Riley and Avery

So, Easter was quite the blast. The girls loved their bikes and I was able to delay taking them out to ride them until the afternoon. There was still snow on the ground and in the street, but by mid-afternoon the street-snow was melted. It was still a little nippy, so we went for one loop through the neighborhood. Riley's bike has brakes, so she has to get used to that. With her old bike she would pedal backwards just a bit to bring the pedal up to the top so that she could pedal forward, but she can't do that on this bike. So I kept having to tell her to keep pedaling and not to stop. She tends to stop mid-pedal and I have to give her a boost. Avery is so small that she can only rest her feet on the pedals, but she can't pedal yet. Thank goodness Mina suggested the tricycle with the push bar for parents.

For non-Mom readers: For some reason, though I have been a mother for over 4 years now, I still haven't mastered the art of stocking-stuffing and easter-basket creating. I don't so too bad of a job, but when I compare my attempt to my mother's I always come up short. My mother's stockings and easter baskets are like Mary Poppins' carpet bag. There's always an amazing amount of stuff unbelievably packed into such a small space. And she always finds the most appropriate things.

For Mom reader: Way to go! You've got skillz!

So everyone in the house but me is sick. Riley's had a bit of a cough for a while now, but it's gotten really bad over the last day or so. Avery woke up in the middle of the night with a vicious cough. I wonder if I'll get it. I usually don't. The day before Easter I was unnaturally tired and managed to sneak naps in here and there. That was probably it for me. Usually I get really tired when I'm about to get sick and then I sleep for a bit and never get sick. I hope so, since if I go down, all hell will break loose. Or so I'd guess since I've never been down yet. Darn rock-solid immune system. What a great way to spend spring break, right?

I broke with tradition and made tacos for Easter dinner. Both Rudi and I just had a craving. I made 2.25 pounds of ground beef for tacos, so it's safe to say that we'll be eating them for days. Which was the goal. I don't like to cook all that often, so I usually made an ungodly amount of something and eat it for days. Well, it's not that I don't like to cook, but with the girls hanging all over me and "helping" and Rudi, in his sickness, being unable to distract them, it's tough to get dinner on the table every day. At least for now. And I seriously need to get more recipes. I get so bored of the same-old same-old and I get into a huge cooking rut. Time to browse allrecipes.com. And I need to search for vegetarian recipes too. Chicken, no matter how it's cooked, is still chicken, and chicken gets boring.

Oh, I made rouladen and German potato salad the other week. It was delicious! But I literally started cooking at noon and had it done at 4:30. Rudi aid that he hadn't had homemade rouladen since his mother made it and it's one of his favorite foods. I hoped he liked it, because I'm not making it again anytime soon. And he said that the German potato salad was the best he'd ever had. Nice. Hmmm...I think I have potatoes left, maybe I'll make more German potato salad.