Easter Post the Second

Annie joined in the friendly family game of croquet. Fortunately nobody was injured, and Annie avoided any of the real violence.
What? That's not how your family plays?! My little brother Cody was at one point yelling, "Defense! Defense!" and practically body checking people away from his ball.

Everyone figured it was safer for Ellie to walk around with a plastic golf club that the croquet mallet.

Annie actually decided she likes the lighter club and balls as well.

Strike a pose.
Did I ever mention that at the ages of 8 and 6, my sister Star and I were on the cover of a Hawaiian golf magazine? Apparently it's in the blood. (I need to track down that picture and scan it in and get it on the blog).

Star and Lacy.

Greg and I watching the action from the sidelines, since we decided for my safety and the safety of the baby, it'd be best to avoid any full contact lawn sports with my siblings this Easter.

Ellie playing with my Uncle Karl.
For those of you who don't know -- my Mom's baby brother, Karl, was born with cerebral palsy. He's blind and in a wheelchair, and one of my family's most beloved members. My girls do so well with him, and it never ceases to amaze me how much he 'normalizes' certain disabilities for my children. I've watched other kids, less familiar with someone who looks, talks and acts so differently, pull away from my Uncle. Even run away. But, my girls are usually quite comfortable with him, and are cute to watch run around, ducking and weaving between all the wheelchairs in the home he lives in now. And crawling on their poor Uncle when he's out of his chair and lying on the floor at family parties. They give him hugs and hold his hand and give him kisses when they see him. He adores them too -- happy to just touch their little hands and little feet. He asks for "Baby Annie" and "Baby Ellie" as soon as he knows they're coming. I've always had a very close relationship with him -- in fact, he was the one who informed his parents I was getting married, as right around the time Greg proposed, Karl kept singing "Here Comes the Bride" and saying "Hilary" over and over again, before we'd even had the chance to call and tell them the good news! (Although, upon marrying Greg I was totally usurped -- Uncle Karl LOVES Greg more than I can even express, and no longer asks for me but for Greg when he finds out we're coming over.) I can't imagine raising my kids without such first hand experiences with Karl and his friends.

Karl moved out of my grandparent's home and into a live-in facility in just the last few years. Because of this, we don't see him quite as often as we used to. Which means he's even more excited to see the girls, but sometimes Ellie can be a bit apprehensive right at first -- like when he was giving her Eskimo kisses in the video below (but from the picture above, you can see that she can sweetly look him in the eyes and smile, something that not all adults can do.)

There are a lot of long standing games and jokes between Karl and various members of the family. Because Karl mentally isn't much beyond where Annie and Ellie are, these games are typically silly, simple and crack him up to no end. One of his all time favorites is untying people's shoes. When he was younger, he spent a lot more time on the floor, so whenever anyone would stand by him, he'd grab their shoe laces and yank 'em loose and laugh uproariously. He spends more time at family things in his wheelchair now that he's older (and it's more of a feat to lift him in and out of his chair repeatedly), so this game now requires someone to nonchalantly place their foot up on the armrest of his chair, tip him off that the shoe is there (as he's blind and all), and goad him into untying it by repeatedly 'warning' him to not untie the shoe.) Greg has mastered this, and has limitless patience for this game, which is one of the reasons Greg tops Karl's 'favorite person list'.


Here's Annie on an Easter Egg hunt held in my parent's basement Sunday afternoon.

Ellie and Daddy during the Easter Egg hunt.

Ellie examining her bountiful basket.

Annie asked Aunt Star to tie her bow for her on her dress -- this is what happened:

Grandma & Grandpa gave each of the girls their own baseball set -- it was Annie's first time ever playing tee ball, and we were all pretty surprised how well she took to it!

The girls had so much fun this weekend, and were pretty spoiled by all their grandparents. There's new toys, books, stuffed animals and lots of goodies.

Interesting enough though, if you really wanna look at who racked up the most loot this weekend -- check out what the Easter Bunny, aka: my Mom, gave our youngest and still unborn child for Easter:

The 27 week gestational aged baby scored.