My 3 beautiful kids in front of the beautiful tulips and flowers at Duke Gardens. It doesn't get any better than this. Easter break was wonderful. We went to Duke Gardens to see the tulips twice, went to see our new nephew Shiloh, built a vegetable garden, and went to the zoo.
But first, an update on the kids. Jake still isn't walking but he is crawling at lightning speed and getting into everything. He claps and waves and tries to say 'bye bye' and point to himself when you ask him 'who's Jake?'. He's so smart that even though we have used bungee cords to keep the bakeware and tupperware off limits so he doesn't strew it all over the kitchen floor, he reaches through the cabinet with the pots and pans that we can't seal off and gets the tupperware anyway. At least this way he doesn't make as big a mess as he could.
Catherine is such a little problem solver! She automatically finds a solutions from a new angle like it is second nature. She can't reach the door handle to pull it open so she pushes the door next to it to grab the edge. She throws feed into the goose pen to help her cousin get the goose back to where it belongs (instead of chasing us and biting me and Sam). She loves her brother and is a big help with him, keeping him smiling and finding things to keep him occupied (and away from her stuff).
Our sweet Samantha finds the joy in everything! Everything is her favorite and new and beautiful and exciting. She also misses everyone and everything the second we leave. She told Dave she missed her cousins and we hadn't even gotten in the car yet ;-) She still sings all the time, especially in the bathroom for some reason. My mom taught her the words to "Oh my darlin' Clementine" which she pronounces "Clementahn". We still have no idea where her southern accent comes from. Not even our sitters have talked like she does, throwing extra syllables in everywhere she can.
A nice lady offered to take our picture!
On Easter Sunday the girls had a blast looking for eggs in the yard.
And Jake looked very debonaire in his 'jaunty chapeau'.
Jake and Nana
Spinning in their beautiful dresses!
Our crazy kids with their crazy grandparents, nothing could be a more true picture of our life and we love it.
In a dinosaur egg at the zoo, 2 movie stars and 'farmer Jake'.
A little Marilyn moment for miss Catherine.
We had a very close encounter with the chimpanzees at the zoo, it was great! She played peek a boo and blew kisses to the kids until she had to go break up a fight between 2 little chimpanzees.
Catherine is becoming quite the little photographer with the camera she got for Christmas. Here are a few of her best shots at Duke Gardens and the NC zoo. I did not edit these in any way, not even cropped. Not bad for a 4 year old, right?
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| A rhino red with mud. |
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| The momma breaking up the fight. |
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| The mommy and daddy lion with 4 cubs. |
