Ice Cream

It was 70 degrees today! Time for ice cream, not that you can't eat ice cream any other time, but it's more fun when it's warm outside. I hope this weather is here to stay because it is fabulous!

"Life is like an ice-cream cone,

you have to lick it one day at a time."

Charles M. Schulz

Copycat Easter

I love the Springtime, and with Easter, there is no better way to celebrate its arrival!

This post is pretty much filled entirely with projects that were inspired by other blogs. I believe I saw this Peeps in the Grass on Heather's Life Made Lovely Monday post a couple of weeks ago, but I can't find it right now. We planted grass seed and watched as the peeps slowly began to hide in the grass; it was a fun project for the kids. As the weather became warmer, the peeps attracted some ants...not so fun.

After seeing, Julie's "Ode to Spray Paint" Post ,
I took a trip to Home Depot.

I loved the yellow of Julie's jars, but for some reason, the yellow wasn't sticking to my jars. I ended up using stickers to spell out the word love and then spray painted green over the yellow. Now, just a glimpse of the yellow shows through. I'm not giving up on the yellow...I'm going to see if using a different kind of spray paint will work. I would definitely recommend the glossy spray paint if you wanted to do this project. I wasn't sure what I would like better, so I tried both. I'm a fan of the glossy.

And, the chicks, also from Heather's blog...found here. This was my favorite...E's rockin chick! (There are some more of our chicks in the previous photos.)

Thank you Blogland (is that one word or two?) for all the inspiration!

I hope you all had a Blessed Easter!

"Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life."

~S.D. Gordon

I'm linking up with Heather today at Life Made Lovely Monday.

Check it out for endless inspiration.
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By the way, is anyone else having trouble with their "followers" list on their blog? Mine hasn't shown up for a week. I'm wondering if it's something internal or with blogger.

April Vacation

E has been hit by the bug...the cleaning bug! I don't know what got into him the other day, but he took it upon himself to clean his room, complete with sweeping and vacuuming. He even vacuumed under the bed (literally). We bought a "truckload" of pansies at Walmart the other day...$1.78 for a 6 pack...you can't beat that price (well, unless you grow your own I suppose). Did you know pansies can be in temperatures as low as 20 degrees? They are the first flowers I buy at the start of Spring when I get the gardening bug.
We dyed Easter Eggs. I think this year's are the best yet. The kids were really patient about letting the eggs sit in the water so the colors could get really bright.

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children. ~George Bernard Shaw

Opening Day

It's that time again....baseball season is here. E thinks he wants to be a pro after playing baseball on PlayStation for a couple months. Before the opening day parade, he was trying out his dives in the house. Thankfully, no one was injured during the process.

E couldn't have been more excited to play catcher and wear all the gear on opening day. He had been talking about the fact that someone was going to play catcher this year during every game (last year the coaches played catcher) and I turn around to see him getting on the gear...slick! He's been telling everyone ever since...

I'm not that much of a fan of baseball. I enjoy a game here and there, but it's a little too slow moving for me to be entertained the entire time. Watching your own kid out there is a different story though. Although the game moves even slower with little kids, there is something about watching E that makes it fun. He's figuring things out and when he gets a hit or makes a catch, it's exciting.

Check out this hit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d98B_E_g4Q

He's looking like a big boy...not sure I'm too crazy about that!

I'm convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile. ~Tom Clark

Paper Airplane

So, it was my mother-in-law's birthday and I asked the kids to make a card. In true E fashion, he did not conform to the simple request. He decided to step it up a level and create a paper airplane. He is truly a non-conformist. Sometimes this can get him into trouble, but other times, well, you get a hand crafted paper airplane....one that he is really proud of.

He wrote "I love you" on the bottom.

"The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself." ~Rita Mae Brown

I'm linking up with Heather today at Life Made Lovely Mondays.

...AND I would love it if you would "follow" me. The button is on my right sidebar. Thank you, thank you! Happy Monday. The follow button is on the top of my page....I'm not sure what is going on with it on my sidebar???

Soccer and Sharing

Spring soccer started this past weekend...and it actually felt like Spring.

Little Miss is sitting on her new "dirt bike". It's been interesting sharing her 4 wheeler with her big brother. She is really very good at sharing....E, not so much. He pretty much thinks he should get to ride it all the time and "it's no fair" that she has it....

ah...the look; I'm pretty sure I've given this same "look" to a few lucky people this week too

Yes, she wears a helmet when driving.

"Sharing is loving."

Maybe if I just repeat this quote in a calm, soothing voice, E will develop the overwhelming urge to share.

From Cigars to Treasures

In my attempt to purge the clutter, I took out some old cigar boxes that I have been storing for years and let the kids do as they wanted. They chose their papers and embellishments and created their own "treasure boxes".

Little Miss stores paper dolls and Polly Pockets in hers.

Today E's box had a lonely roll of Smarties, but generally it has an assortment of fun stuff.

A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.

-J.R.R. Tolkien

Join me over at Life Made Lovely

Spring?

So, Mom was asking me the other day if Spring was "late" this year because everything still seemed to be so bare. I didn't think so, but I was wrong.

Last year at this time I took these pictures.

The daffodils don't even have buds on them yet. Spring, where are you?

Awake, thou wintry earth -Fling off thy sadness!Fair vernal flowers, laugh forthYour ancient gladness!

~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

Bib

Too big for a bib? Naaaa......not when you're home and make mini pizzas and eat cupcakes for your birthday!

The Scoop on the Party

It was birthday party weekend here and we had beautiful weather to celebrate Little Miss turning 4. I found this outfit with a matching one for a doll at Kmart for a mere $19.99...score! So, I thought it was a score, until I just found it online for $14.99.

Anyway, Ellie and Little Miss were styling in the same outfit...talk about exciting!

I bribed the kids with a before the party cupcake so they would let me take a few pictures of them. I'm not sure their cooperation was cupcake worthy, but I let them have one anyway.

The kids decorated (plastic?/melamine?) bowls for their ice cream. I found these for a $1.00 at the Christmas Tree Shop. On the bottom of each bowl, I wrote "Thank You".

It was such a great day outside, that we didn't even play any of the party games I spent hours preparing (thankfully, this is not the case) because the kids spent most of the time outdoors. I'm definitely a planner, but I do sometimes work best under pressure, so although I had some ideas for games floating around in my head, they didn't all come together until the day before, which worked out well, considering we didn't really play any of them.

But here's what I had planned:

Game Tally

For each game, the participants would all get a "scoop of ice cream", the winner would receive "2 scoops"

Each kid had a cone and would place each scoop onto the cone. At the end, the kids would get a quarter for each scoop of ice cream on their cones. But, since there weren't any games played, all the cones still looked like this at the end of the party.

Cone stack:

Who can make the tallest stack of ice scream cones?

Build an Ice Cream Cone Relay:

Scooping ice cream:

Wearing a blindfold, fill a bowl with scoops of ice cream (cotton balls), using a spoon.

Stick the cherry on the ice cream:

We didn't have time for all the games, but we did:

Drink lemonade,

enjoy the fun decorations,

eat cake (to see my other cupcake cakes, click on "cupcakes" under labels on the right sidebar),

make sundaes (but, I forgot the cherries...oh my gosh!),

hit the pinata (with such determination),

enjoy many laughs,

and spend time with our family and friends.

"Believe in today."

"Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don't miss it."

-Leo Buscaglia

I'm linking up with Heather today at Life Made Lovely Mondays....

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Come check it out!