The Easter Bunny will be able to find us!

I have to share a wreath I made at a friends house this past Monday. Her mom had seen on a blog a how to on a Easter wreath, and posted it, so my friend decided to make one, and went out, bought all of the supplies, and invited a few people over to do it. It was fun to do it with some friends, cause we got to gab, and just have moment to make something. I have to admit, I made something similar about 2 years ago for Easter, so I was a seasoned pro in arranging my eggs. We used straw wreath forms, and just started hot gluing them on. When we were done with our egg placements, we took the easter grass and started putting that in the spaces. I was using glue for that at first, and then just tried it out by sticking it in the spaces, and it did fine with out the glue.

My oldest told me it was the most beautiful thing ever! I think she was mimicking me as I also try to gush over their art work from school when they bring it home =).

We're off to see the Wizard......

Today was a super fun day. We went to church, and then later I took the older two, up the road to the Ferguson Center to see The Wizard of Oz. The Ferguson Center is super closer to our house, and they have some awesome shows/productions from time to time. I thought they would enjoy it, so I bit the bullet and got tickets. Snaps for the mother in law for working on campus, as she was able to help get us really good seats. We were 4th row, front and center. I really wanted to be close so they could really see what was going on and not get bored with it. They behaved awesome, and they were really excited about it all. I asked Laura her favorite part- she said all of it, and she really liked the "good pink witch". Rachel of course liked the "bad witch", and thought it was awesome when she would appear.

We finished the day with Plaza, and we are about to kick it into high gear, as the rest of the week is going to be a bit crazy as we have something going on every evening until Friday. Eek!

It's a......

This afternoon I threw a "Gender Reveal Party" for my good friend. I have to give it to her, she has a lot of patience. She had her appointment last Monday, had the lady right down the name on paper and put in an envelope, and then waited until today to find out with everyone else...The only person who knew before was the lady doing the ultrasound, and a random cake baker. This had to have been the longest week in the world for her!

I cooked up some food Friday when I was home and store in my fridge until today. I brought over the food and some decorations, purchased some cute theme related cake balls and chocolate covered oreos, and we had a big ole party. The guests gave name suggestions for both genders, and those who brought a pack of diapers or another type of gift got their name put in a drawing for a prize.

The time came to cut the cake, and we all watched with anticipation.... and it was...
PINK! They will be having their 2nd little girl in August, and I am just so excited for them!

What I am doing for Lent....

I didn't give up anything for Lent. My religion doesn't really do that, (ok I use that kinda loosely, BUT I was baptized as a Methodist, and I attend services at a Methodist church from time to time, plus the college I went to was a Methodist based college). I have however decieded to go to church every Sunday during Lent. Ok, so that may not be anything overly special, but for me it is, as I don't go to church very much. Were talking a handful of times a year if even that....The bible study my neighborhood does just isn't my thing as the women are just so much older then me, and are pretty much the most christian people I have ever known, so you can imagine I just feel out of place....

So last Sunday and this Sunday I was at church. I am sorta hoping that possibly after Lent, we keep it up and go. The girls have really enjoyed it so far. So why don't I got? Well it's my husbands church, and he doesn't go because of his work schedule, and I don't know anyone else besides his mom and aunt, so hence the awkwardness. But I know I will meet people if I just open up to it, so I am trying.

I also have seen first hand that my children need to go regularly, because I don't know how to teach them about God and Jesus, and obviously they are not understanding enough either hence my daughter asking me this morning if the pastor was Jesus. I told her no, but that he was a good friend of his. Don't get me wrong, we talk some about God at home, and talk about praying, their preschool does the same thing, but obviously they need to go to church and learn more then what we can teach them at home.

So that's what were doing. So far so good!

Lancaster Pa trip 2011

Our trip to PA was a lot of fun. We left early Wednesday morning, and arrived there not long after lunch. Every year we stay at a Holiday Inn Express, which is right smack dab in the same parking lot of one of the major shopping outlets (yes!). We started our afternoon with hitting up the outlets. The shopping is fantastic there! Great shops, great prices, and clothing and shoes are tax free. I got a ton of stuff for the girls for spring and summer, and even things for next year (the Hartstrings outlet had some great stuff for fall/winter marked down to over 75% off so I stocked up on some things for even then). The picture below isn't even all of the stuff I bought laid out on the dining room table.

I did get a few things for myself, mainly some springy work clothes. I also got a Coach cross over style bag. This is a bag that is great when you just want something light and thin. It wont hold a lot, but there are times I don't feel like dragging around a huge bag. It's also great for traveling and a lot of people are actually referring to it as the new fanny pack. I will swear to you, you wont look like an idiot wearing it though like a fanny pack.

Besides spending money shopping we ate. We had breakfast twice at an Amish run restaurant called Dienner's. Super cheap, and the best freaking food EVER. Breakfast was served buffet style, with the usual, but all very fresh. They also had homemade sticky buns that were AMAZING.

We also visited a farmer's market where we bought some homemade jams, jelly's, pickles, etc.

We also bought homemade whoopie pies, and just walked around. They had great meats, and produce, but it would be hard to get that type of thing home, so we just looked at that stuff. My mom and my girls went on a Amish Buggy ride through the country. An Amish man gave us the ride, and told us more about their culture, and pointed out some things to us.

My girls and two other kids got to ride up front with him, and he let all of them steer the horses for a little while which was pretty exciting for them. This was Laura's 2nd trip, and Rachel's first. Next year Emily should be old enough to go, and I can't wait for her to see everything!

Snaps for the husband....

Well I am back from our shopping trip to Lancaster, Pa. I had a great time, and I will share more in another post. In the mean time I wanted to just give some praise to my hubby. He stayed home and took care of our youngest, who is still a little young for such a trip. I came back to a clean home. Not just throw everything somewhere really fast clean, but actually a deep cleaned home. He even cleaned the bathrooms, bought new little hooks for our sponges in the shower, did all the laundry (aka the huge pile that was NEVER ending). Seriously, he did so much laundry that he says if our washer and dryer both dry tomorrow, then he's ok with that as they have paid their dues.

And wait for it...he even finally painted a kitchen chair that I have been waiting for him to paint for over a year. I just can't be prouder.

My March goals have pretty much been tackled. I got some pictures framed finally, (I still have a few more to do, but will hopefully finish that up this week). The girls Easter dresses were purchased on our trip as well. I think I am going to throw in another goal though since I have pretty much secured those, and have time left. I was on Twitter, while I was away, and saw an amazing idea from someone else (aubetodd) on a cool use of a strawberry planter pot. Basically, instead of putting in a strawberry plant, you put in pansies in the hole like this:

(photo from growonme.com)

I think that is so pretty! I actually have one of those pots too, that is sitting all ugly on the side of my moms house. It was my grandmother's. I need to get the dirt out of it, and start from scratch, but I am game!

Party Planning....

In my quest to plan my friends Gender Reveal party, I am slowly getting things done. We nixed my design for the invite I had made, as we were short on time and it would be too hard to get them mailed out in time. I tried to find a program that would let me email my creation, but I couldn't figure it out, so I didn't just want to send it as an attachment because I am anal and thought it would look tacky. SO, I went with paperlesspost.com. I just found a party invite that was cute and I used basically my same wording.

As far as decorating I am in the middle of trying to get that figured out. I ordered a few cheap paper pomp poms to hang off of etsy (yes I could probably figure out how to make them, but again it's about saving some time and stress). I also picked up at Michael's a cute pink and blue bird that I going to work in the set up some how. I have also contacted a friend who has a local business making cake balls, other chocolate goodies. She is going to make a tray with cake balls, and chocolate covered oreos that have cute little baby things on them in pink and blue. I plan on also whipping up some dipped pretzel rods with pink and blue sprinkles.

For added decoration I am going to order/buy some colored M&M's in pink and blue and other candies to have in jars, etc for decoration.

As for the food, I am still tring to figure that out, but it will probably include meatballs, some chips and dips, sausage bites, and of course the cake!

It will all have to wait though as I am leaving in the morning to go to Lancaster, PA for some serious shopping though! So I will be MIA until then!

Photo's

A couple of weekends ago, we did a photo session with a local photographer, in which she waived her fees, but what she normally charged, would instead go to a local family, whose 2 year old son was recently diagnosed with cancer. The little boy was leaving a few days later to head to St. Judes for treatment for possibly the next year. When I heard about this, I definitly wanted to do something to help this family, and I thought it would be fun to get some pictures done of the girls. It was a win/win situation. These are the pictures we got back, and I really like them. God bless that sweet little boy.

A semi Sunny Saturday...

This morning Laura had her 2nd t-ball practice. She was a little less shy today, and was doing better catching balls, and having some fun with her team. I considered it a success, and then 3 minutes left until practice was over- WHAM, she gets hit in the face by a ball. She has a tiny cut inside her mouth that was bleeding a tiny bit, but she was upset and crying. Seconds before I was trying to tell her not to be afraid of the ball, and trying to assure her if she got hit, it wouldn't hurt. Ok so I am now a total liar in her eyes. My bad. Hopefully, she wont be traumatized by it.

We did have a fun rest of the day. The girls played with their toys outside, rode bikes, while we did some cleaning in the garage. I got some air in my bike tires too, so old pinky is ready to roll this spring. Laura suggested we have a picnic, so we complied, and had some sandwiches and chips out on a blanket in front of the house.

Dave smoked a turkey breast, (snaps for the smoker),so we will be having that this evening, along with a frozen pie I bought at foodlion, cause that's how I roll.

Me ME Me ME Me

A. Age: 30 (waaaaaahhhhh)

B. Bed size: KING.

C. Chore you dislike: cleaning bathrooms. It makes me want to jump in a bottle of bleach

D. Dogs: love them, but I can't handle the stress with the kids being young right now to care for one, and give it the attention that it needs. Seriously our last dog left us and moved next door.

E. Essential start to your day: Coffee, A Zone bar, and then I can get moveing

F. Favorite color: Pink, but as for clothes I am drawn towards black and white

G. Gold or silver: both

H. Height: 5' 6

I. Instruments you play(ed): nada

J. Job title: Wife, Mommy, Social Worker

K. Kids: 3 precious little girls

L. Live: The burbs.

M. Mom’s name: My mom? Her name is Elaine

N. Nicknames: Ra-Ra

O. Overnight hospital stays: Tonsils, having three babies, Kidney Stone drama of 2006

P. Pet peeves: I have a lot. Basically, last minute planning, people who are constantly late, men who leave the toilet seat up, etc etc

Q. Quote from a movie: I can't think of anything snappy, and I love movies, but my brain is just tired

S. Siblings: 2 half sisters

T. Time you wake up: I am a earlier riser for the most part.

U. Underwear: Yes, I wear it.

V. Vegetables you don’t like: Beets.

W. What makes you run late: The kids sometimes

X. X-rays you’ve had: a good number, multiple chest xrays, bones, etc

Y. Yummy food you make: anything by p-dub

Z. Zoo animal favorites: Giraffes are my favs!

Washing dishes with a smile

This past Sunday evening, we had a problem with our kitchen sink faucet. It had been a little leaky, and then on Sunday when you turned it out you would get sprayed with water. It turned out to just be a o-ring problem (whatever the heck that is, to me that sounds like a birth control method), and my husband and father in law were not able to find any o-rings at the local hardware stores in the size we needed. We were just going to order one, and then Dave and I just decieded maybe we would replace the entire faucet. When we built our house, we didn't put much thought into the faucets. We didn't know what to look for, so we just let the builder do his thing, and we got decent stuff, but nothing fancy. We figured we could always replace things like that later, and now it was later for the kitchen faucet.

We purchased this from Home Depot as we had a gift card, and after checking online Home Depot seemed to be the cheapest place that had what we liked by far. Seriously, Amazon.com had the same exact one for 200.00 more. We both liked the ones that had the pull down sprayer from the nozzle, so we picked one with the feature. Where our original sprayer already was now sits a built in soap dispenser.

Dave installed it last night without any issues (knock on wood), and Laura asked to be the first to wash her hands with it. I am loving my new faucet. You know your getting old when faucets excite you.

Growing on up....

My oldest, Laura has had a couple of big important days. Yesterday, she had her first tball practice. She was so excited to wear her new baseball cleats, and put to use her glove, bat, etc. Of course when she got there and saw she didn' know anyone on her team she became shy. She had fun though, and loosened up after a bit. I signed up to be the team mom, which I don't even know what that means, but it can't be that hard. I sure will let you know if it is though lol.

Today was the big scary screening at the school we want her to go to next year. I was a bit freaked out by it to be honest. I had talked to some people who had kids there, and got a littl bit of a heads up about what they ask, so Dave and I had been working with Laura to make sure she was prepared. Of course this caused us to go a bit overboard, and soon Laura was on to us, and told us to stop asking her questions. I think she was sick of us asking her 10x a day what her phone number was, how to count to 20, etc etc. I also got scared that Laura was going to get into a staring contest with the lady.

So, the head mistress took Laura to her office, and we basically sat there watching time creep by. When it was over she took us into her office and she went over the test she gave her. Laura did awesome, and one funny thing that happend was, Laura sat across from the teacher, and the teacher asked Laura if she could write her name for her. Laura wrote her name, but she wrote it upside down and backwards so that the teacher could read it from where she was sitting. So that that either means my daughter is a genious, or a jokester I guess lol. The bottom line with her testing is that she is very prepared for their school for next year, and they have accepted her. I am very proud of her!