Dying Easter Eggs and Fun Crafts

Today, after Meeting and lunch, we returned to the house where I hard boiled four dozen eggs for the girls to dye after Olivia woke from her nap. Meanwhile, Sofia painted four poster-size pieces of paper with brown on the bottom, blue on the top for the ground and sky. Next, we painted her right hand in four different colors and made "flowers" then she used green to paint stems. Once Olivia woke up, we did the same thing with her hands below Sofia's "flower" hand prints. We sent one of each along with pictures of the girls with the Easter Bunny to family. I'm not normally that organized for Easter, but thought it would be a nice thing to receive.

Once Olivia woke up, we started on the eggs. I purposely put Olivia in an old pair of PJs from Christmas that are tight on her, so if they got ruined it wouldn't matter. Sofia wore her dark blue dress which I figured wouldn't get ruined by dye since it probably wouldn't be noticeable and she's careful. Sofia loved it and really was creative with her eggs. She figured out a way to make them look like water colors by using her paint brush and painting on the egg dye. They really turned out beautiful! Olivia, on the other hand, really took her time and dipped each egg into each color. I really thought she would zip through each egg but she took her time to make them all a dark, similar color. She was completely engrossed in it too. After a while, Olivia wanted to experiment with painting on dye too, and she had fun following her sister's lead. The eggs really turned out beautifully and the girls had a great time. After we were done, they put on their "Frozen" capes and played outside. What a fun day!

Sofia paints the sky and ground in preparation for the "hand" flowers

Sofia's first egg!

Both girls hard at work!

Sofia finishes another one

Olivia and her egg dying technique

Sofia painting her egg

So excited!

Olivia paints her egg!

Sofia experimenting with gold glitter

Some of the finished eggs

More finished eggs!

Sofia with her drawing of a baby chick

Olivia and her silly faces!

The Arboretum

Today we headed into Dallas to check out the Arboretum's annual "Dallas Blooms" exhibit that includes over 1,000 tulips! It was extended this year by a few weeks due to the cold weather we've had, but nearly all of the tulips had already peaked. That said, the Arboretum was as lush and beautiful as ever. It was also very crowded due to the beautiful weather. Just after we arrived and started walking the loop, we ran across our first "princess" (a girl taking her quinceanera photos). Both girls stopped and stared at her for a full five minutes, it was so cute. We continued on and ended up at the great grassy area, where huge peacocks were made out of flowers and plants. We decided to sit in the grass while the girls ran around and played and they loved it. Of course, they created some elaborate story and had a ball running around. At one point, they grabbed their waters and sat at the far end of the grassy area from us to drink and talk together.

After our break, we continued on through the beautiful Arboretum and finally made our way to the Children's Garden, which Sofia and CK hadn't yet visited. Along the way, CK and Sofia noticed a blanket with three young ladies dressed as "fairies". They walked down to visit with the fairies and Olivia and I caught up in the stroller. The girls were all about high school age and one of the girls was very sweet and played the part perfectly. She gave both girls a little bottle of fairy dust. Sofia was a bit sceptical of the girl's wings and wondered why they were so small and how she could possibly fly (since she wasn't small). The girl was a pro and told Sofia that they worked because she believed they would. You could almost see Sofia think this over for a bit and wrestling with what she thought possible. It was very sweet of these girls to share their magic with us and other girls at the Arboretum.

We continued on and had a quick snack before heading to the play area of the Children's Garden. Both girls loved playing in the little house, sandbox, and lilly pad stream. Of course, even though Sofia has a broken collar bone, she ran and jumped and played as hard as ever. In fact, I'm convinced she plays harder now that she isn't able to do anything physical at school and must sit out both recess and P.E. Olivia is like a little duck, and follows her sister everywhere and tries to do just what she does.

From there we headed toward the maze, but just before we made it to the entrance the girls wanted to check out a little exhibit that included looking at various things under a microscope, including ladybugs. Each girl got their very own ladybug to take home and they were able to wear it as a necklace. Of course, Sofia wanted to let hers go right away, so she did and Olivia soon followed in letting hers go. Another table included games and illusions that tricked the eye/mind, which Sofia was really interested in. Just after we arrived a 9 or 10-year old girl was lost and crying for her Dad, so I took her with me to find him. We finally did reconnect with him and she was so sweet about it all. I remember that feeling of fear and dread and was glad to be able to help. Sofia spent a long time doing the mind exercises, so Olivia and I got started in the maze. CK and Sofia soon joined us and we enjoyed exploring the maze and finding the fairy garden, musical chimes and all the little details within the maze. Olivia was so tired and barely hanging together, so we headed back to the car, loaded up and both gals were asleep in no time. Such a fun day!

Olivia and Sofia watching the princess....

Olivia specifically wanted to poise for this photo...then wouldn't look at the camera

On a little adventure together

Sofia with a few of the tulips left

Both girls and the tulips

Our sweet girls

Love this picture!

Sofia and Olivia in front of the peacock

Having a little water break together. Wonder what they are talking about?!

CK and his girls

Beautiful!

Meeting the fairies

The sweet fairy and the girls with their fairy dust on a ribbon around their necks

Playing in the Children's Garden play area

Our little baby turtle has hatched!

Our baby birds in their nest

Playing in the sand box

Jumping in the lily pad stream

My little chicks

Together on the huge ant

Olivia makes music

Sofia and her ladybug

Olivia watches her ladybug

Girls playing

Sofia and the bee

Making music

Sofia's First Broken Bone....

On Sunday morning, both girls climbed into bed with CK and I around 8am and cuddled. I got up to make coffee and while in the kitchen I heard Sofia give a short scream and then start crying. When I made it to our bedroom, CK had moved her back onto the bed and told me she rolled to get out of bed and misjudged the edge, falling to the floor on her left shoulder and side. Apparently, Sofia and Olivia were pretending to be archaeopteryx (prehistoric flying dinosaurs), with Olivia as the baby and Sofia the Mommy. They had just caught a fish and they were going to catch another fish from their "nest" which was the bed. Olivia climbed off the bed and Sofia was trying to follow her to get the fish. Instead, she fell. At first she complained about her head and knee hurting then CK noticed her left shoulder looked weird and was getting swollen and red as we talked. I gave Sofia an ice pack for her shoulder while we figured out what to do. By then she had stopped crying and was calm, so CK asked her to move her left arm, which she did gingerly. Meanwhile, Olivia kept asking "Mommy, are you ok?! Mommy, are you ok?! Mommy...." as she pretended to be the baby archaeopteryx for another 5 minutes. Sofia was amazingly calm, but we decided to get dressed and take her to a local urgent care just to check out her shoulder.

At the urgent care, we were taken into the back and the nurse asked Sofia how much pain she had on a scale from 0-10. She answered "2, maybe a 4" so I figured it couldn't be broken or she would be in a lot more pain. After that, Sofia was given Motrin and then taken back for an x-ray. CK went with her while I stayed with Olivia so I didn't see the x-ray, but CK said it was clearly broken, not in two but cracked. The nurse returned to our room and told us it was broken and gave her a sling to wear for the next 6-8 weeks! She also told us to call a pediatric orthopedic to get more information on her recovery. In the meantime, the nurse told us that Sofia should go home, rest, take Advil, and ice her shoulder. We got home and decided to watch the movie "Frozen," which CK has seen with the girls but I still hadn't seen. It was a great movie and fun to watch with the girls and CK.

Sofia could't decide between being excited about going to school to show her cast to friends and Mrs. Schultz and sad that she couldn't suck her thumb. One of our sweet neighbors brought Sofia a small bouquet of flowers and told her to feel better, which was very thoughtful.

The following was written by Sofia on Monday after she returned home from school:
on monday she went to school and showed her friends and Mrs. Schultz her cast\sling. She had to sit out at recess and PE today. Her friends helped her with everything that takes two hands like opening marker lids especially Ashlyn. On the bus Ariana asked her what happened so she told Ariana the story. when she got home she found a surprise from coach Kevin, Cindy, Gabrielle and Emily. It was a bouquet of fruit and a teddybear holding a chocolate covered strawberry and a get well soon Balloon! It was a 2 today! Then papa came home and gave her a baseball\Horse and Olivia a teddybear! Then CK, me, sofia, and Olivia all had Dinner. Then Sofia, CK, me,and Olivia went to bed. Sofia had to keep her cast\sling on all night long and she has to be elevated with 3 pillows. The next Day is Tuesday sofia still has school like I said she is happy to go to School and sad because she can't suck her thumb. she does activities at school and crafts. yesterday I walked sofia to Mrs. Schultz's class. sofia told Mrs.Schultz about how she fell off the bed and broke her collarbone and everything else that happened that day. everyone sofia saw asked what happened to her arm.

on tuesday sofia and Mrs.Schultz's class worked on lots of stuff that day. even Sofia was happy.

Sofia, as we're leaving urgent care

Sofia and her fruit bouquet from Coach Kevin and family

She dug right into it!

All smiles after school....

Playing "Elsa and Anna" (Frozen sisters) in the backyard with Olivia