Easter Fun With Nana & Cousins

I had to work on the morning of Good Friday this year.  :(  Boo.  But grateful that the kids spent the morning with my mom and got things prepped for our annual egg coloring and cookie frosting that could begin when the Rethman crew and I arrived around lunch time.  The kids had a messy blast as usual.  :)

Being careful on the drop-in so as not to splash.

 

LOTS of adult hands are necessary to assist with this sort of activity.  Haha!  (Sorry for capturing your sniffle face, Wes.  I know you weren't as grossed out as you appear here.  LOL)

The wait time for egg coloring is always a challenge.  Will took to heart the old adage of "a watched pot never boils" by covering his eyes while his eggs were in their color bath.  I think he assumed that if he couldn't see it, it would happen faster.

We love cousin time!

We also love Nana time!

Stella looks SOOO grown up here.  That looks like a teenager expression!

Beeeautiful!

Wes and mom were just being silly with this pose.

You can't see Nana in this picture but she was singing "Little Bunny Foo Foo" and the kids were singing along with all the hand gestures.  How lucky are these kids to have a preschool teacher for a grandma?

On to cookie frosting!  They all made the cut-outs on an earlier day with Nana so today was the task of frosting.

Sophie did more of this than frosting...

There are a lot of these just because (as you know) there's always someone not looking or smiling in each picture.  So, mom, you can choose your favorite(s) and I'll make you a copy.  P.S. mom, it looks like you're breastfeeding the doll in this picture.  LOL!

Time for basket hunting!

Sophie found hers behind the oversized chair in the "piano room".

And Will's was in that wickery basket in the corner of the room.

Such lucky kids!

Love you, Stella Grace!

All our hard work...

Soph and Uncle Dub

And of course, we immediately went home and played with the new bath tub toys and bubbles from their baskets!

Thanks, Nana, for another wonderful afternoon of memory-making!

InstaFriday

This is a must whenever changing the sheets on mom & dad's bed.  Haha!  Sophie's a total blur.  :)

Zoya Blaze with a textured London accent.  Going edgy for the fights tonight! ;)

Who ARE these children that have been playing together so nicely this morning??  I don't even recognize them!

My hamstrings are getting more familiar with this and loosening a bit.  Head needs to come up a smidge in chaturanga to align the spine more but I focused on my arms making 90 degrees.  Still adjusting my feet in down dog.

Headstand play.

Oh! I've missed this!!  Used to eat it ALL the time.  Toasted multigrain with sliced avocado and tomato, a drizzle of olive oil and salt & pepper.  Sooooo good.

House specialties at Cousino's with my love.  Hit the spot!  I love me some steak!

Out past our bedtime waiting for Jake's round.  Our friend's brother is an MMA fighter and he is the main event tonight!  We came out to show our support... and because Craig is a huge MMA fan.

Great fight, Jake!  (red shorts)

Sophie's "reading" My Daddy is a Pretzel to Will and he's following along with the coordinating yoga poses on each page.  I love that they have all these postures memorized.  :)  This is Will's bridge pose. 

Will's "pretzel".

Sophie's tree pose (with a little help from Mr. Wall).

And finally, Sophie's triangle.

We had a feverish girlie in our bed on Sunday night.  :(  I ended up staying home with her on Monday.  Our agenda included some snuggle time and a long mid-day nap together.  I also squeezed in some yoga for mommy.  ;)  But we totally overslept during our nap and I was WAY late picking Will up from the sitter's!  Whoops!!!

Spring has sprung!  On my nails anyway.  :)  Pairing my own Neely (pale green cream) with a friends Vespa Pixie Dust.  LOVE the cream/texture contrast!

Reading my new yoga bible while Soph reads some of her favorites aloud.  We'd just finished making up our own stories for each other and decided it was time for some independent reading.  Love this yoga book so far!

This was a heavily interrupted practice with Sophie calling me over and over from my bed where she was watching Diego.  But I was still grateful for the chance to be home with my baby and get to my mat for a mid-day workout rather than early morning or late at night.  Lots of great stretches with the belt to open hips and chest.  And a semi-balanced toe stand too!

I got some hang time with my feet off the wall in my second-ever forearm stand!  It's hard to tell when you're upside down, but it looks like my forearms need to be a little more parallel.  Getting super comfortable in headstands too and having fun playing around with my legs.  I kinda' love being upside down!

Lunch date with my lady.  Our favorite blueberry mango smoothies and pb&j (her fave).

Love my cheerful little calendar that came with my Lisa Leonard Designs necklace from Craig for Christmas.

My first EVER cup of coffee!  I was at a breastfeeding conference on Tuesday and didn't get the best night of sleep Monday night.  Caramel creamer is yummy!  I might be a convert... occasionally.  The conference was wonderful.

A little blurry, but I think my arms are a wee bit straighter in wheel pose!  Progress!  Need to parallel my feet though.

My kids really know how to shake what their mama gave 'em!  Post dinner dance party at the Riedeman house!  Will's always trying to mimic the Ohio State football team doing the Dougie.  LOL

The tiniest bit of plow (halasana) progress - five days difference.  I confess I've been feeling frustrated with myself lately.  Working on flexibility is such a looooong, sloooow process.  I've only been working at this since the beginning of this month but I need to remember to be patient with myself.  Instant gratification isn't going to happen in this practice and it's not a healthy mind set either.  Received some helpful advice today that encouraged me to be patient with my body and just keep working diligently on the basics without pushing myself to injury.  Focusing on the outcome rather than the process goes completely against the yogic thinking.  I know my body can improve with time and gentle patience. 

Out for a bike ride with my kiddos.

Sophie missed her nap today and totally zonked out on the ride.

Afternoon on Good Friday.  So grateful to have had this afternoon off to spend with my loves.

What's For Dinner? Weeks 3&4

{Week of March 16-22}
On the menu for this week:
1) cheeseburgers on the grill
2) chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese
3) lemon chicken picatta
4) sweet autumn chicken with squash and apples
5) breakfast pitas (bulk sausage, scrambled eggs, green pepper, cheese & oregano in a pita)
6) magic bars for dessert

{Week of March 23-29}
On the menu for this week:
1) cheesy chicken and wild rice casserole (recipe idea from my Aunt Susan's Pinterest board) - EXTREMELY cheesy and strong garlic taste... I liked it, not sure it's for everyone.

Sadly, that's all I can remember about this week... I seem to have lost the grocery list page with this week's menu on it.

Easter Egg Hunt

We attended the annual GBU Easter party and egg hunt today.  A few games, some food and a visit from the world's most famous rabbit.  Always a fun time.  :)

Sophie is still terrified of the Easter Bunny though.  (When does that stop?)  But Cecilia went right up to him for a hug and a photo.

Will gave him a hand shake and a high five.  Sophie inched closer for awhile and then bolted in the opposite direction. 

Goofball. 

Heading out for the "hunt"... or rather, the gathering of scattered eggs.  ;) 

Let the candy eating commence! 

There was an Ohio State game on during the party that Craig reeeeeally didn't want to miss.  He was very torn about coming along or staying home to watch it, but decided to join us.  So you can imagine his elation when his mom brought a mini portable TV for him to tune in while the kids colored away and made guesses at the number of jelly beans in a large jar. 

More games.