Easter Egg Hunt With the Best Neighbor Ever!

We have the best neighbors here! This is the first time where we have lived somewhere that we love our neighbors. The kids adore Kathy, the neighbor who lives behind us, and also her husband Jim. She goes to the playground and store with us, and always comes over to chat with us on nice days when we are outside. The kids also love Henry, her sweet little dog. Last Thursday, Kathy planned a little Easter Egg Hunt for the kids, with little prizes instead of candy. She hid the eggs in our yard, blue for Jack and pink for Sophie, and inside were little notes with a drawing of a little toy for the kids. They opened the little note, and there were pictures of toys on it. The kids had a blast, and Sophie got the hang of opening the paper right away. They were thrilled with the toys she got them, especially the magnifying glass. Jack wanted to find an ant right away! Thanks Kathy! :)

Jack finding an egg. He probably thinks there is candy in it!

Sophie finding an egg. I'm sure she is hoping for some candy!

Sophie helping Jack out by finding his blue egg. He helped her out later.

Opening the paper.

A little spring hat. Sophie loves dress up, and all things girly, so this was perfect!

A car for Jack. Also perfect for our car obsessed little boy.

Kathy teaching Jack how the magnifying glass works.

Daddy being crazy with Sophie. I capture the part on film where he let go, and she held on(for dear life!).

The kids with Kathy.

Baltimore Aquarium

Wednesday we took the kids to the Baltimore Aquarium in Baltimore. The kids have been watching "Finding Nemo" recently, and have become interested in fish, sharks, turtles, and other under water creatures. They are at the perfect age fore discovering! We left our house bright and early, and arrived at the Aquarium by ten. It was a good day to go, because although it was warmer outside, there weren't a lot of school kids there. This meant plenty of free space to roam! The kids loved it! When we first arrived, we spent a few minutes looking out at the boats in the Harbor, which Sophie loved.

Next, we went downstairs and watched the dolphins swimming in their tanks. Sophie was also fascinated by this. After the dolphins, we traveled over to the new jellyfish exhibit, which was very cool. If Sophie got too close to the tanks and touched them, Jack would tell her, "No Wofie!"

Next, we watched the scuba divers feeding the sting rays, or as the twins call them, "Mr. Ray." They loved this, and because there wasn't a crowd, we were able to get up close to the scuba diver, and watch her put squid into the sting rays mouths! We also saw a big sea turtle, and a couple of sharks. Sophie loved the one shark, because it had "Godots"(polka dots).

After we watched the sting rays, we watched the scuba divers feed the turtle lettuce, and walked around the Aqurium, and saw lots of different aquatic life.

Next, we went to the Dolphin Show. The kids loved watching the dolphins, and Jack would get excited and clap when they did a trick.

The most exciting thing for the twins was seeing Nemo! There were two clown fish in and anenome, and we told the twins it was Marlin and Nemo. They also loved finding Dori.

We also spent time in the Austrialian Rainforest, and watched fish spit at crickets so that they could eat them, watched birds and turtles up close, and tried to spy the monkeys, although they were hiding.

We walked across the way, and had lunch at the Cheescake Factory, but Jack was so tired he spent the entire lunch asleep on the table!

All in all, we had a blast, and the kids loved it. The next day, Jack told me, "I NEED to see the jellyfish!" Hopefully we will be repeating the trip sometime soon!

My Little Biker Gang

Uncle Matt, Aunt Nikki, and Aunt Laurie got the kids little ride on motorcycles for their birthday. These are the first toys that the kids can actually ride, and move by themselves. They never understood any of the other toys. They were so excited that they could hardly wait for Matt and Nikki to get the wheels on! I love this picture of the two of them, because they really are like their own little biker gang, with Jack being the leader as expected! They ride all over our house, and when Jack stops, Sophie stops too. Then they giggle at each other, and ride on. The bikes have an engine sound for when you start the bike, and music for the turn signals, and horns. Of course the kids hit the key button to turn the car on, and then they have to play the music the whole time they are riding. So much fun! I love that they are playing together more and more, and discovering each other.

Trick-or-Treat at the Mall

We took the kids to the mall last night to go trick-or-treating, and collect some loot. (The kids won't know if I eat it all right?) There was supposed to be a Curious George show, but instead it was a witch singing. I'm not big on the whole witch thing, so we skipped out and started trick-or-treating instead. It was good, because we missed the crowds, and were able to pop into Picture People for free pictures. (Free pics of my kids? Sign me up!) Then we came home and visited a few neighbors. The Gates, who live behind us got Sophie a stroller and Jack some Matchbox cars. Needless to say, Sophie had to push the stroller the rest of the way...and sleep with it! Silly girl! We also stopped in at a house of one of our neighbors with kids. Emma gave the twins tons of candy, and invited them in to play. Needless to say, we were done at that point, and let the kids play. It was a fun, and late night!

*Please bear with me that the pictures are all mixed up. It has taken me HOURS to do this post, and I refuse to spend anymore time on this. I see a switch to typepad in our near future. Blogger has me so mad I'm going to throw my computer across the room!!!!

Getting candy at the bookstore. It took the kids a little while to understand how to take the candy and put it in their bag.(Of course their mom kept telling them the candy wasn't a good choice when they took things that would get stuck in their teeth. Matt thought I was crazy!)

Waiting with Scooby-Doo to get their pictures taken.

Getting candy.

Sophie's little cat costume. Matt taught her to say, "Meow," and to pretend to lick her paw.

Waiting with Daddy and all the other kids.

Jack-er I mean Lightening McQueen. (Did you really think it would be anything else? ;))

The kids with their homemade treat bags. (I wasn't going to pay $20 to buy two treat bags!)

What a cute cat!

Punkin' Pickin'

OK, so we didn't technically pick any pumpkins, but we did have a good time. On the way back from the beach, we stopped at a big pumpkin farm right off the highway. We had talked about doing this for a while, and when Matt saw the sign, we took the off ramp! There was so much to do there, and it was fun to watch the kids run around. True to his nature, Jack wanted to see everything all at once. He only wanted to stop long enough to discover what each activity was, and then he wanted to see the next. Sophie, true to her nature, wanted to stop and smell the roses. She wanted to take her time, and fully explore each activity. Therefore, Matt and I split up after the first few minutes. We both ran with our own kid all over the pumpkin patch. Well, I ran, Matt walked. It was a gorgeous fall day, just lovely, and we took advantage of it, and played, ate, and enjoyed ourselves!

I'll warn you now that there are a TON of pictures. We had a really good time, and I felt like sharing. Complete picture overload! ;)

The kids were way too short to operate the cars themselves, but Jack wanted to push, and Sophie wanted to be pushed, so it worked out.

We spent the most time on this big "Jumping Pillow." It was almost like a bounce house, but it was shaped like a pillow. The twins were apprehensive at first, but after watching the other children, and trying it out, they loved it. Jack was jumping with both feet off of the pillow, where as Sophie was a little more apprehensive. We were lucky that when we came back later, before lunch, we had the pillow mostly to ourselves. There were no big kids going crazy. Jack even figured out how to walk up it himself, by going up the corners. Too fun!

Sophie was much happier when Daddy was there to spot her.

Jack in a tractor.

Pushing a big ball around a fenced in area.

A slide made on top of a hay bale.

Jack loved this teepee. Sophie hated it, and wouldn't go anywhere near, let alone in it! It's funny that they don't trust us when we say it's safe.

Daddy being silly for the twins.

We wanted to get a picture, but Sophie cried because we stopped the wagon.

Look closely, and you can see my bribe to get Sophie to stop crying. Hint *It's in her cheek. Haha!

Trying to get a good picture by the pumpkin was impossible!

Pushing the wagon, except she could only do it backwards!

Finally a good picture after lots of hard work!

Beach, Part 2

Here are a few extra pictures of our trip. Enjoy!

Family Bike Ride

Family at the beach.

Mommy and Sophie in the water.
(Please excuse my yucky white legs! HA!)

Playing Bocce Ball with the extra balls, while Daddy, Renee, and Mike all played.

(So glad Sophie didn't drop it on her toesies!)