All I wanted...

You know I don't ask for much...

Really, I don't.


You would think I was a horribly insistent mom.

Abusive? Am I abusive?

Just one...

Please, pretty please?

Thank goodness this is a digital camera and not film.

Both of you, look this way...

I am serious now.

Look at me! Both of you. Smile. Hold still.

What is it going to take?

Seriously, I am not going to get a single picture of you guys with your eggs?

Guess not.

The resurrection according to a 5 year old

Explaining Easter to a five year old isn't so easy. There are a lot of misconceptions.

Leif: "The Easter bunny is just a man dressed up in a bunny suit who comes to your house, not a real bunny."

(Ok, that one is just plain creepy.)

Leif: "I can't wait to get a Wii game for Easter."

(There were no Wii games. We do itty bitty toys in baskets, no presents.)

Leif: "The bunny has to be a tall man in a bunny suit and not a rabbit, otherwise how else would the eggs get as high as they did this morning?"

AB: "Bunnies do jump."

Leif: "Not *that* tall dad."

The resurrection is a touchy subject for kids. And it's sermons like todays whereby I am glad our church has Sunday school. Easier to let the Sunday school teachers give their rosey version.

Here is what Leif conveyed to me:

"Jesus was brave and the bad people killed him on a cross. Then they put him in a tomb and God put a huge stone in front to block him from getting out after he was dead. Then he stayed in there for three days and three weeks and God was mad and so there was a storm or earthquake or something and the stone moved and Jesus left his clothes there, but he was alive again so he left without clothes on and so that was good! But I don't know where the bunnies came from, he must have gone to see the bunnies after he was alive again."

Pretty good for a first exposure to the origins of the holiday!

A very confusing topic - Holidays

The period between January to Easter is a very difficult time for Leif. We go from having some fun holiday every month or so, to nothing.

There's Valentine's Day in there. But to a little boy, Valentine's Day isn't overly interesting. There's mommy's birthday and daddy's birthday and even Skadi's birthday. But once again, no big fun holiday until Easter. But even then, Easter doesn't hold a candle to Halloween for Leif.

He loves Halloween. Every Tuesday is "movie day" at school and the kids can each bring in a movie to be voted on by the class to watch.

Every Tuesday for the last few months Leif has hauled in "Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie".

The class has watched it zero times. Still Leif is determined and not deterred in his goal to make Halloween a year round event. He has decided this year that not only will he have a birthday party, but somewhere he got wind of a costume party and has decided that everyone should wear a costume to his birthday party.

I refuse to do this to the other parents. Yeah, not only do you need to go out and buy a present, make time in your weekend for a birthday party and get your child there, hang out and then leave with a child hyped up on sugar? But yeah, also, put them in a costume.

Umm no.

I thought about letting Leif wear a costume. Or saying "costumes optional", but that puts pressure on the parents too. I think we will go with just no costumes.

Not a day goes by that Halloween isn't mentioned. Including the drive home last night.

Leif: "How many days till Halloween now?"

NM: "Oh about 7 months to the day."

Leif: "How about 7 days instead."

NM: "Nope, months. About 210 days." (I thought about reminding him that his birthday comes first, but then we would have gotten back onto the subject of costume birthday parties - a notion I am trying to squash.)

Leif: "Hmm."

NM: "But Easter is in 12 days!"

Leif: "How about 2 days."

NM: "Nope, 12 days."

Leif: "How about 10 days?" (He is learning the fine art of negotiation thanks to dinner time.)

NM: "Everyone celebrates Easter on the same day." (Yes, I know Eastern religions are a week later, but I wasn't going there.)

Leif: "Who says?"

NM: "God says."

(Silence from the back seat.)

Leif: "So the bunny belongs to God! I finally figured it out!"

Definition of grueling

20 minutes...

On the floor...

With my 3.5 year old...

Candy Land in front of us...

Linearity is not his forte. Moving in one direction to the end isn't either.

Winning - getting to the end first - completely overrated according to Leif.

My advantage? Being able to stack the deck of cards... "oh look you got two oranges again!"

Given the raging success that Cariboo has been in our house, the Easter bunny is bringing Hullabaloo for Easter this year.

Candy Land may never come out. Ever again.

(And I LOVED Candy Land as a kid!)

PB got the best of me

No. I didn't succumb to the $68 Christmas gingham dress.

But Skadi needed a Christmas stocking for this year. Which meant that in the name of matching, Leif probably needed one as well. And I am a sucker for Christmas stuff. And personalized Christmas merchendise? Well resistance was futile.

I am telling myself that there is no way Target would have had these adorable stockings and that $19 and free shipping each wasn't bad. (Ok, $25 each once you include the personalization.) Note to self to check back after Christmas to get a couple on sale for AB and I. We can live for another year with stockings that only match each others (and Winny's).

Oh and since I was there... and I am a sucker for buying early... way early. Leif and Skadi also got Easter baskets. For $5.99 they were practically paying me to take them.

And then the real reason I went back to the site? Standing in the shower this morning it dawned on me that I COULD buy that cute spring time PB Baby dress on clearance for $12.99 and Skadi can wear it for Easter this year. I couldn't even get an Easter dress for from Target for $12.99... and it is so freakin' cute. I did skip the monogramming though.