Happy Easter 2011!

We had a very good Easter weekend.

On Saturday, we started the day with a little Easter egg hunt at our favorite nursery.  Rachel was excited to find candy in the egg!

 The rest of the day was spent with the Sutherlands, Martins and Rays.  We had a great time with everyone over at our house.

 Rachel had a lot of fun with Taylor, Ethan and Emily.

 Mimi taught her how to blow bubbles.

 The Martin kids are great Wii dancers.

 We enjoyed a tasty meal and had a great time talking with everyone.

On Sunday morning, Rachel discovered her Easter basket.

After church, we did a mini Easter egg hunt in our backyard.  Rachel really likes finding eggs.

We had plans to have lunch with friends on Sunday but unfortunately they were not able to make it.  So, we hit the Ikea Easter brunch instead.  Rachel wanted to bring her basket and was very happy to meet the Easter bunny.

Her final Easter present was a new stool so she can wash her hands herself.

She appreciates her newfound independence!

Wes' First MS150

Wes has been training for the MS150 ride from Houston to Austin and the ride weekend finally arrived!

 Rachel helped daddy get his bike ready.

 Unfortunately the original bike developed a crack in the frame, so Annette and Rachel had to meet Wes on day 1 in Fayetteville to drop off the backup bike.

 Rachel enjoyed seeing all of the bike riders and cheering towns people.

On Sunday Wes reached the finish line, near the capitol building in Austin. 

 Obligatory bike hoisting picture.

Rachel is looking forward to doing the ride in a few years.

New Pool

One more thing we did last weekend...we decided it was warm enough to get out our new pool.  Rachel loved it!  The water from the hose was still pretty chilly but she managed to stay in for quite a while.  She liked it so much that the first thing she asked to do when she woke up from her afternoon nap was "pool".

Waiting for the water to fill up

Jump!

Happy girl in the pool

Watering mommy's toes

Scary cheese face

Other Activities Around the House

We have also been putting Rachel to work lately.

She waters the garden.

She also helps with the laundry.

Sometimes, I try to convince her to take cute pictures in the garden and she refuses.  You should note in this picture that our tomatoes are already taller than Rachel.

Fortunately, she cheers up pretty quickly with a juice box and takes cute pictures in a slightly less picturesque setting.

The zoo again already? And Miller Outdoor?

It is true - there are a few things that we really enjoy doing.  Two of our favorites are the zoo and Miller Outdoor Theatre.  We managed to fit both in last weekend.

We started with the Zoobilee member's event on Thursday.  Rachel still enjoys all of the exhibits and she did a good job getting her "passport" stamped at various stations around the zoo.

We had dinner overlooking the giraffes.  Do you see their brand new baby?

Rachel loved watching them as usual.

Wes got to go with us too so that made it extra fun.

Rachel is an expert on the drums.

And very fast through the piranha tunnel.

At the end of the evening, she was checking out the loot that she got in her bag.

Hairspray by HITS was playing at Miller Outdoor last weekend.  We got some Subway sandwiches and headed over there.  We forgot our chairs so we got to see what life is like on the blanket side of the hill.  The show was very good, even though most of the cast was teenagers.  It did not start until 8 so we had to head home at intermission so we did not keep Rachel up too late.

Enjoying our dinner

Stealing my sandwich when I got up to take a picture

She's Crafty

Rachel has been enjoying doing a wide variety of crafts these days.  She really likes to color, finger paint, stick stickers and glue things.

I interrupted her coloring to get her to say "Cheese!"

Here is an assortment of her projects - fingerpaintings, glued cups, collages, and flowers stuck to popsicle sticks.

Here we are working on gluing some cups.

Deciding what picture to put on her collage next.

More gluing.

Sidewalk chalk with Carrie and Holden

She has even taken up photography - she took this great picture of Holden.

Bluebonnets

Spring has definitely sprung!  The bluebonnets that we have seen this year have not been as plentiful as in prior years, but we were still able to find a patch that was just right for some pictures.  Mostly, Rachel prefers to explore rather than have her picture taken but she has mastered the art of saying "Cheese!" at least some of the times you point a camera at her.  Most of the time, we just get more of a blank look out of her during photo sessions.  Here is what we ended up with:

Why am I sitting here?

Ooooh....look at this one!

Why are you still taking pictures of me?

Wes made valiant efforts to get her to look and smile at the same time.

And he was successful!

She cooperated and smelled the flower as Wes instructed

Here, she was saying "Cheese!" and it resulted in a scary face

By the end, she just wondered "how do these flowers taste?"