Easter Memories

The kids woke up early (6:30) of course. We had the baby gate up at the bottom of the stairs so no one sneaked down ahead to peak. Their filled baskets were on the couch. They were excited!
Then the egg hunt began. The bunny doesn't make things too hard at our house and he goes a little overboard.

Pretty sure there were over a hundred eggs. He needs to cut back next year.

Reese was a good egg finder.


There was lots of unsupervised candy eating.


This one had her moments because she ate A LOT of candy including jelly beans.

I didn't think she could open the eggs, I was wrong.

She had moments of extreme happiness followed by major meltdowns, not like her at all.

I spent a lot of time finding our 4 bunny ears from last year and I wanted a group photo. This is the best one.

I was not amused but settled for individual shots outside.



The only way I could get Ethan to wear bunny ears was for him to pretend he was a bunny, but it worked.

We headed to Aaron's sister's house. The drums are a HUGE hit with Ethan.

They are very loud and he demands an audience, so fun! I bet this will continue to be a theme in my future. We had a really great meal then the kids headed to the trampolene.

Then a baseball game was played. We finally gave Blaine his month old birthday gift of a bat and helmet.


Even I tried the trampolene but those things are dangerous and Reese hit her mouth on my knee and there was some blood. We had a nice time and our visit ended by a pile on Papa game.

We headed home to our sea of plastic eggs. It was a fun day but I hate plastic eggs!

Happy {Heart} Day!

We are blessed to have stacks of love here at our house (even though these pancakes tasted yucky -- not using Bisquick to make pancakes ever again!)

We are off to my cousin's wedding today and we even have a sitter for overnight! Aaron's mom is keeping all of them so we can enjoy the wedding without hurrying back for the kids. I even got a new dress and the best part is was mark downed to $5 at Kohls. Aaron asked me a few minutes ago what we were doing after the wedding reception . . . I thought coming home was the answer however he must want to go paint the town red . . . we'll see how long I can wear my high heeled boots and stay awake!

Have a great Valentine's Day!

Valentine Central

Holiday time again! We have been working away the last week creating all kinds of fun stuff.

The kids needed a box to hold their valentines at school so Addison did a panda one,

Ethan made a dog one (of course),

and Caden had a race car.

We made our valentines too. I make the kids help too. Of course, since they are 4 they can't do all of them but I find jobs for them to do.

Addison wrote her name on all 28 of her valentines. Caden put alien faces on his. He was burnt out near the end but he finished them all. Ethan helped face parts on his little dog cards.

Reesey even made some valentines today. I painted her hands for handprint hearts and she loved it and was so patient to sit there and do it over and over. Another art project loving girl. They have all come so far in being able to help do stuff like that.

At the beginning of the school year I signed up for treat bags for Caden and Addison's classroom. So I found some fun ideas.

I melted some old crayons in silicon ice cube trays to make swirly heart crayons.

I also made candy cane heart suckers. This was a bonus project as Aaron was instructed to buy some mini candy canes for our gingerbread party at Christmas, all he could find was a box of 100. So we had some leftover candy canes and I used them all up to make these cute suckers.

I found this awesome idea for teacher gifts. Newspaper roses . . . yup, these are made of newspaper!

I love them. The teachers did too. I wonder what else can be made of newspaper?

Of course, doing all that didn't leave me a lot of time to do anything like the 38 projects I saved for things to make at home . . . heart garlands to mobiles to a valentine countdown calendar. I was going to make valentines to give to family with photos of the kids. I did get to the photo shoot today.

I didn't even attempt a group photo just individual ones. I got some cute ones and some crazy ones!
I didn't have time to make paper valentines so I threw together a digital version which I'll share later. I can still make some really cute scrapbook pages with the photos if I ever get around to doing anything I want to do.

Firecracker Day

We had one busy 4th of July! Aaron worked on painting the fence most of the day. The kids and I painted too but we made fireworks pictures with paint and glitter. They loved it and they turned out so cool. We are going to hang them up somewhere. I got the idea here.

We walked to the town cemetery which isn't really that far unless you are pushing a stroller and trying to get three kids to follow you there. Ethan, who normally runs everywhere, suddenly becomes a 90 year old man who can barely walk when we are on a mission. Anyway for patriotic holidays they line the cemetery road with flags. It looks so neat and the kids loved it and ran all the way down the road.

For lunch we made Bomb Pop drinks. The were really fun to make and the kids were so patient. Here's the recipe and Aaron and I thought they tasted yummy!

On Thursday we made t-shirts. I let the kids do it (except Reese) and they were fun. Too bad they didn't stay on long once we got to Grammy and Papa's house -- too hot in the Bounce house and then Grammy had gotten them new shirts -- Hulk beat out the stars. We'll keep wearing them throughout the summer anyway. The directions to make these shirts can be found here. Too bad the shirts turned out better than the photo . . . oh well.

We went to Grammy and Papa's house for a BBQ and to play with cousins. Then we watched the fireworks. Last year Caden and Addison were scared and Ethan loved them (for the first time, he used to ignore them). We have been discussing the fireworks for days and how they can be loud but they are pretty. They were fine once they got going and once again Ethan loved them and said on every one "Here it goes" loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. Reese liked them too.

It was a long day filled with lots of fun events. Hope you had just as much fun!

Happy 4th!

Enjoy your freedom!