When you leave Daddy in charge of dinner…

I came into the kitchen after bathing McCanless to discover my baby girl under a pile of noodles. As she ravenously devoured them (or tried to), I stared silent and wide-eyed, not sure if I should quickly review the Heimlich, kill Mel, or just laugh. I laughed.

Mel then explained to me that last week at Mimi’s, she tried this new treat and gave Mimi and Mel a great laugh as she squeezed each and every noodle-O before squishing it into her mouth. (I think I was at Annie with McCanless-good thing.)

We have been giving her tastes of everything we eat and Mary Clare has become quite the little food connoisseur sampling everything from Mexican cuisine to broccoli casserole. (I just didn’t realize she could feed herself) She LOVES “real food” and I’m afraid that baby food days are over. She STILL has NO TEETH, which doesn’t keep her from gumming every piece of veggie, cracker, cake, ANYTHING! It is amazing.

Hi from Daufuskie Island…

McCanless, Mary Clare and I are “Spring Breaking” it in Daufuskie/Hilton Head this week. (Who would have thought that Spring Break begins in kindergarten??) We have had so much fun with Mimi and Bapa playing, shopping and swimming!

Mary Clare has been on her first ferry ride (over to Daufuskie), been swimming in the pool for the first time, and is even about to crawl. I’m almost 100% sure she will crawl by the weekend! Daddy will be coming into Hilton Head tonight, so hopfully he will be here when our little munchkin takes off!

We are having so much fun and will post photos as soon as we are back in Hartsville!

Easter Morning

The Easter Bunny came to visit McCanless and Mary Clare!!

Okay, so I tried!!! I ordered this Easter bonnet for Mary Clare because it is a Charleston Bonnet, and I thought it was an appropriately wonderful bonnet! It was so cute on her, but as soon as I tied it, she screamed. The ONLY way she would even keep it on for a moment was if I just placed it on top of her head without tying it!

McCanless had had enough after finding two eggs. She was way more interested in the swings. (Which is exactly what she did last year at the church egg hunt!)

On to Easter lunch and egg hunt number 2 at Grandmother’s house. (Redfearn) This time, however, there was an incentive! PaPa stuffs his Easter eggs with money!

The girls: Kate, Mary Clare, Kacy, me and McCanless (behind me)

On to Nonnie’s house and egg hunt number 3 for McCanless! Mel had to work after lunch, and Mary Clare fell asleep in the car driving home from Grandmother’s house, so McCanless and I decide to keep on truckin’ and hit the road to Nonnie’s house!

I so wish I had a photo or video of the “big” kid egg hunt that Nonnie has every year. Since we (ughmm, well most of us) are now in our 20′s(20′s/30′s…it’s all the same, right!?), the Easter bunny no longer visits us, only grandkids. Nonnie more than makes up for the bunny by hiding cash stuffed eggs in the house! (She got the idea from Mel’s mom. In college, Mel and I could eat for 2 weeks on our egg hunt funds from Sarah!) Except Nonnie’s hunt gets a bit competitive! If you have ever seen the running of the bulls, you’ve come close to the experience! Mel, Alston, Kacy, Kate, Matt and I all running, pouncing and diving for colorful, tiny plastic eggs is quite a scene.

I didn’t find a single egg. (Probably because Kacy elbowed me into the fridge causing me to step on her dog. AND every egg that I spotted, she jumped over me to grab.) BUT after a hint from Nonnie as to the whereabouts of the coveted $20 prize egg, we all dove toward the buffet in the dining room. Once I found it under a tin bunny and it fell to the floor, everyone hit the floor to grab MY egg. After bruised ribs from someone tickling me in efforts to get me out of the game, bruised knees and a patch of hair missing, I was able to capture The egg!)

My baby brother and my dork…

What a wonderful Easter! We are so blessed to have such a great family!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Gotta leave some for The Bunny!

After the Easter party at school today, McCanless and I were in the mood to do a bit of egg dying! (…and doesn’t everyone dye eggs in a Jasmine costume?) We were all set up and ready to go and realized that Mary Clare wanted in on the action, so we had to deter her for a while. Baby, 4-year-old, eggs and dye do not mix!

Two dozen plastic eggs and a bunny basket later, Mary Clare is occupied for the moment…

..one pink, one blue, one pink, one yellow, one pink, one purple, one pink, one pink…..

Okay, so by this point even the egg carton was getting boring…

McCanless loves hard-boiled eggs and I cannot remember an Easter when we didn’t eat the eggs immediately after dying them. (In fact, her teacher was amazed when she was the only brave volunteer in her class to eat a real egg recently.) Fortunately this year, I made more eggs than I usually do, so when McCanless ate her fill after dying them, we would have lots of left overs to hide, look at, do whatever you are supposed to do with left over Easter eggs!?! (Kids don’t send real eggs to school anymore as we did. Nowadays, kids take 12 plastic “stuffed” (with candy) eggs to school! I say you haven’t lived until you find a completely rotten egg on the playground!

As she was peeling a bright pink egg, a revelation came to her and with wide eyes, she exclaimed, “Mom! We have to save some to leave out for the Easter Bunny!” I wonder if he’ll take carrot juice with his eggs?

First Baptist 3-K Easter Party

After a chilly egg hunt, the kids went wild at the party inside!

This was the best shot I got of Mary Clare at the party. Most of the time, I was having to ward off kids surrounding her. She was a hit. The kids were fascinated by her. McCanless asked me after the party if I could take Mary Clare to school everyday. She was such a big sister telling them not to touch her face, that she may get germs.

Virginia Ann’s Easter Party

Mary Clare’s friend, Virginia Ann, had an Easter party last weekend and the girls had a ball!

Mary Clare and Reese

Mary Clare and Virginia Ann

More baby friends, Emma and Jane.

Mary Clare grabbed Reese’s passy and didn’t let go!

Oh, and about the black nail polish..that’s not a typical color we have sitting around our house! McCanless spent the night with Aunt Kate and came home donning the hip new nail color and singing new Brittany Spears songs. Having five aunts is rough…

I think he is after that rattle!

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

We headed South for the rest of winter…

We visited Sissy and Uncle Kurt last week and had THE BEST TIME! We ate, laughed, played, baked (as in the sun) ate, laughed and ate some more!

This was about 5 minutes after our arrival.

Sissy and Uncle Kurt bought this house a couple of years ago and completely gutted it and “re-did” everything, including the yard! It is such a wonderful sunny “Florida” house and is beautiful.

Sissy and Nonnie in the kitchen! Sissy is a great cook and cooked wonderful meals for all of us!

The day we arrived was a beautifully sunny but still windy day, so we headed to the park for some fun! (after McCanless took a dip in the pool)

Sissy bought this great baby pool for Mary Clare. Funny thing is she was scared to death of it. We have no idea why, but every time she got near it, she burst into tears! Even looking at it would bring a scowl to her face!

We even had an egg hunt!

…and decorated cookie eggs!

Even sea gulls can’t resist Goldfish!

This was the first time Mary Clare (that she remembers) has seen real grass and lots of sunshine! She LOVED sitting in the sun, however, I think I need to invest in a pair of baby shades.

Sissy even has an outdoor television…McCanless was in heaven! Hot dogs and Noggin by the pool, who could ask for more? (I kept telling her that this was vacation and once we returned to normal life inland, no so much tv!)

This was another park in Melbourne also just a mile from Sissy’s house. We had the best time!