Happy Easter!

Living, He loved me

Dying, He saved me

Buried, He carried my sins far away

Rising, He justified - freely forever

One day He's coming .... Oh Glorious Day!

{casting crowns}

 

Hope you had a blessed Easter...

He is risen, indeed!

Spring Break, Day 2 & 3 + a little something for Grandpa

I don't really mean to blog about our ENTIRE spring break.  But for now  I am having fun taking pictures and writing down our highlights so until I get tired of it, I will continue ... ;)

 

 On Tuesday we had our friends Katie & Cassidy over.  

The kids spent quite a bit of time pretending they were puppies, complete with painted on puppy faces.

Carter was not interested in playing puppies.  (He has zero interest in dressing up.)   He decided to paint a "masterpiece" instead.

We even let the kids put their plates down and eat lunch on the floor and drink their milk out of bowls.

The rest of the day involved some long naps from 2 out of 3 children.  Hallelujah!

This morning we woke up to more wet weather outside.... what to do, what to do.  I ended up taking the kids to the mall.  (My kids actually love the mall as long as it doesn't involve too much shopping.)  We did a wee bit of shopping but mostly we walked around and got soft pretzels and went to play near the fountain.  

We came home and our friend Lyn came over ... but boo hoo - I didn't take a picture.  She comes over and hangs out with us a lot.  The kids love her!  

While she was here - we used one of our mall purchases to do this:

We painted Chloe's tiny little toenails for the first time. :)

Later in the afternoon, Audrey decided she wanted to do this:

 So ... our friend Kelly worked her magic scissors and now Audrey looks like this:

 4 inches of hair GONE!  

I love it... and just in time for Easter.

And now, this video is just for Grandpa.  Remember when we were on vacation at the shore, and you & Grandma made the kids hot dogs, and you said "I'm having dos (2) hot doggies!"(said with a Spanish flair)... no???  Well, the kids remember ...  and they still think saying "Dos Hot Doggies" is a total hoot.  They can't say that without cracking up.  So last night we were talking about that vacation and Audrey & Carter decided that Chloe needed to learn how to say "Dos Hot Doggies" too.... so here  it is.

Spring Break, Day 1

It is day one of spring break.  Many people use this time to go on vacation.  However, we are not some of those people.... :)  So, it is up to yours truly to make this a fun and exciting time.

Actually, I am just shooting for keeping everyone occupied and from getting on each other's nerves....Honestly, last week I was kind of having a bad attitude about spring break and semi-dreading it.  But I decided that was not going to make it fun for any of us.  Really, what I needed was a PLAN. 

So despite the fact that THIS was calling my name:

I decided to mostly ignore the laundry and do something a bit more fun.

First we headed to the library.

Audrey took out about 5 books (on top of the 3 she brought home from school on Friday).

I asked if she had big plans to do a lot of reading over break.

She just gave me "the look" so I am guessing that the answer there is no. :)

Actually maybe this is another way in which Audrey is like my Mom.  They both love to hoard books!

 During nice weather, a trip to the library usually = a trip to the park across the street.  

It was fun to take all three of them to the park for once!

 As you can see,

 there were smiles all around.

 As you can also see, I was unsuccessful at getting my kids to keep their jackets on. :)

At the park, we ran into some neighbors and we all ended up going out to lunch together.

 We all seven squeezed around this little table.  Ha!

After going home for some rest time, the kids spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside with their friends.  

Audrey & Carter ended their day with Icee drinks.  Perhaps not my wisest parenting move because the kids were wired after that!  However, the kids were so funny that they were cracking Chad and I up.  And that, I believe, is a great way to end the first day of spring break. :)

Easter Egg Fun

This past weekend the kids went to 2 different Easter Egg Hunts!  

The first was our neighborhood hunt.

 See this lovely photo of my children walking down the block to the neighbor's house?

I'm glad I got this photo.

Because about 5.3 seconds later Carter had a massive unexplained meltdown and threw his bucket, Chloe started hunting the eggs before the official "start", and Audrey (aka the enforcer of every rule that she is not currently breaking) felt it was her duty to yank all the eggs out of Chloe's hands since - of course - it was not yet time to pick up eggs. Chloe started wailing, Audrey was yelling about Chloe not following the rules, and Carter was refusing to go and hiding behind a tree.  

Did I mention that the whole neighborhood was watching this fine display?

At this point, I almost packed them all up and headed home.  

Instead, I held my head up high (okay, not really) and marched us all to the egg hunt.  (Okay, maybe a little dragging was involved.)

Sometimes parenting reminds you that whatever control you think you have is really an illusion!

Thank God these neighbors all know us well enough that I did not find this totally embarrassing.

 As  you can see, we managed to recover from the aforementioned drama.  

I asked Carter & Chloe to look at the camera but they were WAY more interested in checking out their candy stash.

 

 Our hosts (who are also the Smiths....) have a new trampoline that was the hit of the party!

On Sunday our church hosted an Easter Egg Hunt for the community.  

I brought my camera but I did not manage to take many photos ... I jumped in to help at the face painting table so my hands were busy most of the time!  

The face painting was REALLY fun.  After you paint something on a kid's cheek and then hold up the mirror, the look on his/her face is priceless!

And the egg hunt?  Well guess what - Carter had ANOTHER meltdown. 
I think this kid has something against the Easter Bunny. 

No really - Carter has been seriously tired for days but he WILL. NOT. NAP!!

Despite all my attempts to get him to do so.  So I think that is the root of his problems this weekend. He usually is such a happy and easygoing boy.

Anyhow, I took these few photos of Audrey, who was watching all the face painting (and desperately wishing that she could do it).  I did let her paint a heart on Chloe's cheek.

 BUT -does this kid look grown up lately or what?  I almost fell over when I looked back at these pictures.  Wasn't she just in preschool???

 

I wonder how much longer she will think Easter Egg Hunts are fun.  

I am guessing that she is going to be too cool for them in a few short years ....  :(

Spring Break has now started .... enjoy the time off everyone!

God is so Good

 

Out of the mouths of babes.

Amy's Day Off

Well, I didn't LITERALLY have the day off.  But it was pretty darn close!

The last few weeks have been quite busy "mom-wise" around here.  First Chad was gone for a week and I was home alone with the 3 kiddos.  Then his parents came for a visit for a few days (which wasn't work, but did involve cleaning and picking up and trying to keep the kids from undoing the work I had done to clean up ...)  Then Chad had a busy week at work last week which involved him leaving early in the morning and getting home late some days.  Then last Wednesday he went to the Phillies game with a friend (which I had no problem with at all but did mean putting the kids to bed by myself - again).  Then it rained for a few days which meant that the kids were all trapped in the house with lots of energy and not enough space to run it off.... etc.  All the "stuff of life" but tiring nonetheless.

So - late last week Chad said to me - I think on Saturday you should go out for awhile and get yourself some new clothes if you want. 

Then later he said - I think we need a date night.  Do you want to see about a babysitter?

Wowzers!

So Saturday became a very good day. :)

I took Audrey to her gymnastics class and then worked out.  Which I can't say I totally enjoy but I do feel good about myself when I'm done.

Then I came home for lunch, put Chloe down for a nap and took off for the store!

Do you know how nice it is to shop without kids?  REALLY NICE.  I actually went in and out of the dressing room about 3 times trying on different things ... and had time to think about whether something actually looked decent or whether it was something I could really use or whether I really liked it or not.  Half the time I feel like clothes buying involves grabbing something off the rack, hoping it fits, and bringing it home and then regretting it and taking it back. :(

After my shopping expedition I came home and got ready to go out for dinner.

We went out for Mexican at On The Border.  Which has fabulous chips, salsa, fajitas and strawberry margaritas.  ;)

We walked around a bit and then headed over to Barnes & Noble for some browsing and coffee. 

AAH!  What a day.  And this time I didn't get a speeding ticket! ;)  You can read all about that here.

In other news ...  I don't know what on earth other parents do to get all the beautiful photos on their blogs .... but lately this is the best I can do.

 Today Carter started T-ball and had his first practice (with Chad as assistant coach).  I thought I would take a quick picture as they got ready to leave.  And this is what I got:  Booger Boy.

 

 Carter had "Crazy Hat Day" at school on Wednesday.  I found a great crazy hat in our dress up bin but of course he refused to wear that.  He wanted to wear his BASEBALL hat (I think the baseball thing must be genetic).  So Chloe was walking around wearing the crazy hat and looked so cute ... but of course the minute I got out the camera this is what happened...

 I don't even remember why I was taking this picture but obviously I missed the "moment."

Please, doesn't anyone else out there have this problem???  :)