Easter Weekend {unabridged}

Our Easter weekend was AMAZING.  It was crazy busy.  But it was amazing.

First stop...
KJ's school Easter Egg hunt.  I love his little preschool and the people we are meeting there.  I especially love the times when I get to visit and watch him in his element.  He knows everyone.  Everyone knows him. The easter egg hunt, though, was business.  He was totally focused and it was hilarious to watch him run in circles gathering eggs like his life depended on it.  The best part was, though, at the end of it he couldn't have cared less how many eggs stayed in his basket and willingly shared with others who didn't get very many.  What a precious heart!

I love that he goes to school with the daughter of someone I work with.  It is so amazing to me to see the Lord bring "co-workers" into my life in a deeper way.  I'm blessed to be getting to know this family...and KJ loves his friend K.

Second stop...Cousin brunch.  For several months now, I've been meeting once a month with some of RRL's cousins and their kiddos for a playdate.  It is so fun to watch "family" become so much more as these children develop relationships.  This month we decided to expand to the whole family on a Saturday morning for brunch and an egg hunt.  It got a little crazy with 8 kids under 5 (even with missing the other 5 great-grandchildren).  But it was so much fun!

Here is KJ showing his great-grandmother his prized football egg.  This was bittersweet, because I so wish he could really know her, but I do know that I can see her legacy in him and in each of these sweet great-grandchildren.  What a privaledge to pass on to them the faith that we celebrate at Easter because of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents!

I'm so blessed to have married into such a fun group of cousins.

Saturday night we moved our normal small group to the park for "family church" and an Easter egg hunt.

This is what Easter weekend should be about.  Showing our kids what is important to us.  Showing them that our family is surrounded by people that love them, but even more who love the Lord and believe that He died and ROSE on the 3rd day.  These people will encourage our children to claim this truth and these are the moments I want them to cling to, espeically around holidays like Easter.

We started the evening with some singing and a lesson for the kids.  One dad did an amazing job of using symbols in Easter eggs to have hte children help tell the story of Christ's death and ressurection.  It was perfect and the kids soaked it up.  We also did family communion.  I loved that another dad led us to really think about the ways Jesus moved in the bible and even in our own lives. He is RISEN INDEED!

My treasures showing the spear that they found in their egg and listening to the explanation of what it symbolizes.

After Church we had an egg hunt.  What a fun group of kids!

Easter Sunday!

All dressed and ready to go.

Note-

1) Lou does have two legs, she just kicked one up in her dress and

2) Lightning McQueen really is a family member.

We went to Sunday morning service at RHCC.  Another great blessing in the weekend!  We went prepared for wrestling all 3 through service thinking there was no childcare.  Don't get me wrong, I love the moments when our family gets to be together for worship.  However, 1.5 hours keeping 3 kids under 4 still and quiet is just a lot.  So judge if you want, but there may or may not have been an audible sigh of relief when we heard the announcement that there was indeed power kids and I quickly filed all three munchkins to their respective classes.  They loved it, we loved it.  Really a win/win for everyone, right?

As for the wardrobes, Libby's dress was given to her by a dear family friend.  It is a treasure indeed and I loved having all of my sweet children dressed in white for the morning.  I was actually feeling a bit overwhelmed by their "adorableness" until I looked down the pew at KJ in the middle of serivce and realized that he had on his black and red flame hotwheels socks under his dress clothes.  Oh how the Lord will humble us. 

Then went to Grammy's house for lunch and ONE MORE Easter egg hunt.  Another fun time with family and friends!

KJ's shirt below was his Easter basket present.  He LOVES spider man these days.  The boys also got walkie talkies.  Which would have been great...except they didn't work.  What a downer!

Easter weekend was such a delight!  I loved every. crazy. moment.  And while I hope we can teach our children about Jesus all year, I'm so thankful for times when the whole world stops to aknowledge Him.  Time set aside to remind us to continue teaching them.  Hope your weekend was full of those reminders, too!

ABL

MMM: Try this at home!

This Monday activity was so fun, it has been requested on multiple occasions since this first effort.  And in some shape or form, the "obstacle course" will also make an appearance at KJ's birthday party.  Not only was the activity awesome because the kids loved it, I loved it because...

a) it took little to no preparation ahead of time (the only thing I did was make numbers for the various obstacles)

b) It used all materials/supplies that we had around the house- I did not buy anything

c) I felt like it was also educational because I made the boys follow directions in number order.

d)I got to participate!

So, here you go. Our own personal backyard obstacle course... 

First, drive the vehicle of your choice throughthe dandelion maze (so glad we have weeds!)    

Second, climb the rock wall and zoom down the slide (and try not to get your fingers stepped on in the process)

Third- go for a wild-headfirst-dive over the beachball

Next, make your best shot...number 4 is the basketball goal.

For number five, climb through the tunnel of fun and then run for number six...the rope swing.

You'll have to be a great shot again for number seven, but this time you can only use your feet.  Soccer time!

In number 8 we want to keep the dandelion maze around for our next obstacle course, so go ahead and blow those seeds all over the yard......and while you are taking deep breaths, blow some bubbles for number 9.

Lastly, you'll have to have a good arm and accurate aim. Throw the frisbee toward the finish line!

We had so much fun doing this over and over.  Then KJ wanted a turn "watching" and taking pictures.  So I got a turn at the course!

And when Colter got tired of the obstacle course you will be shocked to learn that he...

...headed for the sandbox!

These stunts may look wild and dangerous, but I would say you should DEFINITELY try this at home folks!

ABL

REWIND: Cbug's paaaaar-taaayyyy!

Its been two whole months, but this is worth documenting.

Cbug had so much fun at his second birthday party, from the moment he woke up until the last of the guests were gone.  He must have said "My paaar-taaaaay, my paaaar-taaaay"  about 1000 times that day.  So much fun!

<---- the invitation

I made pudding cake and chocolate chocolate cake as our "dirt" for the construction party.  

And yes, I caught the spelling mishap before the party!

Cbug loved the cake.  He also loved the party favor trucks (which initially had raisinettes in them as dirt).  Everyone especially loved rolling them across the huge open church floor.  Who needs a playscape?

And the birthday boy's siblings had lots of fun, too...

 

Just the fact that this is the best picture I got of all of the children says a lot about the party.  Sweet, fun, organized,friendly CHAOS.

Happy Birthday (one more time), Mr.  Cbug! 

Hope you feel celebrated because we sure do cherish the day you were added to our lives!

ABL

Daylight Savings Time

Since RRL was out of town when the time changed we decided to embrace the extra hour of sunlight and invite some friends to join us for a picnic.  I love having friends that I can invite to an impromptu "bring-your-own-food/please-help-me-chase-my-kids" sort of picnic. 

I also love that my children have such wonderfully sweet (and adorable) friends!

and they loved that Mr. James has such a cool airplane!

I love enjoying these sweet baby girl smiles.

and they love laughing at their Mommas and crawling away.

I'm so glad we decided to celebrate Daylight Savings Time for the extra hour of sunshine, instead of bemoaning the lost hour of sleep. 

(Although there may or may not have been some moaning the next morning)

Hope you are finding lots of ways to enjoy the sunshine with people you love, too!

ABL

eventually ... already

 


EVENTUALLY

I'll get around to posting about:

-Cbug's birthday party

-Family outing to the museum
-Daylight Savings Time Picnic

-Makeover My Monday activities

 

     but in the mean-time...

     Can you believe that
                SHE
       is nine-months-old

 

           
            
   ALREADY?    

or that she could be so
sweet in her white dress,
while gouging her
favorite babydoll's eyes?

MMM: Daddy's Bday Surprise

When Monday also happens to be RRL's bday, it makes perfect sense that our MMM project would be a surprise for him.  I wanted to make him dessert, but we were having cake the next night with his family to celebrate, so I had to get creative.  He LOVES Dr Pepper so I was thrilled when I cam across this recipe for Dr Pepper no bake cookies.  The recipe even indicated that it was kid friendly so it was perfect for us (so I thought).

The recipe definitely was kid friendly during the first several steps.  I mean, of course it was, it involved Nilla Wafers.

And even involved crushing them and dumping them (two of the boys favorite activites in any arena)

And the recipe was shaping up to be a tasty one, too.  Add some Dr. Pepper and a whole-lotta butter (yes, that is an official measurement)

This is where it got tricky.  After you mix all of those fun ingredients, you are supposed to form small balls of dough, dip them in icing and then roll them in nuts.  I do not have many pictures of these steps because...well, this was NOT kid friendly...or mom friendly for that matter.  IT WAS A HUGE MESS.  Don't know if my icing was too runny, maybe should have actually used nuts (instead of substituting mini-chocolate-chips), or the dough should have chilled to be a little more firm.  Whatever the reason, the finished product tasted great, but looked anything but appetizing.

Anyone else have a fun Dr. Pepper recipe? 

Please keep in mind that if you tell me it is kid friendly and I can't even do it myself, I might cry.

ABL