Easter Egg Roller Coaster

We have had many ups and downs in trying to attend the White House Easter Egg Roll again. When the tickets went exclusively online I thought, "that beats camping over night on the ellipse." And then we actually tried to get the tickets. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

The joke was on us, and half the other people around here. The internet site was bogged down so quickly that the tickets were gone too fast. We had three adults on high speed connections trying to get tickets, but the site kept crashing from the high traffic. After a while we gave up on that method.

Then Todd decided to try the old fashioned way, ask people he knew. We didn't count on getting tickets, just hoped and waited. Then, at the end of last week, we got great news. One lady had enough tickets for our little family. Hooray!!!!!!

We again got excited and started planning out our trip. I could hardly contain my excitement, for although past years had been a little stressful, it was always so much fun. They had always had sponsors that handed out fresh fruit, small drinks and trinket toys even before you got into the actual egg roll. Then you got a little candy, egg decorating kits, collectors egg, poster, coloring books upon entering and hardly had to walk around to find entertainers roaming the lawn, small stages set off to the side, and just in general had a lot of fun.

The big day finally came and we all went down, happy and ready for a great time. We walked from Todd's office as we ate our meager ham sandwiches. On the way we even got to see a large motorcade go through, which was kinda cool. Finally we reached the ellipse and got our first shock of the day. No activities on the ellipse. What?????? Only rows of ropes like cattle chutes. So we stood there in line for an hour, trying to entertain the kids.

Finally we got to move through security only to stand in another line for an hour. The "entertainment" was a middle aged man, trying to be a DJ, while dancing around in a strange orange outfit. Eventually they brought a magician on stage, but very few people wanted to leave their place in line to go watch.

Finally, we go inside. Yay!!!! Oh, wait.............you can only enter half of the activities if your child is 6 years or older. A little strange considering to even get tickets you have to have a child 10 or younger. So we bipassed those activites from which we were excluded and went for the egg roll, chose the short line and got through quickly, only to discover that there was not the traditional piece of candy at the end. So we're trying to console a competitive 5 year old, without sugar as a distraction, while trying to figure out what is left that we're allowed to do, all while attempting to talk loud enough to be heard over the pounding hiphop music from the stage. Yeah, again, music and entertainment geared toward older teenagers at a young child event? Have these event planners ever seen a young child?

We trudged down to the egg hunt, hoping for something better. With some cute smiles they sift through the straw to find the eggs and place them in the provided baskets. The kids get through only to have everything prised from their hands, yet again, with no real compensation. (Why would a toddler be happy about a poster?) I glanced at the egg dying station which would only give 1 egg per family, yeah like that would work with 2 kids and vinegar, and they had eliminated the egg decorating kit which was traditionally given to each family when leaving the area.

With our heads throbbing, our children exhausted and bored, and little to show for our efforts, we left to get our collectors egg. We were hoping that Ethan and Maya could each get their favorite colors, blue and purple, but no. Another let down. All eggs given out were a horrid lime green. Seriously????

I'm sure that this would have been an absolutely spectacular event, if we hadn't gone the last couple of years and had such wonderful experiences. We've yet to decide if we'll go again next year. All complaining aside, we did have some fun and the kids did enjoy parts of the day. It was also nice to be together as a family.

Monkey Business

Well, our spunky little monkey had some interesting experiences this last week. She is constantly growing like a weed. My little, not yet two year old is taller than some of her 3 year old friends. Yikes!!!

But she also likes putting things where they don't belong. She loves to put things into our intake duct for the furnace. I'm going to have to take off the vent cover and take an inventory of what's been in there. We know she's put in papers, crayons, probably puzzle pieces and maybe even some string cheese. (Apparently she takes after me in this, as I have a large scar from doing the same thing with my finger when I was about her age.)

Then she tried to shove a popsicle stick into the computer cooling vents. Yeah, not the best thing. I hope there's not much else in there.

And then there is her newest found hiding spot, her nose. Maya began her typical "owie, stuck" routine, which usually means her arm is wedged in the chair slats. So I go to release her to find her messing with her nose. I look and find that something tan in color is lodged in her nostril. For some reason, she pushed an unpopped pop corn kernel into her nose.

So, with Ethan's help to hold her still, I extracted her latest antagonist. But I do have to wonder, what will be next?

Renaming Our Roads

Biased as I know I am, I love watching my kids grow and develop, discovering new things and understanding concepts. Ethan gave us another moment of giggles as we drove the other day. We were turning right, but this particular intersection had a cut-out for the turn and included a yield sign.

After we made the turn, Ethan promptly informed us that we just went through a "yieldersection". We found that to be very appropriate, inventive and adorable. So, from now on I think that's what our family will call those little cut-outs. Hehe!!

Gone Fishing

Ethan has been fixated on getting a fishing pole and having daddy take him fishing. We decided to make that the theme for his birthday party.

So of course we needed bait. The kids started by making some creepy crawler bugs.

What's fishing without worms? The kids obediently dug their gummy worms out of the cups of chocolate pudding and oreo cookies. A few of them even liked it.

The kids fished in our pond, to gather some fish stickers. Somehow we missed pictures of that.

We ate our catch. Okay, so it was chocolate cake covered in cream cheese icing. Obviously, I'm no professional, but it worked out pretty good.

And we ended the day with some present opening chaos.

I think he was pretty happy with the events of the day.

Christmas Joys

It didn't take much convincing to get the kids up on Christmas morning. And despite the look on Ethan's face, they really were excited.

Through our trip to Disneyworld and riding the carousel, Maya cemented her love of horses. This made her Christmas morning all the more joyous when she saw her rocking horse, which has galloping and horse noises and some animation of the head and tail. She has spent several hours riding her horse since. She has also loved her various dolls (her babies).

Ethan loved getting his toy tools and a new air plane addition to his train set. We had the livingroom covered with a huge setup. Luckily, we have enough trains and remotes for everyone to play because Maya refused to be left out of the fun.

Of course, a miniature city means that somebody's going to play monster and knock it down.

By mid-day, the kids had more fun than they could handle.

Todd got some gear and accessories for his new hobby. Todd managed to keep a surprise and obtained a string of pearls for Maya and I, thanks to a colleague who had traveled to China. I also got some books to complete "The Great and Terrible" series. So I've spent the last two weeks fussing over food storage, water and emergency supplies after reading about potential events in the last days.

Disney World Was a Blast!!

We obviously found the drums in the Africa section of the Animal Kingdom.




Maya was much more enthralled with meeting the characters. Ethan tended to take a swing at them until we got after him for being rude.


Todd and Maya trekking through the jungle. Okay, well somewhere within the Animal Kingdom. I'm not sure exactly where I snapped the photo.


ET and Stitch, before the feud. To test his strength, Ethan clasped hands with Stitch. They then both pushed to see who was stronger. Ethan pushed Stitch back a ways. It was about time for Stitch to go, so we started to leave. Stitch followed Ethan with his hands up to request a rematch. It was great fun.


Here's Maya kissing Tigger. She must really like Tigger, because he's the only character that received a kiss, at least from Maya. Ethan was kissing a cute French hostess at one of our dinners.

Christmas Soon Will Be Here

We can't escape the excitement of Christmas. Especially now that Ethan is almost 5. He is more than a little enthusiastic every time he sees Christmas lights as we drive around, or decorations in the stores.

We recently received a gingerbread house kit, which he saw. Of course he started hounding us to make it ever since we got it. So, one evening before he could ask yet again, we broke out the set and made a gingerbread house.

The kids loved it, and I have to say, with really young kids the sets are the way to go. We've baked our own gingerbread and made our own icing in years past. All that waiting wears on the patience of little ones. This kit had all the pieces cut and icing already in a squeezable bag. Simple, slightly neater and much faster for that holiday tradition.

I'm not saying we won't bake them in the future when the kids are older, have more patience, and better fine motor skills. But for the next few years I think I'm going to cheat a little. At least on the gingerbread houses for the kids. We may become quite the gingerbread family if the excitement factor holds out a few more years.