Easter Weekend - Bye Bye Crib!

 Good Friday was the day.  For a couple of weeks Gwen has wanted to go to bed in Cara's bed and been upset when she had to sleep in her crib so we planned on Easter Weekend as the time to dismantle the good ol' crib and build the toddler bed for her.  The crib has been set up in our house for close to 5 years!  We reminisced about driving it home from the Bay with Grampy in our old Civic (it didn't fit very well and Daddy had to lay in the back holding it in the car as we drove!!)
 The girls said goodbye as Daddy took the crib apart.

 That night at bedtime.

Gwen was so excited!

Cara told her the "rules":

1. stay in bed.

2. no funny business.

3. Mommy and Daddy love you no matter what.

 We also decorated some Easter eggs on Friday.

 The girls liked the shrinky-dink wrappers.  Easy and mess free!

Earlier in the week we did this Easter craft.

Crayon shavings melted between wax paper to make a stained "glass" window hanger.

 Saturday we went for a walk on the railroads.

(an old mini railroad at a park)

 Cara liked the idea of a hobo lifestyle.

 Gwen was more of a tree person.

 Easter morning!

Cara was up before 7am and she waited for the rest of us to wake up.

 One cute bunny!

 Another cute bunny!

 After breakfast we went out for an egg hunt.

 Gwen loved it!

There were 24 eggs but next year the Bunny should hide more - Gwen wanted to keep searching!

 A warmer hunt than last year but still a bit of stubborn snow in the yard.

 Gwen realizing there is candy inside the eggs!

Cara ate a ton of candy and was vibrating with sugar all day.  Nana & Howie came over for a delicious Easter dinner and a great visit.

Easter Monday we went to a playground in Glenmore Park and the girls ran off some more sugar energy!

Raffi!

 Cara completed her skating class this weekend.  She really improved especially in the last few weeks.  She'll do the 2nd level of the course starting in April.

Gwen likes having her picture taken whenever the camera is out!

Looks like another haircut is in order!

 Saturday was a special day!  We went to see Raffi in concert!  He is doing a #belugagrads tour and we are all huge fans so we couldn't miss the show.  Mommy saw Raffi in Saint John when she was Cara's age.  This picture is a few minutes before the show started - the girls were so excited (even though they aren't smiling!!)!

 Raffi is still awesome.  His songs are just wonderful and for most songs the entire concert hall was singing along.  He sang for just over an hour and did all the hits!

 We had great seats in row F. 

The girls loved "Banana-phone" and "Baby Beluga".  Mommy loved "All I Really Need" and Daddy loved "On Hockey Days" (a new song!).  We really hope he comes back so we can see him again.

Cara is getting to be a real helper.  She loved learning how to peel carrots for supper on Sunday and she did a great job!  Gwen is a pro at setting the table so someday soon they can take over!  We'll eat lots of carrots!

Irish Eyes Are Smiling

 Our little Irish lady was so excited for St Paddy's Day that she requested pizza night have a shamrock pizza.  We made a shamrock garlic fingers and she was satisfied.

 Gwen wore her most green sweater!

 And the girls enjoyed a lengthy history lesson on Ireland's relationship with the potato.

So much love for their heritage!

(The taters were then mashed and eaten with a beef stew - other than the snow storm we had it was a wonderful St Patrick's Day with movie watching and green jello too!)

Gymnatot!

Our little gymnast finished her course this week!

She did great and loves going to the gym.  She also really loved getting a ribbon!

She'll be doing the next session starting after Easter.  Big Sister is going to go too in an unparented class.

We thought that another sliding day was in order since there is so much snow around.

The girls had lots of fun and both liked going down all by themselves!

We should have had the video going when Cara went down on the last run.  She was going head first on her belly on the red sled and was going great when she went further than we expected and went right toward our other sled!  She hit it and did a jump over it!  She flew!  It was amazing!

Sunday we went to the zoo.  It was a nice mild day.

Cara was happy to see her dinosaur friends.

The T. Rex even smiled for the girls!

We got a good look at the active hippos.  This guy was watching all the people watch him.

He swam right up to Cara and then did a back flip!

Cara loves an entertaining hippo!

Our tour guide checked the map frequently.

She was trying to look afraid of the lion but it comes off as a pretty good Jack Nicholson impression!

We saw this friendly looking Gibbon.

Gwen fell asleep in the stroller so she missed some animals.  While she slept Cara and Daddy posed in the flower garden.

Happy snow leopard.

Some of the baby tigers.  They aren't tiny cubs anymore!

March Snow

 Gwen is getting to be very creative with hats.

Why not wear a shopping cart on your head?!

 She is a very independent girl.

During our big snow storm the girls enjoyed popcorn and old cartoons on Netflix.

 After the storm stopped we had snow again so Daddy took the girls out to play and he even made a snow angel!

Snow is so much fun!

We are looking forward to double digit temps coming up so this snow won't last long!