Hunting, Racing, Laughing

Those three words pretty much sum up our last week, so let's start with the hunting part. Actually, let's start with a totally rational question. Why does everyone think it is totally normal that a Goliath-sized bunny hops around hiding plastic chicken eggs?!?!?!!! I know I am new to earth, but sometimes it takes the new guy to point out the obvious...THIS IS NUTS! But as Bodie tells me, "The plastic eggs are full of treats and other good stuff. Stop asking so many questions Gates and start hunting!" So I did.

We headed to Top Golf for an impressive egg hunt. Clever planning because an

egg and a golf ball are about the same size, so eggs where hidden everywhere. Bodie, after a ridiculous amount of hunting, found one of the coveted golden eggs; that kid is committed. They also had tons of games, a moon bounce, a magician, cotton candy, and endless prizes. We, of course, partook in all of it then headed home.
Our traditional neighborhood Easter egg hunt at our community house was accidentally forgotten this year so we ended up hosting a last-minute version for whoever wanted to show up. We have awesome neighbors - lucky us.

Easter morning was packed with Mass and church. Both services were filled with fantastic messages about Christ and the resurrection. (Okay, side note here. I may have slept through most of mass and church, snuggled up with my blanket in my car carrier, but I am told it was a really spiritual morning.) Then we headed home to dive into our Easter baskets.

I scored a new bike helmet - I think the "Caution" tape design is appropriate in this family - textured balls and tub toys. Bodie got a super hero car, baseball helmets, and some air pumper cars. And then we had to go on a hunt to find these... BIKES!

 I'm told mine doesn't go quite as fast as Bodie's, but I'd like to point out that mine has double the amount of wheels AND eyeballs, which is awesome. This is the last picture we have of Bodie not in motion. Since Sunday, he's been pedaling all over Arlington. He rode a mile without stopping on Wednesday and earned a Matchbox car (leave it up to my parents to make it a competition). I know I'm bragging a lot about him, but not many four-year olds jump on a pedal bike and take off without training wheels, I'm really, really proud of him.

 And while Bodie is racing around the world on his new pedal bike, I like to sit back and do this...

April is Hopping By

Good grief, this month is hopping by - see how high I can hop these days!. Apologies for the delay in posting. You'll be happy to know Mother Nature appears to have figured things out and we think we're done with snow; we've even attempted shorts a few times in the past few weeks! Related to that, we decided to have a "park-a-thon." What's a park-a-thon you ask? Well, it's when we go to as many parks as we can in one week...also known as total awesomeness. We hit ten different parks in six days with more than a dozen friends, always staying for a minimum of three hours at each park. What about Gates? Lucky for me God gave a cool little brother. He loves parks. His favorite things are going down the slide on his belly, swinging, and eating bark chips and grass. I've tried to explain to him that bark chips and grass taste gross but, as my mom points out, he's never had ice cream so he has little to compare them to. For all he knows, bark chips and grass ARE ice cream!

Tee ball has begun. And by "begun" I mean it started based on the calendar date but that every
practice and game has been rained out so far. Not to worry, I'm super excited about my team, The Storm. And when I say the team name, I like to say it like I'm announcing a scary sci-fi movie title, "The Storm," it makes our team seem really tough. Thanks to my Nana and PopPop who gave me a new tee ball set, I've been able to practice in my yard.

We did get to participate in opening day and wear our uniforms; that was cool. My mom said she had a surreal moment at the ball field when she was sitting in the stands with Gates as the different teams began to parade by and over the loud speaker they started playing John Fogerty's song "Centerfield." This was the song her favorite coach, Gary Gates - who Gates is named after - would play 25 years ago as her softball team warmed up before each game. She said she felt like Gary was there just enjoying the moment with her - watching HER son start his baseball career. Pretty neat.

Our buddies, the Bormans, came to town from California for their spring break. Amy, their mom, and my mom drove across the country together 20 years ago when my mom moved to DC. They were trying to tell us how they used paper maps with highlighted routes to make the trip - I think they drove by some dinosaurs too. Anyway, you know it's fun when us kids never got to bed before 10pm at night...Parrrr-tay! We visited the sites and played nonstop.

Lastly, I should probably let you know the preschool influence has finally infiltrated our home and I have gone bonkers for anything related to superheroes. It doesn't matter that I have never seen any superhero cartoons, movies, or comic strips. Nor does it matter that my only real exposure to them is the theme songs on YouTube and through recent library book loaners. What matters is I have more superhero t-shirts than anyone in my class...and I can sing "Du nu nu nu nu nu nu nu, du nu nu nu nu nu nu nu nu, BATMAN!" louder than any of my friends.