Coloring Easter Eggs; I really didn't want to this year

I will fully admit that Easter is not my holiday. I never celebrated it when just Carl and I were married, not even a visit or a dinner with family. I have never given my kids an Easter basket although I do plan on it this year. I am just not a religious person and feel like this is a very religious holiday and I best respect it by leaving it alone

So its no surprise that I had no real plans to color Easter eggs with the children. Here it is a few days before Easter and I have no official coloring kit and no plans to do so. I bought baskets yesterday when I was at a party store, but that is the extent. I have nothing to fill these baskets yet. Then mommy guilt sinks in and I have to admit that coloring eggs is an art project and I loved doing it as a kid so I assessed my supplies.

I had food coloring, vinegar and water. I didn't have plastic cups, but the glass worked fine. In an effort to be fair to my kids and give them some memories of Easter I boiled 8 eggs this morning, put out the supplies so they would accessible and told Erik we would color eggs after nap at some point. There I didn't it, no turning back once I tell Erik who has an incredible memory.

So in my style I lined them up for a photographic adventure and started it off with a group picture. It is impossible to get both of these kids smiling at the same time at the camera, but I gave it my best. The hand on the head shot is when I said something about my hair to get them to both look at the same time.

Then we're off and the color adventure begins. I am leery because lately all our coloring and painting projects are a disaster and big mess, but this is must in a child's memories so I relent. 

 

As I probably could have predicted eight eggs for four different color is just not enough, but making tons of hard boiled eggs we probably won't eat kills me. So I take out the real thing. I explain to the boys they need to be extra careful. Erik gets it, Elliot grabs for the eggs roughly.

This is Erik copying the face he made when Elliot grabbed the egg roughly. He got really worried about it breaking, my future chef. Didn't capture that moment on camera, but we copied it.

Then because we are dealing with food and I never feed my boys hard boiled eggs I let them try it. Elliot loves it and called it yummy and surprisingly Erik does too, another victory for the day!

 

 

Just to note we successfully colored the "real" eggs with no breaks or bruises and the boys enjoyed themselves. No major messes, stained clothes and now we have fun eggs to cook with this week. How cool is that?

Happy BIrthday dear sweet Elle Belly

Today mark's Elliot's second birthday. A landmark more for us parents than Elliot himself. Its a symbol of surviving two years of parenthood which is amazing with kids so close in age. My hand goes out to anyone who has multiple kids under 3 at the same time, its hard! So Elliot sings happy birthday and knows in little ways this day is for him, but until the moment he completely takes it over I am taking a second to give Carl and I a high five for making it one more year as parents of two.

This year has been so much fun with two boys. Elliot is growing and asserting his independence, but does it in his quiet, sweet, reserved way that is all Elliot. He is such a good natured boy and is showing lots of interest in animals, cars and trains his three favorite things. He is growing in his speech and his physical confidence and everyday his body is developing to look like his daddy. I strongly suspect he will be as tall as his dad one day.

His terrible 2s are not so terrible and he is turning into a cuddly boy with a strong desire to love and be loved by all that surround him. His relationship with his brother is growing strong as they fight and as they play and I love watching them enjoy each other's company.

So happy birthday my dear sweet Elliot, I hope we made this day as special for you as we could and I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you.

Shopping for Elliot's birthday was an adventure this year. I decided to take Erik along to help me pick some things out since I wasn't sure what to get him. Erik was excited to give Elliot his presents, but kept the secret for the day he had too and was gracious in letting Elliot decided if he could play with the toys. Well as gracious as a three year old can be.

I knew these would be the favorite toys when Erik picked them out. Definitely the biggest hit of the night.

 

Here are the details of the day. Homemade cupcakes a tad over baked since I didn't hear the timer, but delicious. A practice round for this weekend. Thanks to my friend for letting me borrowing her frosting decorator, it worked perfectly!!

Last, but not least the presents in old Christmas paper because that is how I role.

Happy Birthday Elliot, we all love you!!

Aloha from Kauai...

Just checking in and writing a blog on the first half of our vacation. As I write this both boys are napping, Carl is reading and I am uploading pictures and just enjoying the quiet. Kauai is definitely how I envisioned Hawaii and this is the perfect vacation for our little family of four.

First things first, the plane ride. With it being 5.5 hours I was dreading it since we didn't buy a seat for Elliot and it was in the middle of his nap. Luckily the most amazing thing happened on the plane, both boys napped. Elliot napped for 60% of the flight and watched a movie, "Thomas" and Erik watched 1.5 movies and fought his nap like there was no tomorrow. Then with 1.5 hours left on the flight I finally got him to sleep, so one boy awake and one boy asleep. I even got to watch the inflight movie, a Reese movie to boot so it was a perfect start to our vacation.

Since we arrived on the island at 1:30 pm local time Carl and I decided to push their bed as late as possible since it was a 3 hour time change and stay up super late. So we got to our rental house and went straight for the beach. We are loving "Baby Beach." It is a perfect introduction to water before the season starts for the boys. They can splash independently or with us and the water is so calm and so shallow that they truly enjoy themselves. Their favorite activity is to sit on the sand right in the surf and let the waves splash up on them. Elliot gives the best and happiest giggles when doing this and Erik loves to run away and pretend to be afraid of the waves. This is my version of nirvana watching them be so happy.







The boys have even come up with games in the house. This is favorite so far, "treasure hunt" and we need to find whatever item Erik has put in there. Usually pillows and clothes.








Its hard to know exactly what to do on this island and for some reason I have an obsession with walking to a waterfall. So the first day we saw Waimea Canyon which is a must see and then headed up the road to hike to a waterfall. Unfortunately the terrain was right, but the hike proved to be too long for the boys so we stopped half way, but as I always say it is about the journey and not about getting there when you have kids this little and we all enjoyed the hike.











After the hike we went to lunch in one of the towns on the west side and all had our own shaved ice. It was a popular place with the locals because we saw several of them coming and going while we ate ours. The verdict, everyone thought it was yummy except Erik who just wanted the ice cream on the bottom.



That afternoon, more time at baby beach and a quiet dinner at home since the boys didn't nap. I think the time change and a busy afternoon affected their sleep. It was a good first day for sure.





We're on day two and not much to report, I continued my waterfall obsession and Carl humored me, so we headed to the west side to hike Ho'opi'l Fall. It said in my guide book that it was an easy hike, but for two small children it was a bit treacherous. We made it and I got to take some pictures of waterfalls, but Carl made me promise no more hiking. Both boys definitely showed some independence on the hike and on the way up both boys had to walk themselves. A fun, but tiring morning. Since all these pictures are from Carl's point and shoot camera you won't see waterfall pictures. You'll have to wait until I get back to see my images from Hawaii.








Afterwards we headed to the plantation for a train ride. Elliot was OBSESSED with the train as soon as it got in the station and couldn't wait the 10 minutes it would take for us to be able to board. He almost broke down he was so anxious to go on the train. It was definitely a fun diversion for the boys and definitely something to be done with kids. They especially loved feeding the wild boar.









That's it for now, we have an afternoon planned of dinner out, the first time since we have been here and some shopping and ice cream. We're taking it easy this afternoon and skipping the beach since we have gotten a lot of sun.

My initial impression of Kauai is that I HATE the roosters. They are everywhere and the boys love to chase them, but when it comes to sleep they are annoying especially in a house with no air conditioning and boys who need to nap, they never seem to stop crowing.

As far as the island itself, I love this place. It is exactly what I would want for a Hawaiian island and exactly why I won't go back to Oahu now that I have done the Pearl Harbor thing. It is not too badly touristy on the South side over here and its not very crowded and everything is a hidden gem. It is all about adventure, outdoor fun and hiking which is my perfect vacation. I'll definitely be coming here again, although I want to check out the big island before I make my verdict, but this is definitely making it on my top vacation spots.