French Creek camping

We had beautiful weather in Philadelphia this last weekend and we enjoyed every second of it by camping with some friends up at French Creek. You couldn't ask for better conditions: warm enough for short sleeves during the day, a sweatshirt and campfire in the evenings, and open sleeping bags at night. Gorgeous! Cambrie jumped right into the fun and was so excited to spend the weekend outside with her friends.

They played with the hammock.
They played on the playground.

They went for walks.

They played with Cambrie's new butterfly wood carving from dad.

They played with salamanders.

And of course they got dirty!

Quick Cam

As a surprise Easter gift from Jeremy's parents, we received a computer camera/camcorder. I've seen them around and thought they would be pretty neat to have, so it's exciting (yet somewhat creepy) having it stare at me while I work on the computer. We are slowly learning how to use it. Here are some of our experiments:

I wish I had been fast enough to take the mustache and goatee pictures. Cambrie loved being a cowboy.

Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Here's what happened at our house this Easter weekend:

Saturday night we dyed eggs. Cambrie desperately wanted to dye her fingers instead and ended up with one yellow pointer finger.

Otherwise she was pretty cooperative. She got to put the stickers on the eggs and was excited to wear the "egg bracelets" after we were done.

The Easter Bunny visited the YMCA on Friday and gave all the kids an egg to open. The rest of the day Cambrie kept talking about her, "Bunny came." The only way we could get her to bed Saturday night was by telling her that the Easter Bunny would come while she was asleep and leave treats in her basket. She jumped right in bed after that. So when Sunday morning rolled around she was quick to find her eggs. "I see yellow egg!" "I see purple egg!" She learned how to open them at the Easter egg hunt so it was a challenge to keep the candy out of her mouth the rest of the morning. In fact, while Jeremy and I were getting ready, she managed to open up her Mrs. Cavanaugh's Mint Truffle egg and devour 1/3 of it before we caught her (and it's a large egg). The Easter bunny also brought Cambrie a magnetic fishing set and "The Little Mermaid."

We had bunny banana pancakes for breakfast which tasted pretty good but didn't look like bunnies. I later switched to reliable Mickey Mouse and smiley face pancakes because my bunnies looked like the Enterprise and roast turkeys.

Then we got dressed for Sunday. Cambrie was as excited as I was for her to put on her princess dress. She saw me sewing it and had tried it on for fittings and things, but I never let her keep in on long. So when she saw it by her basket she wanted to put in on immediately, never mind it was 8:00 in the morning. We held her off until after lunch, but she was so happy to be wearing it that I had a hard time taking her picture, she was all over the place. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Sunday night we had dinner with some friends. The ham, potatoes, rolls, salad, and yes Ali, even the drinks were delicious. It was a great way to celebrate.

Egg hunt

This morning the kiddies and the parents of our Philly family braved the rainy weather to go on an Easter egg hunt. This is the second year we've hunted at Houston Park and the second year we've been greeted with less than pleasant weather. The kids were so excited about finding their eggs that they could care less that their fingers were frozen, their noses were running, their hair was sopping wet, and raindrops hung to their eyelashes. All the kids frantically ran around grabbing eggs from trees and under leaves to reach their 12-egg limit first. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad that Cambrie felt better this year and was excited to find her eggs. When she found one she would hold it up and call, "I found it!"

Cambrie with her friend, Morgan. Family picture.

The kids anxious to open up their eggs. If you look carefully, most have their mouths full or chocolate already on their face.

One more reason to smile

Here's another reason why I smile :)

For our date on Friday night Jeremy and I went to the driving range.

Then we built a planter box for our strawberries.

We are so lucky to have a group of friends that make these date nights possible. Friday night date night is the highlight of my week. I get to spend one-on-one time with my husband doing fun and random things. Yippee!

Smile

Here's just one reason why I smile.

Blustery Day

Cambrie loves playing outside. She never seems to be satisfied with her day unless she gets to spend all of it in our front "yard." Luckily for us she is really good about staying right in front of our apartment so we can see her all the time. Her favorite game right now is pushing her firetruck up the hill then riding it down-again, and again, and again... Since it was so windy yesterday we told Cambrie that she needed a hat and gloves to stay warm. Well, she found the blanket first and thought that would work just as well. She just didn't plan on the wind continuously blowing it off of her head.

As a side story: When Cambrie first found the blanket she had pulled it over her head like a veil and told us she was getting married. Who's the lucky guy?

The wind lasted all day and we were tired of being cooped up so when Kelley called and invited us to get ice-cream during the Priesthood session with some other women, we couldn't say no. We basically took over the ice-cream shop with babies, toddlers, and women. Luckily for us, Zwahlens is owned by an LDS family so they seemed to understand. Their ice-cream is always delicious so you don't even need toppings, but last night I tried their hot fudge and decided I will always get their hot fudge. Yum...I'm drooling remembering its deliciousness.