Easter JOY!

We had a wonderful Easter!  We did an Egg Hunt at Kidsquest museum the weekend before... Ry Ry and Mei Mei had fun with it, but it was over in a flash.  I think they had the most fun just playing at the museum with both of us!  On Easter weekend we had family worships talking about the Easter story each day, enjoyed church, and had a special breakfast on Easter and our own little egg hunt in our yard outside.  We loved getting out in the woods for a short hike in the afternoon and talked about all the signs of spring and new growth we could see as we celebrated Jesus' resurrection... what joy and hope we have in Him and this amazing miracle. We also planted some seeds the week before and had fun watching them sprout and grow.

Soooo sweet!  We had great luck this day getting them to pose together!!

Searching for little bunnies in the Easter grass.  At the Kidsquest egg hunt, they had several creative stations set up outside for the kids to explore before it was time for the hunt.  

Ry getting his bunny face

Bunny ears for my cutie! Mei Mei helped make them :)

The hunt is on... got another one!

Finding stickers and other little toys inside!

Ry is loving the lego table they recently set up at the museum

Dada is helping in this photo, but Mei Mei really enjoys playing this clever wooden zylophone bench

Ry wanted to give the Easter bunny a hug!

On the leaf slide/climbing area together

This slide is one of her favorite things to do there

JOY! :)

Opening Easter treats from Grandmama and Grandpa Larry while we were skyping with them :)

Dressed up for church on Easter weekend

Ry was so excited for our egg hunt outside on Easter :)

Yay!!

Found another one!!!

Mmmmm, chocolate!! We also read verses about the Easter story that we put in some of the eggs.

Legos are still the favorite toy at our house... so we got Ry Ry and Mei Mei some new legos for finding all their eggs!  Such a fun weekend of time together as a family and celebrating!

Toddler time

We have a great toddler time at our community center down the street that we've been going to since Ry turned one.  Maylee loves it too!  She and I play there while Ry is at his sports class, and we also go on other days so Ry can play too.  He even has a buddy, Griffin, who's his age who's often there when we are, and they have a grand time chasing each other around on the trikes or trying to play basketball.  These are a variety of pictures from different times we were there (all the way back to last July) :).

Playing in one of the tunnels last July... can't believe how little Maylee looks! :)

Ry racing on a tricycle (middle of the photo)

Maylee has been into getting the basketball in the hoop for months now!  She loves it when I hold her up and let her make a basket :)

 Maylee giving Ry a push (in their Halloween outfits last Halloween :) )

On the rocking horse in November

Hitching a ride from big brother in December

Rocking together in January

Loving the slide!  The sweater she's wearing is one of the few things both Ry and May have worn (she wore some of his baby clothes, but most things after that haven't worked for a girl)  It was knitted for Ry by our sweet friend Amanda at church (who's also our favorite babysitter :) ).  This and the following photos are all from March.

Sit n spin - blast from the past!

"Playing" basketball with Griffin (he's out of the photo and close to the basket)

Still having fun in the tunnels!  She loves it when I pop my head in and play peek-a-boo

This is a little roller coaster which has been a favorite the last several months!

One last Christmas post!

I know Christmas is in the distant past now, but I realized I didn't post highlights of the kids opening gifts that our family mailed us before (and after) we went on our trip (they ended up in the folder for late January which I've gotten to recently)... so here they are for our family  :).  I really think it was more fun for our two to have several days of opening a few gifts a day, rather than one day with tons of gifts, and Ry Ry and Mei Mei loved it!  Thank you again to our family for the wonderful gifts... they're still playing with and enjoying everything!

Maylee has enjoyed playing with this activity book in the car

Maylee's first little purse :)

Oh boy a curious George matching game!

WOW a rocket!!

Blast off!!!

Loving his take apart crane truck that he "assembled" himself!

Fun with cupcakes... She loves "baking" these in their kitchen set oven and feeding them to her baby doll! :)

So happy!

Maylee (and Rylan) also love to scoot and push each other on their racer ride-on toy from Granmommy and Big Dad, but I don't have any good pictures of them on it! Will try to add some later!

We also did an Advent calendar for the first time this past Christmas, and the kids really enjoyed it!  We put verses of the Christmas story in with the wooden magnetic characters for each day, and read all the verses of the story as we added more characters to the nativity scene.  Ry especially enjoyed putting the characters in the stable, and it was a special way to learn about the Christmas story throughout the month.