Oh right, Easter… Almost forgot about that. Easter started at 6am, the standard start time to any day. We tried to get up before the boys, but Nicholas seems to hear our alarm. We got up, I headed for the shower, and Katie went to get Nicky. They hung out in our bedroom while got ready for the day, then the three of us went downstairs.

The eggs were all hidden, filled with goodies (jelly beans, mints, gummy bears, stickers, and probably some rusty nails thrown in just to keep them on their toes), and ready to go. Nicholas initially stayed in the kitchen, helping Mommy make breakfast. He’s very helpful like that. He finally noticed the easter baskets on the table just a few moments before Dexter woke up. He claimed them both.

The baskets didn’t have too much in them – some crayons and coloring books, some suckers with fans that lit up, some Play-Doh, the easter eggs from Sweden (each with a match box car inside), and two shirts sents from #1 Au Pair Laura (she also sent the chocolate wombat and wallaby, which we dutifully displayed next to the baskets, and then took for our own once the boys weren’t looking).

Just at about the time Dex came downstairs the great easter egg hunt began. By now these boys are old pros at easter egg hunts. Nichols stalked each and every last egg. Dexter had his matchbox car in one hand, and his new fan in the other, and was pretty well content. Oh well. He’s not greedy.

About halfway through Helen made an appearance, and started cheating by pointing toward the eggs. A few minutes later Petra emerged, and finally Malin came down (whose picture I am not posting because I respect her dignity, and she was not quite at her best that early in the morning).

Before long it was time to pack the boys up and get them ready for church. Helen and Petra were shortly on their way to the airport. The boys were sending Helen back home with a nasty cold, which was nice of them because that way we couldn’t tell if she was crying or not. By taking the boys to church with us we spared ourselves the necessity of inspecting their bags for stowaways. Maybe their visit has given Petra the extra incentive needed to really master English in her last year of school, to come be the boys’ Au Pair once Malin grows tired of us. It was a great visit, and we loved meeting them, and look forward to seeing Helen again in July, and Petra at Christmas time.

We went to church where we met up with Carter and Marilyn. We sat in the back, and the boys listened with rapt attention to the organ music. Once that was done, their attention wandered, and we were reminded why taking the boys places can be so bloody difficult. They squirmed, yammered, wiggled, tried to escape, and we barely survived with our lives. On Easter Sunday Katie’s church does the “Tomb Crawl”, where the children are invited up to the front of the church, and they crawl through a paper mache tunnel, and at the end are lifted high up into the air. The boys went last. Nicholas went through in good form, and while very dubious, allowed himself to be lifted skyward briefly. Dexter thought we were playing hide and seek, and was having way too much fun to ruin it by actually going through the tunnel.

After we got back to our pews we packed the boys off to the playroom to let them burn off some energy. Katie left the three of us together to play, which went well except for when Nicholas tried to take my legos away and I had to push him over, and then Dexter attacked from the other side and I ended up duct-taped and locked in a closet.

Another child came to play for a bit – Gabby I think her name was. Dexter tried to woo her, but she wasn’t all that responsive. Maybe church isn’t the best place to pick up girls?

After a while, Katie came to collect us, and Uncle Ryan, temporarily relieved of his bell-choir duties, came to say hello. Then we all ran upstairs for another easter egg hunt. Once again, Nicholas was on a MISSION! Fortunately there were two rooms for the little ones to explore, and this made it easier as we split up, and Dexter was able to grab a few at his own pace.

After we were done we headed back to the van. Nicholas was walking with Katie across the street, holding her hand like a very good little boy, when the strap on his bag of eggs broke and they all spilled out onto the road. He just looked devastated, and started wailing. Fortunately another person was just arriving at church, and we were able to recover all of the eggs and restore them to Nicholas quickly enough to alleviate the worst of his fears.

The boys were pretty well exhausted by the time we got home, and passed out in short order. Once they woke up we gave them a quick snack, and then headed over to Grandma and Grandpa French’s house for a fantastic dinner. The boys thoroughly explored the home, turning the television on several times, playing with the remotes, the micro wave, the dishwasher, the dog food, several drawers, and of course, the dog.

At this point Katie and I were pretty much ready for some Xanax, so we went home. The rest of the evening passed quietly and uneventfully. After dropping her mother and sister off at the airport, Malin spent the day with her friend Angelica, and didn’t come home until late.

Since then we’ve had almost daily egg hunts. Nicholas yells with such pride each time he spots an egg. Perhaps he’ll be a paleontologist when he grows older. Or maybe just a dairy farmer.

Happy Easter!

Can you believe it?  I told you yesterday that I’d get the first half of the Easter post up today, and it actually happened.  Tell me honestly, did anyone believe it would happen?  Well, it did.  So stop being so pessimistic.  It’s not that I don’t follow through, or aren’t dilligent.  It’s that my follow through is entirely random.  I *might* make the deadline.  I *might* not.  No one ever knows before hand, least of all me.  Oh, right, Easter.

So as everyone’s well aware, Malin’s mother Helen and sister Petra visited us last week.  Petra fell in love with the boys, but especially Dexter I think.  And as for Helen, well, first, she’s obviously eager for grandchildren (no pressure though, Malin or Petra…)  Second, we had to inspect her bags before she left just to be sure she hadn’t tried to smuggle a boy home.  It would’ve been difficult with all the stuff she bought, but we wouldn’t put it past her to ship her stuff by FedEx and fit a kiddo in there on the sly.  And third, she spoiled the boys rotten.  They got sunglasses, easter eggs, a ball pit / kiddy pool, a hundred brightly colored balls, huge easter balloons,  stuffed animals (Buzz Lightyear and Lightning McQueen), Swedish outfits, and two bath toys.  Seriously spoiled.  They’ll probably turn out to be unappreciative teenagers with a chip on their shoulder and a lifetime of angst, but that’s a problem for another decade.

The girls watched the boys for us on Monday night, so Katie and I could have a date night, of all things.  They also fixed us Swedish Lasagna, far too much garlic, and generally a great time with them, and it was very hard to say good bye Easter morning.  But I’m just a little bit ahead of myself.

Easter started a couple of weeks ago, when we took the boys to the SNOMOM’s easter egg hunt.  Nicholas was a true hunter, but Dexter just wanted to make friends.  I’d practiced with them before hand, but you can only do so much…  On Saturday, the day before easter, we stopped by Fred Meyer and bought some Easter decorations, along with some much needed grocery shopping.  Nothing too much, but I figure some decorations will make it feel slightly more festive, and changing everything up keeps the boys on their toes.  The boys are really getting the hang of “steering” the cart with the driving wheels, and had me ram a number of cute shoppers, for which I am eternally grateful.  Helen, Petra, and Malin had been planning on spending the weekend in Seattle, but Petra was too smitten with the boys and insisted they come back to see us Saturday night.  We figured it was a good opportunity to introduce them to Carter and Marilyn, so we planned a nice dinner.

In order to have more than 5 people eat at our house, however, we need to rearrange the furniture.  So, the hope chest moves by the door, the chair by the door moves to the dining room, as does the chair in the living room.  The changing table moves to the Living room, and the bench moves to the front hallway.  The Table moves to the center of the room, and grows with the addition of one of the leaves.  Katie accomplished all of this while I ran to Lowe’s for urgent man-business.  The boys were extra helpful, of course, and you can see some pictures of the boys helping Katie inspect the table.    We also decorated some eggs, but as I was the decorator, no photos were taken.  The boys ably supervised and provided instruction.

The girls were home by then, after one last run to the mall, and helped feed the boys.  Then Carter and Marilyn arrived, and we had a great dinner.  It just so happened that Helen had her birthday just the day before (her 29th, or so I’m told), so we bought a lemon meringue tart from the French bakery to commemorate the occasion.  Nicholas was a very, very big fan.  Of the meringue, anyway.  Afterward the boys ran and played, and eventually went to bed.  Carter and Marilyn headed home, and the girls went upstairs.  Katie and I cleaned everything up, collapsed the table and re-arranged the furniture, put out their easter baskets, and hid eggs throughout the house.  And then I think we slept.  My god, I was exhausted.

Here’s an album of some photos. I didn’t make this one autoplay, because the autoplay is too fast when there are captions. If you move your mouse over the album, you’ll see three blue buttons at the bottom. Hit the Right Arrow to scroll through the photos. Alternately, if you click on the big green arrow, it will take you to PicasaWeb to view the album.

We’re falling behind again on the posting, especially with Helen and Petra having visited us for the last week, and with Easter.  I promise, I’m working on it.  I have all the Easter photos ready to go, and will get the first half put up tomorrow, if I can. 

In the meantime, and FAR more importantly, I managed to hook up my dad’s old SLR Prime lens to my camera.  It’s a fairly fast lens (f/1.8, compared to f/3.5 for my kit zoom), which means better low light photos with no flash.  The downside is no auto-focus.  It’s fine for taking pictures of adults or scenery, but there’s no way I could possibly manage many good photos of the boys.  Of course this means I’m itching to spend the $300 to get that 20mm f/1.7 prime for my camera, but since I’m the only person who will read this who knows, or cares, what I’m talking about, I’ll just shut up about it.  The upside, though, is that while practicing with it, I captured some gorgeous photos of Nicholas, that I had to share.  Isn’t he looking so grown up? 

Plus you get to see the new ball-pit that Helen, Malin, and Petra bought them as an early birthday present.  It’s actually a small outdoor pool, but for now, it’s in the living room, filled with balls, and often enough, boys.  Thank you, Helen, Petra, and Malin!

The other day, a package arrived.  Inside, was the neatest thing.  Chris and Don, Joel’s mom and step-dad, had really listened to Joel in January when he said that one day, Joel wanted to buy the boys leather aviator coats to match the one that he had. (Joel received a replica of the one his grandpa James had worn during WWII as a graduation present).  Anyway, Chris and Don surprised all of us with those jackets and wow, they are super cool.

We immediately put the boys in them and oh, they ran to the mirror and seriously posed for a good 5 minutes.  Nicholas would not let us take his off even though you could tell he was getting a little warm.  They love their new coats and, they will be able to fit in them for at least another year, maybe two if we are lucky.

So, without further ado, here are the boys, all dressed up and ready to fly.

Next up – aviator glasses.

 Can you guess which boy was poopy in the picture?  I’ll give you a hint.  I could smell the essence of poop very well from my vantage point. 

And a side note – when I lay on the ground, the boys will come over, straddle me, and jump on my stomach to which I’ll groan loudly.  They giggle and jump more.  When Joel lays on the ground and groans when Dexter jumps on his stomach, Nicholas gets very upset and runs off in tears.  He cannot stand to see Joel hurt.  Isn’t that so very interesting?  – Katie