Tulip Festival

Kevin and I briefly lived in Belgium in 2005. We moved out there in May...one week after the big tulip extravaganza in Holland. Bummer

Easter Egg Hunt

We had a huge feast on Easter at my sister's house. And I'm serious when I say it was a huge feast. On top of the traditional ham, potatoes, rolls, etc. we all brought a finger food that we had never tried before. My cute cousin is getting married the beginning of May and she asked us to do the food. So we thought we'd try out a few new recipes and see if we came up with something fantastic. It was all so good that I couldn't stop from eating.

Even though my brother doesn't believe it, it's a tradition for the dads and grandpas to hide the Easter eggs for the first hunt. Tami's backyard was perfect for the hunt and the kids had lots of fun. So here's some pictures.

The kids stayed outside most of the evening to play. After Rylan hit Kirra over the head with a shovel I decided it was time for him to come inside. It was getting cold anyway and he and Kaleb were covered in sand from the sandbox. He had so much fun though that a sandbox is on the top of our list for spring projects (if we could get some consecutive sunny days around here. Yesterday it was snowing like it was December!).

A Glimpse of our Easter Fun

I had been prepping Rylan for Easter for the past couple of weeks. Of course we talked about the Easter bunny and eggs and candy, but I also really tried to talk a lot about the true meaning of Easter, the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I always wonder how much really gets through to him especially when his part of the conversation is usually just a "yeah". I guess we just keep trying right?

Easter morning we tried playing hot and cold with Ry to help him find his basket. It took quite a bit of time but once he found it and realized what we were doing, he wanted to play again and again. Of course we never re-hid the basket so it wasn't much of a hunt but that was just the way Ry wanted it.

Even with 1:00 church we didn't have time to take pictures of the boys before so we waited until after church when Asher was covered with spit up and Rylan's clothes were wrinkled. They still look adorable! And of course I couldn't just choose one or two pictures cause they are too cute!

Easter Festivities

In spite of the rain on Saturday we took Rylan to the city egg hunt. Each field had a different age group and really, I'm surprised how many people were there. I guess the rain wasn't stopping anyone from having some fun. The fun lasted about 30 seconds though with a limit of 4 eggs per child. I think we were probably the only ones who followed the rules though because we saw parents opening up dozens and dozens of eggs, looking for the free stuff I'm sure (they had eggs filled with candy and some with coupons for free bread, or a car wash, or whatever). If you know Ry you won't be surprised to hear that I was actually the one to do the "hunting". "No, you do it" is his response to most everything these days and with his timid personality he wasn't about to start battling other kids for eggs (even though there were eggs a plenty scattered all over the field). Rylan was super excited to find M&M's in one of his eggs and as soon as we got home I let him eat them. He passed up the taffy which I ended up throwing away but he did eat and enjoy the bit o honey.

Saturday night we dyed eggs for our Easter day egg hunt with my family. Jana had invited us over earlier in the week to dye eggs so Ry was a pro and was (mostly) careful with the eggs

Asher loves watching Rylan and gets such a kick out of him. Usually it's Ry being goofy but no matter what his older brother is doing, Asher wants to watch.
Ry has a new found love for photography. Really, what kid doesn't want to play with a camera? But seriously, Rylan can take some pretty decent pictures such as this one...

I love dying Easter eggs!

Snoozing

This is what happens at 4:30 when Ry doesn't take a nap. I let him watch "Martha Speaks" (he loves that show. Now he sometimes even asks for it over Curious George...life is changing at the Doyle home!) while he ate some crackers so I could give Asher a quick bath. I came downstairs, what, 20 minutes later at the most, and there he was, crackers gone, head laying on the table, eyes closed. But isn't it so sweet?

He's at the transition stage where he still needs a nap but he doesn't want to take one. And if he does take a nap, then he refuses to go to bed when it's time. If he doesn't take a nap then either he falls asleep in the late afternoon or he's a bit more grouchy than usual. I've come to the semi-depressing conclusion that life is actually a bit easier when he doesn't take a nap...only because by 8:00 I'm ready to sit on the couch and read a book or watch some tv with my hubby. And if Ry is refusing to go to bed and we spend the next 2 or 3 hours putting him back in bed, I go to bed frustrated and exhausted, which is just not how I want to end my day!

So for now, we'll just deal with the late afternoon catnaps and the slight grumpiness so we can have a peaceful night :)

Oh how I love this little boy.

I can't even begin to tell you what a great baby he is.

Yes, we all love him :)