Easter 2013!

Happy Easter Sunday!  This post has a lot of pictures and a break-down of our Easter festivities!

 

EGG-COLORING:

On Thursday the girls and I colored 4 dozen eggs!  It was both messy and comical.  Shyla wanted to take her time with each egg.  Harper, ever the brute, wanted to see how quickly she could color the eggs and also how many eggs she could smash into each bowl of color.  It got messy fast!  In fact, I spilled the bowl of blue dye before I even got it to their table and it was all downhill from there!  Stevie came home from work as we were finishing up, but not quite to the "clean-up" stage, with a look of shock on his face!

 

GETTING READY FOR THE EASTER BUNNY:
While Stevie and I were at Wicked on Saturday night, my parents helped the girls prepare for the Easter Bunny.  They set out (and apparently ate) carrots, left 1 dozen eggs and empty basket.  They were hopeful that the bunny would hide the eggs for them and fill their baskets.

EASTER BUNNY COMES TO OUR HOUSE!
He did stop by our house!  He did hide the eggs!  And he filled their baskets and left a nice note!

EASTER AT GRANDMA & GRANDPA'S:
Then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for brunch and where the Easter Bunny had also visited!  The kids each got Easter baskets and then we headed out for a big egg hunt which included a special egg for each child.

All in all, a very blessed day, season and family!

A "Wicked" Night

One of my Christmas presents from Stevie was tickets to see Wicked!  Last night was our show and, thus, our date-night and it was awesome!  My parents came over to take care of the girls (thanks, Mom and Dad!) - we had a lovely dinner at the Olive Garden before heading to the show.

We both loved it!

It was more humorous than expected and these performers are so, so talented.  We also loved the story-line.  I had read the book many years ago but I didn't remember all the twists.

The only bad thing was he bought tickets for the 8PM show which, is way past my bedtime.  I was exhausted and so were parents by the time we finally got home.

Since we were dressed up for the date we decided to try to get a picture of the two of us.  Both girls kept photo-bombing us so we changed our plan to try to get a good family picture.  These pictures are the best we could do.

 This picture makes Harper look like an outcast but, really, that's as close as she would come!

And this one shows Shyla in her traditional pose - jumping, of course!

Ahhhhh, Coronado!

We just got back from Spring Break vacation on Coronado Island!  It was, like all of our vacations, a blast and we are exhausted from it!

The girls and I, with my mom, left early Wednesday morning and made the drive to Coronado.  That afternoon, Stevie flew to Vegas for March Madness.  Once we got there and got settled, we walked to the playground near Dog Park and played for a while.

The next day, Thursday, my dad made the drive all by himself while the girls and Mom and I made our way to another playground near the bridge.  To get to this one we parked at the Ferry Landing and walked.  It's not a super long walk but Harper pretty much refuses the stroller (I remember Shyla did the same thing at that age) so it took a long time.  As you can see, we were appropriately dressed in our UofA gear to root on our basketball team at The Big Dance!

On Friday, all 5 of us took the Ferry across the Bay to San Diego and after a really long walk thanks to construction, my negative sense of direction, and lack of internet, we made our way to the expo for the Hot Chocolate Run (the initial reason for our trip)!  While there we enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate and marshmallows.  However, in true P fashion, my dad allowed the girls to eat some of the decorative marshmallows and when the volunteer ran after them to have the girls spit it out, Shyla misinterpreted that for being in trouble and, as she does, she lost it completely.  Thus we began our walk back to the Ferry Landing.

We enjoyed lots of playtime at Star Park which is a stone's throw from the house.  My girls are SO active and they are happiest when they are running in the fresh air.

Another reason we love the San Diego area is because that's where Dan and Erin live!  Thursday night they came over for dinner and Shyla made pretend pudding for everybody.  That led Erin to graciously bring over real pudding mix for Shyla on Friday evening.  The two of them worked together to make delicious chocolate, banana, and pistachio pudding.  The reason it was so good was probably that they counted to one-million while stirring.

The activity for Saturday morning was a walk along the beach (again, no stroller for Harper) followed by a surry bike ride.  Yep, we fit my mom, dad, AND me in the back of that thing!  My dad and I peddled but only he had control of the steering wheel which was ... comical.  Sadly, Shyla didn't have the best behavior during the ride so she and I had to cut it short and walk home while Harper got to continue the ride and get some playground time in with Grandma and Grandpa.

Saturday afternoon the rest of the troops arrived!  Chelsea, Mike, and the kids got in around 4ish and Stevie got in after that.  We spent that afternoon watching the UA game and trying to keep the kids from falling down the stairs.

Sunday, amongst other things, we went to Orange Sparkles Park (named by Shyla because it is actually Spreckles Park and it's located on Orange Ave).  We played on the playground, rode in the wagon, and had a little picnic.

Later that day, with Dan and Erin back for more chaos, we had some unprepared beach time!  The kids loved it, until they got really cold.

And we always love our time with Dan and Erin!

Mom and Dad left Monday morning for Tucson.  Chelsea and her family left Monday afternoon for Anaheim, after a bout with food-poisoning delayed their departure a bit.  So the Forgacs 4 headed back to the beach, this time with swimsuits and fresh clothes.

It was a whirlwind of a trip but a blast!  We are so fortunate to be able to stay with our family in one big house, and also fortunate that we want to do such a thing.  We already can't wait to go back!

Tucson Village Farm

Yesterday Shyla and I got to go to Tucson Village Farm for Taylor's 3rd Birthday party!  It was such a cool place and a lot of fun - sadly I don't have any pictures of the birthday girl, though.

Shyla had a hard time getting started on the activities because it was nap time and also because she is, well, Shyla.  But she did pick a carrot from the ground and eat it, watered some plants, looked for worms, and milked the (fake) cow, Gertie.

It is very important to me that my girls understand where food comes from.  I would LOVE to have a garden - maybe that's something to think about for the new house!  So overall it was just a cool and education (albeit exhausting) experience!

Lilly's 6th Birthday Date!

Lilly turned 6(!) in February so our present to her was a special date with me and Uncle Stevie.  We had the opportunity to fulfill that yesterday afternoon!

We thought it would be neat and different to go to a UofA Gymnastics Meet.  None of us had every been so it was new and, especially since it was senior day, it was really very cool.

Those girls are so talented and we talked a lot about how hard they must work at their sport and hoe dedicated they are to it and to each other.  In reality, I think the meet was a little long for Lilly and she got bored toward the end.

After the meet we went to How Do You Roll for a sushi dinner!  (We had seen this place on the show Shark Tank and had been wanting to try it - it's like Subway, only sushi instead of sandwiches!)  YUM!

And, as all our dates seem to, it ended with her falling asleep in the car-seat!

Thanks to Chelsea and Mike for taking care of the other three kids while we went on this special date!  We cannot believe that Lilly is 6 already and that she's such a little lady now!  These dates are just as special for us as we hope they are for the kids!

Disneyland!

Over Rodeo Break, Stevie "surprised" me with a trip to Disneyland!  Being the sleuth that I am, I had actually figured it out about a week before we were leaving, but it was nonetheless one of the nicest things he could have done for me.  

What had happened was - we were scheduled to spend the long weekend in Scottsdale so I could complete my 10th half-marathon.  But a few weeks ago I went to the doctor with knee pain and was told to stay off it for 6 weeks, so I had to cancel my run.  I thought we'd still go up and have a nice family weekend.  This was when Stevie took it upon himself to change the reservation to Anaheim instead and surprise me and the girls with 3 days at Disneyland!

It was actually the best of both worlds - I got a vacation that I didn't have to plan for, AND I wasn't surprised (most of you know, I hate surprises!)

However, I was shocked to see Aunt Kirsten, Uncle Jim, and Simoniphia just as we walked through the gates on our first day there!  That was an awesome treat!

This post is just pictures as there are really too many memories to share!  Enjoy!