Easter

Hello!  Hola!  It's me, Daniel, with another adventure.  Are you ready for me to tell you what Easter means?

Once upon a time, on Sunday after I went to church with Mamae and Papai, we went to a party at Josie and Papi's house.

Before we even saw Josie and Papi, there was something awesome in the driveway.

Josie said her friends Cara and Luke used to drive this car,
and now they were too big and wanted to share.
Share is really good!

 

This is Josie and Papi in their house.
They invited me to come play and eat
for Easter.

 

Josie and Papi had lots of wheels.
I played with them.  Zoooom.
 

I thought Easter was about wheels, but . . .

Mamae and Papai told me that the Easter Bunny/Coelhinho Pascoa had been at Josie and Papi's front yard!  I gathered up my favorite cars and went to find him.

We went outside togedder with these cars.



Papai said I could put the cars
in a basket.  I said,
"No thank you."
(Mamae says that sounds so polite.
I think polite is good.)

It was fun to look for the bunny.

Papai said the Easter Bunny
left some eggs for me.  Look!

This bunny liked to hide his eggs.
I Spy blue.  I Spy green.

I found them!
See how I picked up two eggs
and still held those cars?
GiGi said something about how many
tennis balls a Labrador could hold
in his mouth.  But I don't know what that means.

Mamae and Papai had fun looking for the bunny too.

My Aunt Nana asked Papi,
"Did you see the Easter Bunny?"

My Hunka Cheese asked me,
"Did you find the Easter Bunny, Homey?"
(I call him Hunka Cheese. He calls me Homey.)



Look in this basket, Hunka Cheese.



When he saw the bright eggs,
Hunka Cheese asked, "Is this Easter?"

Even with all this pinkorangeyellowbluegreenpurple,

I didn't know if this is Easter.

We did a happy dance.
It was giggly and bouncy.

Papai wanted to help me climb this tree,
but I said, "No thank you."
So he changed to a monkey



and I got to swing with him.

It was awesome just to find eggs.
Then Mamae showed me there are treats inside!
Maybe that's Easter?!

There were people at the party who hug and smile and talk and laugh a lot. They love each other, and especially me.

My Hunka Cheese
(remember that's Uncle Steve)

My Aunt Nana
(and my Uncle Dodo who escaped pictures)

Papi likes to play with me.

Here's my HeyYea.

Papai talked lots with Uncle Hardy.
They were friends when they were babies.
Wait! Papai was a ba-by??!

See the purple bunny hopping?

 Maybe Easter is hopping purple bunnies.  Or maybe Easter is desserts.

Josie and Mamae serve bread pudding
and Mamae's Guave Cheesecake.
 

See that cheesecake?

I had bread and apples for dinner.  Then I said "No thank you" for dessert, and asked Gigi to come outside with me.

I found a rubber snake in Papi's garden.
Papi put it there just for me.

Gummy Bunnies were sticky.

A sweet driving snack.

Papi built a pond in the yard.
Good for adventures/aventuras.

Mamae and Papai came outside with something
in their hands.  Was this Easter?

They showed me some eggs,
and then showed me how to crack them
so that color sprinkles came out all over.

I got to try one on Papai's head.
Crack!

Papai cracked one on my head.  Crack!

Mamae was next.

Then Uncle Hardy

Papai asked Hunka Cheese to look at my shoes,
and CRACK!

HeyYea was next.

 I liked Crack an Egg.  It made me remember my Little Duck book where Henry gets too big for his egg and cracks it open to come outside. 

After Crack an Egg, Papi asked me to help him
make a little fish swim.
That's a lizard on top, but it's not real.

I grabbed the little fish when it swam up close.
It looked like a real Nemo,
but it was only pretend, just like the lizard
and the rubber snake.

I played with cars, a snake, a lizard, a Nemo, a chick that cheeped, and a purple bunny that hopped; but that's not what Easter means.

I looked for the Easter Bunny.
I found colored eggs, and some had treasures inside, but that's not what Easter means.

I danced a happy dance and had an awesome day with people who hug and smile and talk and laugh. 

My GiGi says we do all these things because Jesus loves us; and when I see this cross, I need to remember that Jesus loves me.  




 I think that is Easter.  Jesus loves me.

A Month of Fridays

In addition to our family birthday party for Steve Sr. and Will, and Easter celebrations at Little Gym and St. Max School, we've shared a month of Fridays with D.

Hunka Cheese told us about a brand new park close to our house.
No trees, but awesome climbing structures.

D is showing his "Brave Boy."
It's a deep cut that Mom doctored with her
surgical skills and sterile tape.
Rumor has it that he didn't cry with the cut--
only that he had to stop playing
with his ride-on tractor.

GiGi packed a snack, but forgot the spoon.
Carefully folded, Chobani's aluminum lid works.



Daniel's hands-down all time favorite place to play at GiGiHeyYea's house.

One Friday, Cecilia and Will offered to cook dinner for us.



There are no hard hats in cooking!
Will's just trying to impress the pretty chef.

Is it working . . .?

Maybe Mr. Potato Head's glasses will fit.

One cool windy Friday morning we stopped by the duck pond to see if there were any baby ducks.  We didn't see any babies, but the deer statues were fun to hang out with.

This male duck looks like he has a giant fluffy toupee.
Definitely a bad rug.



D likes to be "ousside."

Daniel and Papai "togedder"



Hat check



Fishing with a b i g  lure

Now all of a sudden, it seems summer is just around the corner!  Afternoons are edging into the 80's.  Won't be long before sprinklers and water play.  Until then, it's still cool enough to take a wagon ride around the lake when the sun's not quite so strong after naptime. 



A hatful of finger puppets are riding too.

"Togedder" is one of Daniel's favorite concepts now.
All the puppets go together with Day-Day.
Examples?
GiGi, HeyYea, Mamai, Papai, Hunka Cheese and Daniel
all sit togedder for dinner.
 

Just this last Friday at naptime Daniel took his Baa the lamb and his Pa the pacifier as usual.  Then he also wanted to hold a beanie Bunny, a beanie Robin, a kitty Amiga and 2 soft blankets togedder.  Okay, so we sat in the rocker and, I have to admit, my lap was pretty full.  But Goodnight Moon, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, and the Irish Lullaby later--Little Man is pretty still.  A couple of the animals have migrated out of his arms, so I decided to offload them onto the floor.  Bunny down.  Birdie down.  Then D turned his head and with eyes closed he whispered "Birdie?" 

He just tickles my heart sometimes.  Well, most all the time.  Back to our wagon ride around the lake.

Happy to be holding all of them:
 a pig, a cow, a chicken, a lamb,
and a dog in an astronaut's suit.
Even when he got out to pull the wagon,
he tried to hold them all.  They dropped
like Hansel and Gretel's bread crumbs, so
he climbed back in the wagon.
It was more fun to ride togedder.



Here's the ball boy

ready to bounce the backitball with GiGi.

A shady place in the back yard to draw on the fence.
We discovered how to make chalk dust.



Trucks are never far away.
Even the cement mixer that Daniel balanced on this bench.



Dump trucks need rocks now.



Cement mixer



D's play space



A bumble bee that's a wind chime 

This chalk is fun!



Blue hands

GiGi made a tree, a sun, and some stars.



Daniel made some Monet water
for the ducks that GiGi drew.

I'm going to miss playing with my buddy this week because of a respiratory infection.  So sad.

But these cheer me up a little!


Up from seed, our state flower loves it here.



Bluebonnet! Bluebonnet, with your coat so blue.
Your white eyes are shining through the silvery dew.

Don't you love the spotted bug on this coneflower?



Butterfly Guara erupt through the bluebonnets.

Starting to go to seed--see the fuzzy pods?

May is just around the corner.  Wow!  Where is this year going so fast?????