Celebrating Spring

So, I've used half a bottle of shout in the last few days....but the giggles and dandelion stained noses have made the extra bit of laundry well worth it! Finally a few really nice days....and we've enjoyed every minute of it. After Sophia's school on Thursday we headed for the park in our neighborhood. Sophia was so excited to see that the ducks were back in the lake... a true sign of Spring's arrival. Joseph just couldn't get enough of them. He would have walked right in the water and touched them if I wasn't holding on to him for dear life. I'm so glad I brought my camera along... They had such a time running after each other and searching for dandelions!







And the highlight of the afternoon for Joseph... a stray basketball all alone waiting for him at the park! It was love at first sight....I'm not sure how I was able to pry it from his hands when it was time to go.





It was Deanna Rose today. We've been many times before...but this was our first trip this year. Sophia loved the new mining exhibit and thought sifting through sand was a pretty neat way to look for jewels....even if she did have to get her hands dirty. She loved milking the cow and of course riding the John Deer Tractors (she reported that the red ones definitely drove better than the green :). Joseph enjoyed the goats and baby cows, and tried really hard to pull the cover off the cage that housed the brand new baby chicks sitting under a warming light.






And of course the jungle gyms and slides are always a hit. I was kind of happy Sophia chose the newer playground....much less crowded with big kids and more "Joseph friendly." However....getting him back into the stroller was not an easy task. The pictures we took on the slide came before the screaming fit, obviously! :)





Anyway....both kiddos were good and tired when we got home....giving me a chance to get the kitchen floors clean. Ahhh clean floors feel soooo good....even if they only stay that way for a few hours!

Oh and this is how my laundry room looked tonight after I put the last load in.... I love it....I've always wanted a "craft room." No, I don't have the cute pottery barn table with the built in paper roll, or the dowel rod full of various ribbons, or the wrapping paper station I've always wanted....but hey we do have the crafts, right?




Maybe in my next house... I'll get the craft room with the fancy tile floors and all the fabulous storage caddies. A girl can dream...can't she? Night, night!

Oops... PS
Can't leave out this cute one of Sophia displaying her spring flowers we made today to hang from her canopy bed. Yes....the finished touch is Modge Podge to give it sparkle...she can't get enough of this stuff! We'll have to get a picture once we have them tied to her canopy! But for now... looks as though they will be drying for quite some time....There are of course multiple layers of modge podge on each flower!!!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Easter fun and preparations for Sophia's 5th birthday have kept us busy for the first half of this month. If only time would slow down just a bit. God has "teased" us with just a few beautiful weather days this spring....I'm hoping that spring will be here to stay very soon...because we are definitely ready to be outside these days! I haven't posted in a few weeks...but not for lack of pictures....probably more like lack of time! I can't believe how big the kids are getting. Sophia seems to be getting taller, and the constant back pain I have on my right side must be evidence that Joseph is getting bigger too!

Some things remain the same, however...i.e., Joseph's refusal to eat many "adult" foods. But I guess Big Sister has the magic touch! One day when he just wouldn't eat a bite for me....Sophia offered to give it a try...and sure enough...Mikey liked it!



On some of those rainy and cold days this month, we found many ways to decorate Easter eggs. Sophia and I made tissue paper eggs with blown out eggs and decorated them with sparkly modge podge. She taught me a thing or two....b/c I realized there is no such thing as too much modge podge. The more you put on the better (as long as you don't get it on your
clothes!!).



We also colored Easter eggs with yiayia. Sophia was pretty creative....we used all different kinds of colors, kits, and stickers. She even wrote our names on them and made an Easter chick out of one! And guess what.....yiayia boiled 2 dozen eggs for us and NONE of them broke....She finally discovered the secret...a touch of vinegar to the boiling water!!! Thanks yiayia!






We celebrated Easter with Omi and Papa this year...and I got to bring the dessert... Bunny Cake of course! Sophia loves to taste the frosting to make sure it tastes just right!



The Easter Bunny hid lots of eggs and goodies at our house....and we were up early to find them! Sophia didn't care too much about the candy that was in many of them (even though it was her candy of choice...russell stover's), but she got so excited when she would find an egg. Joseph was just along for the ride. He appeared to like his freedom outside of his normally gated areas more than the actual egg hunt. However...he was pretty excited about the small basketball in one of his eggs. Sophia was pretty thrilled about her new sunglasses and watch, and wondered whether the Easter Bunny shopped at Gymboree???
Poor Joseph...looks a little tired and "red-eyed" in some of the pictures. We had to give him a dose of benadryl the night before after his entire face swelled up into one giant hive! The culprit.....the spicy mustard from my Dean and Deluca sandwich. He wanted a bite....and I was thrilled to share with him, thinking we may have actually found something he liked to eat. WRONG...He appeared to like it at first....but not for long!!







Oops...Willie thought the Easter Bunny left these chocolates for him....and yummy was it good! Thank goodness his tummy tolerates chocolate better than wheat!




After our hunt....we scrambled to get ready for Church. The kids looked adorable in their clothes...and I am sick that I was unable to get better pics. But we were short on time...and the kids were short on patience!!! :) These are the best I got....I did LOVE their outfits! Thanks Yiayia!!






Okay... I promise just a few more.... I couldn't pass these up from today. Here is how I found Sophia after a short rest time today....



And last but not least, I hope the April showers we have had will bring flowers as pretty as these...

Winter wonderland and Spring fun

When I went to wash my face last night, this is what I found....the remains of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from Joseph's mouth on my shirt sleeve, white frosting on my nose and egg white in my hair. Glamorous, I know! It has been kind of a crazy week I guess....
Hard to believe, but we had a huge snowfall last Saturday (the last week of March)...it is spring, right? Sophia was not feeling great the day of the big snowfall, so we postponed our snow fun till the next day...which turned out to be a great thing as the weather got warmer and the snow was super for making snowmen. We had some help from daddy and Thea, too, but here is our final snowman masterpiece....







Needless to say....our snowman melted the next day...with the 60 degree temps! That's Kansas for you. The next highlight in Sophia's week came on Wednesday when her Pappou found her Thea's old hand puppet in a box in the basement. She was so in love with this puppet... that she even went to bed with it on her hand. When I checked on her before I went to bed....it was STILL in her hand. Of course I had to run and get the camera to get a picture of this!


So that brings us to Friday. I always enjoy Fridays because Sophia doesn't have school and we can usually aim to do something fun together in the morning during Joseph's nap. I love that she is such a "crafty" little girl! She always chooses to do something artsy. This friday we made a bunny using cardstock and brads....and she thought this little guy turned out pretty cool....moveable arms and all!



And of course crafting can make a girl very hungry! So on the menu today....ice cream cone cupcakes....they look like ice cream cones but are really cones with cupcakes baked inside. They were fun to make even though I put a little too much batter in each cone. But the overflowing look gave them a more "real" dripping ice cream cone appearance! I'll just pretend that I planned it that way and forget the fact that half the batter ended up in my oven...oops!! They tasted good anyway, and Sophia and I had fun sprinkling them!






Our day ended with a long overdue promised pizza/movie party! Sophia chose to watch a strawberry shortcake movie (Strawberry seems to be the name she goes by this week.... as opposed to the usual "Wendy" from Bob the Builder, and I am "Ginger" of course because I love to bake). She was pretty excited that she got to sit right in front of the tv and eat her pizza. The cupcake cones made for a yummy dessert.



Joseph wasn't quite as into the pizza. No surprise here.... he did take a few bites of a sugar cookie that we had made earlier in the week. He thinks it is pretty funny to trick us...he takes one bite of something, pretends he likes it... motions for another...chews it...then spits it out. He still prefers baby food. To all those people who told me this was "just a stage" 5 months ago....hmmm..... I'm beginning to wonder....




And just before bath time...this is what too much sugar looks like:



Oh and by the way...the rule poster that I mentioned in my last post turned out to be such a success in our house that we made a more permanent one. You might also be able to see our attempt at our home-made Easter decorations in the first picture!




And...as for the egg whites in my hair....well that was in attempt to blow out the insides of some eggs for an Easter egg decorating project in the works....hmmm....we'll see how that turns out!
Whew... what a week!