Eggs

This evening after daycare, we had some fun with Easter-themed eggs.  First, we opened up Egg #10 in our set of Resurrection Eggs. We've been counting down to Easter with these eggs which are like an Advent Calendar for Easter. Each evening, we've opened a plastic egg containing a small slip of paper with a Bible verse and a small object to help illustrate the part of the story we've just read.  Sean's favorite so far is Egg #7 when we read about the Last Supper and the egg held 2 Chex squares - one for each Sooy Baby to snack on. 

Sean was a little grumpy in this picture since it was Clare's night to open the egg :-)

Today's egg told the part of the Easter story when Jesus' body is wrapped up in linen and spices and placed in the tomb. 

To illustrate this, we had a little fun with wrapping ourselves up in "bandages":

After we cleaned up and put away the Resurrection Eggs, we got to work dyeing Easter eggs.  The kids dyed eggs with Grahmmy and Pop Pop a could of weeks ago and Sean said he wanted to do it again. We set up the dyes and got everything ready and then Mommy stepped away from the table for 3 seconds and Clare spilled the red dye everywhere!  She was so upset - poor girl!

Clare wanted nothing more to do with Easter eggs after I got her cleaned up, so Sean was happy to get to work by himself:

Clare returned to the table with Daddy to watch Sean work - she'd periodically clap and cheer, "Yay Seany!"

Soon, Clare got to work putting stickers on the eggs that were dry:

"I LIKE Easter eggs!"

"Yay Eee-tah eggs!"

 



New trick

 

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring?  Today is the first day of Spring, but it doesn't quite feel like it yet - the wind chill never got out of the 20's here today and we're expecting a dusting of snow overnight. I guess this weather would have felt positively tropical to us when we were in Quebec City. Speaking of Quebec, here are a few photos of our last days on our trip!

The day before we left, it snowed throughout the day, probably about 6 to 8 inches total. It was pretty, but it was difficult to push the stroller around!  We paid a visit to the visitor center at the Plains of Abraham for a really neat history lesson on the struggles and battles between the French and the British to gain control of Quebec City and the Province.

After our history lesson, we rented a couple of bucket sleds so we could pull the kids around Battlefields Park. In the summer the park has plenty of places for activities such as jogging, biking, and picnic-ing. In the winter there are several trails dedicated to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and sledding!

We pulled the kids around for a little bit, but then Clare decided she didn't want to wear her gloves anymore and that she wanted to be picked up. So we took a little rest on a bench and soon had an explanation for her sudden fit of crankiness - naptime!

While Clare snoozed, Sean got busy clearing off some park benches while Thom John explored the area a little more.

Snowbeard!

After lunch, we took a tour of the Parliament Building:

I didn't get any good photos inside the building since we had a wardrobe change and a snack emergency, but it was a nice tour - short and sweet.  After that we passed an outdoor skating rink and decided to try out some ice skating. The boys rented skates and a helmet for Sean and hit the ice:

Sean's Number One Fan cheered him on with pride:

The City Ramparts - the only remaining city walls in North America left North of Mexico:

After all that fun in the snow, we went back to our hotel and packed up to head back home the next day. Before hitting I-87 South towards home, we thought we would check out the Hotel de Glace - the Ice Hotel. And lucky us, it was opening day!

It was really cold!

Neat ice sculptures in the Hotel's lobby:

Checking out one of the bedrooms - the bedframes are made of ice and there's a little mattress on top with fur blankets. Guests at the hotel are also given a space-age sleeping bag for extra warmth :-)

 

When we were done looking around the Ice Hotel, we sampled a Quebecoise treat - tire d'érable, or maple taffy.  A man poured out a nice long line of pure maple syrup on a clean block of snow and we rolled it up on a popsicle stick.

The kids thought it was pretty darn good!

After we'd had our fill of maple taffy, we got in the car for the long drive back home. We had a really nice trip to La Belle Province, but we were happy to be home again.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The kids had their St. Patrick's Day parties on Friday - they both wore their finest green clothes:

This is what happens when I ask the kids to sit closer together:

Clare showing off the leprechaun hat she made at school:

We did a bunch of crafts for St. Patrick's Day - we painted pictures with Irish colors:

 

We made a rainbow garland for decoration:

And Clare made us this cute little craft at school:

Beach in March

We took a trip to the beach earlier this month to spend time with the Sooy Babies' grandparents and great-grandparents. We smushed the kids into the beach buggy - I'm not sure they'll fit this summer...

When we hit the beach, the kids got busy digging in the sand. Then Clare put us notice that we'll be busy this summer -

Run run run!

Sean started digging a big hole and then set out along the water in search of treasure.

Sean's creature collection:

Despite the chilly temperatures and the cold, whipping winds, the kids didn't want to leave! Seems they're ready for summer. :-)