MOPS Egg Hunt

On Friday, April 22 we had our annual MOPS Easter Egg Hunt/Potluck Eggstravaganza!  This year was a little different because we added on the potluck portion and we also had a the Easter Bunny make a special appearance.  It was a great event for all the families.  Here is a picture of our whole group.

Here I am with Evie and my friend Carly and her little girl Ariel.  Together Carly and I Coordinate MOPS at Creekside. It has been such a blessing to serve this year in this role.  

My parents were able to come out to the big event too.  Below is Grandma with Evie.  She was holding on for dear life as to not have to get near that Easter Bunny.  Hilarious! :)

The kids had a great time at the hunt.  Here they are in action.  All the parents were instructed to bring a dozen filled eggs for all kids who would be participating.  This makes for a nice easy egg hunt for all.  No competition, no crazy frenzy. :)

Here is little Evie participating in her very first egg hunt.  

Photoed below are Evan and Cameron checking out all their egg loot after the hunt.

Here are Grandma and Grandpa posing with the kids.  Sadly neither kid was being super cooperative in the pictures.  My parents look great though.  Evie just couldn't get enough of her eggs and well, Evan was purposely not looking at the camera. Gotta love willful two year olds. :)

Our Family picture with the Easter Bunny neither kid actually wanted to sit with him, but that was okay.  I am very thankful that they at least stood near him.  Evie, made sure to keep a close watch on him to make sure he didn't make any moves.

After the hunt and our visit with the Easter Bunny.  Everyone got to enjoy the potluck and some fun at the park, Mommies included.  Here are Pam and I with Ryel and Evie going down the slides.  Pam was my belly buddy back when I was pregnant with Evie.  Look how both kids have grown.  It has been so much fun to get to see the babies grow up together.

Here are Tyler and Evie on the slide too.  Are they not just the cutest little couple!?!

Coloring Eggs and other Easter Traditions

With the kids getting older we are having so much fun incorporating the all important holiday traditions.  Coloring Eggs is one of them where both kids got to get in on the fun more this year.  Here we are on April 19 dying the hard boiled eggs, which we later cracked open to make Deviled Eggs and some Egg Salad Sandwiches. :) 

Here are both kids using the metal wands.  At this point Evie actually didn't really have dye in the container, just water.  However, she was still enjoying the experience.  Also we did have a whole thing of dye spill thanks to Evan.  Praise the Lord that it didn't really get on any clothes or anything just the table cloth which was vinyl and the floor. :)

 

Here are the final products before they got cracked open.

Here is my handsome, silly boy posing with the eggs.

Lastly, an artsy picture of the love notes Jim and I did for each other on the eggs.  Aren't we super original?!? :)

Other great traditions that we continued this year and got to enjoy more with Evan especially was our Resurrection Eggs and reading books about the true meaning of Easter.  It is so cool to see the concepts start to stick in Evan's head. :)

If you don't know what Resurrection Eggs are, they tell about the glorious story of Jesus' resurrection.  Stored in a plastic carton, a dozen rainbow-hued eggs are filled with surprises. You pop them open and find miniature symbols of Easter inside. It also comes with Bible stories explaining the significance of each object.  Here is what the eggs look like from a marketing picture I got online.  I just discovered these when I joined my MOPS group about 3 years ago.

Our visit with the Easter Bunny at the Mall

So I was wanting a picture of the kids with the Easter Bunny, even though I knew it would probably end up in disaster as both kids aren't big fans of being up close and personal with costumed characters at this age.  Evan has grown to the point where he can be near them, but he would prefer not to sit on their laps or be unaccompanied without Mom and Dad. :)  Evie just doesn't even want to be near them and grabs on for dear life to whoever is holding her when placed in the situation.  So with this background, here is what happened during our visit with the Easter Bunny at the Mall on Sunday, April 17.

So for the most part the kids were excited, or I should say Evan was. :) Here we are waiting in line (which was pretty short, this was good) and checking out the Bunny.

 

This was a quick picture we took waiting in line too.

 

And then a picture of Jim, now with the kids looking at the Bunny from across the picture area.  

 

So you will see no picture with the Easter Bunny, this is because as suspected Jim and I had to get in the picture with the kids who both were not happy about this expereince.  They were not crying, but neither wanted to smile.  So we could have had a not great picture of all of us with the Bunny for about $25 bucks, but instead I opted to probably get a similar picture of all of us that would be free from our upcoming MOPS Easter Egg Hunt that would be happening in a few days.

Nonetheless, I was still  happy we attempted the expereince and it was a memory.  Maybe next year they will want to pose with the Easter Bunny at the mall. :)  However, the kids did make out with
some cool cups that you will see photographed below.  They loved them and had a great time drinking out of them when we got home.

Also, you will see some of my attempts at getting a cute picture of Evan and Evie together, since I didn't succeed with the Easter Bunny. :)   

Here they are at least both looking at the camera, Evan has a bit of an awkward smile.  

Evan and Evie...the serious side of the Knight children seems to be coming out in the photo below.

Then, here I finally did get a fabulous smile from Evan, but Evie is looking down.  Gotta love it! 

Kids are the best, especially when trying to take their picture.  :)

We got our House Painted

Before

Almost Completed - This is actually the new house color, but the accent trim's paint number got transposed and brown was painted.  While this was nice, we wanted black (the actual color's name was Licorice).

After...Ta Da!!!  Notice the beautiful black borders; we just love it!

Now to work on our other many projects around the house...the ugly front yard included. :)

Renovated Playground at the Roseville Galleria

The kids and I got a chance to visit the new playground at the Roseville Galleria a couple weeks ago two days in a row.  Evan and Evie loved it and had a great time playing both days.  I was actually able to get some pretty good pictures from both days too. 

Here they are on Tuesday, April 26 with the Moon Family.

Evie and Brooklyn exploring the tunnel together.

Evan, Brittney's new friend she made that day, and Brittney being silly together.

Evan and Brittney standing proud on one of the new climbing structures.

Smiling Evie loving the new playground.

Here are Evan and Evie on Wednesday, April 27 with the Wisner Family.


Pictured below are Natalie and Jayne.  Look at Jayne standing...such a big girl! :)

Tyler, Evie, and Evan all in the tunnel together.

Here they all are together on the slide too.  So cute!

Adorable Jayne enjoying the freedom to crawl around.

National Geographic Experience

On May 4, I got the good fortune to witness nature at its finest or should I say freakyest moments -  A spider killing another insect on my window.  It was so gross.  I hate spiders, but then to see one actually try to kill something in plain sight was a little over the top.  This spider didn't even need a web to do it.  This spider spices seemed to just be able to grab the prey and proceed to carry it along and do what it needed to enjoy it for lunch.  Yuck!  However, I couldn't resist taking a picture of it to share with all of you because it was so wild.

Enjoy or not! :)

 

Life Group Babies

These are Evie's buds on Tuesday Nights at Life Group. 

From left to right, Liv (12 months), Ariel (12 months), Evie (16 months), and Gavin (21 months). :)

This is all of them having dinner together at a recent potluck night on April 26.  So cute!