Easter 2012

Easter Sunday was a lot of fun. We got up early to get ready for church and find what the Easter bunny had left for the kids. When we went down stairs and saw that the baskets where in front of the fire place Elsie said "it's not tricky to find it". I guess she remembers last year having to hunt for her basket. After looking at the baskets and all the fun things inside we got in the car and went to church. When we got home from church we had dinner and then after that was an Easter egg hunt in the back yard. Our friend we stayed with had her parents and siblings over for dinner so that was fun too. We missed daddy but over all it was a fun time.

Our trip to Kansas

Elsie and I were lucky enough to go to Kansas again this spring. We had a great time with friends and were sad to go. We went to lunch a few times and to the local children's farm. We also spent Easter there. We had lots of fun and have tons of photos to share.

Easter eggs

This year Elsie and I were going on a trip for her spring break and so we hurried up and dyed Easter eggs the night before we left. Elsie had picked out a glitter egg dyeing kit at the store. We were happy that daddy could get home to do a little too.

Making cookies

We love to make cookies. This batch was sugar cookies which are especially fun because we get to roll them out and cut them into shapes. Elsie makes a huge mess with the flour. These photos are from the end of March because we were making Easter cookies. Elsie decided to use the flour to make a cookie. She took a cookie cutter and filled it with flour and called it a flour cookie and moved the cookie cutter away and there was her shape! It was fun but it made a huge mess!

Ant Farm

Uncle Lucky gave Elsie an ant farm for Christmas. Daddy surprised us with the ants, which come in the mail, about a month ago. Here are the photos of them just starting out and then at their peak. They dug a lot of tunnels and pretty quickly too. But now they are not doing so well. There are only around 4 alive and they are not building anything else. I think the end is in sight and it is due to several things too much food, not enough water and too much sun! But it has been fun while it has lasted.

A necklace for grandma

Elsie got in into her mind that grandma needed a necklace for her birthday. So her dad suggested we make grandma one. Elsie picked out the beads and I added a clasp to some wire and we got to work. Grandma loved it!

Chore Chart

Here is the chore chart that Elsie and I sat down and made together. She enjoyed picking the colors to draw the lines with. She has helped a little but I think we might need to start encouraging her a little more. 

Baskets

A while back I went to a friends home and looked around and thought how cute. She had a few things above the cupboards and other things around and I thought I should do something with our space. I have never really decorated just hung pictures on the wall. So this was a big step to take. I looked on the internet and Pinterest to see if I could find something cute and I came across baskets.  The space was empty to start with and I threw a few baskets up to see how I liked it. I thought it was interesting but I could not tell how I liked it without more baskets. So after picking up Elsie from preschool we went to the local thrift store and picked up the rest of the baskets. The prices were great I only spent $3 on the largest ones. I did this all without Wills input so I was a little worried he might not like it but I just could not stop myself. Plus I hardly spent any money so how could he object. I like the way it turned out in the end and have since worked on the shorter space above the other cupboards.

Drawing?

Elsie is a scribbler. She does not draw an image very often so when what she draws is similar to anything I get excited! Here is an example of a spontaneous drawing of the grass, sky, and the sun. She drew a few things in Kansas when we went but I don't think we took any pictures.

Making a crown

We are going to have a royal party for Elsie for her birthday this year. Elsie talks about it all the time. It will be her first friends birthday party as she has only had family ones so far. We are trying to figure out who to invite which might be hard but we will narrow it down eventually. For now since it is a long way off we are just trying to figure out what to do. So far we are going to decorate crowns with sequins. Maybe we will play musical chairs or something else but like I said we have time.

CTR pretzels

CTR stands for choose the right. It is a cute way for the kids in our church to think about choosing the right every day. Elsie gets a magazine for kids that our church publishes and they had a recipe for CTR pretzels in it. Really they are just bread sticks but we called them pretzels. Though I looked at a pretzel recipe and found if I dipped them in water with baking soda in it before cooking they tasted a lot more like pretzels. I want to try the actual pretzel recipe sometime and see if we can make real soft pretzels! Just the same we had a great time making the dough, kneading it, punching it down, shaping the pretzels and buttering them after they came out of the oven. Oh and eating them, Yum! 

Cute stuff!

Fun in the snow

We had a fun time making this snowman a month or so ago. Elsie wanted it to have hair and so we used some dried leaves.

Valentines Day

We had a fun Valentines Day this year. Two out of the three of us had treasure hunts. Elsie and I quickly put one together for Will and Will and I did one for Elsie. I just got to play hot cold to find my gift...but it was a great gift!!! Since Will had just gotten home from work we let him go first. Then I went because Will was so excited to have me know the big surprise. Elsie was so good and waited and did her hunt last. She did such a great job! She thought about the clues and ran as fast as she could between them to find them. Often giggling with delight...I think she liked it.

The exciting news I received in the nice binder Will put together is a trip. The air plain tickets are bought and we have the hotel reservations! We are going to Rome!!! Just Will and I no kiddo. We are excited but a little nervous too. It has been almost 10 years since we have traveled internationally...but I am sure not much has changed. Mostly I am scared to leave Elsie. I am sure she will be fine but I might not!!! We have left her for a night or two but a whole week is going to be harder. At least I have some time to get ready we are not going until November. 

A fun Museum

Back at he beginning of February we went to a fun museum with friends. They had lots of things there but I only took pictures by the dinosaurs. The kids are trying to look like dinosaurs in the first picture and they are sitting in a giant dinosaur footprint in the bottom photo. It was fun we ended up being late for preschool is was so hard to get Elsie to leave.

Weekend fun

Will has recently decided we should do fun stuff on the weekends. It probably has something to do with football season ending and golf season not yet beginning! But I guess we will take what we get right. It has been fun going to the aquarium, the zoo, and a movie or two. I am guessing that once golf season begins this will all come to an end.