Easter

After waking up suuuuuuper early on Easter, Nathalie took an afternoon nap. When she woke up from that, her hair was sticking straight up! It was hilarious.

Charlotte wore her silly egg glasses and rode her bike in the house. (Can you tell Matt and I were getting a little desperate to listen to Conference in peace?)

Emily lost her second tooth!

Charlotte had her Easter party at school and we took a picture together to prove I'm in my daughter's life!

Lydia took her first ever bubble bath and it was a HIT.

Easter morning was a hit-- especially with candy carrots!

And more silly egg glasses!

And dyed waffles!

We had a busy, busy Easter weekend, but the best part of all was listening to General Conference. My favorite talk was Elder Bednar. He always speaks to my soul.

FOUR

Charlotte is FOUR! Honestly, it feels like little Miss Sassafrass has been four for a long time, but now we actually get to celebrate it!

We decorated the kitchen. The girls did the crepe paper-- you can't tell, can you?

Charlotte picked out this cake since I really didn't want to make one. The frosting was a little much, but the cake was surprisingly good!

Charlotte really wanted to do a pinata, so I acquiesced. We had all the neighborhood kids join for candy, cake and ice cream.

She had a hard time blowing out candles!

We opened presents in the morning! Birthdays are so fun.

This was her school picture. The day before her birthday she went to the doctor for a checkup. She said, "Mom, I'm getting so big now that I'm going to be four!" I had to laugh, because she hasn't gained any weight in a year! She has grown a few inches, lost a few lbs and then put them back on. She is 32 lbs and 39.5 inches. But she IS getting bigger in many other ways-- she recognizes and can write a lot of letters, she can count to 29, 31-39, 41-49, 51-59.... (She's not getting the tens yet!)

Charlotte is still an absolute sweetheart. She loves to cuddle, to hold hands, and to be held. She constantly alternates between wanting to be big and help me with dinner, cleaning, laundry, or do what her sisters do, and wanted to be small and cuddle with me, sleep with us in our bed, getting scared when I'm not around. She is a joy to have.

She has a strong leadership capability (read: bossy) and frequently I hear Lydia shrieking because Charlotte is trying to get Lydia to do something. Charlotte loves to be in charge and to be the center of attention. She simply wants everyone to love her and to show it!

Charlotte loves anything with princesses. She loves to be read to, to write her name, to color, cut, paste, and glue. She recently learned how to say her "c"s and "g"s, so instead of saying "tooties!" she can say "cookies!" She loves to ride her bike or scooter, to swim, to play on the playground and run "really fast".

Charlotte, we adore you.

Mini bunk beds for mini girls

 Lydia has been sleeping in a pack n play in our closet since she was about 6 months old. At first, this was a great arrangement because she still needed to wake up in the middle of the night to eat. But now she is able to sleep through the night, and since she's almost two and getting taller, the time has come for us to figure out how to get her out of our closet.

 We looked and looked around on craigslist for bunk beds, but they were all out of our price range. So Matt decided that he'd be able to make toddler-sized bunks for under $100, and since we already had the mattresses and blankets, it'd be a lot cheaper.

 He decided to make these beds out of wood, like our table. Instead of using screws or nails, he used a biscuit joiner and pegs.

 Charlotte has been so anxious for them to be done.

 Lydia has really liked them too, although we'll see how well she does when we try to transition her.

 It took a lot of sanding and patience to do these bunks, but they are beautiful and very sturdy! Charlotte absolutely adores them. Lydia loves them until it's time for bed, and then she wants to head back to her pack n play. No worries about that though; she'll transition when she's ready. (In this photo she's mad that I'm not letting her play with the camera)

I love these.

The joys of my life

Leprechaun Trap!!

 Nan had to make a leprechaun trap for St. Patrick's Day at school. She came home bursting with ideas and we tried to run with it! She wanted to use the silo for our Little People Barn set. Emily thought of covering the silo in aluminum foil to make it shiny, because leprechauns love shiny things and then Nathalie wanted to spray paint it gold, because leprechauns love gold.

Nathalie also decided to make a little sign welcoming in the leprechauns and then she wanted to print out four-leaf clovers and put them on the silo so that leprechauns would know that this was a "lucky" place to be. She also knew that in order to get up to the top, she would need a ladder and decided to make one out of pipe cleaners. Initially she wanted to spray paint the pipe cleaners gold as well, but then I explained that you can buy rainbow colored pipe cleaners, and she was sold on that idea!

Emily and I helped her figure out that we should use a tissue and tape it to the top, so when the leprechaun steps onto it, it breaks and he falls to the bottom. And then we asked Nathalie what we could use that was really light to put on the tissue-- and she said, "Let's spray paint pistachio shells gold! And Charlotte, you can eat the pistachios because I need the shells." hahaha, it was so funny!

All in all, she had a GREAT leprechaun trap....but unfortunately we didn't catch any leprechauns. Maybe next year!