Swiper no swiping, and other Easter tales

Our D.C. holiday swung on through Easter Sunday. We spent Saturday night with Melissa's mom in Bethesda, Maryland. After rising early to see what the Easter Bunny left (lots of candy and some cute plaid duds) we headed off to church. After mass we had brunch with the family, we send the boys out to hide eggs for Kellyn and Mason.

Good thing we planned for a small army of egg hunters...

We hid eggs in the apartment courtyard and once they were all (59 of them to be exact) hidden, Rob called us to bring the kids and their baskets down to do some searching.

Apparently we weren't the only ones who wanted to hunt Easter eggs. One of the neighbor boys, who we didn't know, decided to join the problem. A couple of problems: He was about 4x the age and size of our 2-year-olds, he didn't ask any permission and he didn't really play fair -- trying to snatch eggs the little ones dropped from their brackets, or taking hints from the adults and running to grab the eggs before the little ones could.



All told, I'm sure his little swiping routine bothered us adults far more than it bothered the kids, who had plenty of fun collecting and recollecting their eggs.



One last thought: Doesn't it look just a wee bit odd to see these cuties searching for eggs in their WINTER coats?

Doin' the District

Easter weekend found us on a bus, headed down the Jersey Turnpike for a quick trip to Washington, D.C. The trip down was pretty uneventful, thanks to a nap-time departure and the sleep-inducing vibrations of the road. The trip back was a bit more ... um ... disastrous. A four-plus hour bus trip (darn tunnel traffic!), plus a toddler who had not napped was enough to test any one's patience. Nonetheless, the trip was definitely worth it.

We headed south on Friday and spent one night in D.C. with a friend of our friend, Melissa's, and followed that up with a Saturday-night stay at her mother's house in Bethesda, Maryland. Sandwiched between was one crazy day as we attempted to see as much of the city as we could. Granted, it's not large, but we only brushed the surface of what we would have liked to see. Don't worry D.C. friends, we'll be back ...

Our Saturday started with a trip aboard a DC Duck -- ours bore the moniker "Duck Soup," which we much preferred to the "Sitting Duck" (below) we passed as we began the Potomac River portion of our trip. The Ducks are WWII era vehicles which have been restored to guide tourists around the city -- including a half-hour cruise in the river.



Among the sites we saw the Capitol, the various monuments, a very distant glimpse of the White House and the Pentagon as we exited the highway. It was a fun -- albeit cold (open-air vehicle + speeding down the highway) -- way to see a lot of sites at once.




After recharging with some lunch at Union Station, we headed back out with two goals: to give our sleepy toddler a nap and see the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution at the National Archives. Meeting up with our DC buddies Jess and Becca was a great bonus. Having Jess' Blackberry and educator's nature in line was us was even more of a bonus as she entertained us by looking up fun facts about the documents and exhibits. For example, who knew that they're housed under bullet-proof glass and lowered into a vault that can withstand a nuclear bomb at night? We also caught a glimpse of the Magna Carta as it was the last weekend of a special exhibition of it at the museum.

Our next stop was the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (which the Garrison sisters informed us was a major part of their childhood!) It will probably be our first stop next time, however, as we arrived just a half hour before closing time. We still saw some cool stuff -- including the Lunar Lander -- and Mason woke up in time to proclaim one of the airplanes looked like Jay Jay.



We finished off the day by wandering along the National Mall toward the Capitol. This was probably my favorite part of the day as we entertained ourselves by feeding the ducks in the pond out front. They cleaned out our snack supply: donuts from breakfast, a chocolate-chip scone and a cereal bar. The last didn't work too well. They're too sticky to launch...


We'll leave you with a couple more pictures of Mason Doin' the District to keep you entertained until next time. Enjoy!

Cracked Up

Toddler learning how to undress himself. Hilarity ensues. The payoff is precious.

We're Cracked Out!

Now, in other parts of this fine city, cracked-out means something entirely different than it did at the Mercier house on Friday night. But, I can assure you, our version of cracked-out was totally innocent. We spent the evening painting Easter eggs with Mason and Kellyn. Cracked-out is what Kellyn dubbed Rob's dropping of an egg (thus, cracking it) and what the kiddos would scream anytime another egg was dropped thereafter.

All told, we painted 18 eggs. Seventeen of them survived the actual painting process -- though judging by the nearly all-blue one I ate for lunch today after the shell was removed (see video below...I'm pretty sure there's a connection), I wonder if we shouldn't have been more judicious in catching those cracked-out eggs before they hit the dye.

Mason, as you can see, really liked the act of cracking an egg.

Kellyn was a bit more dainty with hers, preferring the paint-by-brush technique.

And when we finished up, they were both in need of a bath...especially Mason, who was doing his best Incredible Hulk imitation.

Now I know my A-B-Cs!

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

For a while Mason has needed a haircut. However, because Mason's Mom likes his curly hair, it took a while to get to the point where his inability to see overtook his shaggy-haired look. But the time had come. He was starting to look like a hippie:


You can tell Macey's hair is getting long when you wash it and you can create extreme hairstyles. Our favorite is the Sanjaya (for all you American Idol fans), also known as the USC.
I've got to say Mason sure does handle getting his haircut better now than he did in the past. Before, we needed to make sure we cut quick, because after he knew what we were doing he'd freak out. Now, he takes it in stride and just watches the video we have playing for him, this time it was Curious George. He even looked at the locks of hair falling and kept cool (and it is, was a lot of locks).
Well now there has been a transformation, our our little surfer boy has changed to a debonair, dapper little guy. But his hair grows fast and it's only a matter of time before we start debating when haircut number six comes. If Mom has her way, it won't be for awhile or at least until his hair is close to his eye level.