Our Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt

With the kids getting older and Caleb knowing how to read pretty well this year, we decided to mix up our easter egg hunt tradition.

This year we started with each boy having 1 egg in an otherwise empty Easter basket just outside their door. The Easter bunny left them of course.  Inside that egg was a specific place to check for the next egg, and so on.  Each location had an egg for each boy with the same instructions.  Cullen can't read so Caleb did it for both boys. 

 

The instructions were super easy and the boys had a blast running from location to location.  At location 11 they were instructed to go outside to find their next clue.  They each had to get 10 eggs of their color (green for Cullen and blue for Caleb).  In one of the eggs would be their last clue and tell them where their baskets were hidden.

 

It was something new and the boys loved it.  They weren't a big fan of going outside in their PJs at 6:30 a.m. when it was 35 degrees outside and muddy, but they still had fun.

 

And here is them with their baskets this year.  I wanted to do a theme of outdoor bug hunting but yeah that didn't work out with the last minute shopping I was doing, so they each got a magnifying glass,  a small toy, bubble wand, pez and a small thing of candy, oh and sidewalk chalk to share.

 

 

After our egg hunt we got ready and headed to church, it was a great family service and the boys enjoyed well the first 2/3rds of it with us, then they got antsy (but who can blame them).

 

Hope you had a great Easter too!!

Lego Christmas!

Well this year certainly was a lego Christmas, since Christmas day we've been building different lego sets that the boys got and having fun.  Tony also finished off the lego 'table' we put together downstairs.  From generic 600 piece (x2) sets to a LOTR castle, TMNT, Marvel, City, Chima, Monsters and of course SW we covered most of the basis in Lego this year.  Here are all the sets put together.  Thank you to everyone who contributed a set :)

Our Furry New Family Member

This Thanksgiving weekend we went to pick up our new puppy!!  We had been thinking about getting a puppy for a while and after I found this bread I just fell in love. 

Coton de Tulear - is a rare, ancient pure-breed dog.  They are not bred down to a small size, so they don't usually get the little dog attitude.  The Coton is a companion dog, Cotons are very intelligent, easy to toilet train, and uncommonly gentle and laid back.  I can not even begin to tell you how great he is with the boys.  He will follow us around and sit near our feet or crawl on laps when we sit.

They come in 3 colors - White, Black and White and Tri Color.  Frodo is a Tri-Color Coton with a coat of white, champagne and dusting of black hair.  They have hair not fur and it is super soft.  They are known for not shedding.  They are also a very calm dog and are known for seldom barking.  They are great with small children as well as other household pets.

A couple of my nephews came by this weekend to meet Frodo and he was great with them.

Of course getting a puppy is hard work.  I spent the first night laying on our hardwood floor outside of his crate.  Night two he spend about half the night in his crate and the other half laying just outside the crate door on his crate mat.  Finally last night he did wonderful in his crate and spent the whole night in there without whining except for potty breaks.  He got up 3 times last night to go potty but he didn't have any accidents in his crate.  We are all still getting use to remembering to take him outside frequently.  And today is gonna be his first day spending 4 hours in a crate for the morning while we work.  Yesterday he spent 2 hours in his crate while we were at church and did great.

He's an attention hog which while adorable can also be annoying.  We don't know why he whines sometimes which makes potty training tricky.  Sometimes he whines to go potty and sometimes its just because he misses being in our arms.

Here are some pictures I got of him this weekend.  The boys are so great with him (and he's great with the boys).

Teacher Appreciation Week | DIY Gifts

Teacher Appreciation Week (or Provider Appreciation Week as our daycare calls it) is coming up next week - May 6-10.  Our daycare is actually closed on the 10th for it.  This year I decided to DIY a little something to save some money and put some thought into the gift.  I really hope the teachers like it.

I made these Lanyards, all the providers at the center have to wear their badges, so I thought a pretty lanyard would be nice.  Then I wanted to put something at the end so I printed off this Subway Art that I got from eightteen25 blog that I follow.  I can't remember where exactly I got the lanyard instructions from, but I know I searched Pinterest then kept looking till I found one that I could understand!  I'm definitely a sewing novice, but these were easy enough to make.   The Rough Dimensions for the fabric and the interfacing is 4" by 44".  Then you just attach your interfacing (wrong side) then fold in half (longways) then open it back up and fold both raw edges into the center.   You'll have no raw edges that way to worry about.  Then just sew both sides all the way, and attach in your keyring or whatever, and sew, then flip around so the Raw edge goes in the middle and sew again above your keyring. 

The Flowers are made with scraps and hot glue, and they are removable.  I have a few more I might attach or I might take them off completely, haven't decided yet.

And here's the final product!

Easter 2013

But first a flashback, to Easter 2011 :)  Love my little bunny and maybe one day I'll forget I have this picture but not any time soon.

 

 

Now instead of being a bunny, he wants to EAT the bunny...  Gah this kid (and the other) consumed more than their share of chocolate bunnies this year.

And I got one half decent picture of the two of them together, but I'll tell you it wasn't easy!

And yes we did dye some eggs, I didn't take many pictures this year though.

Saint Patties Day 2013

The older my kids are the more fun they are!  This year I laid out some seamless paper and let them draw a big rainbow for our picture backdrop.  Winter this year is going on and on forever, so I'm trying to do new things with indoor pictures besides just sitting them in front of the white paper, photographing them on the bed is fun but it also gets old, and sometimes my house is just not picture perfect lol.  Painting with the kids is always fun so that's what we did.