HE IS RISEN!

Mike can once again have his favorite bubbly beverage...Coke!  He was so good during lent and didn't break down once.  It really does make it so sweet when you can finally have something you have denied yourself for so long.  We walked into church this morning and the statues were all unveiled and the cross was visible, lilies were everywhere!  It was beautiful!  The same principal was at work.  We had been denied their beauty for so long and to finally see the church all decorated again was amazing!  

We had a great Easter morning. We went through baskets, hunted eggs and enjoyed breakfast.  We left 45 minutes before mass would begin in order to get a seat.  It worked!  We sat up front where we usually sit. After mass we all went to Red lobster for lunch.  We had done that last Easter and the kids really wanted to do it again.  We hadn't eaten at one since then so it was a real treat!  Noah got crab legs, steak and shrimp scampi!  He's a growing boy! :-)

We returned home and took photos of the kids and all of us in our Easter clothes.  Noah was not thrilled.  I'm afraid we are having a little on set of adolescent hormones. He has been so hard to please lately. Nothing all that bad, mind you, just a subtle change that I am noticing. 


Nathan went down for an hour nap and the kids have been playing outside for hours.  Mike has been working in the yard, fixing the wood border around the play set.  It was a death trap and needed to be fixed.  


Well, that's the day so far.  Here are the photos...

Nathan's

Madison's

Grace's

Noah's

Nathan went right for the bubbles.

Noah has been trying origami lately, so he was glad to get the paper and book.  He also got the new Harry Potter movie.

Madison got a Barbie movie she had been hoping for and a bunny.

Grace got a movie she'd been wanting and a bunny too.

I just thought this was funny.  The kids were cracking up because Nathan wouldn't cooperate.

Again cracking up!

What's Been Going On...

We made our own ice cream.  You take a quart sized bag and a gallon bag, 1/3 cup of salt, 1 cup of milk, some vanilla flavoring, a little sugar or two sweet and low packs.

In the quart bag you add 1 cup milk and a tsp or so of vanilla and then add a little sugar or some splenda, etc.  Zip that up and in the gallon bag add a little ice put the quart bag inside the gallon bag and add some more ice then add the 1/3 cup of salt.  Zip it up and shake for 5 minutes.  You'll have ice cream!

 

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Here are the eggs we made this Easter.  We dyed them with old silk ties.  It was pretty neat, I must admit.  You can google how to do it.  Here's Martha Stewart's link...http://www.marthastewart.com/article/silk-tie-easter-eggs

A close up on the eggs.

The Church Easter egg hunt

You can see how she's slumping.  She was embarrassed. She usually is in public, group settings.

Again notice her posture? She's slowly dragging herself up the hill.

Grace had a great time, she got a ton of eggs!

Nathan on the Potty

Nathan got a potty seat.  He has tried it out today and went poop on the potty two times today!  I think he likes it!

Nathan was done and ready to get down, so he signed "help".  He's been signing a lot of things lately.  He's getting better at it.

Bathroom Mini Makeover

I had been wanting to paint this bathroom for sometime. It was lavender.  I'm not sure why I picked that color years ago, but I did.  So I repainted it a color called schoolboy blue.  It's a blue with a gray tone. This picture doesn't show the color so well.  It's a sort of robin's egg blue. I hung the monkey pictures up.

I hung the metal piece over the toilet that holds the toilet paper.  I also put some kids books on the back of the toilet so the kids have some reading material.  Oh, and Mike did replace the light fixture over the sink. It was those awful runway looking lights.  So all in all a big improvement!

More Coupon Savings

Retail all of this was about 150 dollars, I paid 74 dollars. I had coupons for most everything and I combined them with in store offers of buy one get one free as well as sale prices.  Also not pictured here is a fourth package of diapers.  I got a package for free.  The store had a promotion if you bought 4 packs you got the 5th for free.  I completed the requirement with this trip and earned the free pack, but forgot to get it.  I went back and picked it up. 

I got 4 boxes of applesauce packages for school lunches, 4 packages of diapers a 1 pound bag of shrimp, two half gallons of soy milk, two cans of peas, two packs of 18 taco shells, 10 packages of Idahoan potatoes, a tooth brush....

A can of expensive baby formula (26 dollars), 4 wishbone salad dressings, two boxes of wet wipes...

and two cartons of blue bunny ice cream.  Just to give you an idea, if had bought the formula, wet wipes and diapers, it would have been 71.46 at least.  I got all the rest essentially for free.  That's pretty good.  I'm not an extreme coupon user, but I saved some money!

These aren't good quality photos.  I wanted to post them anyway, because it was a big deal to the kids to get their next belt.  This is the yellow belt with the green stripe.  The kids are now on a Tae Kwon Do demo team.  They are learning some really cool things to preform in front of an audience.

Spring Days ( a sampling of photos)

Nathan in his cloth diaper and leg warmers.  They are called baby legs.  They are good for protecting the knees when crawling.  Mike says he looks like Olivia Newton John. 

Nathan and Noah cuddled up on the couch.  Nathan only sat her for a minute. He likes to be on the move.

Nathan loves to go outside and swing.  He sometimes sounds like he is saying "outside".  We are teaching him the sign for outside until he can say it.  He enjoys signing.

Sulley turned 5 years old. Maddie and Sulley celebrated with a romp in the yard.  She was rolling on the ground and he ran excitedly around her.

Sulley got doggy ice cream for his birthday.  The kids stuck a candle in it and sang happy birthday.

Madison took Nathan for his first ride in the Barbie Jeep. He loved it! She did a really good job of driving him.

Nathan and Maddie in the jeep.

Grace coloring a station of the cross.