happy easter!

we had a pretty quiet easter planned.  we did not do as many easter crafts this year but the kids were pretty happy just playing together and chose not to do the ones i had planned.  and that was just fine.

we went kind of light on the easter baskets too.  here are pictures of each one, can you guess who they belong to?

the surprise hit of the baskets?  individual tissue packs!  i picked up an 8-packs of 'cars' and disney princesses from the dollar store and gave them each one pack.  they each couldn't wait to get them open  and try one.  they even asked to take their tissues to church with them.  who knew?

church was great.  madelyn doesn't care for the large k-2 service each week so she really wasn't excited about the larger k-5 service they had today and stayed with us.  it was fine.  she enjoyed reading the screen projections during the message.  

after church i did think to take a picture of all of us dressed up before getting into making brunch.  i had to lean the camera on a screwdriver to get the angle from the kitchen counter right, but it did the job.  i think the beeping and blinking light for the countdown helped get all of the kids to look at the camera.

after we got the oven going, we let the kids go downstairs to hunt for eggs.  i had hidden 36 (because that was how many pieces of candy i happened to have) and it worked out perfect for them each to find 12.  i think we will do messages or color coordinate the eggs next year, but we will see what i am feeling when easter rolls around.

while matt and i made eggs, bacon and tater tots the kids each got to have one of their candies - they all picked the large box of lemon drop candies because it had the 'most'.

at the last minute, i thought to make "jesus biscuits" with the kids to have with brunch.  i got the idea from my friend, kellie, and thought we would give it a try.  i recommend it and we will be doing it every year.  you just take a marshmallow, brush it with oil, cover it with sugar and cinnamon (like they would have readied jesus' body with oil and spices) and then wrap it in a biscuit (again, like preparing jesus for burial they wrapped his body and put it in the tomb).  then you bake them according to the instructions on the package.

and then when you take them out, the marshmallows will have melted and the 'tomb' will be empty inside.  the kids thought this was pretty great and the biscuits were super yummy - sort of like cinnamon rolls.

when we had cleaned up from brunch we finally got around to dying our easter eggs.  i had hard boiled them a few days ago but we had never made the time to dye them.  this year we used kool-ade to dye them, and again, i would recommend it.  just mix a package of kool-ade with 2/3 cup of water.  not only does it smell good but the kids just licked their fingers when they splashed a little.  

we used brown eggs and were still happy with the results.  we dyed every egg we had - hard boiled and raw.

we had a very nice easter and got some relaxing in too.  the kids played with their eggs and baskets the rest of the day, matt did some deep cleaning in our room (i gave him a hard time because he got to watch basketball the whole time that way) and i worked on setting up our new computer (thanks, tax refund) and getting the calendar all filled in with all the school dates for the rest of the year.

easter is such a happy time celebrating God's perfect gift to us all and the forgiveness of our sins.  love.

happy birthday to me

i was lucky to have my birthday fall on a saturday.  unfortunately, that didn't mean that i would get to sleep in because i am still nursing.  someday my mornings will be mine again...  anyway, since i was up, i made the quick oatmeal pancakes the kids have been raving about all week so that matt could try them too.  he has been leaving too early to eat with us and we have already had them twice without him.  once we were done with breakfast though, matt let me go back to sleep for a little while which was a really nice treat.

when i woke up i did a little online shopping with some of my birthday money from our parents.  it has been a long, long time since i did any shopping!  it was nice to pick out some summery dresses for when i am done nursing for good.

for lunch we went out to panera and ran a few errands (like getting seeds for our garden!).  it was such a beautiful day that we decided to go for a walk when we got home.  you could hear that there was some sporting event happening at the high school so we headed that way to check it out.  not only was there baseball, but there was lacrosse too.  and there was no admission charge!  matt had tried to take the kids to a soccer game but it was $6 a ticket, even for the kids!  this was much more our pace.  we didn't stay very long but i see some more trips up here to watch in the coming months.

i spent the rest of the afternoon reading a book and just relaxing for a change.

matt isn't really a cook so for dinner he went to pick up some pizzas - my favorite.  he even baked me a cake.

unfortunately, we did take any pictures of my on my birthday except for the one here that i snapped while me were at the baseball field.  we were waiting for the boys to come back.  they went up closer while we stayed out of foul ball danger with manning in the stroller.

all in all, a wonderful day off.  love.

who's watching who?

after manning's nap, he found the kids playing out on the deck.  they were pretty excited to be found too.  they were out there playing with the window crawlers they got from the treasure chest at the hospital during our visit with daddy.  (and, yes, i don't worry about cleaning all of the dirty hand prints off the glass regularly.  that is why you can't see mason's face.)  love.

spring break - lunch with daddy

today i told the kids we were going to run a few errands and then go somewhere really special for lunch.  they got to guessing about lunch right away and ran through the 'special' places we would normally go.  wends? no. mcdonalds? no. the park? no. the zoo?  nope. the museum?  there isn't lunch there.  chuck e. cheese?  no.  the hospital with daddy?  yes!

and then they fought about who had figured it out first.

they did agree that lunch with daddy at the hospital was better than chuck e. cheese.  now that is pretty special.  we just eat lunch in the cafeteria, check out the large perpetual motion 'machine' in the main lobby and then go up to daddy's office to get some mints.  since daddy now oversees a new department, he took us up there where the kids got to raid the 'treasure chest' for a toy and also got some stickers from the staff.  they were in heaven.

at lunch i had two different mothers sit beside me and make small talk while they were eating their lunch alone.  the first had a child who had just come out of surgery.  she was on her phone giving updates is how i learned about the surgery.  it actually sounded like two of her kids had procedures this morning but it sounded like it was maybe for ear tubes or something along those lines.  she was in good spirits and just asked about our kids between calls although i did learn that she has three kids.

a second mom took the table when the first had finished up and headed back up to her child.  this one talked the entire time, but she just needed to.  her name was becky and her daughter samantha had been in the picu for 10 days.  she had been air lifted to the hospital after falling ill (with a number of illnesses that all sounded on the 'normal' side) and becoming unresponsive.  becky has four children and apparently samantha is the "healthy one" of her four kids (two girls and two boys). i think her mom said she is 14.  it was hard to tell if the mom had special needs herself or if she was just in a state of shock.  i was fighting back tears the entire time.  she was talking about samantha as if she was already dead and the prognosis didn't sound very good.  she also told me all about her other kids - their health problems, their weights, who ate what, how they were doing in school and their gpas, about their church, etc.  matt was sitting with the bigs at a kid sized table they like while manning and i were in a booth next to this mom.  we were done eating, but i just couldn't get away and was happy to let her just vent a little although the kids were starting to get a little restless.  she did thank me for listening when i finally interrupted to say good-bye because manning was getting very fussy and ready for his nap.  matt always marvels at how people find me and tell me their life story.  i don't initiate, believe me.  i believe it is just God.

that is the one thing about lunch with daddy, i get a little emotional walking around the hospital.  but it also makes me extra grateful that we are just there to visit.  love.

spring break - the lost day

so today wasn't really a 'fun' day and we didn't really get much done. i made oatmeal pancakes again (by popular demand) and then called the doctor's office about manning's ear. they told me to call if he still had ear infection symptoms after finishing this round of antibiotics and he has been rubbing it with his fist while eating meals. so we had to take him in just before lunch time.

he does not have an infection, but still has some fluid in there so they want him to take some over the counter antihistamine to help dry things up so that he doesn't get another infection and we will just follow up in two or three weeks.

mason and maddux were up pretty late (thanks in large to maddux who would not stay in bed or keep the lights off) and they were both cranky - especially mason - so we did not have lunch at chick-fil-a like i was planning.

home again, home again. instead we watched "the little house that stood" from veggietales. madelyn begged me to watch it with them so we all had some snuggly time on the couch and enjoyed the movie (mommy and maddux got a little snooze in too). all three kids really liked it and begged to watch it again as soon as the credits started.

and then it was time to get everyone ready for madelyn's dance class. during class mason had a nuclear, tired melt-down. he cried for about thirty minutes, but he did so by himself and without disrupting everyone else. when i would try to talk to him he would get worse so we just let him get it out.

home to make dinner and then it was pretty much bed time when we finished up.

oh well. they can't all be winners. love.

construction and trucks everywhere!

i mentioned before that we can see a lot of trucks from our house, but we can see four houses being built from our yard! here is a quick video pan of the activity - one is across from the drive way, there is one down the street just to the right of that house (it is just a big mound of dirt because the big trucks left today since they put in the foundation yesterday and it is drying), there is one on the left side of the road as i pan to the right and the house with the tan siding on the right side of the road (across from the one obviously under construction) is in the process of having its siding put on.

some days it is difficult to get past there are so many trucks. the kids are just loving it! love.

spring break - chocolate factory tour

we stayed at home this morning in preparation for our surprise visit to a local chocolate factory! we drive past it all of the time and i have been wanting to check it out. i emailed them last week to see if there were any times available while we were on spring break (they require reservations), there was only one time slot left. i signed us up and then asked if there were any spots left at that time so that i could invite some friends. they said, yes, but that i would have to let them know right away. i just posted it to our mops group on facebook to see if anyone else was looking for something to do over the break. i was surprised when four other families joined us! i was surprised because most of the ladies grew up around here and i guessed they had been before, but, no, most of them had not. and best of all - matt was able to join us!

our tour guide was wonderful! she was so great at giving us information and not being bothered by all of the kids in our group (there were some other families too, but our group had the most little kids). the best was watching the video before the tour and the kids were all talking about what was happening on the screen. especially when they started to show the candy being made. i felt like it really added to the experience and there were lots of giggles.

the tour was interesting (and yummy looking). you could smell chocolate the whole time you were in the building. they make between 6 and 8 million pieces of chocolate every day! it was impressive and the kids loved that the staff working would wave at them - super friendly! they also liked the 'beard nets' some of the men were wearing on the factory floor in addition to everyone's hair nets.

and, of course, we all got a piece of chocolate at the end of the tour and a coupon to buy more candy in the shop - which we did. yum. yum. love.

 

maddux and the blue marker

bed time has been a challenge with maddux. it is part of why we stopped naps with him well before he turned two and fight to keep him awake some days. the kid just doesn't like to go to bed. we have been on a good run of almost a month where he goes to be easily or falls asleep during books and stays in his bed all night (mid-night waking and getting in our bed has been another long running problem with him). we have learned that there are some nights where he just isn't tired at bed time and will look at books or color until he is tired or falls asleep and then we can take him to bed willingly instead of him having a nuclear meltdown at bedtime that disrupts everyone.

anyway... last night was a difficult night. he had not had a nap but for some reason matt ended up having to carry him to bed kicking and screaming. i was praying and singing with mason in their room. once maddux calmed down i asked him what was wrong and he said, "show you". he took my hand and let me back to the table to show me that he just wanted to finish coloring. i left him to see what matt had already told him about the coloring and we agreed that he could color for a few more minutes as long as he was quiet.

and he was quiet. then he came in our room to give matt the picture he had finished for him. matt was trying not to laugh as maddux explained that he had drawn "yo-yo" (his new imaginary friend) because his face was covered in an almost perfect stripe of blue marker!

when i asked him to say, "good night", i did not expect him to head off to bed! what a difference 30 minutes makes! and he showed me the blue marker and i am happy to report that it was not eaten but was safely returned to the other markers.

as i used baby wipes to remove the marker from his hands and face, i came up with a theory on what happened. there was no marker on the table or anywhere else he had been. i think he colored the side of his hands (between thumb and forefinger) and the wiped his hands back and forth across his mouth while spitting/drooling on them. he most likely did put the marker in him mouth too but i don't think he colored on his face.

this is such a maddux thing to do too! he doesn't try to be naughty, he just is. and we love him to pieces. he fills our lives with so much laughter and memories we will cherish long after he is grown and moved. love.

 

easter bunny craft

today's easter craft was selected by mason and madelyn from a book madelyn checked out at school. i drew a bunny shape on a folded piece of paper and the kids cut them out and colored them. we were going to glue cotton balls on the back but i was cooking dinner and they went off to play instead.

madelyn's came out super cute

mason's is a little scary but i know that wasn't his intention. red was most likely the first marker he picked up.

maddux insisted on a huge piece of paper and coloring with a pencil - i did the cutting for him.

all in all a success. love.

 

spring break - museum day

we actually slept in this morning! (well, i got up at 5 with a hungry manning but he went back to sleep and so did I.) mason and maddux didn't come get me until 7:30! it has been a very, very long time since i have gotten to sleep until 7am, let alone past it. that was a nice way to start the day.

i was planning on making our oat bran, chocolate chip pancakes but madelyn wanted 'plain' pancakes (aka box mix) but we don't have an mix so i got on allrecipes.com (well, the app actually) to see what i could find. and i found something delicious! we had quick oatmeal pancakes which i highly recommend. i doubled the recipe (to make sure we had enough), substituted almond milk for the milk and applesauce for the butter, added double the required cinnamon (as recommended in a review) and will try some flour substitutions and throw in some extras (like milled flax seeds) next time to up the nutrition factor just because i like to make breakfast 'hearty'. the kids were asking to have them again before we even finished breakfast.

now that we were all fed and dressed, we were off to the museum for the morning. it has been a while since madelyn has been so she was most excited. before we left home, i had gathered up enough quarters and pennies for each of them to get a 'pressed penny' suvienior on our way out to make this visit more special since they are on spring break (a fact that i stressed so that i don't get begged on every future trip for money to make a penny).

clipboards in hand - ready for fun

the museum wasn't very crowded when we arrived, but it did fill up quick! it got really crowded in the new 'science center' so i was happy that we started there (it was maddux' wisdom to insist we went there first because we don't normally). there were even two very large groups that we kept having to skip around.

they were on to the next thing before i could get a picture

they were on to the next thing before i could get a picture

mason holding very still so i could get his picture without a flash - i finally took this one with my flash anyway because they were all very blurry

manning just hangs out. he was pretty cranky on this trip and i had to carry him a while to help him calm down so that he could nap

i had to get a side view so that i could capture how truly crazy his bed head was this morning

maddux' favorite part of the exhibit

they couldn't bare to look away for even a moment, but were willing to smile for a picture

because we had eaten a later breakfast, we were able to stay past noon. it was a pretty great outing. once we were home it was lunch and nap for manning. the bigs and i tried to play outside but it was just too cold and windy; there wasn't much snow left either so we went in and watch a couple of easter movies.

the kids and i are just loving spring break! it is getting me really excited for summer! i just love these kids. love.

 

spring break - sledding!

i am not big on the outside winter activities. mainly, i don't like being wet and cold, but it is also a lot of work to get the kids all bundled up for what always seems like a very short time outside. since it is spring break and this will (hopefully) be the last 'big' snow of the season, i thought we would go out to sled while manning was napping this afternoon. we got all bundled up but when we went outside i realized that it wasn't really all that cold. the snow was already starting to melt and a light rain was falling. it was very slushy. and we had a great time!

maddux is usually the first to want to go in so i thought pulling him in the baby sled would help him. that and he insisted on size 3 boots! he could barely walk.

the baby sled worked more like a snow plow in this wet, wet snow. it was pretty funny because he did tip out of this position. the snow 'hill' we made was pretty steep.

we were all having a great time! i went down several times too. next year we are going to have to pick up a few more sleds! this one is so great because it is so light and doesn't go too fast.

we sent this picture to daddy at work. the boys are a lot happier than they look, the sun was just really, really bright off the snow. i was wearing sunglasses so that i could see.

we were outside for at least an hour. it was maybe the most fun i have ever had in the snow. not an activity that screams "spring break" to me, but it sure was fun! love.

 

treasure hunt

my bible study (goodmorninggirls.org) started up again this morning. this time around, they added a kids' bible study so the kids and i did it over breakfast. an added bonus were ideas for daily activities which are going to to come in very handy this week! today's activity was a treasure hunt! i had the perfect 'treasure' - pirate shrinky-dinks that i had picked up on clearance several months ago.

"treasure hunt!"

while the kids were playing, i got to hiding the treasure and writing out clues on notecards. they didn't suspect a thing (even though i told them that we would do the treasure hunt today). i even went and hid some cards where they were playing. i think there were 10-12 clues for them to find. i only gave them two rules, they had to stay together (aka madelyn couldn't run and do it by herself) and they couldn't wake up manning from his nap if they went on that side of the house.

"treasure hunt!"

i think they spent about 15 or 20 minutes finding, reading and solving the clues. madelyn was even disappointed when they found the 'treasure' in the dryer because she didn't want the hunt to be over. convienently there were 9 shrinky-dinks so everyone could have three to color.

"treasure hunt!"

"treasure hunt!"

these were pre-cut so they only had to color them before we put them in the oven. then for the fun of watching them curl and flatten back out in the oven. they came with little paper stands, but they didn't quite work out on all of the shrinky-dinks but the kids didn't mind. here they each are with their 'booty'...

they are asking to do another treasure hunt tomorrow. they have been using their shrinky-dinks for embelishing some treasure maps they are now working on.

i don't know why i haven't done treasure hunts sooner! love.

 

good morning, spring break!

this picture doesn't really say "spring break", but it was a very pretty way to start the day. this would be the perfect snow to end on - pretty, wet and sticky. it helps that we (except matt) get to stay home all day too. love.

 

palm sunday

mason has been dying to wear his tie "like daddy". he met matt at the door after work begging him to tie it for him (not a great idea on a night we were eating soup! but i managed to get it clean.). the kids wore their 'easter' outfits to church today for palm sunday because they were going to sing in church. we have been practicing "hosanna" by michael w. smith all week because all three bigs would be singing it in church and waving palm branches.

madelyn was not excited at all about how itchy her dress way. thankfully, she got over it by the time we got to the church. at least the boys were both tickled about wearing their ties and posing for a picture.

i tried to get some video but we were not sitting very close. as luck would have it both mason and maddux stood right next to each other and madelyn was right down the aisle from us so we could see all three kids relatively easily. i didn't take any pictures and the videos are very short because i didn't want to be too distracting to the service. in this very blurry video you can see the boys next to each other. they are on the left side of the video at the end of the risers and mason is behind maddux. maddux was turing around and waving his palm branch in mason's face. mason stayed in performance mode the whole time and didn't let it upset him.

once the actual "hosanna" song they were there to sing started, we couldn't see the boys any more but we could watch madelyn. she said she never saw us but it looked like she was looking right at us more than once. what was most impressive is that none of the kids cried being up on stage in front of such a large group.

as luck would have it, all three kids were given a palm branch to take home. i knew that the branches most likely would not survive the car ride home so i snapped a few pictures while we were walking to the car. (please notice madelyn's complete look. she carefully selected each item and didn't care if they matched or not.)

i had them change as soon as they got home so that they can wear their 'easter' outfits next week for easter. love.

i'm not tired

maddux would not go to sleep for some reason last night. (he has actually been doing really great lately about going to sleep and staying asleep - in his own bed.) he kept saying/yelling, "no", so we just ignored him. he sat in a chair in our room and within minutes fell asleep - like this. (and his feet really are huge, the perspective of the picture adds a little, but he is big.) love.

 

mommy's shoes

maddux put on a pair of my heels. so of course i ran for my camera. he had switched to some more sensible flats by the time i got back. and so the fashion show began.

i was taking a shower trying to get ready for a mops night out (or in, we were watching a movie at someone's house) and maddux was trying on all of my shoes he could reach.

and then madelyn got in on the action.

by the time i was leaving, all three kids were parading around the house in my shoes. it was pretty funny. especially when they put on my knee high boots. love.

 

elsah's birthday party

madelyn and i ran errands all morning (including picking up a birthday present) before grabbing a quick lunch at home and heading over to 'pump it up' for elsah's birthday party. elsah is a classmate of madelyn's and madelyn was really looking forward to the party. first she likes elsah, but second because mason has been to two parties at 'pump it up' and madelyn really, really wanted to check it out. she had so much fun!

i don't think the girl stopped smiling the whole time. it was partly because she was having so much fun and partly because she had me all to herself. she asked me to stay for the party and she would not do anything unless i was watching or holding her hand. when she went through the obstacle course inflatable, she would reach over the side and hug me after each obstacle. and not just the first time she went through it - every time. and when her friend wanted to play air hockey, she said that she really wanted to play with me. i explained that she and i could play another time since i am with her more than her friend and she agreed to play with her friend instead.

i suggested this picture for nana since it was a purple horse.

the 'hurricane' room

madelyn, elsah (the birthday girl), sarah, kylan and kylie (in back) - all classmates

the funniest part was how quiet the kids were during pizza, cake and presents. the were all so worn out that they were mostly staring off. all of the parents were commenting on how odd it was to have so many in the same room and not have any of them talking.

another nice party. i am starting to get to know the kids in her class and the parents a little better too. it occurred to me that, as long as we don't move, there is a really good chance she will be with most of these kids through high school (there is only one in our district). most of the people who live here, grew up here and went to that high school themselves (and their parents too). it is just that kind of community. that is part of why we like it and part of why it is a little harder to get to know people.

she has another one if a few weeks. it makes me feel a little bad about our plans not to have a party this year... but not that bad. love.