Easter 2011

We had a wonderful Easter celebration. This year was completely different than most years. Instead of bustling to each of our parents Easter gatherings in one day, we were lucky enough to be able to celebrate with both sides of our families, plus my new sister-in-laws' (Mrs. Kidney Bean) family! It was grand.

My mom is so great at making decorations. She quilted a handful of lovely table centerpieces. Thanks MOM you rock and are so creative! Mrs. Kidney Bean's Mom was also creative. She brought a sweet, tall bunny to decorate the front doorway entrance to the clubhouse and a few lovely Easter lily plants. My little nuts handmade Easter Bunnies out of pine cones (I don't have a picture of them..oops). Everyone brought the most delicious array of food. We certainly had a scrumptious feast. The ten children had a blast playing, drinking lots of punch, eating food, and sneaking more desserts. Best of all they all behaved very well. The Easter egg hunt and beautiful weather kept them all happy and content. The adults were so busy socializing, preparing dinner, watching the kids, cleaning up, and having fun. I wasn't able to capture enough photos. I have attached a few great shots to sum up our awesome Easter celebration. Thank you God for blessing our families so richly (this includes all of our relatives near and far). Each one of you is a blessing from God and we are so very thankful. Thank you Jesus for suffering for our souls so we can meet you one day in heaven.

Twoof-less

I know, I know, another tooth story, right? Well, this is a good one because the little chiclet has finally fallen out! Yesterday, Almond was eating her picnic lunch of soft waffles out on the deck while talking to Grandma. (She has already mastered multi-tasking at the early age of 6, huh!) Anyhow, I was in the house making more waffles when she came pounding on the sliding door to tell me about her surprise. Almond was so excited that Grandma could barely even understand what was going on. She quickly got off the phone to wash her bloody fingers so she could share the excitement. She left lots of mysterious phone messages with her aunties and uncles. Feeling frustrated that she was only able to share the excitement with a few people, she decided to go outside to ride her bike while waiting for some returned phone calls. The way her voice sounds now is pretty cute! She is having a little trouble talking with the large gaping hole in her mouth.

Later that evening, Almond asked me if she could call Grandma back because she said she didn't get to tell her about the tooth. I was shocked, but I agreed to let Almond call her back. When she was done talking to Grandma, she told me that Grandma didn't know that she had lost her tooth and thought that Almond was screaming at a stranger! LOL!! I couldn't help but laugh! I think Almond gets her creative stories from Grandma! Ha, ha, ha!!

Teeth

For some reason, this week has been accident-prone. Monday, started as Mondays do in our house. But, as soon as breakfast was over the "oowies" began surfacing. Almond, Walnut, and Butternut were practicing their somersaults and headstands. One was rolling around while the other was trying to move away and boom! Their heads collided. Almond and Butternut smacked heads. Butternut has a head of steel and happened to bump right into Almond's top teeth. She screamed in pain and from the sight of blood. She calmed down after a minute or so and I told her that this accident had loosened her top 2 front teeth (each had been a tiny bit loose prior to this day). This was just the start of this week.

I saw more blood on Tuesday than I care to see in a week. Almond and Butternut again had more accidents. This time Butternut successfully knocked out 1 of the 2 teeth had loosened the day prior. As I looked into her mouth the left top tooth was dangling by a thread of tissue, so I asked her if I could just tug it out. She agreed that I should and was surprisingly super excited about loosing it so she could give it to the "tooth fairy." Now, tooth number 2 is very loose and looks like its about to jump out if she moves it just so. Kind of looks like a piece "Chiclets gum" hanging in her mouth. EEEK! Maybe 30 minutes (if that) later, Almond and Hazelnut come running up the stairs yelling "MOM!" I had been tucking in Peanut for her morning nap. Trailing behind them is Butternut crying with blood all over his mouth and hands. I quickly pulled him into the bathroom as the girls explain to me what they saw happen to him. He had run into the leg our card table. Each leg has a part that sticks out where it locks into place and Butternut had hit that part with his upper lip. The cut was pretty good which explains how he had been bleeding pretty bad. Fortunately, he was back to normal in 5 minutes after I cleaned him up and gave him ice to put on his lip. All morning he had been pretending to be a "knight/firefighter" so he was wearing his knight helmet and fireman jacket. Unfortunately, he did not have it on when this accident occurred. Each of them had their share of "oowies." Big sigh. I'm fully aware that this will not be the end of these types of accidents, I just wish I could "see them coming" before it happens.
One last note, the tooth was super clean for the tooth fairy! Almond had just been to the Dentist for her regular cleaning the last week. At that visit she had a very loose tooth on the bottom row and asked the hygienist to pull it for her. She did and boy was Almond excited to show me her super clean tooth for the tooth fairy. The tooth fairy has been very lucky to have received such "super" clean teeth within one week of each other.

Back to more blood. To top of Tuesday evening our youngest nut, Peanut, shed some blood, too. It was actually kind of a "mystery." Mr. Lugnut and I were hanging out with Peanut while the other nuts were outside playing together. Suddenly, I noticed small streaks of blood on a children's book, a coaster, and on one of my scrapbook magazines. As Peanut was near me, I noticed blood on her hands and on my hands. We (Mr. Lugnut and I) were trying to figure out who was bleeding and where was it coming from. Low and behold 2 minutes later, I finally found the paper cut on Peanut's index finger. She didn't even complain until I tried to get a band-aid on it so it would stop bleeding. Aaahhhh, thankfully that was the last of blood for the day and hopefully for the week!