Happy Bunny Day!

Now that I've finally gotten to blogging about our day, it's nearly over. In most respects, it's been a great one. The kids got up painfully early this morning, but when Daddy came out to check on them, they were watching Reading Rainbow. When he told them not to eat the candy in their baskets, Smunch said, "Oh, it's Easter, isn't it?" Duh.

It took them no time to work themselves up into an excited frenzy after that. So, Daddy and I were out in the backyard giving helpful suggestions and hints where to look for eggs well before 8 o'clock...an hour I consider barely civilized. I tried to take pictures of the egg hunt, but the kids were running around so fast, it looked like a blur, even in real life! Fortunately, I think it still captures their unbounded enthusiasm pretty well.
I think they must've found at least two dozen eggs. Probably more if you count the half dozen real eggs (as opposed to candy-filled plastic) they found. But it was all over in a flash. Phew. And then it was time for the great pouring of candy...out of the eggs, into a big bowl where it could be adequately oggled.
Gram and Grandpa joined us for the wonderful cinnamon rolls with waffles, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee and orange juice. Once breakfast was over, I felt the need to get out of the house. Daddy felt the need to do taxes (are you kidding me???) on this beautiful day, so I piled the bikes in the mommymobile, lured the kids into the car with promises of crossing a big bridge. We took off just before noon.

And guess what we did? Oh, right. Like you didn't know already, huh? This time we got to get out on our bikes on paved trails. Mam had kind of a hard time on her little bike with training wheels. The trails may have been paved, but they weren't flat. It was a lot for a tiny pair of legs to handle.Here's the teeny tiniest letterbox I've ever seen. It was attached by magnet to the bottom of a bench. So cool.

Then we headed over to a historic farm in the area, which naturally also contained a letterbox, but of greater interest (at least to you), it was also beautiful and had a bunch of new lambs tottering around on their gangly new legs. Very, very cute.
I wish you could tell that Mam was skipping in this picture. And yes, that's her Easter dress. Yes, she went bike-riding in it. No, I couldn't get her to take it off. Whatever.
Around 2:30, we headed back over the big bridge...made even more interesting by having to stop and pay the exorbitant toll. Then we stopped at a wetlands preserve and walked around there for a while. The kids were surprisingly game for all of this. On the whole, there was very little whining. They got to see some jack rabbits, lots of small aircraft landing at the nearby airport, flocks of geese, billions of ducks...oh and a couple of runners who walked past as we were walking out of the restroom. These two guys were shirtless and Mam loudly declared, "They're NAKED!!!" They didn't seem to notice. It probably wouldn't dawn on them that a four-year-old might refer to them that way. They did, after all, have shorts and shoes on!
They had a terrific time tromping around. We didn't get home until 4 o'clock. Sleep came easily tonight!