Easter 2014

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! For the second year in a row, the Bookers went out to the farm with some friends for an egg hunt and barbeque. This year we spent the day with the families of Harper's two best friends; Fiona and Zoe. It was so nice to relax with good food and some of our favorite people. The girls had a blast playing on the swingset and trying to finagle candy out of us in lieu of lunch. We caved, of course. Easter comes, after all, only one day a year.

And they're OFF!

Checking out her prize.

Fiona and Harper take a moment to strategize.

Zoe, Fiona and Harper trying out their new insect magnifying glasses. When we asked what they were looking at they answered enthusiastically, "Dirt and bugs!" You could tell they had a great time because they were absolutely filthy by lunch.

Easter Bunnies

Spring is here and, like everything else, Harper and Will  have been blooming. Harper is suddenly much taller and Will is scooting all over the house (our floors are spotless thanks to him), sitting up (when he isn't falling over), clapping (typically while he sucks his thumb), waving (kind of) and smiling with the most radiant, toothless grin! (in my mind I call him Gums McGee). So, despite today's forecast for April Showers, I took them out this morning for a little photo shoot. We were lucky enough to squeeze in a couple of photos before it started pouring rain. 

A little of this happened...

And, of course, there was a lot of this...

But, thankfully, they both stopped wiggling just long enough to get some cute shots, too.

 Gums McGee

Hopefully we'll get in another short shoot by next week. Enjoy the holiday, all!   

To the Nines

Will was up six times last night. SIX. So this morning I was a zombie. Brad was a Saint and offered to get up with the kids at 7:00 so I could (attempt to) get an extra hour of sleep, which I appreciated to no end. When I rolled out of bed the kids were fed and dressed. Like this:

Thank you for being such a good daddy, Brad!

  

Fortitude

At dinner tonight the conversation turned to the subject of morality. Specifically, theft. At one point Brad turned to Harper, who was listening intently, and asked, “Do you know what stealing is?” “What?” Harper asked. “Stealing is when you take something that doesn’t belong to you,” I answered and Brad added, “… because you lack moral fortitude. Do you know what moral fortitude is?” But he didn’t have a chance to finish because Harper jumped off her chair and scurried into her room while Brad and I continued the conversation.

  

A minute later she returned with this:

… a plastic model dinosaur(?), monster (?), post-Apocalyptic mutant from Hell (?) which she found at our neighborhood park a couple of weeks ago. She is now very concerned about the little boy or girl who may be missing it. 

So if you know to whom the Stuff of Nightmares belongs please let us know. It has had a hot bath and been tucked into bed every night since it has been under our roof. (To be clear, it was tail-less and forelimb-less when she discovered it.) Harper truly hopes it will find its way home to the little boy or girl who loves it (straw not included). 

We are so proud of our little moral compass! 

  

Luck O' The Irish

The thing about green food coloring is that it immediately renders everything it touches visually unappealing and, therefore, unappetizing.

Due to the fact that both Brad and I have more than a little Irish heritage, I felt obligated to celebrate St. Patrick's Day today (however feebly). As such, when Brad got home from work he and Harper made a leprechaun trap (which promptly caught one very sneaky and quick little leprechaun), then we had green eggs and pancakes for dinner (green eggs and ham would have been more poetic but we've got a lot of vegetarians around here), plus Harper walked around all day with a rubber snake. And then there is this:

Irish eyes are smiling.

Yes, that is green food coloring in her bath. 

Yes, it is likely I will regret this later.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, from the Bookers!

To Tide You Over

I'm just finishing our California vacation post. Hopefully I'll get enough time to sit down and post it in the next couple of days. In the meantime, Will has been working on crawling in earnest.

Now that is one seriously cute smile.

Sixth Month Milestone

Will is six months old today. Six whole months! In celebration we introduced his first solid food... oatmeal!

He did pretty well. Of course, he made the I don't know how I feel about this face. And he tried to grab the spoon with his sticky little fingers. And more of it ended up on him than in him. But, for the most part, mission accomplished.

The entire experience made me nostalgic; for when he was a sweet, cuddly little newborn, for the days when Harper was trying food for the first time and so on (see here: http://bookerpack.blogspot.com/2011/04/oatmeal-bath.html). Where are my babies going?