Today our Mugger is 5-- how can it have been 5 years already? I asked Mugger tonight as I tucked him in (after his big day playing at Disneyland and California Adventure) if his first day of being 5 felt any different than his last day of being 4 and he said...
You got to be part of Papa's message by holding up the first S in JESUS up front and you came up again when Mrs. Bradley wanted to thank Papa and bid us farewell. However, the most precious moment for me was when I saw you sitting on Mrs. Howard's lap-- you told me that you had told her that you didn't have enough room in the pew. I know she was pretty glad to hold you though. I think she's going to miss you lots-- and miss being Bug's teacher, too. I was so glad to hear that she'll be coming to your birthday party in the park.
Jackson sure has been a good friend to you these 2 years of preschool. I got some great pictures of the 2 of you hugging after the service because there were so many hugs.
We're just trying to keep trusting that all is in God's hands, so please pray that all goes according to His will!
Bug is now officially 30 months old! To mark the occasion, I cut her hair! No, actually, she needed a trim as her fine hair gets into scraggly knots rather easily, so she's back to a bob. We also measured her today and she's now passed the 3-foot mark. (We measured Mugger, too, and he's just past 43 inches.)
Yes, that's snow and Papa went mountain biking in it immediately after this pic. We could have taken our picture in hail as well since Corvallis was experiencing some very unusual April weather. There was sleet, rain, and sunshine, too, so it was a bit of everything.
First on his project list was inventing a game! Here he is playing "Tossbox" with Nonnie and Gramps on Easter. He came up with very elaborate rules, which he had me type up to paste in the lid of the box. Basically you get to toss a bead into the little boxes (the smaller boxes are worth more points), but how many tosses you get is determined by which card you draw-- he even came up with a "lose a toss" card!
Because the kiddos got a bucket of bulbs from Grandma and Grandpa for Easter, we spent Easter Monday weeding and planting most of the bulbs (all we had room for, at least.) Project #2 took the entire morning, but he was quite pleased with the results and is looking forward to seeing the growth that will come.
Project #3 was an alphabet book-- above is the cover shot which we almost used for the "x" page (for Xtra Goofy Kiddos.) My personal favorite was the "p" page for Papa since we got such a good picture of him.
Mugger's final project of Easter Break is an ongoing one. He's become quite the puzzle master! Now that he's almost 5, we've decided that he can have an hour of Quiet Time every afternoon instead of a nap, and the option he almost always picks for that hour is puzzles. Thanks to Nonnie's eBay sleuthing, he now has 2 drawers full of puzzles in his room to choose from. So far he's up to doing 100-piece puzzles by himself.
Such a happy, busy boy our Mugger is!
Easter Eve had ended with a very sad Bug being sent to bed... she didn't quite understand the Resurrection Cookies and why she had to leave them in the oven overnight. She was quite happy to discover them this morning as we finished our Easter devotion.
Both kiddos were happy to open their Easter baskets from Grandma and Grandpa first thing. See how nicely Bug smiled when I told her the picture was for Grandma? (Yeah, none of the rest are worth posting!)
Then it was time to get dressed for church. Such cheesy grins to go with their Easter outfits!
Once Papa got home from doing five church services, it was time to head to Nonnie and Gramps for a late Easter lunch. Mugger's favorite part of the meal was helping Aunt Jen make the whipped cream for dessert. Such a pro in the kitchen already!
Besides doing their egg hunt at Nonnie and Gramps' house, the kiddos also got Easter baskets from Nonnie and Gramps. (Can you see why Mama and Papa saved theirs until Monday morning?) Both Mugger and Bug enjoyed Bug's pop beads from Nonnie-- Mugger helped decorate Bug as well as himself!
And here's our silly little Bug, in pop beads from head to toe! Happy Easter, everyone!
First we put the eggs in a colander in the sink and sprayed them with vinegar. Then we dripped a drop of food coloring on to each egg and swished the eggs around in the colander. After letting the first color dry for 30 seconds, we did the same with the second color.
So here are Mugger and Bug with their yellow & green eggs and their red & blue eggs. And nobody has blue hands for church tomorrow!
So why are we standing in front of the Mark Twain riverboat? Because Mugger was invited up to the pilot house by the captain to "drive" it (which he will forever think he did, so don't ruin it for him!) He did a great job steering all the way around Tom Sawyer's island, and he and Bug both had fun blowing the whistle and ringing the bell. 
The captain was fantastic and it was an experience none of us will ever forget! Nonnie told Mugger she had been coming to Disneyland since 1956 and she had never been up in the pilot house! Good thing Gramps had a camera on his cell phone!
