Ashton Alan & Aiden James: Happy Easter 2014

In preparation for Easter, eggs needed to be colored. I think this activity held their attention for 5 minutes and then it was Adam and I who were coloring all the eggs.

Goof Balls.

This is a early warning for some 'cheese' smiles. I can definitely tell when they are NOT in the mood for pictures. Their smiles are forced and painful at times.

Ashton concentrating with his tongue out. I used to do that as well...

I don't know what is better - a forced cheese smile or no smile!

Earlier in the week Nana brought the boys their own Easter decoration for their dresser. Their own Easter Bunny!

On Friday I needed to run some errands. What place has all the stores I needed to go to? The Mall of America! The first store I went into, all the boys said was, "Mom let's go. Are we done? Let's GO!" Yep, there for five hours and I went into three stores. One was a toy store, one was a kids clothing store, and I then made it to DSW to exchange some shoes. The last store I wanted to go in was Fossil but it was closed for remodeling... go figure. The boys wanted to go to Lego Land so we did. These pictures were made of all single little Legos.

We went in by the rides and they didn't ask to go on any... so I didn't push it!

They did race some boats.

It was crazy at lunch time. Unfortunately we didn't get to eat at Rain Forest Cafe because of the long line. Maybe next time! While everyone was eating, there was no line for the Easter Bunny. I didn't have plans to see the Bunny as I though Ashton would be scared. He is scared of most every mascot thing around. No line and two little boys who ran right up to the bunny... We'll take it!

He was silly playing peek-a-boo.

Friday night as we were headed out for a get together at the neighbors, we saw three deer taking a drink from the pond. If you look right by the sign, they didn't even care we were out and about making noise!

Nora turned ONE! Happy 1st Birthday Nora. We were invited to her house for cupcakes and had a blast playing with all the neighborhood kids.

Saturday we joined Gramma and Grampa at their hotel for some swimming fun. Nana gave them a small early Easter present... GOGGLES!

They liked the 'warm' pool more than the other one. Me too!

Three little heads watching the Brewers...

and eating Yogurt.

It's so fun watching Elise try and keep up with the older kids.

After swimming, Gramma had some "Bunny Butts" waiting. I think Ashton ate three...

You know the kids are spoiled when their loot doesn't even fit in the basket! It was a dinosaur, truck, hockey puck, and kite kind of Easter! The bunny was very good about having green items for Aiden and Blue items for Ashton.

Ashton was the first awake (what else is new?) and he found his brother's basket in the dining room.

Once Aiden was awake, he then found his brother's basket in the entry way. I remember many of years that my older brother actually found my basket before I had the chance to.

It was a pretty rushed morning to wake up, find the baskets, eat jelly beans for breakfast and head off to church... all by 8:00 a.m.

They did well in church, although they don't quite know when to use their quiet voices... Their dinosaurs were well behaved too!

How are these for some forced smiles? They wanted to be D.O.N.E. and get home to their basket goodies!

Gramma and Grampa joined us at our church to also see the boys' preschool.

After church we couldn't wait for Elle and Elise to get to the house for some pictures!!!

COUSINS

I could take pictures of Elise all day!

I'm not sure how Aiden is making only half of his mouth smile, but hey... Ashton is pretty much done with pictures at this point too!

We tried...

The Out-laws and the In-laws.

We are so very lucky to have many loving grandparent figures in the kids' lives!!!

After brunch we headed outside to look for some Easter Eggs. Some had candy and some had money! Elle would leave some of the eggs if they weren't PINK...

Ashton started sprinting and I think he had the most eggs in the end. He didn't care what color they were or where they were. He did want to stop and eat the candy in the first one he found. Then he figured out the objective and he was driven to get to them swiftly and quickly.

Aiden had his game face on and turned ultra-competitive, but was disappointed if the eggs weren't "green like his blankie." (Ashton has a blue blankie and Aiden has a green blankie so these have been "their colors" since birth). Right now they are okay with things being different as long as they are green and blue... but every thing else needs to be the "same". Ashton wants blue shoes and Aiden wants green shoes, their coats can be green and blue as well. Phew.

On a mission to circle the house again. They did not want the hunt to be over.

Elise joined right in. We encouraged the big kids to leave some obvious ones behind.

Ashton was in jelly bean heaven.

Aiden took a minute to enjoy one of his eggs he found.

After the egg hunt, we headed back inside for some treats from Gramma and Grampa.

Gramma and Grampa just came back from Disney, so FROZEN shorts were in their baskets!!! Frozen has been the favorite movie for the last month or so...

Some new stylin' "shines"!

Pretty cool DUDE.

Aiden looked through his truck book right away.

A tradition that I can remember in my childhood was a kite in our Easter basket every year. This tradition continues with the boys. It wasn't the best day for wind so it took some extra work to get them up in the air. Price had to help...

Grampa had the idea to pull it behind the 4-wheelers. Great idea Grampa, until they wanted to look behind them to watch the kite instead of where they were driving... no accidents so we are good!

We had two little boys running as fast as they could up the road to get their kites in the air. Such determination these two had. I will say later in the afternoon, the wind picked up and we got them back out. Within 5 minutes the boys were bored of hanging onto the kites so Adam and I were flying the kites. I'm sure the neighbors we wondering why Adam and I were walking down the road flying kites as the boys were off to a new activity. The attention span of a ant.... did I already say that about dying the eggs?!?!?!

In other news, the boys went to their first baseball game of the season to watch the Mustangs and AJ on Thursday night... it was chilly! It felt like we should have still been at a hockey game, but they had fun.