Peri's Very First Easter Egg Hunt!

So last Easter Peri was only just crawling, so she didn't really participate in Easter hunts last year. Every year since I can remember, my aunt Barbara has done the Easter egg hunts for us. Since our family started having grandchildren before all the assorted cousins and such grew up all the way, she's pretty much been doing it for the past gazillion years. And kudos to her, because it's always a lot of fun! Peri is currently the youngest child, so she got to go out first to find the eggs hiding in the grass in the middle of the lawn before the less scrupulous and more enterprising cousins could come out and snipe the easy ones.

At first she had no idea what was going on, but she was game to tote her little bucket outside to play anyway. I showed her the eggs, but for a while she was more content to shake them like maracas instead of collect them  in her bucket. Then one of them broke open and she realized what exactly those eggs were good for.

Oh? What's this?

Is that candy?

It is candy!

And there's more in those eggs, you say?

Why didn't you tell me?

She was battling a cold that week, so that's why her nose is so ookie.

So those are the only pictures we got, unfortunately, since I forgot the camera and I'm the only one who takes pictures anymore apparently. My aunt usually puts about 20 eggs out per round, and then we go for 3 or 4 rounds, so she and her two cousins ended up with a LOT of candy. After she figured out the whole game, she was grabbing up her easy middle-of-the-lawn-eggs and then going after the harder-to-find-on-the-edges-of-the-yard-eggs. She had tons of fun and is still munching bits of her candy every day. It's going to be a while before she makes a dent, especially since Mom and Dad might have gone a little overboard on her Easter basket this year too.

Peri also got some pretty neat gifts from her grandparents for Easter, and she loves them all. She has lots of activities to do and some new clothes to wear outside as it gets warmer. Plus a few new furry friends that she sleeps with and plays with. Thank you grandparents!

On Sunday (all of our bunny-type Easter things happen on Saturday, because Sunday is for churchy things) we would have gone to church, except we were all sick with the most terrible head cold that day. It was pretty sad. We did, however, muster up the energy that evening to tell Peri about the Resurrection and the real reason we celebrate Easter. I made some felt pieces for her new felt board and used it to tell the story while our Resurrection Rolls were in the oven. Peri listened very well, but I think the actual symbolism is beyond her yet. She also wasn't in the mood for anything sweet at the time, so she opted to skip eating the yummy treat. Eh, there's always next year!

Peri Has a Slide!

So I've been wanting to get Peri something to play on outside for ages, but we just don't have the money or the space for an entire swing set. So instead we just bought Peri a small plastic slide. She loves it.

She slides sitting down

She slides feet first on her tummy

And she also slides head first on her tummy. She did it all by herself too!

She also likes to peek out from under the slide. What a goofy kid we have! 

This is one happy sliding kiddo!

Some of you may look at those pictures and think, "What does she mean they have no space?" because clearly, there is a lot of space in our yard, the only problem is this portion of the yard isn't fenced in, and that would make even more money to keep random passersby and destructive teenagers from hurting Peri's swing set (we're not so worried about her being kept in the yard, as she doesn't usually go outside to play without us anyway).

So yay for slides!

More Baby Crafty Goodness

So I'm really loving that Peri is enjoying doing crafts with me. It is so much fun to watch her start to get the hang of it! We've been doing some things around here to decorate a bit for St. Patrick's Day. We aren't too big on the holiday, but why not right?

So about a week ago Peri and I made green glitter shamrocks out of paper plates. She has so much fun with glitter, and it was a pretty easy thing to get going. We made two! Then about a week after that, we made rainbow clouds! I really like this craft, they look so cute! It's just construction paper and cotton balls glued to some more of that paper plate we had lying around. Then we put them on the screen door outside. Like this:

Peri is happy with where her creations ended up! 

On another note, I totally got a Silhouette Cameo (go here if you don't know what that is), and it is the greatest thing since sliced bread! We've used it a couple times already, and I'm really loving it! So far I've made a few shamrock spinners, a couple LUCKY banners, a gift box for a friend's wedding, and cut out some business cards for mi familia. A million and one uses for this thing, let me tell you.

I made one large spinner

and three smaller ones, because my nephew wanted to help make some.

I cut this one out first

Then I used the letter cutouts to make a second banner. This one doesn't look as cool with the lamp lit up, but I still like it!

Peri is Having a Good Time

So! Since coming to Spokane, we've been going out and doing a lot of things with Peri, and she's been having a great time! And because words are boring, I'll just put up some pictures!

Cheese Face!

 So the lighting was bad when I took these pictures, but these are pictures of the kitchen mat, which Peri has claimed as her own favorite play toy. It's really gross, but she has so much fun with it I just can't tell her no.

She wraps herself up in it.

She drags it around with her.

And she tries to wrap other people up in it too (ew). But since no one will let her wrap them up in it, she puts it on the cat instead. You can barely see Puppy in these pictures, but he's curled up next to the vent.

One time she also got the mat over her horse and managed to climb up on it too. She used it as a saddle blanket while she rode her pony. It was the funniest thing! I went to get the camera, but she stopped before I could get a picture. Bummer.


 It also snowed a couple mornings ago, and we took the time to go out before breakfast and play in it! It was Peri's first time really tromping around in the snow (we've gone on sled rides and stuff, but she never wanted to actually play in it) and she had a blast!

Down the stairs.

The moment she realized there was a camera involved.

She is a sucker for cameras.

Tromping around.

More tromping.

Getting right down in the snow.

She didn't try to eat it though.

Gary also looking like a cheeseball.

We also built her very first snowman! She helped! This was the only picture I was able to get of it because the batteries decided to die right then. Go figure.

 Peri and I also did a couple crafts! We were at JoAnn's, and she really liked this hat, so we bought some glitter and feathers to jazz it up a little when we got home. She had so much fun with her glue and glitter, but she promptly took the feathers off, so I guess she didn't like how they looked on her hat.

She wears it while watching Caillou. Peri looooves Caillou.

Then we did another craft the next day, and she decided that feathers looked much better on paper than on hats.

She liked doing the paper craft so much that we had to do two! We both really like how this one came out. It's so shiny and sparkly and colorful! They are both hanging on the fridge right now.

We also decided to walk to River Front Park (it's about an hour or so walk from our house) one Saturday just for fun. We called up my sister Sarah and she brought her husband and the cousins over so we could walk there together. Peri got to sit in her stroller, but the rest of us walked. It was a bit colder than we thought, since there was quite a bit of wind. And since we had the small children walking, it took a while to get to the halfway point, Mission Park. We decided to call it a day and stopped at Mission Park to play instead. I think this Saturday we will start at Mission Park and go to River Front Park from there, and hopefully it will be a little warmer out then! Though it snowed again a couple mornings ago, so probably not.

Anyways, since the kids were tired of walking, and it was still a bit cold, we decided to take the bus home instead. It was Peri's first time on a bus, and she did really well! I think she had a lot of fun. It was a really good Saturday to spend with family! If only we had remembered to take a camera though.