, he lets everyone know that he is four now.  He has asked me every morning since, "I'm still four, right?"  And he frequently tells me throughout the day, "Mom, I'm FOUR now."  He is continually reminding me that four-year-olds are BIG boys and can do lots of stuff that one, two, and three-year-olds can't do. :-)

Because his birthday also landed on General Conference Sunday, we had a very pleasant day at home with just the family.  Listening to the prophet and eating birthday cake--it can't get much better than that, right?  We also enjoyed skyping with various family members.

Since Eli loves superheroes, we decided to make a Superman cake, and since it was only in an 8 x 8-inch pan instead of a 9 x 13, we had leftover batter that we made into Spiderman cupcakes.  Eli loved it, as did Josh who has let me know by how much he's eaten that I don't make cakes enough (I really only make them on birthdays...so, three times a year).

Eli wanted a sandbox, so Josh made him one.  Can I just tell you what a blessing it is to have a husband who knows how to fix and build things?  When I was looking online for a patio-type sandbox, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money on it, but then Josh told me he would make it.  And he did...for a fraction of the cost.  AND Eli was in heaven.  I, on the other hand, am not thrilled about the sand mess, but sometimes it's better to make a little boy happy, right?

Of course, the thing that would make Eli REALLY happy would be a pet.  Our neighbor's cat became the show-stealer as she jumped our fence and came into our house (we think she also liked the sandbox).  Eli has seen and been able to pet Miss Priss (her name) many times, but this is the first time she has attempted to come into our home.  Eli was all smiles and incredibly willing to kidnap her.  She came when we were talking with Josh's family, so unfortunately, he didn't pay much attention to them or the gifts they sent.  The cat won in the moment, but I can assure you that he enjoys his gifts. :-)

Eli's Fable

Eli loves stories, and he occasionally makes up stories of his own.  The other day while he was riding his bike, he told me this story.

Skeeter and the Frog 

 (he told me that was the name of it)

Once there were two friends--a mosquito and a frog.  Whenever the mosquito wanted something that he wanted, he bit the frog.

(At this point, I interjected and said, "Oh no, what did the frog do?")

Well, one day he got very angry and he ate the mosquito.

The End

He didn't include a moral at the end like Aesop, but I was amused, and later when I told Josh, he laughed. 

Februrary and March Showers Bring March Flowers

We've had a ton of rain recently, which has helped with the drought our state has been experiencing. The temperature has also been ideal and the wildflowers are in bloom, so we took advantage and had a father and son outing to Memorial Park for an Eli bike ride and a Daddy walk alongside. Eli has loved riding bikes lately. He is borrowing one from a friend and rides nearly every day. Eli rode up and down the hill in this video more than 15 times before I could convince him that it was time to go.