Strand-Lafferty Easter take 7

There are few things that can elicit the same degree of excitement in our household as talk of the annual visit from Penny for Easter. This is now the 7th(?) annual visit. It started kind of on a whim from the Strands, and it has turned into an annual event that simply cannot not happen. It is written in stone. Commandment Number 11, if you will.

Now, if anyone ever doubted that Molly was an emotional girl, which you seriously shouldn't, the visit from Penny will eliminate any of those doubts. I swear, she turns into a screaming fan girl at a One Direction concert at the thought of Penny coming to town. (Or, what her mother would've been like had she ever been taken to a NKOTB concert. Which, I wasn't. I just had to imagine what it would've been like. No bitterness here, though, folks. I did make my childhood dreams come true a few years ago when I saw NKOTB at the Sprint Center as a 30-odd-year-old woman. And, it was every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. Step by Step, ooh, baby ... But, I digress.)

Molly starts looking forward to Easter on the day after Easter the previous year. Well, OK, after she stops crying about the fact that Penny is no longer here. But, it starts getting serious after Christmas. I can't really blame her. The months between Christmas and Easter do kind of suck. What with the snow and long, dark nights. Not fun. The countdown is on immediately after we pack the stockings away. And, it doesn't stop.

I realize the excitement is almost more for the idea of Penny (not that Penny isn't awesome). But it's just the idea of this amazing, fun-filled, candy-laden weekend that really excites Molly. This year, she made decorations, cards, bunnies, crafts, and even picked up poop in the backyard so she could earn money to buy all three girls matching stuffed peeps. This build-up has been going on for a long time. Molly has been trying to count the number of times in her life that she's seen Penny. When I tried to explain to her that she's already seen Penny more times in her life than I saw Laura for the entirety of my childhood, she just didn't care. No matter how often, it's just not enough.

(Have you noticed I haven't mentioned Charlotte at all? She loves the annual Strand visit as well, but her emotions are much more rational and even-keeled. Thus, not as interesting for a blog.)

So, with all this build-up and all this excitement, the weekend was finally upon us. The Strands were supposed to leave Minnesota at 3 on Thursday and be here by around 10 Thursday night. Well, on Wednesday night, Laura sends me a message that they are expecting 14 inches of snow on Thursday morning up there. WHAT?!?!? Mother Nature, what are you doing to me? How can I possibly explain to Molly that the Easter visit might not happen due to a snowstorm in Minnesota?!?! So, I did what I'm always eager to do. Ignore that a problem exists and hope everything turned out ok. And guess what? For once in my life, that plan actually worked!

The snow stopped, the plows came, the sun shone, and the Strands were on the road. It was glorious news. Not the least for me because I didn't have to deal with a broken-hearted 8-year-old. They got here late, and Molly and Charlotte both woke up when Penny came to bed. It did take a while, but eventually they all went back to sleep.

The next morning was another tradition. Laura coming to Bar Method with me. She's coming with me the last couple years. The first year was hard, but now Laura is in amazing shape, so she was a total pro.

We, of course, had to take a picture to document the start of the weekend.

We always look for different things to do with the Strands when they're here because they are super cool, adventurous folk. And, we want to seem cooler than the suburb-living, soccer-game going folks that we are. So, this year, we decided to take them down to the KC Public Library to see the awesome building that looks like books. And, of course, to take pictures.

The girls were not as impressed with the library as I had hoped. The roof was pretty cool because they could see out around downtown KC a bit, but we didn't actually have a library card for the library, so we couldn't check out any books. They thought the old bank vault in the basement was pretty cool, but we were pretty much done with the library in a short time. We walked a short distance to a cool lunch place, then found a bakery that a friend had recommended for dessert. We got there right as they were closing, but they let us in to buy some yumminess. We then went back to the library steps to eat our delicious treats.

The girls checking out the books.

We had to pose on the book steps.

Laura and Amy on the roof of the library.

The girls in the basement with the old bank vault.

We stopped by a bakery for dessert treats, and they gave us some baguettes. So, when Laura found a moped, she just had to act the proper French lady she is at heart.

The girls eating their treats back on the library book stairs.

I, of course, just had to get a brownie with a peep on top. I only ate about half the brownie, but demolished the whole peep.

After fun downtown, we headed back out our direction and bowled a few frames at Pinstripes. We discovered that, at Pinstripes, even adults can have bumpers. Do you know what that means? I finally won a game of bowling! Score. After, Charlotte needed to take a picture on some bunnies.

Top 10 reasons we love our Easter tradition

It's Monday night, and we're all still recovering from our annual Easter weekend extravaganza with the cousins Strand. It is always a blast, and this year was no different. Laura had a meeting on Friday morning, so they couldn't arrive on Thursday night like they usually do. But, we were all super excited for Laura, Chris and Penny to get here when they could. As an added bonus, Aunt Amber and Tom decided to come up from Texas for Easter, too. So, we had family all around. It was great. Molly told me before everyone arrived that she was sure Saturday was going to be the best day of her life because she got to see Penny, Aunt Amber and everyone!

Amber and Tom got to town first, so all the Laffertys came to our house for dinner on Friday night. We hung out and waited for the Strands to arrive. They got here around 7, then the girls kind of stared at each other for a while until they got used to each other again. It didn't take too long, then they were running around, playing and laughing.

Being in a new house, we actually had a guest room for Laura and Chris to stay in. Previous years, we've stuck them in the basement. (Sorry guys!) But, when we were making up the guest room, which had a twin bed and trundle, we realized the only sheets we had for the bed were Dora the Explorer sheets from Charlotte. Whoops. (Sorry again, guys!)

Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to the Easter Egg 5K. This year was gorgeous weather, and the girls were all excited to run the Lil Bunny Fun Run. Unfortunately, it was 1 hour after the start of the 5K, and Penny was terrified they were going to miss it, so she worried and bugged Laura about it the entire time Cory and I were running. Amber came and ran, too. She's becoming quite the runner down in Texas.

Amber, Cory and Me. You might notice a 1st place medal around my neck ...

Hanging with the Easter Bunny while we were running.

Look at my speedy girl!

Just about one of the best pictures ever.

Easter in a thousand pictures

Ooofh. That is the sound of me collapsing on the couch and not moving. (Ok, well, actually I do have to get up to switch the laundry. Monday is laundry day in our house.) But, today we are spending our day getting back to our normal schedule and recovering from the oh-so-much-fun annual Strand-Lafferty Easter weekend.

So, for the past five years, my cousin Laura and her husband and daughter have been coming down to spend Easter with us. Five years. I can't even believe it's been that long. The tradition can't be broken because my girls now completely associate Easter with Penny coming to town. It's permanently locked in. (Hear that, Laura?)

As always, we had a great time, the girls had a great time, and we are already making plans for next year. The problem is, as is usually the case, fitting everything into three short days.

They got here late on Thursday night. We're talking so late that I was already in bed, and I made Cory wait up for them. Then, on Friday morning, I drag poor Laura with me to Bar Method class. And, to be fair to myself, she did say she wanted to try it. Though, I'm not sure she was thrilled that she made that comment. Especially during the class. She told me that she thought there were going to be more ballet-esque moves. Whoops. Not so much.

So, after I completely tire Laura's legs out, we decided to drag the whole family down to the Nelson-Atkins Museum. A friend of mine had told me about this scavenger hunt for children that you can print off the internet and take with you. It has pictures of different things (ie. cat, wagon, lobster, angel) that the kids can cross off as they find them in different paintings throughout the museum. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but it ended up completely entertaining and engrossing the girls. They were totally invested in finding all the items to cross off. We started getting into it, too. But, alas, we ended the day without ever finding the damn lobster!

We decided to use some of our Bar expertise to emulate the headless statue. Jeans were a bit of a hindrance.

Working on the scavenger hunt. I believe this may have been around the time that Molly asked Laura why angels don't have to wear clothes, after seeing so many naked angels in paintings. Oh, kids. ;)

We had a really yummy lunch in the cafe in the museum.

Then, we headed outside to enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather. It has not been warm here for spring at all. In fact, it snowed 8 inches a mere 5 days prior to this. So, we were definitely ready to enjoy the outside. The tops of my feet, however, were not. They got absolutely burned to a crisp. Darn paleness.

Family picture in front of the Nelson.

Whee!!!!

Pensively thinking about life and art.

Three giggly girls.

Laura had seen something about the giant shuttlecock sculptures months and months ago, so we took pictures in front of them.

Just cute.

Omaha? Don't mind if I do.

For my entire childhood, I lived at least a half a country away from my cousins. While I grew up in North Carolina, my three cousins were growing up in Arizona. When they moved to Virginia, we moved to Kansas. Never in the same vicinity  Never anywhere close. We saw each other maybe every couple of years.

We got along great when we saw each other, but it was pretty infrequent. Laura, Jennifer and I wrote letters to each other in the typical 5th grade girl fashion, but without things like computers and Facebook, it made it hard to stay connected.

When Laura moved to Minnesota several years ago, I could hardly believe it. We were going to be so close. Only a couple states away, and only an 8-hour drive! Plus, our girls are so close in age. In fact, the difference in ages between Molly and Penelope and Charlotte is incredibly similar to what it was between me and Laura and Jennifer growing up. It's like the three of us cousins reincarnated.

All this background to say, I'm so excited that my girls get to have a close relationship with Penelope, and I get to see Laura a lot more. We have the annual Easter visits and other visits back and forth. And, for a while now, we've been talking about the idea of meeting somewhere in the middle for a weekend trip. But, nothing really came of it. Until ...

About a month or so ago, I emailed Laura and said, "Are you still interested in doing an Omaha trip? Let's do it in October." And, despite having just returned from a road trip, she agreed.

Omaha is about a 3-hour drive for us and about a 5-hour drive for them. And, Omaha has a great zoo. That was pretty much the extent of our planning. It was a very low-key, fly by the seat of our pants trip. And, in spite of that, we had a fabulous time.

We couldn't leave until Saturday morning because we'd already committed to going on a hay ride on Friday night (blog post on that later, don't you worry!). So, we roused the girls out of bed at oh-dark-30 and hopped on the highway to Omaha. We got there before 9am, so we still had the whole day ahead of us.

We met Laura, Chris and Penny at the hotel and carpooled to the zoo. All the weather forecasts showed rain all day long. We'd been worried about this, so we packed rain coats and rain boots and were assured there was lots of stuff indoors at the zoo. Turns out, all that worry was for nothing. It ended up being a gorgeous day. A little overcast but a perfect fall day for the zoo. I was, in fact, overdressed.

The first thing we did upon arrival at the zoo. Pictures on the lions.

Checking out the orangutans. I could've watched them all day, but the girls  only watched for approximately 30 seconds and were done.

Seriously, how cute is this?

Molly watching the tiger. Geesh, I'm glad there is a giant metal cage between them. 

Second cousins equal twice the fun

Molly is what I would describe as calendar-obsessed. Perhaps she's learning from my weather obsession. Who knows? Anyway, the following is an example of an all too common conversation in our house as of late:

• Molly: What are we doing after night-night?
• Me: Preschool
• Molly: And after another night-night?
• Me: Dance class
• Molly: And after another night-night?
• Me: Grocery shopping
• Molly: And after another night-night?
• Me: Going to Gigi and Papa's house

As you can see, this can go on for a really long time. A really, really long time. A really, really, really, really long time. We've gone for more than a month forward in time before. She doesn't seem to ever get bored of this line of questioning. The one thing that can terminate it has been reaching Easter. That has been the great end game. Molly has been so excited for Easter because her cousin (well, technically second cousin - her mom, Laura, is my cousin) Penelope was coming to visit. And, this weekend, the pinnacle finally arrived. Cousin Penelope had hit the town!

Penny