Easter pictures

Happy Easter!  And Happy Birthday, Brian!  We have had a weekend full of celebrations!  I didn't get pictures of birthday celebrations, but the boys and I blew up 33 balloons for Brian yesterday, and Brian and I left the boys with a babysitter for a couple of hours last night.  The date I had planned didn't exactly work like I had hoped, but it was still good to be away from kids for awhile. :)

Then today, we ate Brian's birthday treat--Cherry pie with vanilla ice cream.  I found a perfect flavor of ice cream for our family, called  Best of Both, which is just half vanilla and half chocolate.  Anyway, Brian was trying chocolate ice cream with his cherry pie and said, "I prefer vanilla over chocolate, but I prefer chocolate over whipped cream."  Camden, quick as a wink, said, "I prefer chocolate under whipped cream. "  He he!  Yep, he certainly would like chocolate ice cream under whipped cream!

For Easter, we have been reading little phrases of The Living Christ all month.  I found a website that has little tags that have pictures or a name of Christ (Creator, Redeemer, Jehovah, Messiah, Firstborn, etc, etc,) that go along with The Living Christ.  All in all, it was a bit above Camden's understanding, but it was still good.  We also learned the first verse of "He is Risen" for our scripture memorization.  I was so excited when we got to sing it in church today!  I think it is so good for Camden and Nate to recognize the music we sing in church and be able to sing along.  They really are not too young to learn the hymns, and songs can both focus their attention and give them a way to be involved in Sacrament meetings. 

Anyway,  here are some pictures of our Easter celebrations, especially for grandparents to see:

Camden, super excited to start hunting (or really just picking up) eggs



 Nate, far more interested in colored pencils and sidewalk chalk to be bothered to smile

After the hunt, baskets go way up high to help us eat our candy more slowly.  :)

 

After church on Sunday:

I love my boys!

 

 

 Camden's t-rex impression--sorry I cut his head off. 

 

 Even on Easter, boys can find sticks that turn into swords.  Nate's "sword" looks small, but don't worry, he was holding his own!

Happy Easter!  

Dinosaur charades

 Camden was sitting on my lap and said, "I don't like it when the  baby kicks me."  Sure enough, I noticed the baby was kicking a lot!

 My very favorite thing lately is a game that Camden and Brian play.  I don't have enough dinosaur smarts to play.  Anyway, Camden will say something like, "I am a theropod. I have three claws and am really fast."  Then he'll go up on his toes, make his fingers into 3 claws and run across the room.  Brian's job is to guess what dinosaur Camden is.  Then, they switch, and Brian says something like, "I am an herbivore.  I have the longest tail."  Then Camden guesses. 
~They talk about the relationships between dinosaurs "I am Euoplecephalus' cousin" or "I am a hadrosaur (or ceratopsian, pterasaur, theropod, sauropod, etc), or "I hunt Protoceratops". 
~They talk about what foods the dinosaur eats (plant eater, eggs, predator, omnivore, etc). 
~They talk about the size of the dinosaur (big, little, smallest of all, heaviest, longest, tallest, bigger than... or smaller than..., etc). 
~They talk about physical traits "I have a club on my tail" or " I have a crest on my head" or a "spine on my back" or "I have bony back plates and a thagomizer" or "I am a biped"     

 They go back and forth, and Camden LOVES it.  Nate starts pretending he's a dinosaur, too.  He gets down on his hands and knees and does a move that resembles either a frog or a bucking bronco or a mix of both.  They can go on for a half hour or 45 minutes without repeating many dinosaurs.

Stubbren, lumbering serpeyints and tadpoles in distant shores

Camden's list of funny things he's said today:
1. Brian: What are you drawing?
    Camden: a Serpeyint (serpent)

2. Camden: Horses gallop, like this. (C gallops across the room)
    Michelle: What about if it's a zebra?
    Camden: Then they gallop.
     Brian: What about a buffalo? Does it gallop?
     Camden: No, it just lumbers.

3. Camden asked Brian if Brian is "stubbren".

4. Camden talked about his wooden train set, and how the train had to go "to distant shores". 

And one for Nate:

Nate: Tad pole, tad pole
Michelle: Are you a tad pole?
Nate: Tad pole, tad pole
Michelle: A tad pole is a baby frog.  Can you move like a frog?
Nate: Tad pole, tad pole
Brian: Temple?

Nate looks at the picture of a temple.  Silly mom!

And, Nate had a major break through yesterday.  He can consistently, quickly, safely get out of his bed--which means I have no way to confine him during nap time.  I left him in his room for about 45 minutes, but he didn't sleep.  And last night, after a whole day with no nap, he was still fighting bedtime around 9 pm.  Aargh!  Neither of us are ready for him to skip naps.

Today, though, he played in his room for about an hour.  After I'd heard quiet for about 20 minutes, I opened his door just a crack.  And, he was asleep, in his big boy bed*!  Victory!

*There is a crib and a raised toddler bed under Camden's bunk bed.  I figure that since he can climb out of his crib now, it's as good of time as any to get him used to sleeping in the toddler bed.  He certainly is not as attached to his crib as Camden was--it's more like he's anti-bed.  But, he did decide he is tired and fall asleep in his bed.  Woo hoo!  Let's hope it continues.