Boston and Bunnies

Easter 2011

AJ after just a few small pieces of candy. Unreal mess. Maybe the white shirt wasn't such a good idea afterall

Looking for Eggs! He caught on to the idea quickly.

We basically found one egg, ate all the candy in it, and then gradually moved to the next

Looking for Eggs!

Chasing Bubbles early on Easter Morning

Liam petting the bunnies at the Eggstravaganza

Luke petting the bunnies, we have come a long way in being "gentle"

Putting corn in the eggs

Checking out the big bunny and trying on bunny ears

Visiting with the Easter Bunny

Yeah!!!

Looking for Easter Eggs

Decorating Easter Eggs, this is right before Aiden dumped over a bowl of dye all over himself and his brother!

We have lots to be thankful for and to update on this week (lots of pictures too). First off, the marathon! John and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to Boston, the time away from our "chaos", and the race itself. We ran the entire race together which was our plan from the beginning. Many people have asked if we train together and the answer is No. We generally never run together because one of us is watching the boys and when we run on Saturdays, we run in separate groups of guys and girls then we get coffee together. This race, however, was our first one to complete together. The course was tough and hilly, but the temperatures were ideal. They felt a little warm to me (50-60 degrees), but that was definitely because we have been training in -20 degrees and that was actually one of my first runs in shorts. The crowd support was awesome and like no other race. I ran Boston in 2006, but it was exciting for John to see the course and run the small New England towns of Hopkinton, Framingham, and Natick. We enjoyed the screaming girls from Wellesley College and the chaos of Boston College, but the the turn onto Boylston Street for the finish was definitely the icing on the cake. We ran a strong and consistently timed race and finished in 3 hours 34 minutes. This was my fastest marathon to date so that was an extra bonus.

Next up for us, Easter. The boys were so excited about the Easter Bunny this year. On Good Friday, we participated in an Easter Eggstravaganza at a local park. Unfortunately, it is still a bit chilly here and the weather was not the greatest so most of the activities had to be held indoors. We met with the Easter bunny himself, dyed eggs, hunted for eggs, petted live bunnies, had our faces painted, and did a few crafts. I was by myself for all of this since John was at work so this ended up being A LOT of work! This was a jam packed place with a lot of stuff to do and it was a bit crazy trying to keep up with everyone. We survived, however, and the boys asked to do it again as we were leaving so apparently they enjoyed it as well.

On Saturday night before bed, we read a book about the real meaning of Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Needless to say, this is not an easy concept to explain to three year olds and we had some pretty unhappy kids when we did not read their favorite books. As we were walking into church on Easter Sunday, Luke and Liam were talking about what John and I would do while we were at church. When we told them that we would talk about the resurrection like we read in our book last night, Liam said that "the resurrection was for Jesus, not for the Easter Bunny" so I guess we made at least a little progress.