Easter fun at Grandma Peggy's

Yay! The Easter Bunny remebered that we wanted arts and crafts supplies and brought us construction paper, paints, glues, markers, kid scissors, and new coloring books.  Aiden was also excited to get a new VT hat and T-shirt and the girls got new toothbrushes and training toothpaste, plus princess bubble bath.

Since it was a rainy dreary day, Grace got to hide the eggs inside and the kids still had fun getting to hunt them.

 

Aiden did really good with his assigned easter eggs. ((boy colors))

Isabella and Emma enjoyed opening each egg as they found it and then dropping the egg and the treasure to go find the next egg.  Granted once Isabella figured out there was chocolate under the wrapper I know she had more than a couple.... hehehe

Aiden emptied his coins and candy onto the kitchen table. Then proceeded to pocket all of his chocolate eggs as the adults started to circle and grab at them.  He gaurded his eggs until the last one was in his belly.

We finally got to meet Anita's fiance "Dew" ((sorry if that is spelled wrong)) and look at the beautiful ring!

Cara, Grandma Dee Dee, Anita and Grace had some fun playing dress up with the kids, I thought Aiden looked too cute in the Newsboy hat and of course he would have to have the green beads.  I tried hard to get clear pictures of the girls in their hats, beads and rings and they just wouldn't sit still, but I can still see the beauty in the blur, hopefully you can too. ;)

Grandma Peggy and Cara have a couple of chickens they traded a watermelon to get that they are having some good luck with ((2 eggs a day)).  Aiden didn't recognize the sound the rooster made when it crowed, but was very excited to see that another one of his Grandma's had chickens. 

Sorry Cara, you may not like the picture much, but I think it turned out great.

....here's the picture I was looking for a minute ago..... Isabella is unwrapping her mini cadbury egg...they still don't measure up to the eggs they made when I was little with actual creamy goo in the middle.... mmmm :)

Zoey is getting to be an old little dog and she has even been known to nip.  I was very proud that the girls were gentle enough with her that she caame back for more love frome them.

Grandma Dee Dee managed to get all three of her grandbabies on the couch with her and everyone was looking in the same direction at one time.... I couldn't have timed the shot better, but one day i am going to figure out how to drown out all the light from windows in my backgrounds....grrrr....

Emma was her usual self when we first got to Granma Peggy's...she shied away from everyone and clung to Mommy at first....It didn't take long and she took to everyone as fully as Isabella did.....

The lighting was better for Emma and Grandma Peggy, but at least we got half a smile out of Isabella ((I promise she really does have a beautiful smile, it just eludes the camera most of the time))

It was great to see everyone that made it for Easter lunch in Dayton and I hope that the rest of my family and friends had a wonderful Easter, I did not get all of my customary phone calls made, but I was thinking of you all throughout the day.

Art and Easter...

 Aiden got a neat spin art set for his birthday this year ((Thanks again Aunt Lisa, Uncle Larry and Logan!!!))  His present takes me back in time to school carnivals and the picinics that Ingersol Rand used to hold for their employees when I was little.  It was just as much fun as I remembered and I am so glad I was able to share this fun experience with my little man.

 Since the kids love arts and crafts so much I made sure to let the Easter Bunny know that we were running low on art supplies and could use some new stuff.  ;)

We have a big day planned for Easter.  We are going to try to leave at 7:30 in the morning and drive to Harrisonburg with Momma to visit with family for the holiday.  Since I have to work tomorrow night we will have to leave by 1:30 to make sure I can then come home and work, so I hope that I can get away with grazing while we visit without getting my hand smacked too many times by the chef (hehehe) and at least get to enjoy Grandma Peggy's wonderful cooking....hmmmm I might have to take some tupperware just in case....hehehe....

My awesome Hubby even washed the car, cleaned it out, washed the windows and put on some new wiper blades for me today. The Easter Bunny was smart and got Aiden blue and green eggs and his sisters will hunt pink and purple eggs, I am hopeful that it will help to reduce competition and make the egg hunt more fun.  We did decide to let the kids have their baskets in the morning before we leave and now we just have to figure out how the Easter Bunny is going to get the eggs hidden so we can have a great easter egg hunt.   

Oy! So much to say..... here is a start ;)

So I got lazy last week and stopped blogging before I finished out my week of work, but I did want to share a story about our snow day.  Now our kids have seemed to keep colds and what not, so we have not taken the girls out to play in the snow before ((that and it keeps melting before we have a chance to play)) Anyways, even though there was only about 2-3 inches of snow we budled everyone up and took them out to play in the snow.  We found out that Emma does not like to be in the snow, it is "Ewwy, Yucky" and she would rather watch it fall out the window.  Isabella on the other hand jumped right in and had loads of fun.  She would pick up the snow in her hands and clap it away and she even followed Aiden's lead and laid down in the snow waving her arms back and forth to make a snow angel.  Aiden was thrilled that we all came outside, but with our hands so full unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the fun.

After going poop in her potty Emma and I went to the bathroom to flush her business and she decided it was bath time.  The grisl are like fish out of water it seems and will get in the bath tub at every opportunity.  They just recently discovered Aiden's bath-tub crayons and they have been coloring up a storm.  When bath time is over they will even curl up in a ball or just duck their heads to hide from me and avoid getting out, even once all the water is gone and they get mad when I turn the spigot off and they don't get to play with the running water anymore.

Mom left for a trip to Michigan today with two grandsons in tow ((William and Logan)) to go up north and visit GG.  Since Mom has so many animals I went over to get a refresher on where they all are and make sure everything would be taken care of while she is gone.  When I got there we had to take care of the phone that went in the washer with the laundry and then I got to take inventory of the important details.  There are two momma rabbits that could give birth any day now, 6 chicks that are growing like little weeds and a few other rabbits here and there.  The chicks are still young, so there is a heat lamp on them.... it actually gave a neat effect on the photo and it almost looks like a pheonix about to burst into flames.  This is one of the females that Mom has and she is so pretty....she sat there so pretty and let me snag this photo and then she let me love on her.

 We started our garden at home today...J went and got some tomato, cucumber and watermelon seeds and Aiden has collected some bell pepper and apple seeds while we have cooked over the past couple of monthes.  Since it was time to start the tomatos we also went ahead and planted Aiden's seeds as well.  I am interested to see if they sprout or if they were all harvested from hybrid fruits and veggies?

 Aiden got a neat glass rod with his ant farm to start hole in the gel and it worked perfect to create holes for our seeds....J shoed Aiden how to make the seed holes and then Aiden put the seeds in and covered them lightly with dirt.

I grabbed some popsicle sticks out of the craft closet and made row markers that Aiden matched with his seeds.....

....and J watered them before we put the mini-greenhouse lid over it and sat it in the remaining sunlight.  I love having fresh veggies growing in the yard and can't wait 'til we start to see sprouts.

More Easter card fun, some snow and some pretty cute twin girls! ;)

 We got J in on the Easter card making project today and as much as he complains about all the projects I always have going on, I still think he likes to be included.

 He did find out the hard way that you should not attempt to flatten out the card once it is done or it will "poop" out the side and get all sorts of messy. LoL

 

We ended up with a pretty assortment of cards to decorate and Aiden started signing some of them today.  He wanted to take some to school to give to his classmates and I am not sure how to get around that one, but I am not positive that all of his classmates celebrate Easter, soooooo.....

In the meantime, while I am trying to figure that one out at least we have been given an extra day to work on them since Aiden will be out of school for snow again Monday.  I have been enjoying holding the cards up to the window, they have a neat stained glass effect...... I am thinking we have more crayons to sharpen so we can make light catchers....hmmmmm.....

 

 The weather channel says we are in for another 2-5 inches with possible squalls between 1am and 5am, but this is what it looked like about mid-day on Sunday... I do wish it had gotten started a little earlier so there had been enough snow to play in before I had to work, but I guess there is hope that it will be there when I wake up.

 Isabella was more co-operative than Emma was about getting her picture taken, but I can't get enough of their cute little faces......

 ....it took about 10 shots to get this one of Emma as she rolled back and forth and giggled at me while I tried to catch her pretty smile.

I wish the camera had focused on both of the girls in this one, but I had to share all of my favorites, even if they aren't perfect.

When this girl sleeps she sleeps, LoL.... as beautiful and fun as they can when they are awake, sometimes the best moments are when they are sleeping....

Cute Easter card!!!

As you all know I love to do art projects with Aiden and can't wait til the girls will co-operate for more than just coloring.... I will say that after the girls first of everything I really started slacking.... we didn't go see Santa last year, haven't been to see the Easter Bunny, and barely remembered that Easter is next weekend.

So last night while I was working we got to talking about sharpening crayons and what we could do with the shavings and it reminded me of an art project Aiden had done at school where they melted crayons between wax paper.

I got out one of my wallpaper sampler books ((Thanks again Susan Smith!)) and found a few prints that looked good for the occasion and cut them into  medium sized rectangles.  Then I cut an egg out of the center of each paper and glued a piece of wax paper over the opening on the back ((I cut these free-hand holding the outer edges flush without folding the paper, so they are not all the same, but we like unique here ;) )).  Next I sprinkled crayon shavings on it and glued a second piece of wax paper over that.

The last step is by far the most fun!!! Lastly, I got out the hairdryer to melt the crayon shavings and complete the project. ((You can put it under a piece of fabric and iron it too, but I think it is more fun to watch the wax melt!!!))

 aaaaannnnnnddddd.......Wa-La! The start to a beautiful Easter Card!!! We will be making a bunch of these tomorrow and then I will dig through my stickers and let Aiden write special messages on them and decorate them.