Easter

We have our own hunt. Isaak wanted to grab random eggs he saw. Mica knew there were rules attached. A hunt that makes them think. If you want to read about how we were caught go here.

On the coffee table were:

• A few special eggs.
• Spanish DVDs from Boca Beth. I won one on Facebook and it took her 1 week to get back to me, so she sent me another DVD. :) Mica has no foreign language at his elementary level. I wanted to get something to help with a language. They say they learn that stuff best when they are little. I'll be reviewing the DVDs on here.
• Melissa and Doug garden tools I got for posting their ad at Christmas time. Two trowels, two cultivators and a rake they have to share.

So the hunt was on. This is what they do when I tell them to hold their baskets up. HA HA!

The boys had clues that lead them all over the house and on the front porch. Then the last thing they got were these cute ukeleles that were not that much money. Now if they get lessons they will be a lot of money. We'll see. Mica's came with a book on how to play. We'll kind of play it by ear before we decide about lessons.

There was candy, but I only let them have a few. Mica's tummy hurt the night before.

We Got Caught!

Saturday afternoon:

• I went grocery shopping.
• I made Dirt Brownies. The boys were so excited about the gummy worms! 
• I spent some time making wrist bands and handkerchiefs for the boys. They loved the the wrist bands and could have cared less about the handkerchiefs.

I kept looking at the time. It was getting late. Dinner needed to get done, so I make these yummy veggie chicken nuggets. I used fresh spinach and carrots instead of frozen mixed veggies. I also make my own bread crumbs. The boys gobbled them up!

I spent most of the Saturday evening making a cheese/veggie tray. It was for our big lunch with extended family on Easter. I was crazy and cut out cheese with a bunny and carrot cookies cutters I have. That took awhile. What took even longer was cutting out the flower radishes. I cut out thin strips of celery to mimic grass. Everything looked very pretty. Guess what? I forgot to take a photo! I just want to slap myself in the face for that!

I also made a coffee cake. Not something I normally make. Easter comes only once a year. I messed it up and only did the first part. Daddy said, "Just let us eat that!" I'm like, "No!" I made it right. Yep I can be stubborn!  He said, "Let's just eat cereal." I said, "No!"

By the time the cheese/veggie tray was put together, dishes were done, coffee cake made and laundry was done it was 11 pm. Daddy came up from working in the garage and thought I'd be practically done with everything, hunt and all. I said, "NOPE I haven't even started the hunt!"

He started helping me. I sent him off to make bunny foot prints on Mica's drawing that he left by the front door.

I thought they were pretty good and believable for Easter Bunny prints!

Plastic eggs were all over the kitchen floor and the hunt was started. I came up with the clues and Daddy was stuffing eggs like mad. We had stuff everywhere.

Daddy was in the process of hiding some outside on the front porch.

THAT'S WHEN IT HAPPENED...I heard Mica walking down the hall!

I have to say that Mica and Isaak are SOUND sleepers. They only wake up if they are sick or having a bad dream. Well Mica was having tummy issues. Needless to say, I was not expecting him to wake up!

I'm so I'm quick with fibbing! Not that I practice lying on a regular basis!

Mica looked my way in the kitchen and said with a glow in his eye, "Mommy why are their eggs all over the kitchen floor?"

I said, "Well Mica you almost caught the Easter Bunny! He left that mess there because he heard you get up! He didn't know what to do, so he hopped away." Daddy actually had to chase him out the front door."

Mica went back to bed. We hurried to get done. We were almost done anyhow. 

One of the last clues said, "Gee wiz Mica, you almost caught me! Your Daddy had to chase me out of the house. Please pick up the mess I left in the kitchen. ;) Find your final prize where you keep the towels."

In the morning Mica bought everything. He was so excited that the Easter Bunny left prints on his drawing. He cleaned up all the eggs the Easter Bunny left all over the kitchen. ;)

Next time I'm pouring all the eggs and candy out on our bed. I'm locking the door to. That's what I did last year. I was in such a hurry, I just wasn't careful enough.

Easter Party at the Y

On Saturday the local Y had an Easter bash. It was fun, but crazy busy! I think the whole neighborhood was there. I heard it was packed because it was announced on the news and was free.

Here's the things they did:

• The boys got a carrot top from the Y Bunny. Mica swears the bunny was Isaak's swimming coach. Isaak would not believe Mica.
• They got to bounce around in a bounce house. They love that! 
• They got to color paper eggs with crayons.
• They made bunny hats. They loved this activity. Their hats only lasted a day. Isaak screamed bloody murder in the car because his hair got stuck to the sticky part of the hat. I think it pulled out about 5 hairs. 
• They got a snack: A mini muffin, 1/2 a banana and apple juice.

Dinner

We went out to dinner tonight. Just a reminder to myself now, make reservations for a Friday night! The first two places were PACKED. Daddy wanted to go to KOBE Steakhouse, but there was a 2 hour wait. No thank you! We ended up go to Grisanti's, which is similar to the Olive Garden.

Mica stops the waitress and says, "Guess what it's my Mom and Dad's anniversary!" :) Then he says, "I lost a tooth today!" :)

He kept wanting us to kiss. What little kid wants to see their parents kiss?

Later he says to the waitress, "Guess what I did stone carving for the first time today!"

Isaak wasn't too vocal with the waitress, but he went on and on about how he doesn't like food that has steam coming out of it.

Overall the boys were very good. No climbing on seats, no trying to climb under the table, or other annoying things. 

Isaak told us he didn't like "Womens" supposed to be "Lemons" very much. His treat on the way out the door was a lemon chocolate stick. Daddy said, "You don't like women?" He kept saying, I don't like womens." We all had a good laugh.

On the way home Isaak insisted we clap for a made up song that had no words.

Kids!

10 Years

So Daddy and I have been married for 10 years.

Goodness we look young! It doesn't seem that long ago, but it was.

We met in 1994. Both of us went to the same college. Daddy followed me around during orientation. Grandpa Spiehs said, "Do you think that guy will be our future Son-In-Law?"

We both went out with different people and stayed friends.

Sometimes you don't realize that you want something until it's gone, out of your life for the most part. I went to grad school and that's when I realized that Daddy was the one.

We were both seeing other people. I broke things off with the guy I was seeing and wrote Daddy a LONG letter. Yep I wrote a letter. Now one would send an email.

That poor girl Daddy was seeing was heart broken. It was all my fault.

Daddy made one of his first rings for me. I gave him a Cracker Jacks box that had a fake ring with a note attached that said, "Will you marry me?" We both in our own way asked each other the same question that day.

My something old were my Grandma's (Great Grandma to the boy's) pearls. My Grandma passed away so early that even my Dad (Grandpa Spiehs) doesn't remember her. My something new was my ring. My something blue were my Bridesmaids. They wore periwinkle dresses.

We kissed the longest kiss. Our car had "T & A" written on it. It stood for Travis and Alissa, but could be thought of as something else.

We stayed in a hotel for a few days. Then went on a road trip to Wyoming a year later for our honeymoon.

Daddy sent me these today at work:

I took them outside to capture them. The lighting is horrible in our building.

 

Here's a close up view. They were made to look like flowers from our wedding.

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's Way

I've been pretty relaxed about Easter this year. Usually I just put the hunt together the day or night before. I find if I do it too far ahead I get confused trying to figure out which eggs I was going to hide where.

The hunt I put on makes them think. I put clues in one master egg that stands out because it's bigger or a different color then the rest and give them a clue where to go to find the next set of eggs. The boys really get into it.

Mica loves the hunt so much that he asks me to put on a scavenger hunt for their cousins Evan and Elijah and then Mica and Isaak all join in. Maybe later in May we will do just that. Usually that hunt is just written clues that lead them all over the place just to find a special snack. I warn them ahead of time what the hunt is for. I make sure they know it's just for fun and not to get all kinds of candy or toys.

Back to Easter- I have to decide crazy spots to hide things. Mica wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny asking him to put Mica and Isaak's names on the eggs. I told Mica that I don't know where the Easter Bunny lives, so I couldn't send the letter out. So far the Easter Bunny just hid even number of eggs. Do I spend the time writing their names on the eggs, or do I just do what the Easter Bunny has always done?

We are having a big get together with extended family on Sunday. We'll eat two big meals and the kids will have another hunt there. I still have to decide what to bring to eat. I want to do one veggie dish for sure. I will probably do an additional veggie dish because we're usually lacking in veggies. I want one to be more Easter{ish}:

Source

I may just cut out slices of different cheeses then use a cookie cutter to cut out bunnies. Then put veggies and crackers on the same plate. I'll just have to see what I have time for.

I made brownies for Daddy's work today. I frosted them, put cookie crumbs on top of the frosting and put my carrot cookies on top. The boys were so jealous and wanted some in the worst way. One of those may be made for Sunday's dessert as well. That was ubber easy! It literally took only minutes to make. Minus the baking time, oh and I dropped an egg on the floor! YUCK!

We may have the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny both visiting on the same night. That happened with the Tooth Fairy and Santa. Mica's bound and determined for that to happen.

What are your Easter plans?

WW: Bow Ties {Linky}

I made the boys bow ties out of an old shirt compliments from Daddy.

Mica's been wanting a bow tie for a few years now. Daddy thinks they are silly looking. Oh well.

I don't know what's sillier the boys or their bow ties? Here's Mica supporting his new bow tie:

Here's Zeek AKA Issak supporting his new bow tie:

Want to know how to make them? I have a tutorial in the post below.


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Making a Bow Tie Out Of Daddy's Old Shirt

Mica loves ties! I decided to try to make him a bow tie. It was pretty easy. I'm not a girl that gets out the sewing machine, ever! I've always wanted to be crafty in that way, but threading it always seemed confusing to me. I'm sure it's easy, but it looks hard. Instead I hand sew stuff that could be done in minutes with a machine.

Here's the end result of my handmade upcycled bow tie:

I started with this, an old shirt via Daddy:

The shirt is stained a pinkish color in some spots. I couldn't use those spots to create the tie(s).

If you are making one tie, cut 2 pieces that are 15" x 3.5". I made 2 ties, so I cut 4 pieces out:

Iron them. I hate digging out the ironing board, so I used my hair straightener to iron these. It worked PERFECTLY!

Pin two pieces, so the good sides are facing each other and the back sides show. Sew all sides except for one:

Trim the corners and turn right side out. Then sew it shut. Remember I was making 2 ties, so in the 2nd image I have 2.

I found that the back end of a thick Sharpie helped me poke it through.

Fold it accordion style in thirds. That is the outer bow tie. Set aside.

Now for the center. Cut 2 little strips. Since I was making 2 ties, I cut 4 - 2" x 8" strips. Pin two pieces, so the good sides are facing each other and the back sides show. Sew all sides except for one skinny side. This is much like creating the outer part of the tie, but on a smaller scale:

 Turn right side out and sew the rest. It's harder this time around to turn right side out since it's little. I used a Sharpie marker to help me.

Loop this piece around the center of the accordion and sew the back. There's your bow tie!

You can pin it on, make a strap that has Velcro, or do what I'm doing next. I'm making a strap that buttons in the back. I figured I might as well utilize the buttons and button holes in Daddy's old shirt.

You can also make suspenders or a cool wrist band. I've thought about making cool wrist bands with black pleather and the same fabric from Daddy's old shirt. Like I said, I'm not a big sewing person, so suspenders may be too much for me. I could make them only if I sewed them directly to the shirt, then they'd serve no purpose. It would just be trendy.

For the record, finding plain shirts that are not Polos is darn right difficult! Almost everything for dress up is argyle for boys right now. I FINALLY found the boy's black shirts at Marshalls. WOO HOO!

So do you like bow ties? Daddy hates them. I like them. I would have dropped the bow tie thing, but Mica kept asking for one. He loves it! Isaak likes his to. I'll be showing more pictures on my WW. Stop back to see them! ;)

One Likes to Draw and the Other One Likes Collage

Mica drew this image of Daddy at Grandma and Grandpa's a week ago:

Notice how he has three rows of teeth! LOL

Isaak made a collage at Grandma and Grandpa's:

Fast forward to this week.

Here's Mica's drawing he did at school:

His teacher has them capture stories with words and drawings.

Here's Isaak's collage he did yesterday:

What I think is cute about this is that Isaak did this all on his own.

It was really quite, too quite. I went to go check on him. Isaak was in his room coloring like crazy. He stole paper and crayons from Mica's room. Isaak has his own crayons, but they were in a spot he couldn't reach. Besides the paper were Mica's safety scissors. I walked in a few minutes later and Isaak was cutting up the sides of his drawing. Then I heard him ask for Mica's glue stick. I checked once again and saw Isaak gluing his cut up sections onto his drawing.

Neti Pot Much?

Mica's been having allergy issues. He's been sneezing like crazy! Both boys blow their noses now, but not very well. I bought some allergy medicine for kids at Costco. Mica's been using it. Isaak's been pretty ok so far. I haven't used the medicine on him.

Yesterday at rest time Mica came out of his room in tears. His eye hurt like hell. I felt for him. I know exactly what it feels like to have an itchy eye that just keeps getting worse! I was kind of iffy on eye drops for a six year old. 

Here's his swollen eye:

 Here's his mostly normal eye (except for the redness on his right side):

Bad eye on his right, better eye on his left (the bad eye was all red, kind of hard to see here):

I gave his some allergy meds right away. Earlier in the morning I didn't give him any.

This morning his eye was worse! He had dried up sleepy seeds and a boogery nose.

After we had a muffin in a cup, which the boys LOVED and Daddy HATED I cleaned Mica up!

I washed his eye with a warm baby wash cloth, washed his nose with a different warm baby wash cloth. I gave him his allergy meds. Then I gave him an Emergen-C drink. I'm so glad they make those for kids now! After that I had a talk with him about the Neti-Pot.

I don't care if the Neti-Pot appears to be gross, they help. Maybe not all day, but they help. I have two, so I let Mica choose if he wanted to use the one that looks like a genie lamp or a plastic squirt bottle? He chose the genie lamp one.

I was worried that he'd try it, start crying and never give it a chance again. He hates saline sprays. I explained to him the process and why it's good to use. He wanted to know if it would sting? I mentioned how if you use the wrong water or salt it can sting. Also if his nose was really swollen it sometimes stings. I assured him that I would use the right water and salt. I even used less salt then usual for him.

Over the sink my six year old went. At first it was just barely dripping out. He was really clogged up! Then it started to come out more. He blew his nose and lots of yucky stuff came out! Then we did the other side. Again lots of yucky stuff came out! We were both laughing at how much came out of his nose. I was so glad that he was happy to have done it! He even called Daddy afterwards to tell him how it wasn't as gross as Daddy thinks. It really helped him!