Something is in the oven...

but you can't eat it!

Can you guess what they are???  Sophia and I had never made these before..but we had so much fun doing this today while Joseph was napping.

Still not sure?  Well here is one more hint...

Can you guess now?

Besides these fun little guys...we enjoyed the GORGEOUS weather today at the park ( I forgot my camera :( but was too busy "jungle gyming" to take pictures anyway!), and flying kites.  Actually Daddy helped fly the kite....I tend to get kites tangled when I try to do it!!!  But here is Sophia flying it all on her own....and J watching in awe...

And because I can't leave you hungry.... here are some things you can eat....

Two of a kind

Just a few "goings ons" at our house this week...

When J saw Daddy wearing his John Deere hat this past weekend...he ran to his closet and found his own....and wanted to wear it the rest of the weekend.  

When I came back from getting their snacks one afternoon this week...this is how I found my two...lounging on lawn chairs on the driveway... (And yep in the background right next to the trash and recycle bins....that is my most favorite sofa decorating the insides of our garage...ha!!!)

Here is Mr. J getting ready to take off in his own set of wheels.  See the nice chocolate on his face???...Seems he has added chocolate eggs to his list of favorites.  I find him sneaking those little guys out of my nice crystal candy jar many times a day.  At least he is not feeding them to Willie anymore....as he did on Easter.  I wondered where they all had gone....until they showed up on our bedroom carpet the day after Easter... Poor Willie :(

A few cookies I made for a little girl turning one this weekend:  Found the idea from one of my favorite bakers.  Made me reconsider ever doing white against black again....a little more difficult than I had envisioned, but good practice, nonetheless.

Life is about to get hectic around here, I think,  with birthdays, soccer games, and end of the year activities.  But I didn't even have to step outside to stop and smell these flowers today (they are in my kitchen...and just make me happy!!!)  You picked out a good bunch, Brett!

When we woke up this morning....we found these....

   Amazing that just a few "Magic" beans could produce something so beautiful! I love that Sophia stopped in the middle of her Easter egg hunt this morning to run and check to see what the magic beans had produced outside over night.  We had read the story of the Resurrection so many times this week....and the magic and mystery behind this "growth" seem to parallel so well with the mystery of the Resurrection.   I thought it was perfect for an Easter morning surprise.  

Both of the kids had so much fun finding their eggs and their surprises inside.  It is so fun to watch their expressions and their little fingers trying to pry open each egg.  I wanted to capture it all on camera...but it all goes by so fast.  

I was able to get just a few pictures before Church....J's allergies are really bad again...so he was pretty tuckered and not too thrilled about posing....but once we got him up and exploring outside after Church... I was able to get a few more poses.  

Joseph played with his Easter basket intently for an hour this morning after Church.  Taking things in and out....and of course lining up some new little cars.

Miss Sophia was a tricky one today.  She wasn't too thrilled to pose for pictures before Church because I wouldn't let her button her sweater with the buttons going through the wrong holes.  (She apparently thought it looked better that way!!!)  And after having a minor tantrum in the Church parking lot over a miniature snow white headband that would not velcro properly to the miniature doll's head.... I thought any hope of pictures was lost.  But I did get a few smiles from her after Church (which by the way....she was an angel throughout the entire Mass...no surprise, though....she is always EXCELLENT in Church.....J is a different story, but making progress!! :)) 

Note to self:     I need to remember to make sure I have darker backgrounds behind Sophia when I am taking pictures of her....she is sooo fair and my pictures don't do those beautiful blonde ringlets justice!!  Here, she posed for a few before anxiously heading back in to play with her new miniature snow white.

J was able to get in a good nap before our family arrived for Easter dinner and "BAD THAD's" (J's nickname for Thad) b-day.  

Dinner was pork tenderloin (Whew....Daddy handled that one on the grill) roasted potatoes, asparagus tarte, salad, Nouna's bread, rolls, and OF COURSE... cookies, cupcakes and cake!!!

And to end on a sweet note...

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter...relaxing and refreshing...

MAGIC Beans

Here's what we found at our door this morning...

After the doorbell rang....here were my two little cotton tails finding their surprise.

Now where did that sneaky Easter Bunny go?  

Can't wait to see tomorrow's MAGIC!
HOPPY Easter!

A new season

Spring is FINALLY here... and so is spring soccer!  Sophia was sooo excited for practice Monday night.  Our neighbors gave her one of their old soccer goals on Sunday, and she practiced, practiced, and practiced.  She was a muddy mess when she came in!  Shoulda taken some pictures of that!

Here she is at her very first practice this fall.  Has she changed any?

Over the weekend, we finally made it to the Fairy Tale exhibit at crown center.  Sophia enjoyed seeing all of the different fairy tale exhibits....  It was pretty much a free for all....with lots of kids headed in every direction...so I had my eyes and hands on Mr. Joe most of the time....All he wanted to do was run run run and of course touch the red button on each exhibit that played the audio sound clip from the fairy tale.  In the picture below Sophia is sitting on the bed from the fairy tale Princess and the Pea, one of our favs.

This is probably the only picture I got of J sitting still.  The two of them were in Cinderella's Magic Pumpkin.

I was book club hostess on Sunday night...of course I had millions of sugar cookies and lemon bars...but these little guys were a new one for me.  Chocolate raspberry truffles.  Pure chocolate decadence.  Only true chocoholics like me can appreciate these...

I've been noticing lately that Mr. J and Mr. B not only look alike but share quite a bit in common.  Brett knows that for years I have jumped on his back for being indecisive (funny b/c I am one of the most indecisive people you will meet).  And I admit... I often give Brett a hard time for ALWAYS answering questions with "I don't know."  Well, lately I have been noticing that same response pattern from little J.  For instance, I will be reading a story and I'll ask him, "what color is the car" and he will respond with something like " I don't know....green, " or "I don't know...blue."  Too funny!

With the nice weather this week...we've spent some time outside.  Joseph can't get enough of course.  Trying to get him to come in is quite the task.  Well, trying to get him to do anything these days can be quite the task....a little bit of the terrible two's I suppose??  He can be so difficult at times....but still the majority of the time he is running up to our legs and saying " I love you too, " for no reason at all.  What could be sweeter?  I love how he hugs Sophia good-bye in the morning and says " I love you too Doo-da (his version of Sophia :)) 

I tried to do some editing with these pictures to block out the car in the garage...but couldn't figure out how to get my edited photoshop version back to my blog....My blogging friends......I think I am in desperate need of some help, here.  I want so badly to be able to edit in photoshop rather than the basic i photo....but I just can't figure it out.  Guess I need some more practice... but the little guy still looks pretty darn cute, I must say.

He was so disappointed that he couldn't go in Daddy's truck to take Sophia to soccer practice....so I was completely surprised that he was still smiling as he was waving good-bye.

Of course a few minutes after she left....he was not too happy.  But nothing a little lolli couldn't fix!

Boo-Boos

Yesterday when Sophia was at Daisies....Mr. J and I headed out to enjoy a bit of the sunshine.  While on our walk...we ran into some neighbors and Joseph immediately began "talking" with the 2 little girls who were playing with their daddy.  Joseph is quite the little social butterfly....while he was chatting away, the girls' daddy and I were commenting on how agile Joseph was.  Literally... 2 seconds later...Mr. Joe decided to take off running down their lawn....but apparently  he was not used to the slope of their yard....he took a hard tumble, and landed flat on his forehead on the sidewalk below.  I was mortified....so mortified that my sweet neighbor had to carry J's lawnmower and our mail home for me so I could tend to him.  He was fully recovered by the time we reached our garage and ready to rock and roll again before I could even stop shaking....but man did he get a beating!!!!

Here he is....looking like a tough cookie!

No boo-boo's today...thankfully!  Just some sillies.  Sophia and I crafted some animals out of plastic eggs... Too much fun!!!

We headed outside again later (of course... this time I pretty much had my hand glued to Joe's back so as to prevent any injuries).  I was hoping for some warm sunshine...but it was a bit chilly and windy.  The kids of course never seem bothered by the cold...and Miss Sophia (especially) does everything she can to get out of wearing her coat!!!

Finally....my new kitchen is officially broken in.  Lots of baking has gone on inside these walls this week.  Here's my latest...

And I am still obsessed with these cute pails... I was going to give some pails away with  goodies packed inside....but the animal print one was too perfect for J's trucks... so I guess it is a keeper!

Happy Weekend!