Leeza's First Pony Ride

 After the egg hunt, we went into the zoo to ride the ponies. She wasn't sure how much she liked it.

 This was Sasha's pony.  She got on the pony.  It started to move.  She leaped off the pony into my arms.  I luckily caught her even though I was starting to walk away and had no idea she was going to jump.  So no pony ride for Sasha.

Leeza was glad when the ride was over, but then she talked about it all the next day so I think she liked it, but I am not sure.

Easter

 This is such a good picture of the girls.  Except for Sasha's shoe.  It is so hard these days to get good pictures as they move so fast.  These are their Easter outfits.  Well, the first of 2.  They have another set of dresses they haven't worn yet.

 We went to the zoo for breakfast with the Easter bunny on Saturday before Easter.  No one would touch the bunny, but at least they stood by her.

 The zoo puts on a little program- you get to eat with the Easter bunny and visist him.  Then you make a craft and they have animals you can touch.

 The girls really liked the bunny.  The animals are really well behaved.  There was also a chicken that did get loose and run around the room for a few minutes.

 As you can tell, Sasha had a good time and was really excited.

 They also got to hold a baby chicken.  sasha was very gentle with it.

 I tried for another picture as we waited for the egg hunt to start, but no luck.  It is hard to be good for very long when you are 3 and 4.

 The eggs went really fast as they didn't put out a lot since it was rainy.  The zoo director came by and tossed eggs to all the little kids who got run over by the bigger ones and didn't get any eggs.

 The peacocks are always all over the zoo in the spring.  Later the babies wander around also.

 After the egg hunt, the easter bunny came out again.  Sasha posed with him and even touched him.

 Leeza decided to join her- well, she decided to go over and steal Sasha's eggs while she was looking at the camera.

 This picture is Sasha discovering that Leeza has taken most of her eggs.  The eggs were empty- you turned them in and got a prize bag later on.

 That afternoon, we went back to the zoo for the BIG egg hunt.  This time they separated the kids into under 5 and over 5.  As you can tell, there were LOTS of eggs this time.

Both girls filled their baskets ups and had a good time.  We turned the eggs in for another gift bag. 

Big week

The week of April 20 was a big one:  Leeza's birthday which was also Good Friday, Easter, and also the 18 month anniversary of the girls homecoming.  We got out our Kazakhstan holiday outfits.  They were suppose to fit them when they turned 6. but they fit good now. 

 Sometimes, she can look like a little angel, but it just hides the little devil inside her!



Leeza is 4!

 Lots of presents waiting on the birthday girl.

 Leeza wanted purple Dora for her birthday.  I was lucky enough to find purple Dora.

 Leeza got a lot of presents from a lot of people.  Thanks everyone!

 Sasha knew it was Leeza's birthday, but she still got some presents.

 The bikes were a hit.  I had a purple two wheeler picked out for her, but when Leeza saw these tricycles, it was love at first sight.  She hopped on one and headed for the front door of the bike store- knocking over a row of very expensive racing bikes on her way.  As I grabbed for the row of bikes, she made it almost all the way to the front door.  She was very determined to get that bike out the door.

 Safety first- I'm not sure a helmet and pads are required for a tricycle, but Sasha will put on the helmet even to simply sit on the bike in the living room.

 The first outside spin on the new trikes.  It was cold and rainy, but off they went anyway.

 They took off and never looked back.  They can go at a pretty good pace on these things.

 Later on that day, the big girl beds were delivered.  From cribs to toddler beds to twin beds in 18 months.  Lots of growing up in a short time.

 We had fun at our birthday party.  Leeza acutally had 3 birthday parties- this one, one at dayccare(purple cupcakes) and one at preschool.  She also had 2 easter parties the same week so lots of sugar!  Leeza had Sasha and me sing Happy Birthday at every meal so she got to hear it 3 times.

The cake is actually purple- it looks blue here.  It was a disney faires cake- 3 layers and lots of frosting.  THe faires are also stampers.

Zoo Day

 We were waiting in the drive through for our food so we took some pictures to waste time.  I took this one really fast, but Leeza is just so beautiful in it.  She is going to be a beauty when she gets to be a teen.

 Of course, this picture captures more of her personality!  My little troublemaker. 

 Sasha was sick all weekend and pretty tired from the zoo so she didn't want her picture taken.

 We were the first official visitors to the zoo for the 2011 season.  There was another family waiting, but somehow Leeza cut in front of them!  I had to have one picture of the snake for Grandma.  This lady(she's not dead) is here most weekends.  She volunteers at the zoo and she likes the snakes because she gets to sit in the chair and the snake house is warm.  Leeza kept petting the snake's head which was not allowed

 Sasha liked the turtles.  She is still terrified of the goats in the petting zoo.  She wouldn't pet the cow either.  She does like the zebra and the camels and the monkeys.

Leeza klikes to dress herself and pick out her own clothes,  When I pick them out, they get upset if the shades of pink aren't exactly right.  WHen she picks her clothes out-well, anything goes.  I picked out Sasha's today as she is under the weathr and didn't want to.  I think I need to move her up a pants size as these are rather short!

Circus

 Last weekend, we went to the circus.  The girls had a great time.  They did better than I expected as the circus ended up being over 3 hours (with the pre show)  This was right before intermission.  Sasha was starting to fade soem and did not want to sit on the elephant.  we finally got her to smile for the picture.  We went and got some popcorn and a hot dog and that seemed to help alot. 

 We got there after the preshow had already started.  We watched part of it from here and then went down on the floor.  Too many people to really see much down there.,

 We had seats between an aisle and the stairs so it was like a little 3 seat section to ourselves.  It let Leeza stand on the stairs and move around some when she got antsy.

 The lions were good, but one was really cranky.  She got to skip most of her trips by growling at the trainer.  THey also had a dog act and even a house cat act.  I didn't know you could train a house cat.

 These were chinese acrobats who dived through a circle of swords they lit on fire while wearing a bag over their heads.  They were really good.

And of course, they had elephants.  It is not a circus without elephants.

March- Is it Spring yet??

I wonder if one day the girls will look back on these pictures and wonder if I ever bought them any pants. They do have pants- 2 drawers full of them, they just don't like to wear them. 

 We hadn't played with the bounce house and ball pit for a while so I got that out today.  The girls had a blast.  The weather was bad again- it even snowed a little.

 They like to climb over the tunnel rather than through it.  Look at Leeza's leg- she is getting so tall and skinny.

 They played all day with it.  All of the balls in the ball pit ended up outside the pit and all over the living room

We did take a short break to bake some cupcakes.  The girls had to wear their Valentine's Day sun glasses to make them for some reason.