Easter Weekend.

The improving weather arrived just in time for the three-day weekend. We managed to go to a few parks, meet up with cousins, and even head to the Bronx Zoo. And despite a minor scare with Julia -- a slight fever one night, it was gone by the next morning.

Lately, David has been refusing to go to the park. This is the same kid who, at 17 months old, would be standing next to the door at 7 am, holding his sweatshirt and waiting by the gate, ready to go out. Before he was even two, he would be excited to walk to a bordering town, and even walked across the George Washington Bridge. Those days are behind us as he simply doesn't want to walk anymore. This was a bit frustrating -- will he lose all interest in being outdoors again?
During this past weekend, I told David that we were going to our local park to play. His response was, "No! New park." Well, since there aren't too many "new" parks, I decided to take him to a different park that we hadn't been to since last summer. Once we arrived, I was relieved when the kids were let out of the car, they both ran towards the "new" playground. They were so excited that they barely cared (or noticed) that it was a bit windy.

They played ball.

And David looked for stars, although it was a bit too bright outside.

They rode a merry-go-round; a ride that isn't too common in playgrounds nowadays.

They even tried out every slide they could find.

They enjoyed an old-fashioned see-saw.

And David practiced balancing on ... whatever these things are called.

It looks like our outdoor-loving David is back. Now, if only he could stop pulling Julia out of the stroller, so he could ride instead, we'd all be much happier.
Also on the agenda this weekend was egg dying. Even though David did this at his day care, it would be fun for him and Julia to do it together.

Voila! Here are the results.

In our household, the best craft projects are the edible ones!

On Saturday, we met up with my brother's family in Central park for an egg hunt. After the Leonia egg hunt the weekend before, the kids had figured out that each egg held a secret treasure!

But that didn't seem to motivate David as much as we thought it would. He took his time, casually grabbing a couple dozen eggs before checking out his stash.



Marko is showing all the eggs he managed to gather. Someone is going to have a nice sugar rush from all that candy.


On Sunday, we ventured to the Bronx zoo. We didn't try to see every single animal as we usually do, so we just took our time. We'd ask David which animal he wanted to see and then we pretty much visited those animals.




Of course, riding the bug carousel is a must when visiting this zoo. This is where the membership really pays off, as each kid takes at least four rounds on the carousel.



On the way out, we stopped to see some sea lions, and David was really fascinated by them ... or perhaps the fact that they produced a very loud noise ("Mommy! That animal can out-screech me? ").

In all, it was a very busy weekend that didn't leave us much time to relax. Even with Seth home on the weekends, these are usually the most tiring days of the week for me. The scary part is that as the weather improves, we will attempt to cram more into each weekend. (Seth must look forward to "relaxing" at work!)