Sodium Polyacrylate, Peep shows, Snow hunts, Smurf hands and more

I found a small tub of insta-snow in the middle of Safeway's spice aisle the other day and couldn't resist picking it up.  I'm glad I did because Matthew had a blast pouring, mixing and exploring.

 I knew Catherine would just eat it so I thought she could "explore" the texture through a plastic bag.  With her teeth that idea didn't last very long

 So we switched to letting her play with uncooked oatmeal.  It only took a few handfuls before she decided it wasn't that delicious so she'd rather bang and pour and stir. 

 Later that evening she had something she definitely thought was delicious.  At first she wasn't certain:

 But then she went to town. 

 Matthew's first Easter he was about 2 months younger (and probably 7 pounds heavier) and he was definitely uncertain about peeps and mostly just eviscerated it:

We took Catherine in on Thursday and sure enough she has another ear infection (possibly 2) so we're dealing with that.  However, she's busy enough getting into trouble I think it keeps her mind off of the pain most of the day.  She's even figured out how to join Matthew on his stool:

 It also helps we have a very special visitor and Amma arrived on Friday.   Amma brought some fun treats for Matthew which he's been loving, but mostly he just likes her company and willingness to listen to him read "Very Hungry Caterpillar" with slightly more enthusiasm than mommy :-)

Here he is showing off his "flashlight".  We can't convince him its a fan for some reason. 

 And showing off the craft project he did with Amma.

 Speaking of hunting for eggs, after we were done playing with the fake snow we got lots of the real stuff.  We hit up the Museum's egg hunt.  Even though Matthew walks as slow as molasses, plenty of kids in front of him pushed the eggs into the snow so he dug up the overlooked eggs from the snow:

 Afterwards we headed inside of our Easter affirmation that the earth is over 4 and a half billion years old and brushed up on emerging evolutionary theories.  Catherine enjoyed some dinosaurs:

 While her brother worked on classifying and counting the rest.  James and I rushed through the books and exhibits to re-learn the proper names of some of the dinos before the Easter bunny arrived.

 And then it was time for Matthew's first face painting.  He did incredibly well and was pretty pleased with the result!

 All in all a great day!  After our slightly cool egg hunt it warmed up enough for the kids to just rock their awesome vests that aunt Jean got them.  They are starting to fit perfectly and are great for our unpredictable weather.

Then it was time to head home and dye some eggs.  Catherine's preferred method was to stick her hands in the dye and put the dye in the mouth and then use her hands and mouth to transfer the dye.  I'm pretty certain her brother had shared this technique with him.

 Matthew did a great job with the dippers this year, but eventually decided full hand immersion was the best technique.

 Catherine enjoying the fruits of her labor:

 And the blue aftermath:

 After a little too much chocolate and sugar I sent Matthew outside for some fun with Amma and he certainly had fun! 

The kids have had a great Easter morning but they're a little too crazy to allow for more blogging.  More pics to come when I'm all laid up and on painkillers so at least they'll be interesting :-)