What better way to spend a Sunday that with a trip to the local bagel shop for some breakfast to eat almost pick nick like at the park. It's almost a pick nick if you eat it in the car at the park, right?

Lately at our house we've had a case of Monkey-See, Monkey-do. Location is no obstical.

So, Thing 1 teeter-totters



Thing 2 teeter-totters



Thing 1 swings



Thing 2 swings



Thing 2 took another spring loaded toy for a quick jaunty ride, just to mix it up a little




Once we were home, I distracted Julia with cartoons and snuggles, so Gramma and Antonio could work on this art project that she gave him for Christmas. It's this Chinese lantern with kit so you can decorate it yourself. Antonio did a marvelous job painting it.

The kids have some magnetic type toys, and when we purchased the new fridge a while back, I didn't know that stainless steel appliances ignore magnets. So, the kids have had either magnetic type toys in their original packaging or carted around in a basket.
This afternoon, in a flash of creativity, I picked up some magnetic white boards for each of the rooms, so they could indulge in their magnetty play.

Each are pretty educational too (thank you Gramma) and both kids were happy to see the surprises in their rooms.
Can't you see it in her face?



Antonio, I know, is going to have a lot of fun with his...



Read, " My brother makes a scary noise down the road after dark slowly on the roof the big dinosaur drives a car to be too fast the end"

I took Julia shopping for new shoes too. Once we reached her size section, she immediately honed in on some camouflage rain boots, and as I'm trying to coax her into a pair of Hello Kitty sneakers, she's kicking to free her foot as she's trying to grab those rain boots out of the box. I was able to distract her with the notion of trying on two different kinds of Hello Kitty shoes at the same time, for less than a minute. It's difficult to find non-character shoes for little kids, and I figured H.C. was less of a marketing evil that Dora or Tinkerbell. Then she spotted a pair of pink polka dot rain boots, in her size and it was true love.

Still she needed sneakers and after the initial boot try on, she reluctantly gave up one foot for further sneaker trying on-ing.
She happily marched out of the store with those polka dot rain boots, and lovingly looked at her foot the whole drive home saying, "Ohhhh nice boots!" every thirty seconds or so.

Now she thinks that putting on those boots is her ticket to outdoor freedom, so along with those new boots I'll be buying a bracer for the sliding door to the back yard.

After a late night, up early for pre-dawn preparation, I was woken up by the little one shouting, "My pee'd pants! Choklate!!!"
She had discovered her basket, deftly unwrapped the largest piece of chocolate in it and gnawed off its ears. A quick wipe down and change of clothes, and it was time for some coffee and the day to start.



Antonio had a mouthful of some kind of candy, and was already planning out how he was going to make it last more than 20 minutes.



We helped the kids get everything out of their baskets to make room for eggs that the Easter Bunny had hid all over the yard and turned them loose.



Julia was so excited to find eggs and would stand at each spot that she found one nattering about how excited she was to have found one, which left more for the boys to find.
Once we moved to the front yard, Antonio, whose basket was stuffed with eggs, helped Julia find the rest.



Grandparents arrived just as all the sugar they had for breakfast was wearing off. They brought goodies for a nice Easter brunch, and then, the saviors they are, took the boys to the park so Misty and I with our Thing 2's could take a much needed nap.

The rest of the day was pretty low key, with intermittent sneakery of candy from the littles, but as long as they leave a few good pieces of chocolate, all will be cool

It was 80 degrees today, and such a beautiful day.
The kids helped me wash the cars, each of them with their own bucket, because sharing isn't always a successful operation lately. Julia got a little sprayed and stripped down nekked at the end of the driveway. We finally convinced her to at least put panties on which is how she finished washing the car. After that was done, since they were already wet and Julia should probably wear a little more clothes, we set up the sprinkler for them.



We hung out and watched the festivities.
Later on, after popsicles and some dinner, they decided to mellow out.



The chocolate fu-manchu is what doesn't convince me.

Since spring weather is unpredictable for consistant outside play, and since the boys were getting a bit cagey in the afternoons, we signed them up for swim lessons. Antonio was finally able to get into level 4, which had him doing laps in the deep end. The first lesson was pretty tough for him, he hadn't swam in almost a year, but by the second lesson he was doing much better. Each one he improved, and he was able to keep up with the other kids by the time the 5 week session was over.

The Man has a softball tournament coming up in some port over there. He didn't expect to play softball this deployment, so he sent me a wish list of things to send so he could play. Somehow, between him being sort of organized and me sort of paying attention where he keeps everything I was able to find everything.
Julia helped me double check the list before packing things up.