Caleb got lost

Scariest thing ever! We went to an Easter egg hunt  with our neighbors at their church. There were thousands of people there.  They had a field sectioned off for different age groups. Caleb was in the 3-6 group and so was Elizabeth. Anna and Lydia went with my neighbor to the other section. My neighbor's sister said she'd watch Elizabeth and her daughter if I watched Caleb. Easy enough. All the parents stood behind the sectioned off area and the kids went hunting for eggs. I could see Caleb just fine because all the kids were little. They were supposed to get 10 eggs each. Caleb came back to me to show me his eggs and he only had 4. I told him he could go get more. So he went to get another egg and a bigger kid took it from him. So he moved on to another egg about a foot away and another kid took it from him. I was about 2 feet away from him. At that point, I guess most of the kids had their 10 eggs so all the parents started flooding onto the field. It happened in an instant, but suddenly I couldn't see Caleb. I kept seeing lots of little blonde boys the same size as Caleb, but it wasn't him. I started freaking out, but figured I'd find him any second. Nope. I called my friend and told her Caleb was lost. We had 4 adults looking for him and eventually a whole ton of other people. I was so scared!!! I knew he was probably fine - meaning not kidnapped because this was a church function and all these people were here because of kids. So I figured it was just a matter of finding him. But I wondered if he was sitting there crying and scared. The thought of what was going thru his mind made me start crying because I envisioned his sad little face with crocodile tears, wondering where his mommy was.   It took us 25 minutes to find him!!!  It seemed like an eternity and I've never felt so scared in my life!!!  Finally my friend found him and called me. I ran over to where she said they were. Caleb was sitting at a picnic table with the other girls, eating candy from his eggs as though nothing had happened. I scooped him up, hugged him tight and just sobbed.  Caleb asked me, "Why are you crying mom?" Then I realized that he wasn't phase by it at all. I tried to stop crying because I didn't want to give him reason to be scared since he obviously wasn't.   I told him I was a sad because he was lost. To which he replied, "I wasn't lost Mom, YOU were lost!" Here's his story according to Caleb, "I was collecting eggs and then you got lost. I told the nice lady that my mom had a brown shirt on. (he was right!) She took me inside and put me on the food counter and then I saw Claudia (the neighbor) so I jumped down and she found me." So in his little 3 year old mind, he wasn't lost - he knew exactly where he was... **I** was the one who was lost.    It would make me laugh if I wasn't so freaked out about it. I'm so glad he wasn't traumatized by this. I can't say that much for me - every time I think about it, I get teary-eyed. I think I'm going to glue my kids to me forever! He was seriously right there and then he was GONE. It happened so fast!

Art Museum

We took a Family Field Trip to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City.  Michael had to go (i.e. was forced by his unmerciful family) for extra credit for school so we took the whole family.  We've been wanting to go for awhile now.  Michael and Lydia didn't want to go and protested the whole way there and they ended up having the most fun.  Lydia in a room of ancient Chinese art (Chinese?  I can't remember.  Old and someplace far away):

While you can't tell from her face in this picture, Katie thought it was really funny that this horse statue doesn't have a tail.  I personally didn't even notice until she started giggling uncontrollably.

Michael loved the swords and weapons, of course: 

The whole family loved this giant metal sculpture.  It is made out of tin kitchen utensils (spatulas, cans, etc.) 

Caleb's favorite was a head "thing" with "lots of noses and beaks".  I don't even know what this is or why he likes it, but he was fascinated with it. OK then. 

See?  He spent a long time looking at it. 

We saw some really cool, intricately carved sticks.  They were amazing.  I looked at them for a few minutes max.  Blake stayed there foreeeeever.  Now I see where my boys get their love of sticks. 

Elizabeth loved, LOVED all the Monet stuff.  Of course she would pick Monet - she has very expensive taste in everything.  Does anyone know what this picture is called?  I didn't look at the title and I was thinking of getting her a print for her room since she loved it so much. Is it even Monet?  It was in the same room as Monet.

Blake and Lydia looking at a 4000 year old statue: 

Nathan with the mummies: 

Katie went crazy over the knights.  She loves knights! 

Anna and Katie loving all the baby pictures: 

When it was time to leave, Lydia refused to go home and threatened to glue herself to this roman column.  This is the girl that didn't want to come... the super stubborn girl who loves art... and who had fun.   We all had a fun time.