Easter 2013

On Friday, the kids had a day off of school (and with Spring Break only 2 weeks ago, we really needed another day off... )  Some of the Moms in our ward organized a picnic and egg hunt for the kiddos. It was a lot of fun!  Notice Birdy's Hello Kitty ears.  She went to a birthday party the day before and got those and insisted on wearing them all weekend!

Bear was really into "picking eggs". It was fun to see him get it this year and be so excited!

Friday night we colored our Easter eggs.  We did the "volcano eggs" again, but we have decided to call them "fizzy eggs" instead- it seems more appropriate.  DMP and Bear missed out last year, so they were especially excited about them!

Our beautiful eggs!

 The Easter Bunny now comes to our house on Saturday for lots of reasons.  First, the Atonement is kind of a big deal, and I've been bugged for a couple of years by how the Bunny takes over the celebration.  Also, it was SOOO much easier to get kids ready for church when we weren't trying to rush through egg hunts, eating candy and etc.  We just hung out and played all day and had no real pressure to be anywhere. 

Also, as you can see, the Bunny and Santa got a bit confused.  He may have gone overboard a bit with gathering "non candy" things for their baskets and they ended up with a lot of "presents".  Live and learn, right?

The kids had a successful egg hunt all over the house.

Bear was only interested in eggs that sounded like "coin-ys" first, and jelly beans second.  Forget stickers and other non-shakey prizes!  He was also hilarious- we gave the kids baggies to collect all their candy in so they could empty their eggs. He would NOT let us empty any eggs- even the ones that had squinkies or other toys.  He would look at it and then insist it go back in the egg in his basket!

On Sunday, we got all dolled up in our Easter clothes.  Thanks to Cynj for outfitting Bear for Easter for yet another year. I'm so glad to have your boy hand-me-downs!

Here are my pretty girls...

The whole family!

One more for the road!

Hope you all had a happy Easter weekend, too!

True Love

We like to celebrate and emphasize Valentine's day as a day to celebrate family & friend love (vs. romantic love).  The idea is that perhaps the kids will grow up with a wider concept of celebrating it and maybe be less disappointed overall. It seems like everyone- single, not single, etc.- ends up disappointed at Valentine's day because of their expectations. But I digress....

I'm cheap and we had a crazy day on the actual Valentine's day, so we decided to celebrate on the 15th instead. This was great because it was a) a Friday, and b) I could get all kinds of Valentine goodies for the kids at 50% off! It was such a good idea, I'm totally doing it every year!  It also allowed me to score the super-cute Thomas shirt Bear is wearing above for $2.50.  I hear Ralph's voice every time I read it, though.

We had our traditional fondue dinner. I have a new goal to have every holiday dinner table look as though we are drinking booze, so we added some sparkling cider :)  Also, note the "love" card right by the flowers. Birdy made that at school!

After the cheese course, the kids got their Valentine's from Grandma and Grandpa K. They were thrilled. DMP and I (who am I kidding *I*) got the girls small Barbies.

After gifts, it was time for some family Lego-ing.

I bet you can guess what came next!  It was Bear's favorite course!

This is Bear's Valentine from Mommy- his name is Monkey George. He has been carried around ever since and periodically I am commanded to give him a hug, or change his bum.

Be Mine

The girls were excited about passing out their valentines this year. EJ decorated her own bag (above) all by herself!

Birdy gave out Tinkerbell valentines with lollypops. 

EJ gave out cute cards of kittens and puppies. The animal picture changed as you moved the card. Pretty neat. I thought it was funny that this year both girls were concerned about giving out "girly" Valentines to the boys in their class. I had to explain that they boys will be giving them "boy" Valentines, so they shouldn't worry. 

We were going to have a Valentine play group brunch and pass out Valentines, so Bear got his very first valentines. He loved them SO much.  DMP and I folded them and taped 2-yr-old friendly candy inside. He woke up and was APPALLED.  This face says "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?!"  We had to unfold and un-tape all of them before we could move on with getting the girls ready and off to school.  He was so attached to them, in fact, he couldn't bear to give them away to any of his friends (don't worry, I still handed out the candy).  I guess now we know why 2 yr. olds don't exchange Valentines!

Here is a shot of our play date. I think we had a record 16 kids at my house (plus their awesome Mommies!)

I'll say one thing for Mormon Mommy parties- we sure know how to eat. This is even before more of the yumminess arrived. Also, note the bowl of melted chocolate. The giant chocolate bar rides again!

I had to share this picture of baby J in the mother of all cute baby ruffle-butts!

This was the "baby carrier parking lot".  I think there are 6 (?).  This is what happens when 9 babies are born in the ward in a 6 month period...  It also means lots of lovely newborns to squish and love and then give back to their Moms.

We got lucky and had some extra friends over for Valentine dinner. We had pink waffles, deviled eggs and strawberries. A good time was had by all!

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was blessedly mellow this year. We didn't have any company, and we mostly lazed about all day until the food was ready.  We started off the day by watching the Macy's parade.  Then the kids built train tracks and played with blocks.  EJ made a turkey out of blocks, clever girl!

The kids spent most of the day outside playing on the tramp.  I dug up some silly string I bought a while back and DMP and I ambushed them. That was fun!

DMP is THE MAN.  He is the king of turkey-making at our house and this year the turkey was our best ever- brined with garlic and rosemary, butter & sage rub under the skin and we let it rest for 30 min. It was so flavorful and juicy- even the leftovers!

We also had awesome stuffing, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. Funnily enough, my kids don't like green bean casserole. Next year I think we'll opt for brussel sprouts- their favorite!

Sidewalk of Fire!

We rolled into UT on a Sunday, and the next day (Monday, funny how that works) happened to be our old neighborhood's 4th of July block party- the Sidewalk of Fire (remember? )  As much as I would have rather stuck a fork in my eyeball than get back into the car, we decided to go and crash it.  We were so glad we did. It was an awesome way to visit with and reconnect with friends from our old ward.  Plus, they had all the cotton candy you could eat. Apparently cotton candy is terrifying if you are Bear.  Not the machine- the actual candy. He'd scream and pull away when I offered to him and he got really upset if I ate it, too.

There were games to play...

 And prizes to be won.

 And since they are my kids- carefree, public dancing.

EJ is starting to be "too cool" to dance with her nerdy Mom, sister and brother.  She got down and boogied with her BFF Emmie after the fireworks, though.

As hard as it was to face getting back into the car, we were really happy we went!

I love love....

 We had a fun Valentine's Day this year! I was lucky enough to teach Preschool on Valentine's day this year, including a party.

 The kids had a lot of fun making bags to put their Valentines in.  Even Bear got to make one (he loves coloring- especially on the walls...)

 We played some games, read some books and then we made our adorable "Love Bugs".  The bodies are made of cardboard hearts and they put them together and painted them with their favorite colors. They turned out really cute!

 EJ got home with her Valentines from her friends. The girls also got their valentines from Mom and Dad- a rice bag from Mom, and YamYam's and a note from Dad. 

 They were initially most excited about Daddy's treat, but have since declared the rice bags to be the "best ever". Not that I'm bragging or anything (and DMP's feelings can't be hurt since I picked out his treat, too!)

 After EJ's piano lesson, it was off to McDonalds (Happy Meals for the girls) and Chik-fil-a (for Mom).  As you can see, it was a very fancy feast. (on a side note, I got that table cloth for $2.50 a couple weeks ago and this was our first time using it. I washed it with Bear's clothes and he now has pink onsies. Ooops!)  Dessert was home made chocolate cupcake (Birdy and Bear's second for the day!).

After baths it was time for "Video Daddy", since Daddy was in El Paso.  Bear loves talking to Daddy on the computer so much, he wouldn't budge when it was his sister's turn to talk! 

Thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner at our house with our friends, the Z family.  It was the best kind of  Thanksgiving full of really yummy food, cute kids and good friends!

 How many daddies and kitchen/grilling tools does it take to flip a hot turkey over?

This is what I wanted to do the whole time- snuggle little two-week-old baby J.  Darn food prep got in the way! Bear was surprisingly good and cute with her. You know, if you ignore that he kept trying to crawl into my lap and sit on her head...

Look how pretty and brown our turkey turned out this year. Butter and sage massage, my friends (oh, and two daddies + 5 grilling utensils to flip it over mid-roast).

The babies are getting ready to feast! 

Kid table.  

 The feast! I need a gravy boat or another pretty bowl :)

DMP discovered possibly the best Thanksgiving innovation since turkey brining. After stuffing himself, he just flopped off of the eating bench onto the nice, soft couch.

After we ate our fill of Turkey, stuffing, dreamy mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and rolls, we gathered the kids to make cute snowman ornaments (a tradition I'm working on- you've got to do SOMETHING between Turkey and Dessert time!).  Then we had Braums pumpkin ice cream, hot apple pie and ice cream, and an awesome carrot cake. It was a very sweet end to an awesome day!