More Easter Pictures

Here are some of the shots we took from Easter weekend. On Saturday, we went to an egg hunt at our new neighbors' house with all the other families with small children in the culdesac. We're definitely weird compared to the rest of them because we only have Claire; all the other families have 4 or 5 kids. And the family's house where the egg hunt was has, no kidding, at least 15 grandchildren. And all of them were hunting eggs. Luckily, the organizers knew what they were doing, and everyone had plenty of eggs to find, along with a personalized gift! It was quite a spectacle! They also had a nice BBQ, and all the kids had lots of fun playing in the "grandchild Heaven" backyard--they have 2 huge swing sets, a basketball court, a pool, and hills made especially to ride your tricycle down! Needless to say, Claire had a great time playing, and it was nice for us to meet our new neighbors.




We decorated eggs for the first time this year, and Claire thoroughly enjoyed it. She wasn't too impressed with the actual dyeing of the eggs, but she was definitely interested in the painting/glittering/stickering that followed.

As requested....

Here are some pictures from Phase 2 of house move-in: new carpet and paint!! You can look here at the "before" pictures. I think everything looks much better now. We're still waiting on the wood to come in, and hopefully that last part will be finished in the next couple of weeks. Then we can actually put the furniture where we want it and start the fun stage--decorating!

Claire's room, without carpet (there will be a chair rail separating the greens)

C's room, with carpet

Our room

Office. This color is much browner than our bedroom, but it doesn't look that way here.

Kitchen--J's going to add pulls and knobs

Looking from the den

Bye-bye, ECI!!

We had our exit evaluation for ECI this morning with the San Antonio speech-language pathologist and child development specialist. And, not surprisingly, Claire passed with flying colors! Now, instead of being months and months behind a "normal" 32-month old, she's months and months AHEAD!!! Little Miss Smarty Pants impressed them so much that she no longer qualifies for services. Hurray!

Easter

We had a nice, relaxing Easter at home this year. We headed to church Sunday morning with our backpack full of activities to keep Claire (hopefully) busy. And by some Easter miracle, it worked! She worked diligently on her puzzles, read a few books, and then FELL ASLEEP!!!! We came back to our house afterward and had our Easter "dinner" here. The Easter bunny (AKA Grandma and Grandpa) brought Claire a great sandbox for the backyard, and we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the beautiful weather on the patio while she played.

"Oh WOW!!"

Clothes changed, ready to play!

Building a tower with Aunt Jamey

Every time she opened an egg, she would exclaim with absolute astonishment,
"(gasp) Candy!!?"

Enjoying the afternoon with a glass of wine and Easter eggs.

A few house pictures

I found some pictures on my computer of the "before" portion of our house re-do. I'll put up some of the improvement pictures once I find that darn battery charger.

Here's the front door, entry area, and a bit of the dining room in the back. I'm taking this picture from the living room. Don't you love the carpet?? We painted all of the downstairs and hallways upstairs a warmer neutral than this gray-ish color.

Now I'm standing in the dining room, and you can see the living room on the other side of the entry area. We'll put wood in the living room and dining room to match the rest of the downstairs.

Here's the den where the pool table is going to live. I'm standing in the kitchen. And don't worry, the window treatments are gone.

And here's a shot of the kitchen and breakfast area from the den. We painted the cabinetry white.

This is our room. We painted it a color called "portabella" with a dark red accent wall. And the carpet upstairs is now a light brown color.

Ah, the infamous purple striped room. This is the "play room" side of Claire's bedroom.

And here's the "bedroom" side. We painted her room green, with an ivory chair rail, and pink accents. It's so cute!!

And she is literally saying "tah-dah!" in this picture. She LOVES her room!

Birthday Party!

Claire's Great-Grandma is turning 90, so we had a family birthday party for her over the weekend at their house outside Austin. My camera died, but Aunt Lou saved the day with hers. You can look at the pictures (and the gorgeous-day Hill Country scenery) here.

As soon as I can find the battery charger, I'll get some new posts up!

Move-In Day!!

The carpet is in, the painters finished yesterday, and the movers will be here any minute!!