Easter Day

We woke up at our house, explored the Easter baskets left by the Easter bunny, and then did our annual egg hunt with our dyed hard boiled eggs in the back yard. The boys had a great time! Then they took turns hiding them for each other.
It was cute, Will got tired of hiding them, so he took the last 8 and hid them all in a pile in the same place. Westley didn't seem to mind, he was just excited to find so many!

Later in the morning we went back to the campground and had a yummy Easter Brunch, then I took a nap with both boys on the bed in the trailer, and then we had a nice dinner. In all free moments in between the boys rode their bikes around the campground!

Easter Decorating and Egg Dying

The campground was having a campsite decorating contest this year. Since we were the reigning champions of the bike decorating contest last year, we couldn't pass up upholding our title.
Somehow Grandma Martha and I get very competitive. The boys are good sports and go along with it :)
Working with just what you have on hand, here's what we got.

We think the monkey wearing bunny ears while paddling in a kayak filled with Easter eggs is what really won it for us (which was partially Westley's idea!)

We got Major in the spirit too

In the afternoon we decorated our Easter Eggs

Beach week with Grandma Martha

Grandma Martha was camping all week (poor Grandpa had to go back home and work)
but we came to visit and play each chance we got.
The boys were had a great time!

Grandma didn't approve of me telling the boys they could shoot runners that ran by with water guns, so she made them a more appropriate target in a box. (I argued that the runners probably would appreciate the cool down, it was pretty hot!)

Watching the excavators and dump trucks was a hit for hours

The boys showed a greater interest in riding bikes than they ever have before. Will is getting really good on his Strider bike! He was even trying to ride it on a curb and was going off a jump some other kids had!

Cousin Drew and Will making orange smiles

The boys riding in the kayak

Camp fire time! Complete with sing alongs led by Grandma

Drew and Westley in a really big hole they took over from some bigger kids.

Thanks Grandma Martha for letting us invade your vacation! :)

Rolling Pin Back Massages

So in addition to face massages, Westley now offers Rolling Pin Back Massages, for 10 cents- 25 cents depending on the time length of the massage (you do not get to schedule the length of your massage, it is based off his attention span at the time)
:)

Grandma says the rolling pin massages are quite good!

Viva Las Vegas!

 Kevin and I, the boys, and Grandma Kathy went to Vegas for a long weekend.
Kevin was running in the Baker to Vegas race.
We all had a good time.
As usual with kids, their favorite things about the trip were the unplanned events.
They did enjoy swimming, seeing all the lights and sights, the tigers, and playing games at Circus Circus.
However, what topped their list as fun was riding on the bell hop cart, pushing the elevator buttons, and for Westley, taking a bath in the highly powered whirlpool tub in our hotel room.

Westley also enjoyed the buffets.
-Glad we didn't have to pay for Will - one meal he only ate saltine crackers and ice cubes.

The boys were really good the whole trip!
It was also nice they slept 3 hours of the ride home :)

Bathtub stories

While giving the boys a bath, he got their bath tub toys and made a story about them.
Each animal was in search of water, eventually finding the tub water.

It was cute, the next night the boys did the story all on their own.

I am sure Dad will be requested to do more bathtub stories in the future!

Study Participant at UCSD

Because I read and follow research on young children as part of my job, I see it as extra important that we give back to science and research (as long as it is in a non-evasive and low risk way!)
I have taken Westley to do a couple studies now at the research labs at UCSD.
One was an infant vision study, and another he did when he was about 2 years old. 


Here is what today's experiment was about:

Researchers divided the subjects into two groups.  One group of subjects will be told a
white lie before testing starts, and the other group will not. They wanted to learn
learn whether telling white lies to a child has an effect on whether or not
they choose to engage in truth-telling behaviors. (Westley was in the group that was told the white lie)

The first part of the session involves Westley playing a guessing game with
the experimenter.  The experimenter had  Westley guess the names of
three commercially popular toys from the sounds or phrases the characters
say.  On the last toy, the experimenter left the room, saying she
needs to take a phone call.  She put out the toy before she
left the room, and told Westley not to peek at the toy that is behind
them.  The experimenter  came back into the room after one minute and
asked Westley whether they peeked or not. (Westley did peek after about 30 seconds, and openly admitted to peeking).

The second part of the session was the brain wave portion. It involved Westley wearing a mesh cap that looks like a
swimmer's cap that had 32 discs sewn into it.  This cap reads the natural
brain activity that Westley gives off.  While wearing the cap Westley saw a set of pictures of the three toys from the first part
of the session.  They were looking to see how his brain activity differs between
the seeing the toy that he could have peeked at and one of the toys he could
not have. 


Westley had a fun time, he got to play with about 4 college aged girls who thought he was funny and adorable ;)
He did not enjoy the time it took to get the cap on right, as each electrode disc and to be filled with saline solution and rotated just properly on his head (the dum dum helped ease the bordom of that) but he was a great sport through the entire process.

Blueberry Bran Muffins

My friend Joanna is on bedrest with twins. She requested muffins, so we stepped up this morning!

I'm not sure if she wanted healthy muffins, but she probably wasn't surprised that is what she would be getting from me :)
Actually, the boys and I thought they were very good (considering they are healthy)

The recipe is called Low-Fat Blueberry Bran Muffins from Allrecipes
I made two changes.
I used oat bran instead of wheat bran
and I did 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup oil instead of 1/2 cup applesauce
I also added a tablespoon of flax oil as I usually do in baking :)
I didn't take a picture of the muffins... we ate our share too quickly!
I'll steal the image from the Allrecipes page. Ours looked like this

The Bed Chase Game

Usually my boys wake up from their naps and are a little grouchy for a bit. Today they woke up with energy. Westley ran out of his bed, and went and ran into my room and jumped on mine. Will and I ran after him. I tossed Will up onto my bed and then we tickle attacked Westley. Westley ran back to his room and we chased him again. Then I ran away and hid under the covers and they came looking for me.
We just were silly, running from each other, hopping up and hiding on the beds.
We did this for literally 20 minutes before I ran out of energy and had to redirect them to something else.
I have never heard so many giggles or seen so much smiling right after naptime before!

No sheets on Westley's bed as I was multitasking and stripping the bed to wash sheets during the game :)

Applesauce Graham Cracker Dessert

I accidentally opened a big Costco sized container of applesauce, not remembering that I had just opened one. Needless to say we had a lot of applesauce on our hands.
A long time ago I made a crisp/brown betty with applesauce and graham crackers that was pretty good.
I didn't have the recipe, but I found another that was similar.
The boys enjoyed helping crush the graham cracker crumbs.

I think it was a good tension releasing activity for Westley, look closely at his face.

We took the dessert to our Friend's Jenny, Ian and Zephyr's house to share after a homemade pizza dinner.

Westley and Zephyr really liked it. Will refused to try it.

Update: The next day I mixed in some of this with some sweet potatoes we had left over (my sweet potatoes, cook apple chunks, cinnamon,  and a small amount of butter and brown sugar. I either leave it as chucks or blend it until smooth as that is how Westley likes it)

Adding the applesauce with graham cracker crumb topping to the sweet potatoes made them really really good. Westley and I ate a bunch this way. I convinced (actually I forced) Will to try a bite. He ended up really liking it too!

Here's the applesauce graham cracker recipe:

3 cups apple sauce

1/4 cup sugar (white or brown. I used brown)

1/2 cup melted butter

1-2 teas cinnamon

2 sleeves (plastic packages within the box) graham crackers.

Crush graham crackers. Pour apple sauce into an 8x8 or 9x9 pan. mix in the 1/4 cup sugar (probably not needed if using sweetened applesauce). In a medium bowl mix melted butter, crushed graham crackers and cinnamon. Spoon graham cracker topping over the applesauce.

Bake 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes

For sweet potatoes:

Boing sweet potatoes for 30-45 minutes

Add apples (peeled and cut into halves or quarters) for the last 5 minutes

Cut sweet potatoes and and apples into smaller chunks.

Toss with a couple tablespoons of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.

Spread out on cookie sheet or casserole dish. Bake 375 for around 20 minutes

If desired, then blend with a blender or food processor.

To make them really good, right before serving, mix in some of the applesauce graham cracker dessert!

Basketball Box

Grandpa made this for the boys.
He had a very large box from a water heater he was saving for them to play in.
They brought up their beloved basketballs but had no hoop.
Westley could shoot the baskets into the top, then Grandpa cut a hole for where the ball would come out.
Since Will couldn't shoot his ball that high, Grandma talked Grandpa into making him his own special hole to shoot through.
This worked amazingly well, and the boys loved it!

Major's first day to the beach

Aunt Cheryl was camping at the beach, so Westley, Will, Major, and I went to visit and enjoy the warm weather! Aunt Lisa and Drew showed up too. The boys enjoyed playing with beach balls, the sand and going in the water. Westley was so excited to go out deeper in the water with Aunt Cheryl.

Major didn't seem to be a big fan of the waves and cold water, but he was a very good boy about staying and laying on the blanket.