Happy Easter!

Elena's first Easter in the US (that she can remember).

Yes, the Easter Bunny came...not after some apprehension. She had nightmares about the 'crocodiles that come with the Easter Bunny' the night before and had to spend the early morning sleeping with us for protection (which worked out well for her, not so much for my sleep!)

The Easter basket was waiting for our PJ clad monkey. Then the egg hunt started!




Finally we got dressed for church in the matching outfits (dress for Elena and Doll Baby) with new watch from Gram & Opa to accesorize.
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Another Easter egg hunt at church. The Easter Bunny had left dried apples in the eggs at home...at church there were kit kats. How did that happen?
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We wrapped up the day with an authentic Greek recipe of roasted leg of lamb on a bed of rice, spinach, mint, and spring onions. I forgot to take a picture because once it was out of the oven, we carved it right up! It was tasty and lamb isn't even on of my personal favorites.

Prepare the Bunny

This year we decided to bake a 'bunny' cake for Easter. In honor of The Bunny, it was of course, carrot.

What a face:


Elena decided that the bow tie should be blue:


One for Elena, one for the bunny:


All finished!

when is dessert?

Elena, of course, sampled a few of the jelly beans. She popped a black one into her mouth and made a face-but not quite what you would expect...'Momma, that is TOO SWEET! I don't like it.' The Dutch remains, she eventually settled on the black wiskers made of Dutch licorish ropes imported from Utrecht.

Writer's Strike

You might think that this blog suffered from the same fate as the talk shows in recent months...no we are not professional writers on strike, we are two overwhelmed parents!

It's been a crazy few months. Travel and job stuff has been pretty overwhelming, not to mention the pile of laundry. I've taken to not even unpacking between trips. Here is a snap shot of the last month or so - so, I was in Chile for two and half weeks. Jake and Elena (ably assisted by Nana for part of the time) went it alone. At the end of my field work in Chile, I learned the exciting news that my Nature article would be featured on the cover. I celebrated with an intestinal chilean friend and a week of antibiotics and minimal work. Then the whole family got the flu (in this order, Jake, Elena, Erin - but Elena rallyed with a follow up ear infection bring her total of 5 days out of daycare and being a sick little monkey). I learned about what they mean by 'press push' for nature and spent two days sucking on cough drops, talking to reporters, and faxing 'permission forms' to various agencies. Then I was off on another trip for three nights. Back for a week of 'recouping' as the family recovered from being sick. Then we packed up the ski gear and headed for a week holiday to Utah on the slopes. It was great. But the laundry fairy was such a slacker and didn't do a single load, she is so fired. Back to the 'Burg and I headed out last week to Houston.

We have many blogs - skiing, and other exciting things...but for now I will leave you with a few Elena-isms from our little monkey:

- Elena has picked up saying 'shoot' if something isn't right. Then she started reading a couple of books with parachutes in them so now she yells, 'oh parachute!' when something goes wrong.
- Last night at dinner, she asked why the dinosaurs all went extinct. I said, 'well, a big rock smacked into the earth.' Elena (rolling her eyes) says, 'Momma, I believe they call that an ASTEROID' (well, sheesh, then why were you asking me).
- She has taken up little puns and word plays like 'Honey starts with B's' and 'Trip starts with Fall'
- Elena is also a 'coach in Alabama' (how she picked Alabama we don't know) and she has taken to yelling 'rotondo!' When asked she explains it is a word that means it is time to start coaching and 'listen to the coach.' She will yell it on the playground and then her friend will run around mimicing (or making fun of, we aren't sure with those tricky 4 year olds) Rotondo!

So there you have it.