Of course we got everyone spiffed up for church. I had time ahead of church to take individual shots of Jared and Liz. Liz just makes silly faces no matter how many pictures I take. Here is the best I could get! After I had her dressed, she added bracelets, earrings, and 3 hair clips. That girl has personality oozing from every pore.
I told Jared to look handsome...
Lucas was asleep until moments before church when I woke the poor fellow up. His picture was taken AFTER church at Grandma's house. Carolyn and Mike's family were there also and Grandma was still babysitting Sam and Nate so all of the Driggs' cousins were together!
Here is a shot of Natalie, Lucas, Ashley, Jared and Liz.
A random cute one of Carolyn and Cameron.
And one of the adults - what a surprise! I guess there must be some adults around to chase after these well dressed kiddos! Danny and me with Carolyn and Mike.
Easter morning Liz was up at 6 - as usual. I gave her some chocolate milk and a Gogurt, turned on cartoons, and went back to bed. I thought that she wouldn't notice the Easter baskets on the table...perhaps I was a bit delirious in my tired state. Around 7 I could hear rustling around and decided I'd better get up if I wanted any good pictures before the baskets were annihilated. When I emerged from my room, I noticed that Jared was also awake but on the couch watching Ben 10. Liz however had her basket on the ground - although she hadn't taken too much out of it. I had them go to the table and took this picture:
It was then that I noticed a few interesting things. First, someone had put Liz's jewelry into Jared's basket thus effectively having Jared and Liz switch baskets. Second, someone had taken her Peeps and put them into Lucas's basket. I don't understand this little girl sometimes!
Of course their favorite items from their baskets were also the cheapest! I found these books a few weeks back super discounted out at Walgreens.
About an hour and a half later, Lucas graced us with his appearance. He enjoyed his basket and didn't seem to notice its lack of candy.
In fact, I think he rather enjoyed his eggs filled with Cheerios!
On the Friday before Easter my mom and I decided to rally the troops at her house and dye Easter eggs. She was already babysitting Allie and Thad's kiddos while they were on a cruise and I brought over my crew to complete our little group. While we were mixing the colors, the children were very excited!
I have to include this picture! While I was trying to get a shot of Liz, Sam kept jumping in front of her to be in the picture - Liz's face just cracks me up!!
Here's that shot of Liz I was going for!
Finally the colors were ready and the dyeing began. Here are the kids with their creations. Liz is going through a weird posing stage for pictures.
Jared wrote his name on his Easter egg with the magic invisible crayon. Nathan and Lucas were only there as observers. Luke didn't seem too interested in what was going on but Nate was very aware that he was being excluded. He kept climbing on the table trying to get some action! Grandma gave him a plastic egg to play with but that only appeased him momentarily. Next year, Nate!
Lucas was happy to sit nearby and chow down on some Cheerios. Next year Lucas will be trying to get on the table and into the eggs, Nathan will be participating in the dyeing, and Allie's new baby will be chilling on the side eating Cheerios!
On Friday Jared's kindergarten class had a Spring Party (that's PC for Easter Party). I was blessed again to be able to take a couple of hours off and attend the first half of the party. As usual, I was so impressed with the time and effort Miss Grosso puts into her classroom; his teacher is amazing! In my job at the district office, I work with lots of teachers - many of whom are struggling - and I am so happy that Jared's first introduction to school is with THIS teacher! I digress; I really wasn't there to do a formal observation of Miss Grosso!
The first hour was consumed with completing Easter crafts. The children had five groups to choose from - only two of which were required. They could dye an Easter egg, color Easter bunny pages, make an Easter bunny puppet, make an Easter treat, or make an Easter egg that opens up to reveal a chick inside. The children were required to dye an Easter egg and make the treat (probably so there wasn't any whining later at snack time!).
I was in charge of the treat with our neighbor Jesse. My hands were so sticky I didn't take any pictures but I did find a replica online. The children pushed rice crispy treats into a bowl for a nest. Then we stuck half of a Twinkie into that for a chick's head. Then the children put a jellybean sticking out as the beak, chocolate chips as the eyes, and pinned two tangerines to his body with a toothpick as wings. Super cute!
After all of the crafts, Miss Grosso called the children to the carpet. She then said, "Listen! I hear something crying." We could hear someone whimpering outside. She walked to the back door and opened it - she found the Easter bunny outside crying. She brought him inside and he told his sad tale to the children.
Unfortunately he had run into a wolf who had stolen all the Easter eggs. He needed the children's help to find all of the eggs again. Off they went in search of eggs.
Can I just mention how awesome it was to see the children so interested and believing. I don't want Jared to outgrow this phase!!!
Then the children went outside to help the bunny recover his eggs. Here is the hunt!
Afterward they returned to the classroom to ensure that everyone got one of each color of egg. Jared was listening so attentively that she mentioned him and then let his table group go to recess first. I was so proud of him until he LOUDLY said, "Miss Grosso let our table go first because I was being so good!" We'll work on the humility piece!
I kissed him goodbye and went to sign out at the office. As I was leaving I could see him by the fence playing with some friends. He had something in his hands...I went over to investigate. Any ideas what he had??? How well do you know our Jay?
Yep, roly polys. He was teaching his friends all the things we had read about them. Our little nature boys continues his efforts to find and "save" nature...
Vanessa, one of our amazing babysitters, recently took the kids to the Eldorado Nature Center. The kids had a blast and came home with little examination boxes filled with "nature." Unfortunately I wasn't there and can't tell you all of the weird and funny things they did during their adventure. Instead I will share a ton of awesome photos she took (thanks, Vanessa!) and you can make up your own storyline in your head.
I had to include this video because it is just so telling - Liz can't WALK anywhere... I do love that when the children begin to disappear Vanessa stops videoing so she can find them!
On Friday Jared's school held a Jog-a-thon to make some money for the school. Jared was excited to participate and I was excited to cheer for him! Jared had a full cheering squad there: Annette came with Liz and Lucas, Grandma Driggs stopped by, and I left work for a bit. I'm sure everyone is dying to see a full montage of pictures from the event so of course I will oblige...
Before the jogging began everyone was in good spirits.
Of course some serious stretching (look at that concentration!) had to occur before any exercising could commence.
Then the group was off! I was madly cheering for Jared as he raced around the track when I looked down and saw this:
Liz seriously wanted to join the group. To be honest, I was a little nervous about this since she is a lightweight and there were some bigger kids running. There had already been a huge pile up when the race began. I finally decided that it would be fine - but then she had to be cajoled into joining! She finally saw Jared and joined in chasing after him!
Here is Jared at the end of the "race." He ran 10 laps... Great job, Jared!
Of course Luke was there too, fiercely eating cheerios in between "ba ba ba"-ing for his big brother. He's been a little under the weather this week - don't look too closely.
And finally some live action shots. Here is Jared racing around the track after a brief water break:
