The Spring Chicken Again

The Spring Chicken was back again this year.    As I said last year: “Have you ever wondered where a big bunny that calls himself ‘Easter’ gets all those chicken eggs?  He gets them from the Spring Chicken.”  In order to entice her to your home you must make an offering of colored eggs, which we did on Sunday.  Are you wondering why the Easter bunny comes to your house and not the Spring Chicken?  I can’t answer that.  Maybe it has to do with faith.

Notice my fantastically clean and clothed children.  I like to stay on top of things like that.

Whenever it rains our yard turns into a slurping mud pit.  It’s a grand time if you’re under four.    Nick is wisely staying clear of the mess.

Here are our eggs soaking  in their nice colored baths.  You’ll notice the empty bowl on the top right, and the crying child in the picture below.  The two are related.  I told him he couldn’t dump out the dye, because then we wouldn’t have anything to color the eggs in. = Meltdown.

Rosalyn was unfazed by the ruckus and continued with her methodical mixing.

Which one is your favorite?  Mine is the dark blue-green by the light pink one.  Would that more things could be that color.

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So after our Easter Sunday, Monday the Spring Chicken finally came.  Nick took the kids on a scenic trip to the local landfill to say goodbye to two failed vacuums, and when they all returned they a found a chalk message leading to a letter which sent them on a scavenger hunt to find their baskets.

The kids were going pretty fast and therefore I didn’t get the greatest shot of the discovery of the baskets.

Soon, however the contents were enthusiastically emptied and the egg search had begun.

Compare to last year:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As we came inside and the kids started into their overflowing egg baskets I began to wonder “what was that Spring Chicken thinking – leaving so many eggs full of candy?”

The kids were not wondering the same thing.

They were trying to ascertain just how many pieces of candy could be consumed in under a minute.

and oreos…

and cheet-o carrots?

The Spring Chicken is a Junk food Junkie!  Maybe I’ll write her a letter about health food next year.

Nick moves in to remove some of the temptation from the kids.  He’s helpful guy.

I mean, really, what had that spring Chicken been thinking?

Adventures on Campus

Nick spends his entire day in this room.  Every single one of his classes takes place here.  But Nick is a champion with inner stillness to spare and when class is over he continues to sit in this room studying for a couple of hours until I come to pick him up with the kids I hang out with.

Nick -- passing along the wisdom he gained in this room just hours earlier.

And drawing a portrait of Roz.  It’s uncanny his ability to capture the small girl with dry erase. 

You can push a button at your seat which activates a microphone, and the camera turns on you.

I thought this was really interesting, so I was trying to take a picture of myself in the video picture.  There I am down there in the lower left.  Well, the more I tried to get in the picture the more the camera moved until finally I stated “it’s like someone is moving the camera.”  A loud voice came over the speakers “I AM.”

Nick seemed un-phased – perhaps he spends so much time in the room it speaks to him.  But no, there’s an AV tech that thought I looked suspicious.  So we stopped in to let him know that we’re cool.  It was 6:21.

And then we took the elevator to the second floor.

Where Nick used to work in a research lab.

And then proceeded up the stairs to the third floor.

We discovered a dead end stairwell and then headed back down.  The boys took the stairs, the ladies the elevator, and we all met back in the lobby to get our pictures with the deans.  Yes.  Hello, Deans

Then we headed out this hallway behind me.

And back to the van.  What an adventure.

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But these adventures happen all the time, so here is another.  This time: a trip to the bell tower that turned into much more than a mere trip to the bell tower. 

We’re off to a good start:

She popped right up and we arrived at the tower:

This tower has a Carolina blue tile ceiling.  It is Roz approved.

I then convinced Nick that dinner out was brilliant and we headed over to Wendy’s…

…via the entirely unnecessary escalator trip.  Well, it is not unnecessary if you’ve a few 2 and 3 year olds around.  Note:  the pictures are a wee bit blurry because my kids run everywhere and therefore I run everywhere.

Here we are checking out the goods in the student union.  Overpriced.

Then a sweet and thoughtful gal who noticed me running after everyone taking pictures offered to take a picture of all of us together.  Yes, the tourist photo on campus, because really, that’s what we are every night.

Maps are high excitement when you’re three and know exactly where you are and where you are going.  Watching moving traffic is high excitement when you are two.  And taking pictures like  a tourist is high excitement when you’re in your late twenties and you have kids like mine.

The map worked and we did arrive at Wendy’s.  Wendy’s was not featured on  the map.  We ordered.

We ate.

We went to the pool.

Roz really couldn’t understand why we weren’t swimming.  Luckily, we are observant parents and stopped this desperate attempt at getting in.

We headed back to the van once again.

This is what my family likes to do.

Gingerbread House 2012

This year our gingerbread house started with some serious internet research.  I’ve an entire pinterest board that I’ve started in years past.  But I wanted a really original shape, and I found this lovely cottage, and decided it would make an excellent gingerbread house shape.

And, yes.  I modeled it in SketchUp to get the right dimensions.

Annnnnd, yes, I made a cardboard model to make sure I had everything right and to make the stencils for the dough.

I made the dough with my mom

while Nick hammered jolly ranchers for stained glass.

The assembly.  Even after all that planning it turns out that we made all the pieces in mirror image of what I had imagined, and it threw me off a bit.  It still throws me off looking at it.

My parents planned on making a forest:

Here I am using tweezers to place holly berries.

The mess of candy:

I was all concentration, but at some point (when Nick conveniently had a camera in his hand) I heard something that I evidently found entirely startling.  This picture makes me laugh and laugh.

And here’s the finished house:

Look at Nick’s weathervane!

And our duck pond:

I like the shape of this house, but I think we needed another day of decorating.  More snow under the eaves, an awning over the front door, and a fence maybe.  And a snowman.  I miss the snowman from 2010.  Each year I hope to get better and better, so check back next year.

My mom said she saved this house in a box!  I guess you can check back next year for its condition as well.  Will the weathervane duck still stand?  Only time will tell.