Easter prep

On Saturday we colored Easter Eggs. I bought two dozen and tried the bake method instead of boiling. It was so much easier! The kids quickly went through two dozen and requested more. Next year I’ll have to spring for three dozen!! :)

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After lunch and a brief rest we headed to the skating rink to skate with the Easter Bunny! The kids were really hoping he knew how to skate, after our “Skate with Santa” experience in which Santa didn’t know how to skate! Fortunately the bunny did know how to skate, unfortunately he wasn’t terribly social with the kids. Oh well . We had fun anyway.

Skating with Grandpa Tom.

Skating with Grandpa Tom.

Testing out the new skills G'Tom taught her.  Look at her go!

Testing out the new skills G’Tom taught her. Look at her go!

The kids all got a plastic egg with a candy inside.  Eve's egg also had a "grand prize winner" ticket.  She won a pretty cool glow stick thing.

The kids all got a plastic egg with a candy inside. Eve’s egg also had a “grand prize winner” ticket. She won a pretty cool glow stick thing.

Lex was praticing his slalom skills around the cones.

Lex was praticing his slalom skills around the cones.

Eve kept talking about how fast she was going, "the fastest person in here!"  I was just happy that she was moving fast enough that I didn't have to stop and wait for her, instead I could slowly roll along with her.  :)

Eve kept talking about how fast she was going, “the fastest person in here!” I was just happy that she was moving fast enough that I didn’t have to stop and wait for her, instead I could slowly roll along with her. :)

Eve and the Easter Bunny.

Eve and the Easter Bunny.

We got home around 4:30pm and by 5:30pm Eve was a ball of tears. She kept sobbing, “I don’t know why I’m crying.” Oh baby, I know why! I got her snuggled in bed eventually and then went to work with my late night plans

An Easter craft

Today we did an Easter craft from a Martha Stewart magazine from many years ago. I tore the page out and bought the supplies two or three years ago, but never got around to actually doing the project. Lately I’ve been feeling a touch sad because my kids play so well together (tough life, huh?) and rarely involve me in their activities anymore. They used to love to participate in anything I suggested, but these days they each have their own agendas and plans for the their free time. This afternoon while they were working on a new paper airline (Navy Air, to go along with the Navy boat they made yesterday… pics of that to come later) I decided to pull out the Easter project and see what happened. Luckily, for me, they were both intrigued and happily switched gears to do a project with me for a little while. I relished in it, before all too soon it was over and I had to cook dinner while they went back to their own projects.

Without further ado… Easter chicks!

finished chicks

Here’s how you do it, in case you want to make a few. They are quick and easy!

Start with two pieces of yellow felt pinned together. Then trace ovals. Martha Stewart had a downloadable template for this project, but my oval shaped measuring cups worked just as well. The original directions said to use disappearing markers or something, but we used an orange Crayola washable marker. I kind of like the orange outline visable.

step 1

Then, using a smaller measuring cup, trace another oval about 1/2″ inside the first one.

step 2

Cut the big sheet of felt into four, then recruit some helpers to stitch around the INNER circles. Eve chose to use white thread, Lex and I both used yellow. In the end it doesn’t really matter at all.

eve sewing

lex sewing

Sew around the oval, stopping about an inch before the end. Using a funnel, fill the pocket with beans or something. We used popcorn kernels and lentil beans. Anything that gives it a “beany bag” feel will do fine.

lex filling

both filling

Stitch up the hole to complete the oval. Using pinking shears, cut around the outer circle. Cutting around the outer oval with pinking shears gives your chick a fluffy sort of look. Lastly, decorate your chick. Lex chose to just draw on his with permanent marker. Eve and I drew eyes, but then used orange felt to make beaks, wings, and feet. Whatever makes you happy. Hot glue works well here. I suggested googly eyes, but they both strongly vetoed that idea.

happy

Lastly, and probably the most important step, take pictures of your kids and their amazing Easter crafts! Enjoy.

Easter 2012

This is your lucky day!  Eve insisted on another audio book so I gave in and went upstairs to start one for her. Along the way I turned on the TV computer. Now I’ll try to get a blog post in before my laptop battery dies. If you have no idea what I’m talking about then clearly you haven’t read my tired post.

(Side note: I just found tree bark in my slipper. How does that happen?!)

We had a really nice Easter this year. The kids are so funny about Easter. They don’t quite understand the religious aspect of it (hmm.. I wonder whose fault that is!) and the bunny side of the story is cute, but doesn’t make a lot of sense either. I think they enjoy the holiday but almost in a “humoring mom” sort of way.

When they woke up in the morning they both walked right past this

easter baskets

The bunny leaves treats at the table in our house.


and into the bathroom for our normal routine of clothes and teeth brushing. I said Happy Easter to each of them several times, they returned the phrase but had no expectations. Then they went into the living room to play. I had to draw their attention to the table before they noticed the baskets. I could have totally forgotten (and I almost did!) and they wouldn’t have even noticed.

The day before we had colored Easter eggs with some weird glitter dye set I bought on sale last year. We ended up with pastel shades of blue, pink, and green.

eggs p1

lex

girls

me

gtom

eggs p2

Easter morning they unpacked their baskets and dug into the candy. The Easter bunny doesn’t leave too much chocolate in this house, mostly because I would eat it all! Instead they got jump ropes, gardening gloves, and suncatcher projects. And some candy too, of course.

lex

both kids

suncatchers

Then we began one of many Easter egg hunts. Each hunt results in at least one cracked egg. Lex gave us some excitement when he hid the eggs so well we couldn’t find them all. He is a master egg hider! Fortunately he eventually remembered where they all were so our house doesn’t stink like four day old rotten eggs!

egg hunt 1

egg hunt 2

egg hunt 3

egg hunt 4

completed suncatchers

Ok, now my laptop battery is about to die and both kids are at my elbow. I’ll have to leave you hanging here, but don’t worry, I’ll be back soon for part two of our exciting Easter day! If you just can’t stand the wait, check out the fancy photos on Rosy’s blog. That should tide you over.

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After a sufficient amount of time was spent hunting for pastel Easter eggs, we all got dressed and packed up a picnic lunch of tofu salad, pb&j, baby carrots, and angel food cake with chocolate frosting, strawberries and not one, but TWO, flavors of ice cream! Then we headed down to the rehab facility for an Easter/birthday celebration. We met Grandma there (obviously!) and Grandpa and Katie. We had lunch in the cafeteria and I’m pretty sure no two people ate the same thing. Then we moved to a beautiful sun-room where we set up presents and cake and made ourselves at home. The sun was playing peek-a-boo with the clouds and the day was lovely. We had Easter presents, birthday presents for Dad, and birthday presents for Eve. Plus a brother present for Lex. :)

eve and flowers

Eve pretending to tend to the fake flowers, with her new gardening gloves.

mindstorm

Lex brought along his Mindstorm Lego ball sorter to play with. More to come on this cool toy in another post. It has currently taken the form of a walking, snapping alligator in my kitchen!

siblings

Easter love. (bunny ears compliments of Alan)

birds nest

We found a fake birds nest in the fake tree, so we gave it a fake egg.

presents p1

Time for presents!

presents p2

Happy Birthday Dad!

jump roping

Lex got bored of watching other people open presents so he decided to practice his jump roping for awhile.

presents p3

What's in the box? Roller skates!

skates for lex

Skates for Lex too!

lex skating

Lex put them on immediately and hit the road!

eve skating

Eve took hers for a spin as well.

eve and grandpa

Eve and Popcube. I wish I had a better angle on this shot. It was a beautiful hug.

lex skating p2

He is a quick study these days! Good balance and eager to learn.

cake

Cake time. Eve shared hers with her new horse and Barbie.

another egg hunt

Time for another egg hunt. I'm sure we amused all of the residents with windows overlooking the courtyard.

eve finds an egg

She gets very excited when she finds the eggs.

kids hiding

Then the kids took a turn hiding the eggs. Grandpa Tom overruled all of my good parental advice so we made him stay outside and supervise the hiding process. Good thing too because there were several we were unable to find and he had to come to the rescue! These kids are excellent egg hiders!

in the tree

I never put that much effort into hiding an egg!

After that we (mainly ME!) were tired and ready to hit the road. It took a few trips but I get everything loaded into the car and we headed home. The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur. I’m sure we ate some dinner, and the kids found their way to bed eventually. Surprisingly they even woke up and went to school without much fuss the next day. Thankfully!

This post has taken me three days to write, but I made it to the end. The “add a picture” process is time consuming, so when I add many pictures it takes awhile. Enjoy! Happy Easter! :)