Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

LICE!!!

Ugh. It happened. LICE!!!! When Joel was washing Bennett's hair on Sunday night, he saw it. Ugh. Obviously we freaked out, went to Walgreens to buy a lice kit, but once I started using it on him at home, I realized I had no idea what I was doing with the combing. In the end, everyone but Joel had it, but Bennett's was the worst. And to make matters worse, Joel was going to be out of town all day, so it was just me, the two kids, lice and a lice infested house. Actually, after learning about lice, I know the house wasn't really infested, but it sure felt that way.

That teeny speck in his hair, that is a nit. It is seriously sooooooooooo tiny.

We had an appointment at 10 at the lice clinic, so the morning was spent trying to not touch anything in the home. We ended up going to Target, so that everyone could pick out a toy for after the lice treatment. Luckily for me, Caroline fell asleep on the drive to the clinic, because we all went to bed crazy late the night before. Even better is when she continued sleeping while Bennett and I started the treatment. So much combing, and it was pretty painful. My combing took nearly an hour, while the kids each took less than a half hour. They noted that since my hair was so thick, it was just difficult to pull the comb through it, and there were quite a few times I contemplated telling them to stop, because I was starting to go crazy from the pain of pulling on my scalp. When I was about 20 minutes away from finishing my treatment, Caroline woke up. I was soooooooooo scared about what kind of mood she'd be in, but there was a tv for the kids to watch, so everyone was happy.

Caroline picked 'Frozen' to watch during her treatment. Probably the best day ever, for her.

We finished right around noon, and my goal was to take them to daycare if we finished BEFORE noon, so that they could eat lunch... but since it was slightly after noon, I realized I was stuck with them for the day. So obviously lunch at McDonald's was necessary:

The kids were pretty worked up after lunch, and their rooms were still contaminated (I needed to throw all the bedding into the dryer, and hide the stuffed animals for 24 hours), so the only option was to have everyone sleep in our clean bed. Obviously this change of napping environment only fueled their excitement. It was well after 2 before they fell asleep. I actually fell asleep too for a while, because I seriously got next to no sleep. When I woke, I started decontaminating their rooms. Ugh, so much to do. When they woke up, we took a much needed walk:

Then we ended the day by giving Caroline a bath. Apparently her nits had hatched that morning, and the lice lady was put extra lice killing mousse in her hair, that needed to be washed out. She clearly wasn't happy. Also, I'm 100% positive that water getting in her ears while washing her hair is causing ear infections, so I had to try extra hard to keep water out. Neither of us were enjoy bath time.

All in all, we survived the first (and hopefully last) lice outbreak. But at least I know next time, all we need to do is get treated, then go to a hotel for 24 hours, to let the house decontaminate itself. On the plus side, I survived a day with lice and two kids all by myself!!

Wednesday
Caroline did an Easter egg hunt at school:

Thursday

Bennett doing an Easter egg hunt:

Friday

Daycare was closed for Good Friday, so we took the kids to the Hopkins Turf Tots. This has become an annual tradition, and they still enjoy it just as much as they did the year before. 

We ran into former daycare buddies Alex and Natalie. The kids all know each other and like playing together so it was a nice surprise:

After naps we went to the library:

Saturday

We woke up early and went to Trader Joe's for an Easter Egg hunt. Last year we arrived a few minutes late and missed everything. This year, they organized the hunt a little differently, so that certain ages could gather eggs in certain aisles, making it more fair for the little kids. They had 3,500 eggs spread out on the floor, so I don't think they needed to worry about little kids not getting an egg, but it worked out really well! Caroline was in the 1-3 aisle, and I'm sure it was the most civil. Most kids needed urging from parents to pick up an egg, and then needed additional encouragement to get another. 

After the hunt, we headed back to New London to celebrate with the Swenson side. For the first time ever, we let the kids watch a video in the car. We rigged the iPad, so that it was hanging from the seat in front, and plugged in headphones. It was glorious. For the first time, in a LONG time, there was silence in the car. Bennett really enjoyed it, and Caroline fell asleep, as usual. It is a rare occasion when she doesn't fall asleep in the car, for a ride more than 20 minutes.

Grandpa and Grandma had an egg hunt set up, which the kids loved:

Sunday
Easter, we actually made it to church, for the first time since Christmas. Our track record is TERRIBLE, but we made it! Caroline was a huge fan of her tutu dress. She has yet to meet a tutu she doesn't love. Bennett, as expected, hated wearing pants and a button up shirt. The non-comfy pants weren't as horrible as the shirt though. The shirt was THE WORST.