Easter Bliss

We had a great Easter. The Easter bunny even remembered to visit. Stella is terrified of the Easter bunny. She had been in tears in days leading up to Easter in fear that the Easter bunny would not only come to our house and there was a chance that she might see him, but that he would go in her room. She requested we leave a note on her door saying, "Easter bunny, do not come in Stella's room." As far as she knows this is exactly what we did.

Bring on the eggs!

Isaac found an egg on his way downstairs from his room. Looks like the Easter bunny came.

The kids have raided their Easter baskets.

The egg hunt is on.

Isaac let his brothers and sister find the eggs while he ate the candy out of them one by one.

Time to get dressed and ready for church.

Papa read the kids a quick story before we left for church.

Yep. This photo looks just like all our family photos look. It's pretty much identical to the photo we took last Easter and the one before that. Will I ever get a family photo where we are all looking at the camera smiling?

On an average day at church we send Stella and Isaac to the nursery. Carson and Owen sit with us during the service. There was no nursery for the little ones on Easter Sunday. All four kids in church, during the entire service on Easter Sunday was more than we bargained for, but in all honesty the kids behaved themselves pretty well.

Waiting for the restaurant to open.

Back home for one more Easter basket and to change clothes.

Who's the best dressed child?

Isaac with his khaki socks, tennis shoes, basketball shorts and sweater vest?

Stella with her new cape, goggles and pretty bracelet?

Owen with his undies and new sunglasses?

Or

Carson with his baseball get-up, new green cape, punching balloon and swim goggles?

They all look pretty awesome don't they.

Tanganika

Last weekend my parents came to town to help us celebrate Easter. For something different, interesting, and fun to do we went to our local wild life park, Tanganika, on Friday. It's a smaller version of our local zoo, but a little more interactive. The giraffes don't have a fence around them, just a ditch dug out along their very large area. There's white tigers along with penguins, a camel (which you can pay to ride), various monkeys, birds, goats, lemurs, rabbits, tortoises, kangaroos, zebras, and lizards among many other animals at Tanganika.

So what do my kids think the top two attractions are?

Walking in the kangaroo pen? (Literally in their little area with them. No fences between us and the animals.) Watching the baby kangaroos hanging out of their mother's pouches?

Maybe it's hanging out with lemurs?

How about the penguins or giraffes?

Nope.

My kids loved the goats the most. Really? The goats?

The tortoises and rabbits were pretty fun, too, but not nearly as fun as the playground according to my kids.

Honestly, what are my kids thinking? Nothing against goats, rabbits and tortoises but come on. They aren't nearly as cool as a zebra or walking around with lemurs are they?
We live in Kansas. Both my husband and I grew up in small towns in Nebraska. We go to Nebraska several times a year. Farm animals are everywhere. I guess I should take comfort in knowing this.

Note to self: next time we go to Nebraska we need to drive out to a friend's farm and see the farm animals. This may make me a front runner for being Mother of the Year.

Motorcycles, Tigers, Elephants and Clowns

I often joke that we are the circus. If you don't like what you see in one ring refer to the other three rings. Surely, there's something entertaining going on. Never a dull moment.

This past weekend our family got to experience a different kind of circus, the Shrine Circus came to town! It's a little different than the one we live in. Much less stressful to watch yet entertaining.

We got to see it all including...

lions and tigers,

the flying trapeze,

clowns,

trick dogs,

elephants and many other things. The motorcycle cage was a favorite but the pictures did not turn out. Darn.

No circus would be complete without cotton candy, light up toys and a little law getting involved in an unfriendly dispute among a couple of the spectators.

The kids were greeted at the arena by over sized cartoon characters. Two and a half of the kids liked them.

Carson liked them.

Owen liked them.

Isaac was a bit unsure of the characters.

Stella was terrified!

All in all the kids had a great time at the circus.