Easter/Travis's Birthday

I'm not just trying to slip a two-in-one move in here; they really did coincide this year. Poor Travis - if his day isn't being eclipsed by Brooklyn's (two days later), it's being doubly eclipsed by slapping Easter on top of it.

A couple days before Easter, we made our own chocolate bunny! This was a tradition of Travis's grandma's (she got really into holidays and especially making elaborate foods), and when she passed away we inherited one of her chocolate bunny molds. It was so fun to bring back an authentic little piece of Travis's childhood. Luckily his sister Katie made hers first and then facebooked (new verb) about her results, so we called her and got some pointers that allowed us to succeed on the first try!

We had an Easter(/birthday) brunch at our house on Easter morning, followed by an egg hunt in the yard. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We invited our friends the Von Guntens, who live just a few doors down, and whose kids are nearly exactly the same ages as ours. They were all instant best friends. It's so great to move somewhere and have built-in automatic friends!

Oh wait! *Totally unrelated side note* I can use this opportunity to also mention the SWINGS Travis built for the girls underneath our back porch! I was surprised at how quickly he whipped these things up! We had shopped around for regular swings, and they get pretty expensive. Then at the hardware store, we both had the simultaneous brilliant epiphany to just make our own with some rope and planks! Perfect. This type of swing, it turns out, is a little harder for the kids to use, but we figure it's good for them to develop their balance skills and strengthen their cores, right? I thought the novelty would wear off in a matter of days, but they are still out there all the time! Kate comes home from school and doesn't even go inside - they all head straight for the swings. Even Troy has learned to say, "Ing? Ing?" and point to the "ing" anxiously. (He can't swing alone, of course, so he has to sit on my lap. Which means I do a fair amount of swinging too!) Hours of outdoor fun thanks to our live-in handyman!