Easter fun

Well, a good time was had by all I think! We left Friday morning early, but not as early as planned, 'cause that's how we roll. We hit Lacrosse, WI around 6:30 to meet up with our friends Mike and Rachel and their kids. Man, was it nice to see them and to have a nice home-cooked meal instead of fast food. The girls played so well together and seemed happy to see one another again. The boys just eyed each other a lot. They are just a month apart and not at the playing-together-nicely stage just yet. They just kinda crawled around each other and petted one another a few times. But they were good. Mike and Vince caught up on the work issues and Rachel and I chatted away about babies, kids, and babies and kids. While we were there one of our dumb dogs got up front and ate most of our snacks. Stuff that you wouldn't think a dog would be interested in like yogurt melts and baby mum-mum rice husks and grasshopper cookies. We landed at my aunt's house around 12:30 am. Everyone was still up waiting so we talked for a few minutes and then headed for bed. Sam didn't sleep at all, which means I didn't sleep at all. Also, from the moment we left our house until the moment we returned, Sam had, on average, 3 explosive diapers a day (I'm not exaggerating-we literally had to change a diaper before we even left our driveway). Yes, he still does that most of the time. I'm so tired of it--really tired! On the way home when we stopped for lunch, he did it twice in one hour. He was on his 3rd outfit of the day by the time we left the restaurant and it was only noon! And the stupid dog got up front again and ate the snacks he missed on the way there and some Easter candy, including a chocolate bunny! He was severely beaten-or at least made to think that he was gonna be. Anyway, back to business...We really did have a nice time. Saturday we hit the Milwaukee County Zoo--very quickly. It was a nice day, but there was a wind blowing and it made it feel really cold! Also, they were having some Easter activities at the zoo, so anytime we tried to go to an indoor exhibit to warm up, we were crammed in with the other 1,000,000 visitors that day. Then we visited my grandparents and a few aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was great to see them and I think that my grandparents enjoyed having us for a while. Grandma got to feed us, which always makes her happy. I will post some pictures on my Kodak Gallery for you guys to see. I don't like to post pictures on here because anyone can see this blog. I'd rather send a link to people I know. Saturday evening my aunt made the family recipe enchiladas and invited some uncles, aunts, and cousins from the other side of the family. I call them "white-trash enchiladas" but my aunt hates that term. Let's just say there's a lot of Velveeta and Hormel chili involved. Soooo good! One of my aunts makes cakes and OMG!! So, to recap--I ate greasy popcorn at the zoo, one dinner and dessert at my Grandma's, another dinner at my aunt's and then had some chocolate cake with cheesecake and cannoli in it (it was a layered thing) and then some banana pudding. It's a good thing I hardly ate breakfast because I don't even want to think about the number of calories I ingested after 4:00 that day. I woke up on Sunday not feeling well (surprise?) but went for a very nice run with my dad and Vince that morning, then helped them play Easter bunny. The kids hunted the eggs and then we proceeded to eat our way through the mountain of candy heaped on them from their parents, grandparents, and all the relatives in between. By Sunday evening I was not feeling well at all and went to bed trying to keep my Easter dinner where it belonged. Alas, I was not successful. We had planned to head to the Milwaukee Public Museum Monday morning. We got around a little late, but I was feeling a little better, so decided to go along. Turns out that the Monday of Spring Break is the busiest day of the year at the MPM because Mondays are free day. Great! It was pretty crowded, but still awesome. If you ever are in Milwaukee, this museum is a must see. It covered everything from natural history to cultures of the world to local history and beyond. It was like the museum in that movie "Night at the Museum". They even had a "dum-dum" head! We got to attend the Titanic exhibit also. That was so neat. At the entrance they give you a card with a name and some information about that person like what class their tickets were, and who they were traveling with and why. At the end, you could look up whether you lived or died that night. I was a third class passenger traveling with my hubs and 9 kids. Sadly, we all perished. My dad was John Astor. We all know how that ends. Anyway, it was neat to see some of the real artifacts and stuff. Then we went back home to eat some more and watch Madagascar 2. That movie is hysterical!! It's WAAY better than the first one. Moto Moto is one of my faves. Vince likes the penguins. They are funny. You gotta see it. My aunt had planned a little birthday party for Sam (and Vince) so that my parents could celebrate with him. We ate our weight in ice-cream cake and watched as Sam smeared it everywhere. Nana gave him his bath that night! So, we took off Tuesday morning, again, later than planned. The trip home was definitely shorter than the drive there, but it did have it's bumps. First, the amazing pooping baby was up to his usual tricks, then Katie threw up in the car. It's not a proper trip unless someone pukes in the car, right? Yeah, that was when we were about 4 hours from home. She tried to tell me, but I wasn't understanding. She kept saying, "My food, my food hurts." I thought she was saying her foot hurts. Sheesh! Next time she says anything hurts while we are in the car, she's getting a plastic bag just in case. Luckily, Vinny had some industrial trash bags in the car. We got her cleaned up and her clothes sealed up and then covered her chair with a bag and cut slits for the straps. It still stunk, but I'm guessing it could have been worse. Finally we made it home and realized we left the girl's Leapster, Sam's birthday gifts and his sippy cup in Wisconsin. Figures. I'm sure there were other things left behind as well.

Wow, that was one long paragraph! Nothing like a play-by-play, huh?

So, we're home now and trying to settle back in. Sam's sleeping better and the candy is almost gone so life is almost back to normal. I took the kids to the Youth and Family Services Kid's Fest this morning. It's a kid's dream. It's $3 per person and then they have free range to play all day if they want. There is everything you can imagine for them to do--train rides, bouncy castles, games, prizes, entertainment, a giant sand box--any kind of activity you can think of! It's all indoors at the civic center and it's a blast. Audrey just runs to every different thing. Katie would play all day in the sandbox or the area that has little sandboxes filled with things like lentils or tiny colored pasta. Sam liked those too. Amazingly he didn't put any of it in his mouth. Even if he did, it was all edible and not big enough to choke on. The girls got their faces painted. Audrey got a heart and Katie got Spiderman. Funny!

Well, I guess that's all for now. Hope everyone had a great Easter and is scarfing as much candy as I am. I don't wanna get fatter all alone!