A Little Bribe

We have been really busy here- we just closed on a home and are eagerly working on painting and carpeting so that we can move in mid-June. Of course the kids were going to need something to entertain themselves with while we worked on the house, and we had to resort to a bit of bribery to get Lauren to agree to move to the new house! This Gator did the trick! And luckily she has a huge, flat yard to explore now. I think it is safe to say Lauren and Leah enjoyed their first afternoon with the Gator!

Easter Recap

Yes, I realize I am 3 weeks late on this, but I still wanted to share. We had a great Easter this year. The kids had a blast looking for Easter Eggs and their baskets, and Ella even learned a new smile for the occasion! She still does this smile every time you get out the camera, it is pretty funny.

The Weimert EasterThe 3 CousinsElla's new smile:) She says "cheese" while she does it.On Easter Sunday we headed to Dave and Kelly's house for the Krumm Easter. Lauren and Ella are in their matching dresses that Grace and Lucy wore a few years ago. We are hoping their new dresses will be passed down... they were beautiful! Grace and Ella

Enjoying dinner
Some time on the swingset...

And the egg hunt!

Maggie helping Ella find her egg.

Ella, Cal, and Lucy

Lauren really wanted to catch the chicken! Good thing grandma bought some new baby chicks for her to hold!

Tired bunny:)

Easter Eggs

I had planned on skipping the whole dyeing Easter eggs tradition this year because I thought maybe Lauren was still a little young. But when I saw how cheap the kits were at the store, I couldn't resist! So we tackled the project this weekend and Lauren had a blast. She really did a great job, and now we have beautiful, glittery eggs to eat (when Lauren isn't looking, since every egg is her favorite and she doesn't want you to ruin it:).

Another Wish Fulfilled

For the last couple months Lauren has been talking a lot about wanting to ride a horse at Uncle Pat and Aunt Terri's. When there was still snow on the ground, I used that as an excuse and said she had to wait until the snow was all gone. And guess what she remembered the second the snow melted? Yep, she couldn't wait to go ride the horses. So when we were in NR last weekend we took a trip to Pat and Terri's. Lauren was very excited, and true to her word, she got on the horse and then asked if she could stay on it while it walked around! She did great, and will be asking to do that again and again:) While we were there the kids also fed the chickens and collected all of the eggs. Thank you Pat and Terri for all of the fun!

Uncle Pat brought out the worms for the chickens and Ella had no problem digging right in! She spoiled those chickens!

Lauren and Leyton collecting eggs

Lauren giving Norma Jean a treat

And Ella giving Norma Jean a treat with the help of grandma!

Lauren's first time on Twinkle

Probably about her 4th time sitting on Twinkle- showing Ella how it is done

Walking with Uncle Pat and Grandpa

Loving it:)

A Visit With the Easter Bunny

Last weekend we were in New Richmond and stopped by the Centre to see the Easter Bunny. Lauren has been begging to see the Easter Bunny for quite awhile now, and she doesn't understand when I tell her how many days/weeks she has to wait. He isn't making an appearance at the Rice Lake Mall until the Friday before Easter, so I was pretty happy we were able to catch him earlier. They also did an egg hunt at the Centre so the kids were excited. And just like Lauren promised, she walked right up to the Easter Bunny and told him she wanted a jump rope. She is a bit confused that he still hasn't delivered this, but I think she will be that much more excited to wake up and find her basket when the day finally arrives! And now everything she does, she tells me she thinks the Easter Bunny will like..... for instance, yesterday she put on some (a lot) of my lip gloss and said, "I think maybe the Easter Bunny will like this on me."

Grace helping Ella with the egg hunt

A Day of Firsts

Today was Lauren's first day of school! Okay, not really, but we did go observe at a Lutheran preschool this morning. While it didn't surprise me that she wouldn't talk to the teachers and wanted to hold my hand and keep me close, I was surprised how quickly she warmed up. I am sure it helped that it was "free-time, aka, play-time" while we were there, but she jumped right in and made her way around the room playing. And she didn't run away crying when a nice little girl wanted to talk to her and play with her! She actually didn't want to leave, so we stayed for almost 2 hours. We will be attending the open house next week so Dan can check it out, but it looks promising.

Showing off the flower she made at preschool

Next we took Lauren for her first haircut. I had planned on finding a very kid-friendly salon (which doesn't exist in Rice Lake), but I decided that either way she was just going to sit there very seriously and not show much emotion. So she agreed that it would be fun to go where daddy gets his haircut, nothing fancy, just good old Great Clips! She did really well, didn't like having her hair combed over and over, but also didn't cry and scream like she does for me. She sure is turning into a big girl.

Very serious

First cut!

I promise to post a picture of her new haircut, but she is taking a much needed nap. Probably won't be able to tell much of a difference, we kept a lot of the length and added some bouncy layers.

Letting Ella in on the Fun

It is usually pretty stressful during the day when Lauren wants to get out the scissors and paints and glue to do art projects- because little miss Ella thinks she is a big girl too and wants to join the fun. She used to be satisfied with some crayons, but now she is old enough to realize she is missing out. While it means a little extra clean-up for me, she sure enjoys painting. Here she is working on one of her masterpieces:)