Easter And Abigail's Birthday

It has been a busy few weeks in the O'Connell household and things are only going to speed up from here. A couple weeks back we spent time celebrating Easter. The day before Easter we headed out to my sister's house for an Easter egg hunt sponsored by the Minburn Library. The girls had a blast! I really like the small town atmosphere out there.

Waiting for the whistle

My parents stayed at our house that night and said it was their first time spending Easter morning with any of their grandkids. The girls found eggs hidden by the Easter bunny before exploring Easter baskets that he left behind before heading off to mass. They were lucky enough to get baskets from both sets of grandparents as well. 

All ready for church on Easter morning

Later in the day we headed back out to Minburn to hunt for more Easter eggs and have a wonderful lunch cooked by my sister. Every time I see my daughters play with their cousins, it brings back such fond memories of playing with my cousins at Grandma and Grandpa O'Connell's house every Easter. 

Cousins!

Last week Abigail's school hosted an art open house. Every student had a piece of artwork they had worked on displayed in the hallways of the school. We got to walk around looking at all of the art then stop in the cafeteria for some cookies. Abigail also got a chance to draw a picture for her teacher. Abigail's artwork was a picture of herself painting because she likes doing art so much. 

Abigail's picture is in the top row above her head

Yesterday was Abigail's 6th birthday. I don't' even know how that is possible but I checked like 10 times and she is indeed 6 years old. She started off her day with a pop tart and eggs for breakfast (her choice). The she spent time reading books and watching some shows on TV. In the afternoon Erin took her to see the play Fancy Nancy at the Des Moines Playhouse before returning home to have Casey's pizza for supper. After supper she got her present from us, it is a portable basketball hoop for the driveway.

A present for all of us really :)

Next Abigail and I made some peanut butter zucchini bread. About a month ago I started a weekly baking/cooking night with Abigail to start teaching her what I know about working in the kitchen. She is becoming an expert in reading recipes and using measuring spoons and cups.

Daddy daughter baking time!

Since we have a joint birthday party for the girls planned for next weekend, we didn't have any cake or dessert planned for this weekend. There were a couple of cupcakes left from the treats that Abigail took to school on Friday so Erin stuck a candle in one and sang happy birthday. 

A single candle in a lonely cupcake

We ended up making it a weekend long celebration. Grandma Weiler was in town for a baby shower and spent the night at our house so the girls got a chance to play with her and Great Grandma Engelmann this morning before heading to church. Abigail also got to open a birthday present from Great Aunt Lisa and Great Uncle Mark. 

She says it is her new fishing hat

To cap off the weekend we headed to Red Robin for dinner. There was a bit of a wait as the restaurant was understaffed, but the food did not disappoint. Abigail had her favorite, mac and cheese with mandarin oranges and topped it off with a birthday sundae as the staff sang a birthday song to her. 

Mommy stealing some of the birthday girls dessert

An Exciting Week!

It sure was an exciting week in our house. Abigail lost her first tooth at school last Wednesday. It has been loose for quite awhile and she finally managed to wiggle it enough to get it out. Oh yes, and the best part is that the tooth fairy came!

After Bridget crawled out of her crib last weekend, we finally decided on Friday to convert her crib into a toddler...I mean "big girl bed". She has done an outstanding job so far at both not falling out of bed as well as staying in bed during naps and at night. 

Proud of her big girl bed

She kept getting in my way while I was converting the crib so I
had to punish her in the worst way possible

On Saturday Erin decided to take the girls out to Bass Pro to see the Easter bunny. I can't really share much about this as I did not go along. Taking the girls to see the Easter bunny or Santa Claus are 1 of my top 2 LEAST favorite things to do. I have taken them by myself several times so it was nice to get a break this time. No worries though, they were great for Erin and didn't have to wait long at all. 

Abigail also went to a cheer leading/tumbling clinic on Saturday and had a lot of fun. Bridget and I spent the time making a brief visit to see my sister and her kids out in Minburn. All of us spent time outside enjoying the nice weather on Sunday. Abigail played outside for a couple hours while I worked on a project in the garage. Erin took Bridget out to a Creamery where she got to see a "baby cow" and try all sorts of dairy goodies. 

This week promises to be another exciting one with more chances to see family while celebrating Easter next weekend. 

A Rainy Week

It was a much more relaxed week in the O'Connell house this past week. As with every week, it seemed to fly by and we made sure to keep the girls busy. On Tuesday evening Erin took Abigail across the street to the Experience Grimes festival. Several of the businesses in town have booths with free food and activities for the kids. Abigail looks forward to it every year and I think it is so cool to her because it is literally across the street from our house.

I also got the girls signed up for swimming lessons on Tuesday. Last year we started to do swim lessons at the Urbandale swimming pool. It is the indoor swimming pool that I train at and is perfect for swim lessons. The best part is that weather doesn't have an impact on swim lessons the way that it does at the outdoor pools. I will be doing the parent-child lessons with Bridget again this year and am looking forward to it as we had such a blast doing it last year. Abigail will be moving up the the first level for school age kids.

On Wednesday, I got to join Abigail at the end of faith formation at church to go through the stations of the cross done by the 5th grade class. It was so cute to see all of the pictures that the 5th graders had drawn and listen to them walk us through each station.

Thursday evening they were having a special Lego themed story time at the library. Both girls love to play with Legos so I took them to the library. They were absolute angels the entire time and left the library willingly and on their own power when story time ended.

With a break in the rain on Saturday we were able to play outside for awhile in the evening. Since it rained most of today, we were stuck inside reading books and watching a little TV. The girls entertained themselves quite well throughout the day as well. The one surprise of the day was when I went to get Bridget up from nap, she was already out of her crib (yes, she has still been sleeping in a crib). We will give it a go in the crib again tonight, but something tells me that her bed will be converted to a toddler bed very soon.