Easter 2013

Saturday evening we went over to a friend's house and dyed Easter eggs.  Jackson was only interested in it for about 5 minutes and then wanted to play with trains, but at least I got a few pictures before he left.  

Ready to dye some eggs!

Jackson picked green as his first color

Helping the boys lift out the eggs

Easter Eggs

Picking out stickers for the Easter eggs. 

On Easter Sunday we went over to a friends house for brunch and an Easter egg hunt.  Jackson did so well with all the other kids there.  At first he wasn't interested in looking for eggs, but once I showed him that the eggs had candy hidden in them he was all for it!

Showing Jackson there is candy in the eggs!

Game on!

Finding eggs in the flowers with Daddy 

 Shaking the egg to make sure there is candy in it. 

Backyard Fun

Sometimes it's hard to make it to the beach when you have a toddler.  We always have good intentions, but the energy you have to put into loading and unloading all the beach gear sometimes seems a bit too daunting.  But Jackson loves playing in the sand and the water, so we set up a sprinkler and a sand box in the backyard for him to play with whenever he wants.  We go outside at least twice a day to play in the sandbox!  He loves it.

Grandma Wine Visit

Grandma Wine came to visit over her Spring Break to help out while daddy was out of town for work. I am moving a bit more slow these days, so the extra help was greatly appreciated.  It's hard to keep up with an almost-three-year-old!

When Grandma Wine first arrived I asked Jackson if he remembered her and he grinned and said "yes".  He was a bit shy at first but once the bags started coming out onto the turnstile, he quickly wanted to be right next to Grandma.
 

Waiting for Grandma's bags 

I wasn't feeling very well the first two days Grandma was in town, so we had a few relaxing days at home before we started out on our adventures.  Grandma was nice enough to let me take quite a few naps and relax during those days- it was sooo nice!  

On Wednesday we went to the Wild Animal Park.  Jackson loves this park because they have a bus you can ride to see all the animals.  He LOVES buses, so this was a real treat for him.  We also got some ice cream (or as Jackson says "ipe cream") while we were there, which was a treat for mommy as well!  

Riding the bus at the park

Thursday we went to the outlet malls to shop around.  Jackson enjoys the outlets because they have a train he can ride and fountains to throw pennies in.  If you come out to visit and want to get Jackson on your good side- bring lots of pennies to throw in the fountains!

 Running around the fountain

Friday and Saturday were spent inside tending to Jackson because he came down with the stomach bug.  I felt so bad for him.  He was so tired and so hungry but we couldn't give him anything to eat or drink because he would throw it up.  My mom was so great with helping me out with him.  This was the first time he had the stomach flu (he has thrown up before but it was just one time, not continuous) so I was a little worked up and scarred as well.  

All week we had planned on making sugar cookies and I was really craving them by Sunday.  So we got to baking.  Jackson had so much fun helping out Grandma.  Usually his attention span on any activity is 10 minutes, but he was really into cooking and stuck with it the entire time.  

Preparing the dough

Rolling out the dough with his alligator rolling pin

Cutting out the cookies

Just out of the oven

 Time for sprinkles

Sprinkles!!! 

Oliver hoping to get in on the action

The last few days Grandma was here we toted around town looking for some fabric and a few things for the baby.  We also planted some vegetables and flowers.  Jackson loved digging in the dirt with us and kept saying "I help dig" and would bring his sand shovel over to help. 

Thanks for coming out Grandma Wine.  We love you!!!!

Cement Truck

We had quite the treat the other day.  A cement truck was at our neighbors house to fix a curb they had to dig up.  I got some lawn chairs, drinks and Jackson's cement truck and we set up shop in the neighbors yard to watch the show.  

Jackson had so much fun playing with his cement truck next to the real one.  The city workers got a kick out of watching Jackson.  At one point he requested that I put some cement in his toy truck for him ... uhm .... no.  

Snails

Jackson isn't a huge bug fan.  Usually when he sees any kind of bug he yells "oh no" and comes and gets me.  But he does love ladybugs and snails.  And we have a ton of snails out here.  He likes to pick them up and put them in his trucks and drive them around.

Baby, What Baby??

 Jared and I have talked quite a bit to Jackson about the baby in my belly and how he is going to be a big brother.  Most of these conversations are lost on the fact that mom's belly doubles as a race track for his cars.  Who cares about the baby when I can play with cars!

YouTube

I recently introduced Jackson to YouTube and he now thinks I can magically make train and truck videos appear anytime there is a screen.  I've had to have several, several conversations with him about how we can only watch YouTube at home ... not in the car, not in the store, and certainly not on someone's computer at Starbucks.  You know how hard it is to explain this to an almost-three-year-old?

His favorite thing to do is watch videos on YouTube while playing with the corresponding toy.

Watching firetrucks while playing with his firetruck. 

Watching trash trucks while playing with his trash truck. 

Driving Mrs. Teach

Jackson decided it was his turn to drive the car the other day.  He knew exactly what he was doing:  He requested the keys and his sunglasses, he turned on and off the hazards, he messed with the radio dial and he turned on the blinkers.  Yep- that sounds like exactly what I do when I'm in the car.