Easter and Karina's 3rd Birthday

Easter and Karina's 3rd birthday were within a couple days of each other, so we had a busy long weekend celebrating both.  We had high hopes for Karina's Easter egg hunting skills.  She was funny about it though. For example, when I explained that she should run fast from egg to egg in order to collect them quickly in her basket, she told me "No, then I might fall and get boo-boo".  So together we determined she should walk carefully from egg to egg.  Then when we were in the front yard and the hunt was on, after her small basket was full, she declared herself 'done' because her basket didn't have any more space.  Nate and I were more enthusiastic about the competition of egg collecting than her.  If Karina had had her way, she would have found an egg, opened it, eaten the contents, put the used egg carefully to the side, and then looked for another egg before repeating the same process. 

We also tried decorating some hard-boiled eggs:

The next day we went to an Easter egg hunt with other kids.  Lydia got to get 2 eggs (we sat her in front of an egg twice) and she thought it was a blast. She has started standing and maintaining her own balance for long periods of time (30-45 seconds or more).  You can see she is quite proud of herself.

Karina was excited and dashed after the eggs, doing a great job.  But then, when there were still lots of eggs unclaimed in the field, she decided she already had too many eggs, and that was the end of that.  Nate and I, who planned on raiding her chocolate stash from the eggs later, urged her to continue collecting eggs, but she wouldn't have it.  

Karina's 3rd birthday was fun-filled from morning until evening.  She unwrapped lots of fun presents (and played with them!), made chocolate birthday cake with me, got to go for Chik-fil-A for lunch, watched Cinderella, Skyped with lots of people, and was always busy. 

Lydia kept interrupting the picture taking, trying to grab the camera:

Karina's birthday crown from a card was too small for Karina's head, so Lydia had the honor of wearing it:

Karina, the chef:

Our fun and beautiful three year old.  She did a great job blowing out the candles all by herself.

The past couple days I have been sick and have been wearing lots of layers, including a scarf and hat, inside the house.  Karina wanted to dress up like me, and looked darling in Great-Grandma's scarf.  

Lydia busy Skyping with Mormor and Morfar: