Spring Holidays

We've been fortunate enough to enjoy a variety of spring holidays during the past couple of months. We've also been fortunate enough to have some sunny Saturdays that we have tried to maximize.

First up, Easter.

It wouldn't be complete without some exciting egg dye-ing. It made me slightly nervous to do this over our light carpeted kitchen but we managed to not spill anything.


Easter Sunday began bright and early. The children found their baskets and the Easter bunny was even kind enough to bring one for Nell that her parents graciously ate.

Nell was not thrilled to pose for a picture after church, so this is the best we could get.


Similar to his Halloween basket, Jonas can be very creative with how to carry his Easter basket with him. Here are some examples...

Around his neck (slightly uncomfortable but then again, the candy could always be consumed trough style) and somehow he convinced Clara to join him.


But then he discovered how well it fit in the back of his red car and that was pushed all over the house. This basket saw lots of mileage.

The most exciting holiday for Clara was the Royal Wedding. After learning about it for weeks leading up to the big 29 April event, Clara knew more about the Royal family than I did. She made many art projects centered around William and Kate and had a fun street party at school to celebrate. She even used her money she has been saving to buy a royal wedding doodle book. It was even a national holiday, so with the day off school we camped out at my friends house and watched the events together.

My favorite part was when I overheard Clara singing "God Save the Queen", which she'd learned at school. Here's a demo:

Next up was Mother's Day. We had a great weekend and enjoyed a hike through a nearby forest covered in bluebells. It was beautiful although hard to capture on camera.



Clara had a fabulous time running around.


Sometimes we get Nell out of her stroller prison just so we can prove to her later that we did bring her along on our family outings.


Jonas saw a cricket field nearby and quickly became obsessed. We watched for a little while and he enjoyed clapping along with the players. He then talked about "cricket" for days afterwards.


Mother's Day was a great one. The only exception being when I tried once again to get some pictures after church and this time it was Jonas's turn to be grumpy. He ended up sitting inside throwing a fit.


At least these two were looking like adorable sisters.


Later that day Nell gave me some really nice Mother's Day smiles. Easily melted my heart.


There are many stately homes in our area and we recently visited two of them. The first is Nunnington Hall. The upper floor had a miniature doll house collection that was amazing but I couldn't take any pictures. We enjoyed our tour (even though a tour guide may have permanently scarred my children by telling unwelcomed ghost stories) but the best part was the peacock we saw in the garden afterwards.



The next weekend we went to Harewood House during a kite festival.


We had fun looking at the kites, the bird area and then touring the house and gardens. Devin had fun pushing the stroller up a very steep hill to the house.


My favorite part was the self guided servant tour. You could see where the servants worked and lived and got a better idea of what life was like for them. Clara learned firsthand what it would have been like to be a milkmaid and I think she opted for keeping her current luxurious lifestyle.


Nell has been growing quickly and has been such a happy girl. She especially likes taking pictures of herself with her napping daddy...like this one.


In her mother's humble opinion, she is absolutely beautiful...

I know these are just about identical, but I couldn't decide which one I liked best...so why not put both?



Jonas continues to entertain us all. As his vocabulary continues advancing, along with his ability to express what's on his mind, we find ourselves chuckling, and worrying a bit, about what exactly is going on inside Jonas' mind. The latest case in point. When something is bothering his eyes, Jonas rubs them and explains that he has "meat in my eyes". Granted, we haven't checked as thoroughly as maybe we should, but we have yet to find any bits of meat building up in the corners of his eyes.

The best news is that we had another bedroom switcheroo. After a few months of trying to make it work with Jonas and Clara sharing a room I gave up my dream (along with all the time I had put into making their room coordinated) and moved Jonas back into his own room. Peace has returned to our mornings and Jonas is now getting about 1.5 hours more sleep a night. I thought they'd eventually get used to it but it just wasn't happening. Life is much better now.