The kids have fun playing on the back porch in their cars (looks like there was a pile up on the road here)
One of their friends from school had a birthday party at Pump It Up - a huge place with nothing but big inflatable jumpies. We walked in and Ella went running off with another mom right away and jumped right in. Helen sat on a bench and refused to take her shoes off. Alex would go in only if I went with him. Helen finally warmed up and at one point, I was climbing a 10 foot inflatable ladder with two kids climbing above me and one on my hip. Then we all got to go down this very high inflatable slide together! What fun! (not really, but I had to put on a brave face because Alex and Helen were not sure whether to laugh or cry)
Ella jumping at the bottom of the slide
Ella and Alex eating ice cream
Helen eating her cake
Easter was an adventure this year. They kind of got the concept of the Easter Bunny and Easter baskets. I tried to use it as much as I could to bribe good behavior out of them. After church on Sunday morning, we tried to get a picture on the front steps. It was chaos. Here are a few of the about 50 pictures we took trying to get one where they were all looking and all smiling. It never happened.
Alex's face pretty much sums out how they felt about these pictures
At least they are looking, but not smiling (and yes, I had a great time shopping for the girls' dresses! They even had matching hats and purses but I was not organized enough to get those in the pictures)
Two out of three smiling
An attempt at a family picture
Grandma and Helen
After pictures, we got to go inside, change, and look for our Easter baskets. Only when they found their baskets did they truly appreciate Easter :) It was so fun watching their faces and seeing how excited they were about all the goodies in their baskets. Alex dove right into his chocolate bunny pop
Ella is negotiating with Daddy about how much candy he will open for her
Helen has her bunny pop
Helen has to take everything out and organize it first
Bedtime with Daddy - of course we have to play horsey!
Daddy and Helen playing on the floor (you may notice that Helen's pajamas are on backwards. That's because if we don't put the zipper in the back, then she takes them off along with her diaper and tries to sleep naked. So, for the time being, pajamas go on backwards)
Ella is too cool with her new sunglasses
A few days after Easter, I was in the other room talking to our nanny Heather. I thought Alex was in the office looking at the pictures that come up on the screen saver. However, he had actually crawled up on the dining room table and was raiding mommy and daddy's Easter basket. Here is what I saw when I walked in. Always be very worried about a quiet child.
This month was daddy's birthday so of course we had to bake him a cake. And of course daddy would want Dora, Elmo, and Scooby on his cake along with lots of sprinkles.
Helen with crazy hair eating birthday cake
Ella eating birthday cake
Ella and Helen ride the bike together (I regretted my decision to give the girls bangs and now we are going through the painful process of growing out their hair)
Heather is back as our nanny and Baby Hunter gets to come with her every day. Here's Baby Hunter
Helen is Baby Hunter's second mommy. She loves holding him and helping to take care of him.
Alex wearing Daddy's hat
Another birthday party for a school friend
At one of our trips to the doctor, I tried to entertain the kids by taking pictures. Ella manages to pull it together enough to ham it up for the camera
Before spring break, the kids had a spring party at school. Here are Alex and Helen enjoying some snacks at the party.
Alex finds some eggs during the Easter egg hunt (he had to make some room in his basket for the eggs because he could not leave home without at least 5 cars in his basket)
Helen decided to just start eating the sprinkles directly out of the bowl. She was interested in anything else other than the sprinkles at the party.
Ella made shaker eggs by filling plastic eggs with birdseed and putting stickers on them. I think we left with about 10 of these eggs.
Ella got some play time in
In April we headed down to St. Petersburg for a family wedding. Here is Helen in the car on the way down.
Alex is tired of being the car (the DVDs came on shortly after this)
Ella in the car
Daddy and Ella at the wedding
The wedding was on the beach so we brought sand toys for the kids to play with during the ceremony. Here's Alex and Ella.
Mommy and Helen at the wedding
After the wedding, Helen got to run around on the beach
At the end of April, Ella and I went to Indiana for my best friend's daughter's birthday party. Several people asked me how I decided which one should go. Last year, I went on a trip and just brought Helen - so she already had her trip. Alex is still a creature of habit and I thought that being away from home for a few days is not something he would necessarily enjoy until he was older. So that left Ella. The next trip is Alex's though. We had a great time and it was SO EASY having only one child. People who complain about how hard it is to have one child have no idea how easy they have it. Here's a picture of Ella asleep in the car on the way home to the airport.
We went to the park in Indiana, and Ella loved playing on the big bee.
We went downtown one day and Ella got a smoothie.
Then Ella saw the big ice cream cone and we had to get her picture with it.
By the time the birthday party rolled around, Ella was tired and ready to go home. We had to do some walks outside to get her through. Several times during the trip, she looked at me and said, "It's not Helen's trip, it's my trip. It's not Alex's trip, it's my trip." It was so nice getting to give just one kid my undivided attention. And I will admit that I did spoil her on the trip. When we got home, she ran into her room and saw Helen and said, "My Helen! My Helen!" Now when Alex hears an airplane fly overhead, he says "Mommy no go on airplane." The morning after we got home, the kids decided to celebrate their reunion in the morning before I went in their room by stripping off their pajamas and diapers, crawling up on the changing table, and smearing lotion and diaper cream all over themselves and their hair. I was speechless when I walked in but they were so clearly enjoying themselves that they did not care. The morning celebrations became such a problem that we had to move Alex to another room. So far, everyone is getting more sleep now!
Since the kids are almost 2 1/2, I took them to get their pictures taken again. This was the first time that they actually cooperated. It helped that I bribed them with a lollipop if they were good for the pictures. I'm not above giving my kids some sugar at 10:00 in the morning if I get a few good pictures out of it. I wish I could figure out how to rotate these pictures. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! 
This is one of my favorite pictures
This is the look known as the stink eye 
