I knew it would happen today.  It does every Monday.  We miss Tucker's Monday morning bus which takes him to preschool. Which means I need to pack up all 3 little kids in the van and drive Tucker in.  I am beginning to think it is cursed.

His bus schedule is different on Mondays than every other day, with a much later pick up.  The Monday driver only picks Tucker up on this one day.  To make matters worse, on some Mondays I attend my mothers group (MOPS).  Due to the time the meeting ends, I cancel his bus pick up and drive him in (which in my mind, must add to the problem since Tucker doesn't get picked up EVERY Monday).

Some Mondays, I take Tucker & the girls out to do something active & fun. We don't get home in time.  We miss the bus.

Other Mondays, like today, we are home all morning.  We trot out onto the porch a few minutes before the appointed time, waiting hopefully.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip. While we are waiting, Tucker digs into the flower beds with his bare hands, climbs a ladder, brings a blanket out into the sidewalk, pulls all the buds off a rose bush, and breaks a brand new toy.  I call the school district transportation office in desperation only to find we have already missed the bus because it came 7 minutes early.  >:o[

Yes, you guessed it, I had to load up all 3 kids and drive Tucker to school.  But I thought you might like to see what the girls were doing at our desk while Tucker and I spent 15 minutes outside waiting ..... [note that these papers were NOT on the floor when I went outside!]

Our little kids were running circles around us, their insulin levels skyrocketing as the Easter candy sugar made its way into their blood streams.  It was at that moment that we put the kibosh on the notion of doing one more Easter egg hunt (the plastic eggs filled with candy).  In fact, their high energy so sapped our own that we even decided against the "toned down" Easter egg hunt (plastic eggs filled with goldfish crackers and raisins instead of candy).  Mean parents!

However, I think this photo says it better than any words can, when that sugar low comes on and you can no longer do anything but fall into bed surrounded by your new bounty of Toy Story figures.

A very happy Easter to you from all of us!  Here's a picture of Cleo, our only child who actually enjoyed wearing the bunny ears!

It was a good (but exhausting) Easter over all.  We attended more than one celebration, and more than one Easter egg hunt.  Lief and I hit eBay, Harry & David, the Microsoft store, and the toy store (among others) to fill our kids' Easter baskets - and we were so touched by their happy reactions!  Quinn has been into ducks of late, and she happily "quacked" her way through Easter holding her brand new plush duck.  Tucker, who has been poring over the Harry & David catalogs for months, is thoroughly enjoying his $7 fruit chews candy. Cleo's hair looks nice in her brand new hair clips (although she does keep pulling them out, and strands of her hair with them).  And Alex now has his own hair dryer. (and can stop borrowing his mom's!)

Alex has become a local celebrity of late!  It all started when his junior high school hosted a unique event.  A "mobile hot shop" came to the school from the Tacoma Glass Museum.  This is a portable glass blowing workshop, along with people to run it, of course.  They set up shop at Alex's school, which is pretty rare in and of itself (this is only the second time the museum has done this).  Six kids were chosen to blow glass with the artists, and ....yup, you guessed it, Alex was one of the kids!  He's been really excited!  Ask him about it, and he'll give you the low down (or should I say "blow down"?).  In addition, both of our two local newspapers featured articles about the mobile hot shop, and Alex's photo was in both!  He was even on the front page of today's paper!  [see below]

(I wonder how many hits our blog will have because of people googling the word "poo poo"?)  A major triumph in our home tonight!  Tucker went poo poo in the potty! (while buck naked huddled under a towel sitting on his potty chair)  He was completely covered by the towel!  It covered his head and entire body with only knees & feet showing!  That's one way to get privacy!

It started out as Cleo's new word of the last two weeks - a cute little way of saying "banana".  However, it has quickly become her parents' vocal cross to bear.  You see, "na-na" has transcended the original meaning of "banana" and has instead come to mean "snack-snack".  ALL snacks.  ALL the time.  Whenever someone sets foot in the pantry - if the dishwasher is being loaded - when she finishes all morsels of food on her plate - if she catches sight of the diaper bag - when she's buckled into her car seat.  The frequency of Cleo uttering this word throughout the day is at def-con level INSANITY.  It almost makes us welcome the times when she exclaims her second favorite word ...... "no!"