Happy Easter

Happy Easter from my family to your family!  May you have a wonderful day together as a family as we celebrate that Jesus is not in the grave anymore! HE IS RISEN!!! 

Trip to the bunnies

There is a cool toy store in our town that every year has a display of bunnies around Easter.  Each year it is a new theme and so cute.  So since Emma was little we have gone, and it is one of my favorite thing besides Easter Church that our family does for Easter/spring.  This year both kiddos had so much fun looking at the bunnies, playing with the display trains, climbing in the tower to look out over the amazing train display and watching the cool trains go around and around!  We spent over a hour playing and having fun.  It is really a fun, free (besides the two Easter goodies I bought without being caught) family trip!  I was so happy daddy got to go this year as well.  Enjoy the cute photos of our trip to see the bunnies!

 

 The last three photos are just because they are cute!!

 

Oh bother!

These two are dreaming of warmer weather!  This was this time last year, it was around 75-80 degrees.  This year however, we have snow flurries possible for the next two days.  Oh boy spring break week two, looks like all indoor fun again.  Oh bother!

Rising Above Easter Egg Hunt

My kids love Easter Egg Hunts!  However, Emma still really struggles with bending down and getting back up fast, I mean the kid has only been walking two years and has hip issues.  She however loves to hunt eggs, however it is not always easy for her to be in a hunt with normal kids her age.  Picture gates being opened and kids running crazily towards eggs, yep Emma gets left behind or knocked down.

However, this year a friend sent me a link to a local group for Special Needs Children and they were having a Egg Hunt this past weekend.  We had nothing going on and decided to sign Emma and luckily they allowed siblings so Taylor got to come too.  It was a beautiful day here Saturday despite the wind that was blowing.  We loaded the kids in the car with new baskets and headed to one of the coolest parks in our town.  It is known as the Dragon Park and it has a wheelchair accessible playground!  It is so cool!

We got there and there were cute Easter Games they could play for cute little prizes, crafts set up, bubbles flying everywhere from a bubble machine and we got the times for each kids hunt.  The kids loved playing the games and we could not get them off the playground!  They were having a blast!  I was loving the stress-free fun for them as well.  I was not having to worry about her getting ran over or left behind, which meant I was one happy mommy.

 Then, Emma's time to hunt finally came and let me tell you she was ready to go as you can see from the above photo. She was so happy!  She took off and was happily picking her eggs up.

 At the start with my baby girl

 Still amazes me!

 Taylor waited patiently to get to hunt later with siblings 3 and under, so he spent more time on the playground with Daddy, while I hunted with sissy.

 Getting fueled up for his hunt.

 He had fun getting his eggs in his new Elmo basket a friend gave me for him.  I unfortunately could not help him and get photos but trust me he had fun:) 

 After the hunts they had a little martial arts demo and Emma had so much fun.  Taylor sat far away with daddy, since he hates loud noises and was scared.

 The highlight of our day, was meeting in person a sweet girl we have gotten to know through facebook.  We were honored to pass on Emma's wheelchair doll and one of her walkers to this sweet girl!

 The magician was pretty fun as well.  This was the last of the two hours of fun!

 One more climb to the slides for Emma, as she shows off her Easter Egg necklace she made.

 

 SWING!!!

Two happy happy faces as we head out after all the fun!  It was a great two hours and lots of memories made in a safe atmosphere!  Everyone was so nice and so accepting and supportive.  It was a great afternoon for all!  Thanks Rising Above for helping my daughter and son have a positive experience!  Words can not express how amazing it was to watch her just be a kid!

Read Me Week

With all the birthday prep going on I never posted the cute photos of Emma during Read Me week at school.  For those who do not know about Read Me week it is so fun.  Most schools choose a week near Dr. Seuss's Birthday to celebrate reading with fun dress up days, guest readers and fun activities as a school.  Emma loved this week.  Her school wears standard school attire, which means polos, polo dresses, jumpers and khaki, navy or black bottoms.  So, to get to dress up for a few days was a special treat!!  Look at all the fun she had!

 

Monday was hats off to reading day, this was after school and she was excited to show me she got the Art Star award in art class that day.

 Tuesday was the Book Character parade.  She decided on Cinderalla and was so happy to be a princess for the day.

 Wacky Wednesday and she loved wearing crazy stuff and her shirt backwards was her favorite part.  She even went to Speech at Vandy like this that day:)  This was the day I read to her class, and after hearing about the Titan Cheerleaders, the Maggie Moo cow and so many cool speakers I think I was a big let down for her class.  However, Emma was so happy to have me eat lunch with her, a friend and Taylor of course.  She also was so happy to share a Piggie and Elephant book with her new friends.  I just loved reading to them all and seeing their Wacky outfits.

 

 Thursday was silly sock day.  She loves her thigh high socks!!!

 Friday was Reading is Cool day and they all wore shades!!

 So Taylor was not left out, we had a fun Cat and the Hat day and we made our own hats and played with Lorax trees in our dirt playdoh!

As you can see it was a fun week of dressing up and celebrating reading.  The really cool thing was her school had a book drop off for Ronald McDonald house and gathered over 900 books for sick children and their families to have books while they are in treatments.  So cool!!

Reading is the best!  Especially when your mom is an ex teacher and current assistant children's librarian!!

Taylor's Elmo Party!

Today we celebrated a certain cute little boy turning 2 tomorrow!  Yep Taylor had a big birthday party and of course it had to be based off of one of his favorite things, Elmo!  Thanks to Pintrest I was able to find a lot of great ideas I could DIY and after a few late nights it all came together.  Here is the decorations

 Elmo Loves his Goldfish, His crayons too!

 Picture timeline from Taylor's last year, and this party is brought to you by the Letter T and the Number 2!

 Mantle with more photos of Taylor

 A few visitors from the Street!

 Footprints leading to the door and the lamppost I drew on the door that said Taylor's World

 Crayon Wreath

 The food

 Cookie Monster Toss and the Oscar the Grouch Trash Toss

Pin the Nose on Elmo

 

We just had family and a few friends we invited.  (sadly a few friends could not attend)  We wanted to keep it small, because Taylor does not like a lot of noise and craziness.  We had it Sunday after naptime and happily the weather decided to be great and the kiddos got to run around and play outside in the sun despite the wind!  Taylor loved all the Elmo stuff around and really loved his new shirt made by a sweet friend.  Here are a few photos of the birthday fun!

 Sissy and Taylor

 Mommy made me sit down

 Here is the ball

 Were my cousins go?

 Bubbles with daddy

 present time

 When Taylor decided to eat a cookie and watch sissy open some presents.

 Daddy please open my new Calliou toy right now!

 Time to blow out the candles

 Teaching her cousin how to play the game

 love these lips

 Bubble fun with Uncle and Cuz

GRRRRRR!  reading his dino books

 

As you can see, it was a great day full of the Red Monster and lots of laughter and smiles.  I am feeling blessed and tired.  Looking forward to some time with the birthday boy tomorrow as he is no longer my sweet little one year old and is truly a two year old toddler.  Praying the terrible twos do not start anytime soon!