Spring has Sprung

Ellie and I dyed Easter Eggs this afternoon. We will be on vacation starting next weekend and this appeared to be the only time we could do it. Nick was away celebrating St. Patrick's Day downtown or in Hollywood or something, so needing an afternoon activity, dying Easter Eggs seemed like the perfect event. During Ellie's rest period after lunch (no more naps, she now has some down time in her room or playroom for a while) I hardboiled a dozen eggs. Well, one was broken so we only had 11 to decorate.

When Ellie came out from her rest time, I was all set to dye eggs with her. She was definitely excited. However, we quickly learned that the whole process was a little overwhelming and a little difficult for her. She tried, but needed help getting the eggs in and out of the cups and it was a little frustrating. I actually dropped one of the eggs and broke the shell before we could dye it so we were down to 10 to decorate and dye.

She thought it was interesting to watch me, but the pink dye really wasn't all that bright and so she wasn't super excited. I got one of those PAAS kits and so it was really easy, and we didn't make a big mess at all. We tried the trick us using a white crayon to draw on the egg so it won't accept the dye, with mixed results. She didn't think it was that awesome.

But she did have the hard boiled egg that I dropped and broke the shell. She loved it. She's had them before, but maybe it was because we were decorating them, but she was super excited about eating hard boiled eggs and has asked to have them for breakfast tomorrow as well. The following picture is pretty funny.  Like I said, she was pretty excited about eating the eggs...

The eggs turned out okay...the yellow and the blue were the best. There was also a black, which is weird for an egg dye kit, until I tell you it was a pirate princess kit...well then I guess black is still kinda weird. We had fun, it was easy, and now she's excited to eat hard boiled eggs. I call that a win!

 

I also had some leftover sugar cookie dough that I brought out and so Ellie, Nick and I decorated some egg and chick shaped cookies prior to dinner. We all had a blast with this, despite the fact that Ellie got a little over sealous with the sprinkles. And we had a bit of a mess on the floor we had to clean up, but we had fun and we have some great looking cookies for dessert this week!

Happy birthday Grandma Pam (last weekend)

Last weekend we went to Santa Barbara to celebrate Grandma Pam's birthday. Ellie asked how old she was and when we told her she thought about it a little and said, "that's. lot of candles, will they all fit on a cake?"

Saturday night we did a tri-tip dinner. Nick grilled the tri-tip and Great grandma Van came over to join us. It was a nice family dinner.

Ellie helped me make and decorate a cake for Grandma Pam. On Sunday morning (her birthday was the 10th).








We then went Grandma's birthday lunch with Great-Grandma Van, auntie Claire and uncle Buddy. It was fun and everyone enjoyed themselves. Then we came back to the house and ate the cake! Ellie lead us in a round of Happy Birthday before we were allowed to eat though.






Happy Birthday Grandma Pam!

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Exploring L.A. :: Santa Monica Pier

A few weeks ago, while I was out of town, Nick took Ellie down to the Santa Monica Pier. Given that it was winter and on the chillier side, most of the attractions were closed. But they had some fun on the ferris wheel and in the sand. Well, the weekend before Ellie's birthday while Susie was in town we went back to Santa Monica. The sun was shining and all the attractions were open.

We got unlimited ride passes so that we didn't have to worry about paying ride to ride and we were able to enjoy ourselves. Ellie met the height requirements for almost all the rides, except the roller coaster (which Susie, Nick and I all got to ride by taking turns). The first ride we hit up was a spinning pirate ship thing. We actually rode this a couple times, as we all enjoyed it.

 

 

The next ride was everyones favorite. Wait, I take that back, Nick didn't like it. It was The Dragon, the big swing thing. Nick and Ellie sat in the middle so that they didn't go up as high. Susie and I both loved this ride, despite its simpleness.

Turns out Ellie s a bit of an adrenaline junkie (like her parents). She actually found the little kiddie rides a bit too tame for her liking. Even the one she rode by herself!

While we all had fun on the big kid rides including the Scrambler (well, maybe not Nick...he's not much for all the spinning rides), there was one kiddie ride which we had fun on. Essentially it was suspended, spinning buckets.

Ellie definitely was all smiles. I think we all had a lot of laughing and giggling. We also played a carnival game, Susie's favorite, the skeeball-esque horse racing game. Susie won a stuffed pig for Ellie. Susie also bought Ellie a churro...before lunch...We had a nice lunch on the pier.

 

After lunch we had a chance to play in the sand. Ellie was afraid of the ocean and wouldn't get very close. But she was happy to play in the sand, making castles. She found it funny how difficult it was to run in the sand.

 

 

We realized the merits of living in Los Angeles as we were able to enjoy the sun and play in the sand, as well as enjoy a fun day on the pier...in February.