Easter Morning

I have said this before, and I’ll say it again: best. MIL. ever. She was so on top of things and ready for Easter. I was not even close. I blame it on pregnancy and crappy work for the last two months. Granted, she’s had crappy work for the last two months, so I guess all I’ve got I pregnancy.

So my darling MIL not only put together an Easter basket for Luke-pie, but a Mommy basket and a Daddy basket, too. Luke was put on the hunt for all three baskets.

Getting ready for the hunt – so excited!!

He found mine first and it was a fabulous caffeine free basket of glory: all my Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf favorites: Swedish Berries loose leaf tea, Decaf Viennese coffee, a sweet butterfly tea ball and a mother mug. And a big giant flower! All in a sweet little basket that will definitely find its way into the nursery.

Luke is just as excited as me. :)

Going to find Daddy’s basket next:

The Easter Bunny left a San Diego Craft Beer Basket for Todd. The Easter Bunny is one smart guy!

“But where is mine!?!?”

In the tub, of course.

“Oh! A bunny!” (Yes, I am a terrible mother: it was from last year’s basket and I reused it. He forgot about it last year.)

“Oh. MOM. This is such a CUTE SHIRT.”

Angry Birds. Oh, how we love the Angry Birds.

And trains. We still love trains.

Such a fun Easter basket morning. The Egg Hunt just made it even better!

This is it.

Literally.  Between the pie and these pictures, this is all I have for February.  And it is questionable if these pictures are from February.  Cupid flew right on past our house for Valentine’s Day and poor Luke was subjected to a Mommy who had to work too much.  Mom was home “early” if it was 5:30. Bleh.

To celebrate Luke becoming a big brother, we decided to take him to breakfast at one of our favorite places, Scramblz, where they have a VW bus in the middle of the restaurant.  The bus is always booked up, but we made a reservation for a special treat.  It was so much fun!

After breakfast, we really surprised Luke by taking the light rail to downtown SJ and hitting up the Children’s Discovery Museum. (Mommy wanted to go to the main library, but I was outvoted).  Maybe it was a different day. He’s wearing a different shirt. Honestly, February and March are a complete blur. Don’t judge.

It was Luke’s first light rail trip and he loved it! Always a fan of trains :)

They had a new exhibit on mammoths there, which is pretty cool as mammoth fossils had been found in the Guadalupe Park area nearby.

Excavation:

Assembly:

Full Size skeleton – way cool!

 

And always, can’t pass up a ride on the fire truck!

My happy boys!

Leap Day Birthday!

My good friend, Roberta, has a leap day birthday – which I think it super cool.  I really only remember the birthdays of friends who have something else to associate with (ie: Debbie = Tax Day, Anny = my wedding anniversary, etc) so Roberta’s is a good one.  I promised her back in October that I would make her a cherry pie on her birthday because 2012 was a special year – there was a 29th!

Little did I know what a crazy promise that was . . . what was I thinking??? February is crazy for the teachers and March is even worse.  But I promised, and it was special, so I made it. I will admit to:

• Using canned cherries (couldn’t find any fresh)
• Using a box mix for a pie crust.

While I wanted to make everything from scratch (it always tastes better) I started this project at 8 pm and knew the day/week/month ahead of me. 

This was my second attempt at a lattice crust (HERE is my first attempt. FAIL.) and my first success.  Granted, not an even lattice, as there was no ruler coming out at 9 pm to deal with perfect lattice strips, but none broke and I felt like a winner.

I did learn that Betty Crocker’s statement that the box is “enough for two crusts” is a lie, at least, for the amount of crust that I would say is sufficient.  So I will make sure to have two boxes next time.

Roberta was sweet enough to share with me and a another teacher after school and it was delicious, if I do say so myself. And I do.

I’m finally getting over my fear of making pie as there is no fear of eating pie and I can always always eat my mistakes.

Backing up . . . to January. . .

We’ll see if I get to Christmas, but at least I can blog about my not-so-baby turning FOUR. Crud. He’s old.

Because we have been “requested” by his teachers to cut down sugar (not even reduced or low) I decided that cupcakes, cookies or anything that would induce craziness shouldn’t even be suggested for a school treat.  Pinterest to the rescue! Rainbow fruit kabobs! Sweet, universally enjoyed and a marshmallow so I’m not a total Ogre-Mom.

I didn’t tell Luke I was going to come to school for his party at the end of the day. It was a total surprise.  I’m glad that Luke is now at Todd’s campus for many reasons, but these are the moments that I’m still bummed about.  On a good drive (no traffic) it’s an additional 20 min drive, so I miss out on a lot of the fun stuff. (No school egg hunt photos for Mommy!)

But I came, Luke was SHOCKED which was adorable.

“MOM?!? You are HERE? I was NOT expecting that. This is the BEST part of my day.”

Cue laugh and knee slap. He actually slaps his knee while laughing.  I have no clue where he picked that up from, but it is a kick.

I can’t imagine Luke being any more wired than he was.  And that was on just natural sugar in fruit! He is so silly.  To note: pineapple and cantaloupe were offensive on his birthday and was vehemently ignored.

Happy birthday pie! You have made parenting more fun and more frustrating than I could have every imagined! I wouldn’t change a thing. (Except maybe the colic . . .)

Dying Eggs

“I’ve never done this before!”

Sure, Luke, sure.

Nana got Luke a “no-spill” dye kit that was actually pretty cool.  You drop the eggs in the cup and swirl them around.  The color was vibrant and it was mostly “no-spill.” While the product promised some pretty impressive spill-free fun, we still took off his shirt.

 

After they dried, Luke was so excited to put them on the Egg Tree.  But we had to be “careful . . .  CAREFUL. . .”

“Oh . . . they are so beautiful.”

 

Apparently, Luke told Todd he was going to eat the eggs.  When Todd was surprised and said, “Really?” (Luke does NOT eat eggs willingly), Luke replied that they were filled with chocolate.  Tough break kid.

Surprise!

 

On Tuesday, March 20th, Todd and I went in for our super ultrasound (the Anatomy Scan) where they check all the vital organs to make sure that all is well.  Luckily, Baby Bickel is right on track and everything is going wonderfully.

It is also the time to check for gender!

We found out we are having a girl! I am so thrilled!

To share the news with my class, I made mini-cupcakes and gave them a pink filling.  When the kids all bit into them, they were able to “discover” that I would be having a girl.  My sweet students – they decided they were celebrating the baby’s “birthday” since they wouldn’t be around when the baby is born.

Our due date is still on track for August 22nd – right next to my lovely MIL’s birthday!

Catching Up

Will I ever get back to Christmas and Thanksgiving? Will I ever get caught up? Probably not.  *sigh* So I’ll give a few snippets and hope for the best.

What I should be doing: Grading. Grades are due on Friday. Yikes.

What I am doing: Blogging. And Blog-stalking.  Feeling guilty that I should blog more frequently, but feeling guilty that there’s a pile of grading stacked by the door that will simply travel back to school tomorrow.

I will blog. Then sleep.

January:

Luke and his most best friend Jake had an ice cream and movie night.  Luke just loves his buddy.  It really is about the sweetest thing.

They watched Cars 2. I fell asleep.

Luke still has Sally and his thumb. Thank goodness.

We went as a big ol’ family to Tahoe in January. On the way we stopped in Fairfield to tour the Jelly Belly Factory.  Free! Yay!  We had to wear silly hats.  I was impressed Luke was agreeable.  These days, it doesn’t seem to matter what I say – if I say it, he doesn’t want it.

With Gramma and Papa – I love my happy boy!

Patiently waiting.  I was surprised how interested he was in everything.  He liked the giant factory robots. Imagine that.

We stopped at a place for lunch known for their “cheese skirt” burgers.  I have eaten a great many greasy, unhealthy things, but even this was a bit much for me.

I have never been to Tahoe in the summer, only the winter.  So I have certainly never seen a snow-less Tahoe.  Freaking BIZARRE.  We still walked around . . . in the sand. Papa and cousin Collin.

Me and my Mom. Me in all of my “I’m-on-vacation-so-I-don’t-wear-make-up” glory. Yikes.

Playing “Hi Ho Cherry-O” with Gramma and Papa.  It was good to have some quiet time activities.  We still hunted out the snow and went sledding in a few places.  Those pics are on my other camera, so they will be later.  Let’s just say, my child is a daredevil and I’m so happy that we made it through in one piece.  He was bound and determined to ski this year, but we were able to put it off until next year.

For Luke’s birthday, we let him pick out a big-boy bike.  I had a few coupons and a few bikes were on sale, so we went for it.  Surprisingly, did not pick out a Spiderman or Cars bike, but chose a “Shark” bike, which is really a Jet Fighter bike that has the shark on the side.

Didn’t take him long to really get moving.  Todd runs next to him now.  I walk behind and at the end of every block, he stops, jumps off and runs back to me.  Then we walk back to his bike together, where he hops on, speeds off and repeats the same process over and over again. Noella = not running.

I swear, he was just a baby . . . now he’s a big boy pedaling as fast as he can. I certainly can’t keep up!

Which then brings me to part of the reason that I have disappeared and been so exhausted . . .

Baby Bickel #2 expected to arrive this summer: August 22nd! We are thrilled beyond words (Luke a little less so) and are looking forward to our new addition.