A hunting we will go ...

Our Sunday School class (or LifeGroup as it is now apparently called) had their annual egg hunt on Sunday. And we had beautiful weather. The sun was so bright!


Time to hunt for eggs.


David found one!


The best part ... eating candy afterwards. Unfortunately, the warm weather led to lots of melted chocolate inside those eggs.


I took about 20 pictures trying to get all three kids to look at me and Luke refused. He was way more interested in the grass.


Unbeknownst to me, this little guy got into his easter candy on the way home (and then fell into a deep chocolate-induced coma). He had chocolate everywhere ... notice the mouth, the cheek, the shirt sleeve.


Lots of chocolate under the fingernails ... and apparently he used his legs as a napkin.





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Dump Truck Brownies

I did this little project with the kids yesterday afternoon. It was a pretty simple project but they LOVED it. And, we got to eat a sweet treat after dinner.

Getting ready to make our brownies.


Stir.


Stir.


Stir.


Lick the bowl (our favorite part)






Brownie batter mustaches.






All done. Our "dirt" brownies in the dump truck and cute book we read to go along with our project.



The kids loved picking their brownies out of the dump truck.



Check out this great website where I got the idea for this project.

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A historian he is not!

I sent my pocket camera with Will on his annual guys' golf trip and this is all he came back with.

Yes ... that is a toilet trophy ... for the golfer with the worst score for the weekend.

Apparently, Chris won it.

Almost the whole gang ... minus one.

Three champs for the weekend.

Just Checking In ...

I was on a roll blogging last week. I think I posted every day (M-F). Clearly, I have not done so well this week. But I have many good excuses. (See below.)

Monday: worked, tornado and stormy weather in afternoon kept up holed up in 1/2 bath downstairs for a good portion of the afternoon (and interrupted boys' naps).

Tuesday: worked from home, ran errands, left for Augusta, GA at 2:30 pm.

Wednesday: day at The Masters with my honey (and my brother-in-law and father-in-law), got home at 10:30 pm on Wednesday night.

Thursday: worked from home, toured new preschool/MDO for boys for next year, ran errands, took Claire to ballet (got to ballet and had to drive back home to get ballet shoes), decorated for Claire's birthday party on Friday night, did load of laundry to wash pink Hello Kitty PJ's for said party.

Friday: worked, Claire's birthday party at our house (which will also be shown at 2:45 today ... birthday decorations up and all ... did I mention our house has been on the market since January), pick up cupcakes and balloons for birthday party (with kids in tow).

Saturday: David's birthday party at our house (Sat. morning will be spent cleaning up Claire's party and decorating for David's party). Pray for no rain! Saturday night my in-laws will be in town (at a hotel) and my sister and her family are spending the night with us.

Sunday: Luke's baby dedication at church. Entire family over for lunch afterwards. Watch final round of Masters. Relax ... maybe even drink a glass of wine.

Like I said ... I have many good excuses.

But I will be back soon ... with LOTS of pictures!

David at the Dentist

I forgot to add this to our February wrap-up. When Will was in South Africa, I took all three kids to the dentist. (Luke just went along for moral support.)

Claire was such a big girl and went back by herself and even had x-rays done for the first time. Yeah for no cavaties!

David, on the other hand, was not a fan. Here he is all happy with his new tootbrush while waiting for the hygeinist to come in and clean his teeth.

Getting our teeth cleaned.

Look at that face. Remember Claire first trip to the dentist? Unfortunately, I couldn't get David's picture with the dentist because I was holding him down so he could look at his teeth.

I fed Luke a bottle and he fell asleep in his carseat/carrier while all of this was going on.

So now we have another 6 months to get David pumped up for another visit to the dentist. I can't wait!

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Spring Break 2011

The kids were out for Spring Break last week and the first part of the week was almost like summer. Beautiful sunshiney and warm weather. The end of the weak was cold and yucky.

Glad we got to spend all day Tuesday outside before the cold front came on Wednesday.

We made bird feeders with pinecones (all the way from Will's parents' yard in Alabama), peanut butter and birdseed. I believe that David ate more peanut butter than he actually spread on the pinecone. We hung these along the tree line in our backyard and to be honest, I have not seen one single bird eating there. Oh well. We tried.









This little guy hung out with us outside too (when he wasn't inside napping).


We also painted spring trees with watercolor paints and q-tips, ate a picnic lunch outside, and took a nature walk around our neighborhood.








What a mess!

And Luke got a little bit closer to crawling. He is now up on all fours. Yikes!


"Watch out world. Here I come. And if you mess with me, I might just spit up on you."

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Kid birthday gift ideas

Claire and David both have birthdays in April, which means all of the kids in both of their preschool classes have birthdays from February to May. That is a lot of birthday parties in a short amount of time.

I have a few standby gift ideas that I use to keep from breaking the bank buying birthday gifts, but still give what I consider "nice" gifts.

(1) Beach towel and pool toys: Cost = $10


This beach towel was $6.99 at Target. I embroidered a name on it and added and set of pool toys. What a fun gift for a 3-year-old boy with summer coming up! Of course, this gift would cost more if you didn't have an embroidery machine of your own to use. You could also do a towel and cute flip-flops for a girl or do a bath towel and bubble bath for a fall or winter birthday.

(2) Large coloring pad and fun crayon = $8-10


I bought these pads on sale at Amazon for $5 each. The crayon is from Learning Express and it is $3. Claire got one of these crayons for her birthday last year and she literally played with it until it broke. She loved it! These pads are great too because the paper is thick enough to paint on. Oh, they have girl pads too.

(3) Lapdesk and paper pad/markers = $8-10

Here are a couple I have made. (I don't recommend doing something as complicated as the Spiderman. I usually try to keep it more simple.)








I buy these on sale at Michael's (or any other craft store) for $3-4. Then, I find a cute clip art picture on the computer, trace it on the lap desk and color with paint pens. Add a pad of drawing paper and pack of markers or colored pencils and you have a super-nice, personalized gift.

I recommend buying paint pens at Wal-Mart or with a 40% coupon at Michael's (or any other craft stores). I have a primary pack (in fine tip and medium tip) and a pastel pack (in medium tip). I use them all pretty equally.

(4) Games ... always check Target for sale or clearance games. One year, I bought four little boys in Claire's class Toy Story Yahtzee that was on sale for $7.

(5) Cookbook and personalized apron = $25-30 (depending on where you purchase).

I have not personally done this one before but my friend Colleen did this for Claire's 4th birthday and it was one of her favorite gifts. For girls, you can buy the Pink Princess Cookbook by Barbara Beery, or for girls or boys, the Sesame Street "C is for Cooking" cookbook and Paula Deen's "My First Cookbook" are both good options. You can find relatively inexpensive personalized kids aprons on Etsy ... I found some here, here, and here. OR if you have your own embroidery machine, you can buy child's apron from this website for less than $4 and personalize it yourself.

(6) Matchbox car case and cars = $10-$20

One of my personal favorites of any gift David has gotten (also from my friend Colleen) was a personalized matchbox car case. I believe she got it here. This vendor does beautiful work ... she made Claire's hand painted step stool in her bedroom.
You could also do something more portable, like this car caddy or this car wallet and road to go.

Now, if your kids are friends with my kids (and my kids' friends), don't go stealing my gift ideas.

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