Hippity-Hoppity

Hippity Hoppity down to the mall we went on Good Friday.  Mom was hesitant from the start as she knew the Easter Bunny might understandably scare little children.  She decided to give it a whirl anyhow, so we stuck out the 20 minute wait until it was our turn.  Mommy said to the bunny "Hold on tight!!!" Luckily, the photographer captured a true classic photo, one that probably every family chuckles about.

Me on the other hand, LOVED the bunny!  I have never cried on Santa's lap or in the presence of other hugely stuffed characters.  Cooper is making up for that this year with Santa and now the Easter Bunny.  I exclaimed to Mommy afterwards that the Easter Bunny sure had one fancy tie on!

We hold onto traditions in our house, so it is a must to dye eggs.  I was curious to how these eggs changed colors and took them out every .03 seconds to check on the transformation.  Cooper chose to skip the spoons and wire whisks this year while checking on his eggs.  He reached his hands into the dye, looked at the egg, and fast-pitched them back into the dye.  This lasted only a few minutes before his hands were stained and the countertops were needing heavy duty cleaner.

Grandma Carla...Mommy says you have a picture of her doing this with her Easter egg as a child and wants you to dig it out to compare our cute little faces :) 

That night, we anxiously prepared the house for the Easter bunny.  We put out our bunny treats and checked the yard a zillion times in hopes that bunny would hop into our house that night.

He must have liked our mini-carrots!  The Easter bunny left us some awesome treats- candy, sunglasses, hats, bath fun products, a bike helmet (Cooper), and spin brushes to get all of those Easter sugar bugs off our teeth!

Thanks Great Grandma Woody (GG) for giving us the mini-garbage cans full of candy and toys.  My favorite was the garbage can as it proudly sits in my room and I find garbage whenever possible to place inside.

Spin brushes make brushing so much fun!  My parents asked me to STOP brushing my teeth with this noisy tool.  They might need to have a little talk with the Easter Bunny next year about noisy toys.

Maybe Cooper will like the Easter Bunny afterall?

After a beautiful church service, we came home to find Easter eggs in our yard!  A "mystery" neighbor enjoys having children around, so he must have hopped on over to leave us money and candy in some eggs!  Thanks Don (I mean whoever you are!)

Of course Cooper is double fisted, stinker... 

Mommy had to get this "ammunition" photo of Daddy wearing her chef's apron while carving the ham.  We hosted Easter lunch at our house for the Klay side (Grammy, Matt and Jill but not Ben/Erin and family because they are still in Georgia...house hasn't sold yet, but hopefully soon!)  On the menu for Easter.... glazed/baked 10 pound ham, glazed carrots with pistachios, asparagus/pepper/Havarti ham roll-ups, cheesy hashbrown casserole, Thanksgiving Pear Salad (Auntie Erin, we gave your secret recipe to Auntie Jill :)), and Grammy's delicious carrot cake for dessert.  We are now struggling with the idea that we will be in swimsuits later this week.  Too late for diets!

Uncle Matt and Auntie Jill had time to reminisce with our scrapbooks. Mommy is ALMOST all caught up with scrapbooking.  She is feeling uber-excited about this feat! Uncle Matt and Auntie Jill are Cooper's godparents, so they finally saw the pages Mommy created from his baptism.

Since Grammy drove her hot-rod (mid-life crisis splurge), I insisted on a very short ride in it.  Since it is a two-seater, we had to go REALLY slow as I actually was allowed to sit in the front seat.  Please do not compare my Mom to Brittany Spears.

See my spiky hair?!?!?  I could barely see, so Mommy came closer to get a Grammy/Caden "HOT ROD" photo.

Since we were so hungry after our enormous dinner, we decided to punish ourselves a bit more and go for it.  Grammy brought Cooper and I our own bunny cakes from Great-Auntie Lynn's bakery.  It was our 1st birthday photo op all over again.  It was no wonder that Cooper needed a nap after this and I fell apart while I insisted that I didn't need one.  Gotta love holidays and out-of-whack schedules.

Finally, my parents had 2 seconds to kick their feet up and relax on the couch after a fun yet exhausting day of cooking, eating, and visiting.  Uncle Matt and Auntie Jill do not have children (YET), so they just relaxed all day long- well, kind of as Cooper and I used Uncle Matt's tall stature for a jungle gym most of the day.

Randomness:  Here are some totally random pictures from the week.... the above photo is Cooper riding the John Deere tractor backwards.  Don't worry, the tractor was NOT running as he has to push the pedal to make it go.  The little monkey was laughing hysterically while climbing all over the tractor.

Auntie Karri and Uncle Jimmy are expecting baby Lindell in 3 weeks!  We cannot wait (OK, we can, so please wait until after Captiva!)  Auntie Karri texted Mommy this photo of her holding Uncle Jimmy at his baptism.  Karri commented on how much Mommy and I look alike.  Since Mommy has always thought I look like Papa, this makes sense to her.  Mommy and Papa have similar attributes, so Mommy and I must too, right?  What do you think?  See above photo of Mommy at age 4 and the picture below of me at "almost" 4.

Daddy decided to play paparazzi this past week while Mommy had a soccer game at the Sports Center.  She started playing soccer at age 3 and has continued ever since- she only took a break from playing while pregnant, so I guess you can call this her lifelong sport :)  While Mommy played, Cooper and I watched off and on and had a chance to play with some of the other kids who were there too.

Mommy is the person in the front, left of the photo... just kicked the ball at the goalie (had 3 goals this game, this not being one of them).  And photo below of Daddy's attempt to get her as she ran by...good try Daddy!

For added comic relief, scroll down to the post below (click on the play button) to see Cooper's reaction regarding the mall Easter bunny!  We made the video clip it's own post earlier today.  We just figured out how to add a video clip (thanks Heather!) so we hope it will work for you!  We will post in a few weeks post our Captiva trip...wish us good luck on the airplane, sunny skies and warm weather ahead :)  We hope you had a blessed Easter!  Jesus loves you!

No, No Easter Bunny!

Push the play button on the screen!  Not sure why it is black on this post, but it does play...turn up the volume :)!

Jackpot!

Jackpot!  We wish we could actually inform you that we hit the BIG one this week (April  Fool's right??) but we did not.  Since we haven't heard of any family members coming forward with a huge donation, we assume all is status quo.  But....we did hit the jackpot at our neighborhood Easter lunch and Egg Hunt today!  More to come on that later on in the post.

This week was the last of several favorite winter outings.  We went to the library on Monday for their last storytime until summer break.  Mommy also takes Cooper to my preschool on Tuesdays for Open Gym.  This is a chance for Cooper to get some exercise and play with other children while the Moms get to hang out and socialize.  Meanwhile, I am in preschool learning, so it is a win-win as we are all having fun!

 Cooper LOVES soccer balls, baseballs, basketballs, footballs, you get the picture!

He also loves using his arms to scoot all over the gym floor.  He has amazing upper-body strength!

 Funny how he has the same John Deere tractor ride-on toy at home and never rides it.  The minute he gets into the gym, it is one of his favorite toys!

At the end of each play session, kids get to play with a parachute then have bible story and snack.  We know when Cooper begins preschool next winter (1 morning per week), he will be READY as he is very familiar with the preschool building, staff, and many of the families that are regulars each week.

 We hit the mall this week while Daddy had an eye appointment.  We did our usual stop at the center play area and couldn't pass up a rip off amount of mechanical rides.

On Thursday, I had dress-up day at preschool.  Mommy tried to ask me what I wanted to look like for dress-up day.  She feared I would insist on wearing my jammies or an old Halloween costume. Since I didn't have a preference, she decided to help me dress like Daddy.  I felt like a handsome dude all day.

Remember how I mentioned in the previous post that Cooper loves to wear hats?!?!  He also loves wearing sunglasses, even if it is dark outside and we are indoors.  This particular day, he insisted on wearing them during breakfast.  Fortunately, since he is only 1 years old, Mommy humored his early morning disguise.

 We went to the lambing barn on Saturday to see the baby animals.  I was brave this year and handled the chicks with care.  Their tickly feet made me giggle.

There were TONS of noisy sheep.  Cooper didn't particularly like their "baaaing" and became annoyed a few times and hollered back at them.  He sat very quickly for a snapshot below but wanted nothing to do with holding the lamb.

Fortunately, another year without getting spit on.  No wonder my Mom stays far away from these creatures!

We ventured out in the cold weather-it was SUPPOSED to be a nice warm 65 degree day and in reality, the weather did not get out of the 40's:(.  Notice Cooper's "DUDE" hat under his winter hat?  Yup, wouldn't take it off for anything.

Cooper and I were excited to ride the ponies around the loop.  Daddy is convinced I will be asking for one of these for my birthday or Christmas.

We ran into one of our favorite friends....Lily, Lucy, Laurie Jo and Ben!  We spent just enough time to chat and take a few pictures on the old fashioned tractor.  Our last stop was a quick tractor ride, which was a good thing since we were VERY chilly!

Today was a busy day!  It started at church where I was invited to wave palm branches for our service.  I waved my palm all around for a good 2 full laps around the church. My parents are noticing a less shy little boy and one that is more assertive and  outgoing!

Mommy made Easter Bunny S'mores for our neighbors.  Some of our closest neighbor friends hosted an Easter lunch and egg hunt today.  This is where Cooper and I won the jackpot...candy, balloons, rubber bugs/trinkets, and $18 in coins and cash!  We are very excited to bring our money to the bank for our accounts.

Cooper and Eli are only 6 weeks apart.  They had fun accidentally dropping their eggs out of their own baskets and then discovering them again on the ground. This was great comic relief!

Here is my haul of eggs.  There were about 12 kids and we all had FULL baskets of eggs.  There was no pushing, crying, or whining, so parents declared this day a success!

Cooper was more interested in the one lonely boat that zoomed along the river. 

We had a busy and great week!  This week we look forward to the Easter Bunny (hint, the scary one at the mall) along with Easter Sunday (we are hosting!)  Have a hoppy week :)