Easter 2009

April 12, 2009---Easter morning in the Crawford house started out very quiet. The kids were still exhausted from the crawfish boil and had decided to sleep in. Time didn't allow for snoozing so Rick and I woke them up (that always puts them in a terrible mood) so they could see their baskets, hunt eggs, eat breakfast, and get ready for church. We had to start moving quickly!!



AC was thrilled with her Operation SpongeBob game, several headbands, erasers, a monkey journal, and a chocolate bunny.

Jackson was almost in tears because he was so happy with his bounty of goodies from the Easter Bunny---a new BBC movie "Walking With Prehistoric Beasts", three new dino/prehistoric animals (wooly mammoth, andrewsarchus, and smilodon), several jungle animals, and a chocolate bunny.

Chloe's basket had a chocolate bunny, the Elefun game, and a purse filled with pretend make-up and nail polish, sunglasses, a cell phone, etc.

Hunting for eggs that the Easter Bunny hid in the house:

Remembering that the eggs she had found yesterday had candy in them, Chloe started opening eggs and got into the chocolate early. Luckily she hadn't gotten dressed yet!:

all dressed up for church:

Jackson couldn't have his picture taken or go to church without his new andrewsarchus (prehistoric animal in his hand):

not sure why they decided to tilt their heads:

After church we had a lazy Sunday---lunch, naps, played the new games, watched the new movie, and dinner....such a nice day....

CrestKids Easter Egg Hunt

April 11, 2009---We attended our church's Easter egg hunt Saturday morning. The kids were super excited. The dad's took all of the eggs and hid them while the mom's stayed in the activities center with the eager hunters watching "Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie".

AC trying her best not to smile:

Upon being given instructions, the kids ran to their designated hunting ground based on their ages (0-2 years, 3 years-kindergarten, and 1st-5th grade). Rick was waiting outside so I took Chloe to him. I took AC and Jackson to their area but by the time we got to their area, there were literally two eggs left. They each got one egg. With their heads hung low, we walked over to Chloe's area and there were many, many eggs left to be found. The babies had lost interest in hunting. Anna Catherine and Jackson were allowed to take any of the remaining eggs. They were thrilled to have another chance at finding eggs and Chloe wasn't giving up until every egg had been found!

Afterwards, we went back to the activities center and enjoyed ice cream sundaes and the remainder of the VeggieTales movie. We emptied the candy from all of our eggs and put the empty eggs one of three buckets at the front of the room. Well, Chloe had caught on to the whole "there's candy in the eggs" concept and couldn't understand why no one had claimed this big bucket of eggs. She thought she had hit the motherload!!

The kids convinced us to let them play on the playground for a while but them we had to go home to eat lunch and take naps before going to a neighbor's crawfish boil...

AC's Class Easter Egg Hunt

April 9, 2009--- All kindergarten classes at MAE had an Easter egg hunt and play day at a local park. Each class had a section of the park roped off for their picnic and egg hunt. Chloe and I arrived just before the buses were pulled in (Anna Catherine was excited about the bus since the only time she gets to ride one is for a field trip). She and her BFF Marie found us immediately and they took Chloe to play on the playground. The kids enjoyed the egg hunt, picnic, and playtime. ***Jackson missed out on the fun because he was at preschool.***

Christmas in Pontotoc

November 29, 2008---Your eyes are not deceiving you---the date is correct---we had Christmas in Pontotoc in November. It was the only time everyone's schedule allowed us to get together. We left North Carolina the Friday after Thanksgiving and drove to Pontotoc. Thanks to Rick's blackberry and updates from Brady, Kevin, and Ryan we were able to keep up with the Ole Miss vs. State football game. Obviously, by now everyone knows that the Rebs kicked some Bulldog booty!!! It rained the entire 10 hour drive to P-town. It was the first all of us had been back since we moved. We crashed at Grandmother and Granddaddy's house then woke up bright and early Saturday morning to start cooking.

My immediate family always comes to my parents' house for Christmas. By "immediate family" I mean my parents, my brother and his family, his two best friends, Jerry and Sam, and their families, my cousin Jessie and her family, and my cousins Emily, Nicole, Laken, Tyler, and Mackinsey. We have had a variety of Christmas meals over the years. We tried the traditional ham, dressing, and all the sides. We wanted to make it more simple so we tried cooking a huge breakfast with just about every breakfast food you can imagine. That was okay. For the past three or four years we've had a buffet of indoor "tailgating" type foods: soups, chili, appetizers, chips and dips, and at least five different desserts. This option has worked well for us. Everyone brings a dish or two or four, a drink, and a hearty appetite.

The 18 year olds and under exchanged gifts and then everyone just did whatever. It was a nice day so the kids were able to play outside. The adults just chatted and watched some football. It was good to see everyone. We drive back to Madison Saturday afternoon. We were exhausted after our six-days of travels and had to get home to ready ourselves for the upcoming week.

Christmas with Mimi

December 26, 2008-January 1, 2009---Mimi was able to come in from Denver for the holidays. We picked her up from the Jackson Metro Airport the day after Christmas. The kids were very excited on the ride over.

We were able to find one of the last three parking spots in the parking lot!! And it was on the back forty of the airport campus. Seriously!! We were on the last row facing the entrance to the airport. There were several vehicles that had nowhere to park. We got to the baggage claim area about five minutes before Mimi's plane landed. Jackson had fallen asleep in the van and stayed asleep in the stroller. Chloe was happy playing with her new Gabba Gabba figurines and Anna Catherine spent the time listening to Taylor Swift on her new mp3 player. You can see from our clothing, especially Anna Catherine's spaghetti strap dress that it was a warm day--try 78 degrees--in DECEMBER--CRAZY!! Jackson woke up as the baggage conveyor belt started up and I was able to catch the startled look on his face.

Later that evening we exchanged gifts from Mimi, Uncle Cliff, and Miss Amanda.

I'm sure you've noticed Chloe wearing these pajamas in many, many pictures. They are her favorite and she insists on wearing them all the time. She also insists on having a bow in her hair because she thinks they look pretty. I didn't want you to thing I make her wear bows to bed.

On Saturday we took the kids to the Mississippi Natural Science Museum. It was our first visit there and it is a very nice facility. We chose to go now because they had a dinosaur exhibit and you know we have to go to every dino event possible!! The museum had five animatronic dinos, fossils, skeletons, and a pretend fossil dig. This was a traveling exhibit. The museum is located in Jackson in LeFleur's Bluff State Park and has over two miles of outdoor trails through "wooded bluffs, river bottoms, lakes, ans scenic swamplands" allowing you to see Mississippi wildlife in their natural habitats. You are warned to stay on the path and even while on the path you must watch for snakes. The signs said to keep your children with you at all times and not to let them run ahead. I was freaking out every time Anna Catherine and Jackson got a few feet ahead of us. It was another 75 degree day so I knew the critters weren't hibernating. Luckily, we only saw birds while outdoors. Indoors they have permanent exhibits with all displays focused on animals from Mississippi: extinct species, endangered species, waterfowl, aquarium tanks of various live fish, snakes, alligators, and turtles found throughout the state. There were also several taxidermy animals (fox, cougar, bear, birds, etc.).

Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Ichiban. We took Anna Catherine to a Japanese steak house when she was around 18-24 months old and she loved it. We've not taken all three to one until this day. The kids were tired from playing at the museum but they were very well behaved. I was nervous about them sitting only a few feet from a hot flaming grill but there were no casualties--WHEW!! Everyone knows what a picky eater Jackson is. The only thing he would eat on the menu was salad and wanted to eat with chopsticks. Well, believe it or not, he was successful!! Then he insisted that I eat my food with chopsticks. It wasn't that hard...maybe I wasn't using them correctly. I am the most uncoordinated person in the world and I was able to get food into my mouth. Eating with chopsticks can't be that easy!

WOW!!!!

Anna Catherine was very tired but the flames also gave her quite a scare.

That night Rick, Mimi, and the kids got to work on a gingerbread house kit that Mimi had brought. Thanks to Carrie's warning I knew it would take two days to make it. They assembled it Saturday night and put it in the freezer to harden. On Sunday they decorated it and put it back in the freezer to set.

Chloe's contribution was eating the gumdrops.

On Monday Jackson and Anna Catherine took turns hitting it with a kitchen mallet until they broke it into pieces.

On Tuesday we went to the Davis Planetarium to see the "Dinosaurs Alive!" movie. It was odd watching a 50 minute documentary on the ceiling. I got quite dizzy because parts of it seemed 3D (similar to an IMAX). At one point Jackson was holding onto my arm asking me not to let the dinosaurs eat him. He like the dino action scenes but didn't care for the paleontology parts explaining how they discovered different artifacts. The kids liked the different astrological displays in the lobby of the planetarium. I tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out. I do have two of the orbit demonstrator where you can put coins in and watch them circle the orbits. AC and Jackson were too impatient to watch the coins rotate and essentially threw their coins into the black hole.