Egg Hunt #1

Sat. morning we headed over to the Lutheran church nearby for their annual Easter egg hunt at the park. It is a little outreach service they do - they read the Easter story and then let the kids hunt for eggs. Very well done and organized. Gerrit was too overwhelmed by all the kids (over 120) that he froze when it came time to look for eggs. Good thing I was along to find them for him! He liked the ending when we opened the eggs to find candy, stickers, tattoos, and bracelets in them.

Maybe next year he'll be more assertive (guess he takes after his father and dislikes crowds).

Coloring Eggs

Friday night Luke came over to help us decorate eggs. As you can see by the top left and bottom right photos, Gerrit has a bit to learn about handling eggs! And he didn't think he needed the little dipping tool either (it took a good day to get all the dye off his hands). Gerrit enjoyed dipping the eggs and hanging out with Luke. Emmit liked hanging out with Anne and watching us as well. Most of the eggs have a nice blue/green hue to them as those where the 2 colors that were closest to Gerrit too. [I was pretty proud of myself as I blew (and Cara helped too) quite a few eggs ahead of time (during my baking sessions) so we didn't have a ton of hard boiled ones to eat.]

Oxbow Zoo

Monday after baptism was a beautiful day - too nice to stay inside. After a slow start to our morning, we decided to head towards Rochester to a little zoo that is free. It houses animals that are found in MN so no giraffes or elephants. I have a feeling we will be visiting this zoo a bit more this summer.

You're ONLY 3!

Tonight we were at Dahlen's watching a bike race (surprised?) and Gerrit was outside playing with the kids (3rd grader, 4th graders and 6th grader). It was a beautiful night and they played football and who knows what else. It was dark and we were getting ready to go when Maddy (4th grader) asked me to get Gerrit and bring him in because they were going to play "ghost in the graveyard". I had to laugh because Gerrit did not want to come in - the little 3 year old wanted to stay outside in the dark with the big kids!

I will post Easter pics hopefully tomorrow night or at least some time this week. I head back to work tomorrow. Should be an interesting morning for all - especially Gerrit and myself as we have casually gotten up these last few weeks. Emmit - he goes with the flow!

A Few More...

I was able to get a few more pictures from Sunday's big day from Pam:

From top left: Dan and Lizzy (they brought the bacon explosion and announced they are expecting in Oct., also the daughter/SIL of John and Deb). David, Gerrit and Emmit's godfather, the ladies and Emmit, Emmit's gift from Langley's: an ark, beautiful flowers from Langley's, David teaching me the 'rocket' (if you don't know it, I'll teach it to you, or my mom and sister can as I taught them), proud aunt Cara, Gerrit's mess during the service, godparents: Pam and David with us, and a great picture of Emmit and his smile!

Saturday

We decided that a good group activity would be to check out the National Eagle Center in Wabasha (also home to Grumpy Old Men movie). Here are a few pictures from our time there:

Gerrit admired from a distance and didn't want his picture taken with an Eagle. They had a few parrots there as there was an event involving them at the local school auditorium later in the day. We did see a few eagles out on the water while we were there too. MN has the largest eagle population in the lower 48 (FYI). [Remember to click on the collage to enlarge the photos.]

Following our outing, we celebrated Gerrit's birthday with the relatives that came for baptism:

He requested football for the theme so I make sure we had plates and napkins to go with the cake. We had our first grilled burgers of the season for dinner followed by cupcakes. When we started to sing 'Happy Birthday', he was embarrassed and hid under the table. He opened a few gifts too: a nice T-ball stand, play doh stuff, and a pop gun (from Opa). The rest of the weekend he wanted to either hit the ball outside or play with the play doh.

Baptism

We had a nice service for Emmit's baptism. He was able to squeeze into the gown my sisters and I (as well as niece Ella) wore that my mom had knitted. I knitted booties for him that were too big and kept falling off (hence the bare feet in the photos). Gerrit did well considering the late nights and lack of naps.

Following the service we had brunch sponsored by Team Beat at Wilkinson's home. Emmit slept through most of it but the rest of us enjoyed the great food and fellowship.