Potty Party

When you have 3 boys, it's hard to not compare them. For instance, by 18 months old, both Charlie and Chance had at least peed in the potty. Chandler, however, has been taking his sweet time. He's now 2 yrs 2 months, and for the last 9 months he's been interested in the potty. He often will take his diaper off and ask for me to sit him on the potty. I've spent countless times coaching him, cheering for him, doing anything I can to encourage some sort of action.

But after 20 seconds on the potty, he hops off, proclaims "All done!" with nothing to show for it.

I have a little potty that migrates to whatever room he's in, as if to remind him he could try again.

So last night, while Chuck was watching tv, and I was on the phone, Chandler took off his diaper, sat on his potty, and went for it. Success!!

He then pulls out the insert, and brings it to me, beaming with pride.

The funny thing is, for all my effort, he chose to do it when I wasn't looking.

Note to self: Stop trying!!

Playing in the rain

It's a classic childhood pleasure to play in the rain, so as it began to pour today, I handed Chandler an umbrella and let him have at it.

Then I realized my phone takes video...Not good quality video, but video none the less.

Easter

One thing that has surprised me about having kids is how stressful every little holiday can be. While it's so fun to have lots of parties, it's also a lot of preparation. This year, for instance, there was an Easter Egg hunt we wanted to attend but it would've required we bring 6 dozen candy filled eggs. While that's not that much, when you calculate all the other hunts the boys attended that required bringing eggs, it was too much. Chance hit an all time high of 4 easter egg hunts the week of Easter and I think I filled 10 dozen eggs total for the week. And as I ranted last year, while I know the hunting (and candy eating) is fun for the kids, I don't want them to think that's all Easter is about.

Which is why it was such a joy to attend our friends' Easter party. While the dads hid the eggs in the backyard....


Our friend/host, Sarah, told the Easter story to the kids in the front yard.


The boys had a blast hunting eggs with their friends, too.








The rest of our photos are here. Thank you, Henderson family, for a great party!!

The next day, Easter Sunday, we actually skipped church (which is ironic, I know. But actually, we attended the Easter service on Friday to beat the crowd, ha!!), and attended my paternal extended family's party (say that 3 times fast, I dare you!).

This little one has become a champion egg opener, candy hider, and candy eater.


The older kids in the family actually hid the eggs for the little kids. The funny thing is some of the older kids looted the eggs for candy first. I kinda found it hilarious once Chandler learned to shake the egg to make sure it contained some delicious morsel. And if it didn't, he just tossed it back on the ground!

The nice thing about the older kids is that they are small enough to hide the eggs in the playscape. Charlie and Chance especially enjoyed that hunt.


The older guys (teenagers and adults) decided to have a contest with doing pull-ups. Chuck was in on it but I didn't catch it on camera. But I found it cute that Charlie wanted to compete as well.


He even tried it one handed (thanks, Uncle Mike, for spotting him!!).


And one other little tidbit. Chuck is not a fan of animals. Any animals. Thus we have no pets. Ironically, anytime we're around other people's pets, they always seem to gravitate to Chuck. Case-in-point:


So, the Easter candy high lasted the weekend but Chuck had the ingenious idea to offer the boys a lego set if they "paid" in all of their candy. Only Charlie took him up on it. But now that we've hid it all away, it may just get mysteriously donated elsewhere. ;) But we had a great Easter, and are so thankful for the true meaning of the holiday - That death no longer has sting, and we have hope that this life is not the end, thanks to Jesus' amazing work of dying for our sins, and raising from the dead! That's definitely better than any Easter candy (or a lego set for that matter)!!

Chance's Pre K Easter Party

Last week, in lieu of school, Chance's pre-k class met at the home of one of his classmates, Trenton. They have a beautiful back yard and the kids had so much fun playing together.

This is what Chance looked like most of the time.


The kids LOVED the tire swing. We might need to get us one of those. ;)


Then we had a beautiful picnic style lunch. See if you can find what's missing/wrong in the next 2 pictures.




Then there was an easter egg hunt.


Followed by cupcakes.




And a craft. No picture of Chance here because he hurried through it so he could play outside again.


The whole set of photos can be found here.

Thanks, Paige, for a great Easter Party!!