"I can do it, I can do it!"

Sophie says this at least 30 times every day. It doesn't matter how impossible the task might be, she wants to try to do it by herself first. Then if she doesn't succeed, she graciously allows me to help.Lately this need to do it all has spilled over into Avery's life as well. Sophie has recently commandeered the role of feeding Avery her solid food. She picks out what she wants her to eat, generously allows me to get it ready, and then promptly steals it back again to do it herself.

Then she crawls up onto this stool and begins the feeding. She actually has done better than I ever expected. I think she's only jabbed the spoon into the back of Avery's throat 3 or 4 times (which is 3 or 4 times too many, but what can you do?) And the mess at the end isn't too horrible, either.
I think this is what Avery thinks about the new set-up, though. I love how Sophie's mouth is open as she tries to get Avery to open hers. Is it possible to feed a baby without opening your own mouth? I've definitely never been able to do it. This is why Sophie's newest nickname is "mamacita".

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a busy one for us with lots of fun activities.We kicked it off by dying eggs. This was Sophie's first experience dying eggs and it was a huge hit as you can see by her purple hands. She had to put each egg into each color multiple times and it definitely made the end result interesting! I believe this was also her first time eating a hard boiled egg. One and a half of them later I think she was a fan.

Avery helped inspire the faces we added to the eggs at the end. Actually, she's way too sweet to do that, but we did like the final look of our 6 little eggs.

I got to co-host an Easter party for our MOMS Club that turned out to be a lot of fun. We made bunny ears and did face painting and played Pin the Tail on the Bunny and had bunny races and good food.

We ended with an Easter egg hunt outside and were grateful the rain held off until we could return indoors with our treasures.

It took Sophie a few moments to figure out that if she immediately sits down and opens the first egg she finds, there won't be any left to get. So she eventually ended up with her 6 and had lots of fun discovering the toys inside.

For some reason we have a ton of girls in this group. Those 3 boys held their own just fine, though.

Avery is always happy. I love it! She has a quick smile for everyone and is just fun to be around.

We had yet another Easter egg hunt the next day at my aunt and uncle's house who live about an hour from here. Sophie and Austin joined their second cousins and had a great time.

This time Sophie didn't mess around at all. She knew exactly what she had to do to find the most number of eggs and she went right to it.

Her basket was filled to the brim by the end and she was in heaven with all that candy (and fortunately didn't notice when I gave about half of it away.)

Even Avery got into the hunt this time. She just loves to crawl, no matter what it's after.

It was cold up in the mountains! It didn't feel at all like Southern California, even though it was! I'm definitely glad we live where we do even though it was very beautiful in Wrightwood.

Here are the girls in their Easter finery. They were adorable all matchy-matchy. I love getting to see them all dolled up, especially when Sophie actually lets me put a bow in her hair for 10 seconds while I snap the picture.

Love this girl!

Love both these girls! They make life so much fun and we are so blessed.

Fancy Nancy Sophie

Our Barnes and Noble had a Fancy Nancy party at their store on Saturday in which all girls were requested to dress up in their fanciest apparel.  Sophie and I were unfamiliar with the Fancy Nancy books prior to this party, but we went anyway and had a great time.

The fanciest thing Sophie currently has is a dress that will be her Easter dress this coming Sunday, so she got to break it out a little early.  

They started out by reading two Fancy Nancy books to the girls.

Then we made a necklace together.

Then we had fancy treats and they did a raffle.  Sophie won the grand prize: the newest Fancy Nancy book!  I think we've read it 5 times already and she loves it.  It's really cute with lots of "fancy" words and a fun topic about exploring bugs and birds and gardens.  We had so much fun dressed up in our fancy clothes going out together.  Love you, Sophie Girl!