Matt and Kristin: Saturday before Easter...AND DUCKLINGS!

Saturday before Easter...and DUCKLINGS!
March 30

Matt was very proud of his German pancake so he took a picture of it to save forever! We spent the morning at home, getting things done around the house, filling Easter eggs for the hunt, etc.

We spent the afternoon at the Helquist's grandparents visiting with Mike and Alison before they headed back home. The kids all loved the swings, even Lucas! He went in the big tire swing.

Matisyn spent tons of time flying around on this swing, twisting, flipping, spinning, and crashing!

That night we went over to Matt's brother's house to have an Easter egg hunt and visit. Since I still wasn't feeling very good, Lucas and I hung around inside while the rest of the adults hid the eggs to get ready for the hunt. Because I was inside, I really had NO warning for what was coming!

The kids couldn't wait to get started! The teenagers don't get as excited anymore though!

The family came and got me and said I needed to come out and watch. Grandma Barb took Lucas so I could watch and take pictures of what I thought was only a regular egg hunt. The kids were told to first go find a big egg with their name on it before picking up any other eggs. Apparently there was a lot of cheeping, but I still hadn't caught on by this point. They said they were taking bets on how I would react, but I think I was calmer than Matt...probably because by the time I figured out what was happening I had the girls' reactions and cute little, yellow babies blurring my thoughts!

Both girls had to be told to be careful as they were flopping around their eggs and shaking them to figure out what was inside. I'm thinking, did they put something glass in those eggs? They were taped on the side, and they had a hard time getting it off. While trying to get the tape off Emilyn realized something was moving. She said, "Oh, I can't do it. Something is moving!" At this point I still didn't know what was going on. Then out pops a chick out of one of the triplets big eggs. Uncle Dave helped Emilyn get her egg open and pure joy poured over her. How could I be mad looking at that face! She was completely elated and picked her little guy up. We found out then that they were actually ducklings, not chicks. Emilyn said, "This is seriously awesome!" Matisyn was happy beyond words as well. She actually started sobbing when we had her put her duckling down and said she didn't need anything else ever again, not an egg hunt, no t.v., no treats, just her duckling. It turns out my sister in law, "Aunt Becky", could not pass up this opportunity to surprise us! I was surprisingly alright with it, even though I had pneumonia, and am still waking up with a baby at night, they were just too cute, and my girls were too happy to not just fall in love with these fluffy little ducklings.

The girls getting more and more excited as they figured out what was happening.

So very happy!!!

They had names inside the eggs with them. We still don't know which ones are boys and which ones are girls, but Matisyn's is named Daisy. She said she'll change it to Donald if it's a boy. Emilyn has informed us that her duckling "cheep cheeped" to her that "he is a girl." Lately she's noticed that Daisy and Quackers are in love so she said maybe hers could be a boy. We'll just have to see...

Emilyn's duck is named Quackers n Cheese. When she first heard the name she repeated it, Crappers n Cheese, which I enjoyed very much! It has kind of evolved into Cheese n Quackers, or just Cheese or just Quackers. We also ended up with a third duck, Duck Tape, because Cassidy didn't want to keep it all by itself. We have learned that ducklings like to be together, and they don't do very well by themselves. We wouldn't have chosen to get ducks at this point, but I have to say we are enjoying them very much. They will eventually fly south themselves, or "go to college" as we've told the girls, which will mean finding a good home at a pond, so we just get to enjoy raising them. So, thank you Dave and Becky for giving us a surprisingly fun new set of pets!