Another Day of Spring Activities

This morning, I hid our colored eggs for Kevin to find.


Then he chose one for his breakfast and removed the shell.

Today we drove 45 min. away to a conservation area that has a Maple Sugar Festival. We hiked through the woods where we found tapped trees. It did freeze overnight, but it was in the high 40s by noon, so the sap was not running.

UNTIL.... we came to this tree!!! I caught his surprise at finding the sap running!

They demonstrated to him how the pioneers used to transport the sap in the olden days. He was surprised how heavy it was even with no sap!

The lady had 3 pots boiling. The first was fresh sap; the second had been cooking 8 hours; and the third had been cooking another 8 hours and was just about syrup.

Then the taste test! First raw sap; then syrup. Kevin thought it was really good!

The modern day sugar shack below had a working modern day boiler for sap with the sap being piped into it from tubes connected to the trees.

The sugar shack had a display of tree bark -- showing how maple bark is different from other trees such as ash and beech. As we walked through the trees, we found ash and beech trees among all the maples.
All of the park assistants were extremely friendly to us and commented on how lucky we were to have timed our visit perfectly to fall between the continual onslaught of school tours. The lady in the visitors' center told us to return for a coloring book, plus she set us up to see a video privately! Kevin bought a bag of rocks and a maple sugar lollipop in the gift store.
Our pancake lunch was DE-LI-cious, as Kevin emphasized it.

After lunch, we retrieved Guinness from the car and took him for a walk in another part of the park.
Grandma needed a little nap after returning home, but not Kevin! He got busy on extending his banners in the hallway! Karin would be so amazed and proud of him!!! She was an inveterate crafter/artist. She was always making things out of paper and drawing. Before she left us, Kevin had not caught on to crafts other than stickers. He did not draw well or like drawing. That has changed! He is quite creative with paper now!

We bought some pansies yesterday and he was eager for us to plant them, so plant them we did -- 2 pots for the front and 4 for the patio, and we still had more leftover! He was a great help!
We took Guinny for a short walk across the street near a river where we saw two swans beginning to establish a nest next to the river!

This evening, I showed him how to trace his hand and make a lily out of it. I would have left it without leaves, but he cut a small piece of pipecleaner to create leaves on the stem.

Fun in Burlington

Last night, Kevin requested that I hide the Resurrection Eggs again for him to find. So, of course, I did.

This morning, we went to the grocery store to use their Kodak PictureMaker machine and completed making Kevin's "Flat Kevin." We also picked out canned goods to take to a Food Pantry dinner tonight.

I needed to measure for an outdoor project, so Kevin did some measuring too!


Before lunch, I hid a few of our boiled, decorated eggs for him to find so that I could make egg salad sandwiches for lunch. It was only in the high 40s today, but bright and sunny, so we ate outside. Daddy thought we were crazy. But it was fun to have our first picnic! Kevin refused to eat at the table on the patio with Daddy and me.

After lunch, we went to Lake Ontario. We parked under the high tension wires and men were working on them. This man waved to us.

We took some Flat Emmy and Flat Kevin pictures.




Kevin played on the playground for at least an hour or more.

Flat Emmy and Flat Kevin are King Of The Mountain!

He is NOT a kid to be a loner! He talks to anyone and everyone asking if they want to play with him. Then he plays with them whether they really want to play with an unknown boy or not! He is such a manager. He was telling the kids which slide each of them was to go down. One of the play areas is a pirate ship. The largest section is not, but Kevin pretended it was a big pirate ship. I heard one of the kids telling him that is was not a pirate ship; the other play area was the pirate ship. ha!


We went to my favorite candy store for Kevin to pick out some Easter goodies. It was a tough choice! The Easter Bunny was there too!


This evening, Kevin and I went to a spaghetti dinner kicking off an Easter Food Pantry Drive. We dropped off our bag of canned goods at the door. As we bought our tickets, one of the ladies mentioned something about me being Kevin's Mommy. I quickly corrected her, and Kevin said, "I don't have a Mommy." Then I added, "And I don't have a daughter." He is very comfortable with expressing his plight.

I enjoyed my meal while Kevin colored at a coloring table with other children. A meager looking Easter Bunny made a very quick appearance -- too quick to even get a picture! But Kevin had fun, and we did something good for the community.

Art and Egg Day

Grandma prepared a set of Resurrection Eggs (http://www.rainbowcastle.org/resurrectioneggs.html) to teach/remind Kevin of what Easter is about. It probably has been two years since he has heard much about the Easter. Last year, Kevin's birthday fell on Easter Sunday, and Daddy took Kevin to Walt Disney World for the week.

When Kevin awoke this morning, the eggs were hidden and he had to find them.

Yes, he is standing on the dining room table to retrieve this egg!

Each of the eggs are numbered 1 to 12. We opened them in order, learned about the contents, and read the Scripture verse to go with each one.

Here he is opening egg #12 -- an empty egg, because Jesus arose from the dead!

Kevin found this to be a very intriguing and fun game. He sorted the eggs in various ways and hid them for me to find.

We spent much of the day doing art projects. I had him create a cover for the Resurrection Egg carton using some of my scrapbooking letter stickers. (I can't believe I spelled the word wrong!!!!)


Kevin's former nanny, Heather, asked me if I would be part of a Flat Stanley project for her 3rd grade niece. Emmy's "Flat Emmy" arrived the day before Kevin! So it is this week that we must take Flat Emmy with us and photograph where she went. But... lo and behold... Kevin was to the do the same thing for himself on his spring break this week! So....we took a picture of Kevin to put on his "Flat Kevin".

In pulling out my Easter decorations, I found some of the crafts Greg and Karin had done as kids. I created patterns from two of Karin's projects for Kevin to reproduce, but they don't make construction paper like they did when my kids were kids!!!

Kevin made an Easter basket and a cracked egg with a chicky inside (too bad we took the photo on top of a yellow piece of paper so that the chick does not show up well!) -- just like his Mommy made many years ago.



He asked for some take and taped a series of papers together creating a banner which he hung (all by himself) from our staircase! Grampy even found Kevin's decorating skills amazing!

The Easter Bunny

We started Palm Sunday with a trip to church. Kevin wanted me to stay with him. The elementary age kids had a fun, informative morning. They had passports to be stamped at each station -- Praise Punch, Rally Flag (for celebrating Jesus' Triumphal Entry),

and a video of Holy Week.

Then we drove to the National Club for a rendezvous with the Easter Bunny. Daddy had fun trying out his new camera on an extended rod.


Grampy really is not drinking two Mimosas! He is holding mine.

Kevin's brunch choices.

Kevin's Mommy and Uncle Greg grew up attending the Santa and Easter Bunny Brunches at the University Club in St. Louis.


LOOK at those desserts!!!

The lovable Bunny!



The Egg Hunt

Kevin's prize from the Egg Hunt is a Play Doh and bubble set.

The magician did some fancy juggling. (Kevin on lower right)

The cold wind outside blew the flag in front of the window.

And he rode a unicycle!


Kevin created a lighted scene with his neon Play-Doh set.

Guinness lay across Steve's lap, so I grabbed my camera. By then, he was sitting up being a buddy,

and cleaning Steve's ears.

Steve is a tolerant big brother!