Eggs with friends and the Easter Bunny

For the past three years, my friend Angie and I have gotten together to dye eggs with the kids. Its a chance for us to catch up on the latest happenings and the kids seem to enjoy playing together.

As the kids get older, the mess seems to get smaller and the job of dying gets quicker. They really have no patience to wait for the eggs to get bright and pretty. 

We had a good time and enjoyed ourselves. Thanks for having us over Angie and Payton. 

Since I hadn't taken the kids to see the Easter Bunny, I wanted to leave with enough time that I would be able to get to Bass Pro so we could stand in line for a few minutes for our free picture. We made it, but the line was much longer than I was expecting at 7:30 on the Thursday before Easter. We waited and I was talking up the whole experience because I didn't want to be "that mom". I was really just hoping for a quick picture with two smiling kids and no tears. I got one smiling kid and no tears so I was okay with it. However, Brynlee looks a bit unsure, but comforted by her brother.

the last five months-july

in july, we did stuff. some memorable, some not so much. 

july 3rd at prairie meadows waiting for the firework display. someone also discovered her nostrils. 

introducing the littles to 'snakes'. 

we celebrated adam's niece's wedding, two days after we celebrated our 4th anniversary. 

the daughters of four of the original neighbor girls. these four are all within four months of each other. 

ellie, nov. mckenna, dec.  brynlee, feb. zoey, march

the kids took swim lessons. they loved it. the bottom picture is distorted if i make it bigger, but im sure you get it. 

we met some friends at the pool one afternoon and then headed to have froyo afterwards. 

we attended camryn's first annual christmas in july toy drive. 

practicing for saturday night live. an old tradition that my parents and their neighbors did when i was young. now when all the 'kids' are in town, we all partake as our littles run and play like we used to. 

fletch's birthday party

three weeks ago tomorrow, we had fletcher's birthday party. we invited family and a few friends to help us celebrate.

this was a morning party so everyone could make it, and we were trying to avoid naptime meltdowns as well. since most everyone had to drive at least 30 minutes, i did breakfast food to enjoy. egg bakes, french toast bake, fruit, sausage, hashbrowns, and bagels with cream cheese. i was nervous that there wasn't going to be a good variety or enough, but there was enough that adam and i had leftovers for a few days.

i had the dr. seuss theme planned for a good three months prior. i had these great visions, but i should know by now that not everything i dream up in my head will happen or is even realistic. the table clothes, paper plates and balloons were enough of the seuss theme that made me happy, but there was more that i wanted to do. we did have mimosas though, that vision was one of the most important that i followed through with.

my boy is spoiled by the ones that love him. he got so many great gifts, he goes from one activity to the next like he has a 2 minute attention span.

adam and i got him his very own set of wheels. i missed his first reaction because the camera was being stupid, but he loves it. he talks about, 'me tuck' all the time and he even wants to take his sister for a ride. she suffers from mild cases of whiplash after she's done riding with him (he's not a very good driver yet).

my mohter-in-law made the cat in the hat cake and i made the flags to go in the cupcakes. she did a great job on the cake. this year fletcher understood to blow out the candles and he even thought he needed to take a bite out of the cake.

  fletcher gave all his cousins/friends a dr. seuss book for coming to his party and helping us celebrate.

aside from the crappy weather, getting started 30 minutes late and my visions not coming through for me, it was a pretty good party. there was laughing, chatting and smiles~that's what a 3rd birthday is really about. 

one final thing i'm very excited about is that i have a new, updated family picture from that day. please look past the wrinkled sheet that was covering our canned goods and used as a backdrop. and because my kids can only cooperate for a few short minutes, the second was taken to show how they really feel about family photos.

egg dying extravaganza

in preparation for easter, the kids and i headed over to marshalltown for our annual egg dying extravaganza with angie and payton.  after the past two years of forgetting things, and not having all the supplies we needed, angie and i planned about two weeks in advance. she was getting the pizza and cookie dough and i was bringing the eggs, dye, and vinegar. we arrived and after the kids got into their easter baskets from one another we soon belly-up'd to the table for some papa murphy's pizza. 

as soon as we were done eating, i got the cups and dye tablets going. angie put out the newspaper, because one of the littles always makes a mess and we were on out way to dying eggs. fletcher was thrilled. payton had a mild meltdown before realizing she liked to dye eggs, and brynlee just took it all in...after dumping the orange dye all over herself. 

it was a good time. angie and i got to catch up. the kids ran and played hide-n-seek in the curtains, and relay's life was threatened a few times for licking my toes and breathing nasty dog breath in my face. i'm already looking forward to next year's egg dying extravaganza.