The Glamorous Life of a 501 Housewife: Hoppy Easter

This year, we spent our Easter in Cincinnati visiting Anna, John Robert and Jessica. We made a "long" weekend of it since the kids were out of school the Friday before Easter. I ~~asked, made,~~ encouraged husband to take Friday off as well so we could spend a little more time actually in Cincinnati. We left Thursday around 5:00pm and drove to Nashville, about half way, and stopped for the night. It made the 600+ mile trip from Arkansas to Cincinnati much more "doable" by breaking it into two days. Too bad we couldn't take our time on the return trip and make that into two days as well.

For lunch on the way up we stopped at McDonald's. I know, not the healthiest of lunch options, but they had a playground and getting some energy out was more important that calorie content at that time. They had a life sized statue of Ronald McDonald that Ava absolutely loved. She climbed all over Ronald McDonald posing for pictures.

Honk Honk!!

We brought beautiful weather to Cincinnati with us and tried to make the most of it. Friday afternoon after we arrived Husband, John Robert, and Jessica took the four kiddos to a nearby park for some outdoor fun.

On Saturday we took advantage of Cincinnati's awesome children's museum. They had all sorts of things to play with, a huge water table, ball yard, gas station, grocery store, veterinary clinic, and indoor climbing yard. All four children had a blast playing and exploring all the new things.

Hey Dad...Look at me. I need a little red convertible!

Price check on aisle 2

Future star of the stage and screen

Shoveling rocks

Bus Driver...take me to the beach!

The indoor climbing area was called The Woods and was made to look like a forest. They even had a small area just for toddlers to explore.

She sure looks up to something here. And yes....she spent most of her time at the museum with only one shoe on. She kept taking one of them off and I finally just gave up.

After the museum we dyed some Easter Eggs.

Since we had to leave Sunday morning for the long drive home, we had our Easter dinner Saturday night complete with ham, roasted herbed potatoes, asparagus, brussel sprouts, deviled eggs, rolls, and peach & blueberry cobbler and ice cream. Just for me John Robert and Jessica found some of my favorite Jeni's splendid ice cream, goat cheese with red cherries. Yummy! It was all delicious. At dinner we got to meet my sister's new boyfriend, Mike or Michael as she told me to call him. We all really liked him and he seemed to handled our "four kids 5 and under" chaos very well. The kids have had fun telling Gigi, Grandma, PaPa, and all their teachers at school how they got to meet Anna's new boyfriend Mike. If he comes to visit Arkansas he is already a celebrity.

The kids were a little worried the Easter Bunny wouldn't be able to find us in Ohio but their fears were unfounded. The Easter Bunny brought all sorts of goodies to not only the kids, but the rest of us as well. There were new books, batting gloves, Hot Wheels cars, babies, lipstick (really cherry chaptstick), and movies in the baskets along with all the yummy candy.

We had a fantastic, if too short, visit. Poor Ava came down with a stomach bug on Saturday night so she spent all night Saturday and all day Easter Sunday vomiting. Not the best way to spend your Easter but by Monday morning she was back to her usual happy self.

The "big kids" all slept together on a big futon cushion on the living room floor. I snapped this quick picture of "Brotherly Love" Saturday night after they had all crashed from sheer exhaustion.

When we left Sunday morning it was drizzly and cool. I snapped this quick photo out the window of the sign for the town of Bonnieville, Kentucky in honor of one of our favorite teachers Ms. Bonnie. I had intended to get the kids out and have them pose by the sign but due to the weather and baby girl's stomach bug we didn't get the chance. Next time Ms. Bonnie, I promise.