The "Bleeding Tree" is no longer bleeding! Though, now it looks like a huge, flaky scab. Kind of gross, huh? I felt so sad for that poor tree. Heck, I still do! I seriously want to find a huge band-aid and slap it on the thing and kiss its "boo-boo" all better. I guess that's just the mom in me or something. Anyway, I thought everyone would be happy to hear that the "Bleeding Tree" is finally healing.
Izzy was so excited when she saw her Easter basket. Her grandparents spoil her. :)
I got spoiled with chocolate, for what could be better than that? :)
Clay got his favorites, two boxes of Nerds, Sweet Tarts, and a chocolate bunny.
Lori got a gag gift from Clay (the huge pink post-it notes) When ever she needs him to do something for her she leaves a note for him, he either doesn't see it or loses it. He said this way he wouldn't be able to not notice it or lose it. :) Lori also got two of her favorite sweets, Sweet Tarts and Good and Plenty.
And as a family we got the game Blokus (really fun if you haven't tried it) and two card games, You Gotta Be Kidding! and Would You Rather...? (also very fun games).
It was also Clay's birthday on Easter Sunday. Yes, we spelled his name out in chocolate chips (I know we're ghetto, but it was cute).
Here's the birthday boy smiling while we sing to him. I got him the box set of Dante's Divine Comedy (in layman's terms) Izzy got him a Redskins key chain and socks. Lori got him socks (he goes through them like you wouldn't believe, or he loses them, don't ask me how) some P.J.'s, a CD he wanted, and a package of Reese's peanut butter cups. His grandparents and mine both gave him some birthday spending money. My parents got him a PS3, and some blueray movies. And Sarah, Tony, and Abby gave him the best gift of all, their love and presence. :)
Saturday, Sarah and Abby came over so the girls could do an Easter egg hunt, and so Sarah could take Easter pictures of the girls as well. Here's Izzy finding an egg.
She was so excited every time she found one. We hid her eggs in fun hiding spots, and Abby's eggs we pretty much just sprinkled around in the grass so she could stumble upon them.
I showed Abby one time what to do when she found an egg, and that was all it took. She was off on the hunt in no time.
She was so proud of herself, and thought she was hot stuff, being a big girl like Izzy.
We had the girls sit next to each other with their baskets for pictures and they just weren't in the mood to cooperate. Either one was smiling and the other wasn't, or they both were just making goofy faces like this one. Sarah was so glad that she caught it.
Here Izzy is smiling, but Abby is inspecting her loot.
It didn't take to long for them both to get bored and restless. So we got the girls dressed up to take more pictures. What were we thinking? 
Abby, again, didn't want to cooperate, so we had Izzy dance around all silly behind Sarah and caught this little grin from Abby.
But otherwise this is the best we got from her, when she actually decided to look up at us.
Izzy, though bored, was more cooperative. She liked all the egg props Sarah had, and the bunny ears of course.
She like inspecting the eggs.
Here she is doing a goofy little grin, which Sarah calls her Wallace smile (the character from Wallace and Gromit) It's her fake smile she does when she is done with picture taking.
She found this pretty purple flower and wanted to pose with it.
I love this one, she is smelling it, and it looks like she just smelled the most wonderful thing in the world.
Afterward she showed Sarah how she can ride her bike without training wheels.
And Abby tested out this little four-wheeler. She kept pushing the button and then releasing it, giving herself a jerky ride, which she thought was hilarious. So did we, because her head kept jerking back each time and then she'd giggle.
Abby, of course, wanted to try Izzy's bike out. So her uncle Clay helped her, though she usually doesn't want to have anything to do with him, she allowed him to help her because she wanted to do it. She's so funny, one day she'll figure out that her uncle Clay is fun to play with, but for right now, she for some reason thinks that I hung the moon. Not complaining at all, I love it. :)
Clay then let Izzy ride on the handlebar of his bike and Abby thought that was awesome, but she didn't get to do that because she is still too little.
Izzy loves playing with her daddy. He's her favorite play toy.
That night I took Clay to see Clash of the Titans because his birthday was the next day. We let Izzy stay up late so she could dye eggs when we got home. She did a really good job.
And she was very proud of herself.
My mom took us girls to Calvert Marine Museum. It was so fun and the girls loved it. Here we are looking at the rays and skates.
This is one of the rays. They also had a little exhibit that had ray egg purses and you could see the babies wriggling around inside.
Here are the girls walking with grandma to go see the otters.
Only one otter was swimming around, the other was asleep.
The otter liked to go check on the other one every now and then.
They had a jellyfish exhibit and the girls thought it was so neat.
Abby found a tank of fish that had a blue crab in it as well and she thought it was the best thing ever, we couldn't get her to leave.
The girls loved this huge tank with the big fish.
Here's Izzy poking her head out of the little lighthouse they have in the little kids discovery area.
Next to the lighthouse they have a little house and Izzy loved the rocking chair.
Izzy thought this mermaid picture was super cool.
Abby fell in love with a starfish and she didn't want to leave it either. She even tried to give it kisses through the glass.
There was a boat that the girls could play on.
They both took a turn at "steering" it.
Then they both got in the lighthouse to get their picture taken. And believe it or not, I am stuffed in there as well, because Abby wouldn't go in unless I went with her. It was interesting trying to squeeze my not-little-kid-sized self into there, but I did it. Auntie Liz is just the best. :)
At the end the girls each got to dig through this little sand box and find a fossil to take home with them. Izzy found a tooth from a Lemon shark and Abby got a dental plate from a ray. 
All in all it was a fun day, and at the end we had two tuckered out girls, and one happy mommy/auntie holding their hands on the way back to the car.
During spring-break my mom took us girls to Build-A-Bear. Sarah had wanted to take Izzy there before she was even born. Here is Izzy trying to make a choice. There are simply so many to choose from. She is checking out Brittany the Chipette.
Then she found this cute little gray kitty.
But she finally decided to get this adorable bear.
Abby, on the other hand, couldn't make up her mind. She loved the frog and the duck (which is really a chick, but she thinks it's a duck, and don't try to tell her otherwise, because she'll let you know it's a duck).
Izzy got to step on this little pedal.
So she could stuff her own bear.
Sarah tries to get Abby to make up her mind, but she just isn't too sure yet.
Izzy got to pick a heart out for her bear.
And after she put it in the man sowed it up.
Abby still couldn't decide. What do you think Auntie Liz?
Finally, Sarah made the decision for her and got the "duck."
While Abby watched her duck get stuffed, Izzy "washed" her bear with an air-dryer.
Abby picked out a heart all by herself.
And got to put it in her duck before it was stitched up.
She was quite satisfied with her duck.
Sarah "washed" it for her.
And Abby brushed it. Izzy didn't want to brush her bear.
Here is Izzy trying to decide what outfit she wants to put on her bear. She'd already set her sights on a little red, sequined heart purse which she is holding in her hand.
Sarah tried to find an outfit for Abby's duck. First, she found this cute shirt that said ALOHA on it.
Then, she found this cute little hula outfit.
Here is the outfit Izzy settled on, a princess t-shirt, sparkly jeans, her sequined heart purse, and she also picked out some red sparkly shoes, like the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.
Here is the finished product.
Sarah finally picked out an outfit for Abby's duck, it was perfect, Abby got a frog and a duck after all.
Izzy was so excited that she got to name her bear and make a birth certificate for it. She decided to name her bear Heart, and thought it was so neat that she pretty much got to make her bear.
Sarah just named Abby's duck, Duck, because that's what she calls it, and because she was more than ready to go by the time we were done. It was a fun day and the girls had a fun time.
