Easter 2013

We were thankful to be able to spend Easter as a family this year!  We had originally thought that Jim might have to work on Easter, but he was able to get things covered and spend the day with us.

The morning started with Easter baskets on the kitchen table.  I love to gather things to fill the baskets, and I've been slowly collecting things for the past few months.

Drew was very excited to see what was in his basket!

We got Maddie a toothbrush, some cheddar bunny crackers, some hair clips, and her first little bottles of nail polish!  I had heard good things about Piggy Paint, which is a natural nail polish, but it is pretty pricey on-line.  I found a two-pack at Walmart for about $4!

We got Drew a mix of candy and other fun things.  He loves Angry Birds, and he got some Angry Birds pencil toppers, an Angry Birds notebook, and some Angry Birds pajama pants, in addition to his candy.

I had some cinnamon rolls in the freezer that I heated and frosted for our breakfast, and then we got ready for church.  Our church did an Easter cantata in the morning service, and it was a beautiful reminder of Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross and His triumph over death with His resurrection.
I asked for a family picture after morning church, and this was the best we were able to get.  It is tough to get a good group picture!

We went over to Jim's sister and brother-in-law's house for Easter dinner.  Maddie was starting to get a little bit of a runny nose, so she wasn't quite the hearty eater that she usually is, but she did pretty well with her dinner, and Drew ate pretty well too.

The kids went outside after lunch, and they had fun playing with Drew's stomp rockets.

After playing for a while, the kids did their annual Easter Egg Hunt.  Each child had a different egg color to search for, and eggs were filled with money!  Drew searched for blue eggs, and Maddie searched for pink eggs.

This was where one of Maddie's eggs was hidden - in my mother-in-law's hair!

Maddie found one of her eggs in a flower bed.

Drew did a pretty good job of finding all of his eggs.

Maddie looked so cute walking around with her little eggs.

Drew with some of his eggs.

After the hunt, Maddie sat on the front walk and played with the basket full of empty eggs for quite a while.

The kids were pretty tired after our morning at church and the afternoon with family, so we had a quiet evening at home, with early bedtimes for the kids.
We had a very nice Easter, with all the fun of baskets, egg hunts, and family, but we know that Easter is truly about Jesus and all that he did to provide us salvation.  We are so thankful that we serve a risen Savior, who loved us enough to suffer and die for us so that we could spend eternity in heaven with Him!

Project Life - Week 12

Drew started the week with a swim test.  He is starting swimming lessons this month, and he had to go take a little test to determine which class he should sign up for.  He and his buddy, Joseph, took the test together.

 The teacher had them try to put their faces in the water.

 The guys decided to rest after their test.

 We took the boys out for dinner at McDonald's after their swim test.  Jim had stayed home with Maddie, so it was a fun little moms and boys dinner.  The boys played for a while in the play area after they ate, and the moms sat and talked.  It was nice to have a little evening out.
When we got home, we filled out our NCAA tournament brackets.  Jim, Drew, and I are competing against each other this year.  Drew chose his teams based on their mascots, and Jim and I tried to choose by actual basketball knowledge (though mine is pretty limited).  Drew is winning so far!  The winner gets to pick the restaurant for a family dinner after the tournament, and if Drew ends up winning, he says that we will be going to McDonalds.  :)

 Maddie still takes a morning nap several mornings a week.  Sometimes, I have to go in and wake her up so we can get over to Drew's school in time to pick him up.  I found her like this one morning and thought she looked so cute!

 Maddie likes to walk around the house with Wii controllers, just like Drew.  She drags her controllers through the house several times each day, and Jim and I think it is funny that she knows how to hold them properly.

 She is so funny!

 I decided to let Drew and Maddie take a bath together for the first time this week.  Maddie is still a little wobbly in the tub, so it was an interesting experience, but it was nice to save a little time by bathing them together.  I let them play together for a few minutes and then washed Maddie and got her out.  I let Drew play for a while longer on his own while I got Maddie into her jammies.

 Drew's birthday party was Saturday morning, and we all came home tired after the party.  Jim and I both fell asleep while the kids were napping that afternoon!  Jim came in and woke me up at 3:30 to tell me that some friends had just called to see if we wanted to go out that evening for dinner and then a concert by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.  We scrambled to get ourselves and the children ready, drop the kids off with Jim's mom, and meet our friends by 5:00.  We had dinner at a fancy steakhouse (our friends had gift cards from a client that they shared with us), and then we drove downtown for the concert.
The Concert was called, "Mancini at the Movies."  The orchestra played songs by Henry Mancini, and Mancini's daughter sang some of the songs along with the orchestra.  My parents liked Mancini music when I was growing up, and the songs were almost all familiar to me.  We seemed to be some of the youngest audience members, and we were amused by some of the people around us as they oohed and awed over Monica Mancini's stories and hummed and sang along with the music.

Here is what I did for Project Life this week.
I made my main page with a Design A page protector, and kept things pretty simple with my photos.  I wanted to include the concert ticket, so I combined the ticket, the program photo, and a strip of patterned paper on a 4x6 sheet at the bottom.

 I had a few extra swim test photos that I wanted to include, so I cut a 4x6 section from a Design A page, and sewed it onto the right edge (right along the perforated line).  The extra photos are inserted in the extra sleeve, and it just flips open, like another page.  Here you can see it flipped over, and you can see the extra photos.

 I also made an insert about Drew's friend birthday party.  I used a Design H page protector.

 Here is my layout with the insert flipped.

 This is the front of the birthday party insert,

 and this is the back.

I am linking up again at The Mom Creative.
I hope you all had a great Easter!  We did, and I am planning to post about it later this week.

Drew's Friend Birthday Party

Drew has never had a birthday party with friends before this year.  We had wanted to do one last year when he turned five, but we had a three week-old baby at the time, and it didn't seem like a great idea.  We decided to have a friend party for Drew this year instead.  The party was originally scheduled for his actual birthday, but we had to reschedule when he got sick the afternoon before his party was supposed to happen.  We rescheduled for this past Saturday, and we were thrilled that the birthday boy stayed healthy this time, and we were able to have the party as planned.  We invited five friends - two sets of brothers and another boy, and the six of them had lots of fun.

Since March is usually still pretty cold here in Michigan, we had to do an indoor party, and since our house is small, we didn't think we should try to do the party here.  We decided to go ahead and do the party at a big field house in our town.  They have lots of activities to pick from, and all the activities are indoors.  It ended up being a very easy party to plan - hardly any prep - just show up, pay, and play!

We started the party with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.  We got a big box of Munchkins and a bunch of milks.  The boys ate through almost 50 Munchkins!

 Donuts were the perfect choice for these guys!

 Maddie sat with my BFF, Kristen, whose two boys were at the party.

 Maddie loves donuts, and she helped the boys by eating three of the Munchkins.

 The boys finished up their breakfast,

 and then Drew opened his gifts.

 He loved everything he got, and the other boys were very interested in all his gifts!

 After he opened his gifts, Drew passed out treat bags for all the boys, and they opened them up.  We gave them each an Angry Birds coloring book, some Angry Birds stickers, a Matchbox car, a Rice Krispie treat, and a little pack of Skittles.  I have been using coupons and gathering things for the treat bags for the past several months.

 We finished up at Dunkin Donuts and then packed up all the boys to drive right up the street to the field house, where the rest of the party was going to take place.  We started with putt putt.  I had secretly been dreading this part of the party, because whenever we have taken Drew putt putting, it has taken forever.  The boys raced through this little course and were done in about 15 minutes!

 Good form and rule-following were not part of their game at all, but they enjoyed themselves!

 Maddie played with an extra ball.  She stayed in her stroller the whole time and was a very good girl!

 We were supposed to do slot car racing after we putt putted, but the track was broken, so we did laser tag instead.  They got their gear

 and went in to play.  Jim said that they did pretty well and actually shot each other some.  They enjoyed laser tag too.

 They each got a few tokens to use in the arcade, so they finished by playing air hockey

 and a few other arcade games.

Drew loved his party, and we were glad that we were finally able to have a friend party for him!

Project Life - Week 11

We had Drew's family birthday party on Sunday, and then Drew's birthday spilled over into this week, with birthday mail coming from his aunts and uncles in South Carolina.

 Drew decided to color in his new birthday coloring book, and he was frustrated that Maddie tried to join him.  We got her her own coloring book, but she still wanted to color in his with him.  She loves to do whatever he is doing!

 Jim, Drew, and I played Drew's new Battleship game one evening.  The boys were a team, and I beat them - just barely!

 Drew had a "Turn Off the TV and Read" week for school, so we did a lot of extra reading.

 We ate lunch at Pizza Hut with friends one day after school.  The boys used their free pizza coupons from "Book-It," and the rest of us got the pizza buffet.  Maddie and Ella shared some vanilla wafers,

 and the boys ate up their pizza.

 On our way home from lunch, we decided to drive out to Jim's work to see him for a little while.  He has been busy at work lately, and he's been having to work longer days the past few weeks.  It was fun to spend some time there with him.  Drew loved his ride through the clubhouse, and Maddie liked having lots of space where she could walk around.

 Drew crawled into a golf ball display case.

 Drew had Storybook Character Day at school on Friday.  He was Curious George, of course!

 Jim and Drew ran out to Jim's work early on Saturday morning, and they stopped for donuts on the way home.  Maddie ate a whole donut!

 This is this week's layout, alongside last week's page.  I made an insert about Drew's family birthday party.

 Here are the two weeks' pages, with the insert flipped.

Here is this week's page.  I have been keeping things simple lately with 4x6 and 3x4 photos.

 Here is the front of the birthday insert.  I cut down a 4x6 journaling card (Simple Stories) and added a 6 sticker as a title.

 This is the back of the insert.

I am linking up at The Mom Creative.
I am planning to post later this week about Drew's friend birthday party this past weekend.  The boys had lots of fun!