Easter ~ Dying Eggs

Nothing too out of the ordinary here, but wonderful tradition, nonetheless.  I remember doing this as a kid and I loved it back then, so it's no surprise that I would want to make this a tradition with my family.  In fact, before we even had kids, my sisters came to visit one Easter and we dyed eggs for fun!

2007

Last year Emrie and I had a blast, even though she needed a LOT of help!

This year was simple and sweet and Emrie got the hang of it quickly (except she kept asking if she could drink the 'juice'.  No you may not drink the egg DYE)

I don't like to let the hard boiled eggs go to waste, so we either eat them for a snack, or do what we did last year and use them for cobb salad, egg salad or deviled eggs.

Easter ~ Resurrection Eggs

When you find something you just LOVE LOVE LOVE, don’t you want to tell everyone.  That’s how I feel about resurrection eggs for Easter. 

This wasn’t my idea, I stole it off Pinterest, but it is such a great way to teach the story of Easter to kids in a tangible way, that I had to share it with you!

Resurrection Eggs are a dozen plastic eggs that have symbols in them which represent different aspects of the Easter story.

You can buy Resurrection Eggs on line at Oriental Trading Company and there are all kinds of books you can buy that go along with it if you just Google it, but I made mine for FREE (I had everything on hand).

I also found this AMAZING blog called Happy Home Fairy and OH. MY. GOODNESS. there are dozens of wonderful religious Easter ideas on there.  They also had this toddler version of resurrection eggs that is great and far more age appropriate.

Here is the list of symbols in my eggs (I got it from this website)

Here are ours:

1. A picture of a donkey (Jesus' triumphal entry) Printed one off Google

2. Palm leaf (Palm Sunday) Used a leaf from the front yard

3. A cup (from the Last Supper) We used a small lid to a water bottle

4. A flower (representing the Garden where Jesus prayed) I had scrapbook flowers

5. Some coins (Judas’ betrayal) Just pennies

6. A piece of leather (symbolizing the whip) Cut up an old leather watchband

7. A thorn (crown of thorns) Cut off a stem from our rose bushes out back

8. A paper cross (Jesus had to carry it) I cut one out of red felt

9. A dice (represent the soldiers who gambled for his clothes) took it from a board game

10. A nail (crucifixion) toolbox

11. A rock (to cover the tomb) from my vase filler

12. An empty egg (to remember the empty tomb!) Easiest one, but the MOST IMPORTANT!

 

Emrie loves them (and understands some of the symbols like the cross, the rock and nails) and it seemed to go very well when used with the kiddos in MOPPETS. 

I see this becoming an Easter tradition at our house for sure!

Easter ~ The Bunny

Every family has holiday traditions.  Some start intentionally, with lots of thought and preparation.  Others begin accidentally without any forethought or planning.  Regardless of how your family traditions came to be, they are all special and meaningful in their own right.

With Easter just one week away, I am going to share some of our little family's simple traditions.

Tradition #1 ~ The Easter Bunny

Last year my girlfriend, Kasie, and I decided on a whim to take our kids to get their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny.  We didn't realize it cost $18 for a 5x7 (ummm, OUCH), so once we got there, we felt we needed to go through with it anyway.

Six months pregnant with Aven, I didn't anticipate being IN the picture with my darling 15 months old:)

2012

This year we were on our way to the Children's Museum, and on my way I changed my mind and decided to head to the mall for picture session instead!

As you can tell, things went slightly better this year (even if they don't look all that excited)!

2013

Anecdotal story about the Easter Bunny this year:

I hadn't said a word to Emrie about last year because I didn't want to put any thoughts in her head.  So I was shocked when we were standing in line waiting for the bunny to get there and she said, "I cried".  I asked her what she meant, and she said, "I seed the bunny, I cried." NO WAY she could have remembered that from last year, right?!?!?!

Then the bunny showed up and Emrie exclaimed, "Mom, she a doctor." Okay, I had to know why she thought that, so I asked and her response was, "because she wearin' glasses." I don't know what is more strange, that she thinks that doctors wear glasses or that the Easter Bunny is a girl.

Go With Your Gut

Everyone says that when you become a mom you get that sixth sense. That 'MOM' instinct.

Tuesday I was about to post on Facebook for advice on potty training.  I was going to ask other people's thoughts about whether I was giving up too soon or if Emrie was ready or not.

But I didn't. 

Now, one day later, I am SO glad I didn't.

Because while I know many of you would have given me encouragement or thoughtful advice, that really wasn't what I needed.

What I needed was to listen to my 'MOM' instinct and my 'MOM' instinct was saying loud and clear...THIS IS NOT WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU AND EMRIE RIGHT NOW!

I needed to trust my decision based on my 'MOM' instinct and not be persuaded by other's well intended advice.

Call it your conscience, your gut, inner voice...call it whatever you like...it's the same as that 'MOM' instinct (for what it's worth, I don't think moms are the only ones who have this sixth sense by the way...we ALL have it).

There are times when you can gather data, facts and logic or you need to seek advice from friends, family or others.

And then sometimes you need to just go with your gut!

Trust yourself!!! Mom friends and non-mom friends alike!!!

You don't always need affirmation from others about your decisions!

GO WITH YOUR GUT!!!

Potty Training: EPIC FAIL

Expect the best, prepare for the worst was my motto going into potty training.  NOTHING PREPARED ME FOR MORE AWEFUL THAN WORSE!

According to all the ‘signs’ she was ready.  She would bring me a diaper and wipes when she wanted me to change her, she would sometimes cry if her diaper was wet, she was SOOO excited about her big girl potty, she talked about her Dora underwear all the time, she always asked relevant questions while I was on the potty (annoying, but true)…SHE WAS TELLING ME SHE WAS READY….RIGHT!?!?!?!

Silly Indiana weather was forcing us to stay inside all week, so this was the perfect time to potty train, we weren’t going anywhere anyway.

Monday, March 18^th; My birthday!!! Also, the day we would learn to use the toilet!!! WOO HOO!!!

“Emrie, do you know what today is?”
“Mommy’s birthday” (great answer, great training, Phil)
“Yeah, and today we are going to wear big girl underwear and learn to go on the potty!!!!” (huge smiles from both of us)

She picked out her own underwear.

We took a picture to mark the moment and texted it to daddy.

Put out the sticker chart and ‘special potty juice’ (she has only had juice one other time in her life, on an airplane, and she talked about it all the time, so I was pulling out ALL the stops). My ‘plan’ was to set the timer for every 15 minutes (half of the ‘recommended’ time in the articles I’d read).  We were SET!

9:00 am ~ I had her sit on the potty and drink her ‘special potty juice’

10:00 am ~ 1 hour later and she still hadn’t gone.  She was getting restless so I said she could get up and I set the timer for 10 minutes so we would sit and try again and literally as the timer was going off she stood and peed on the carpet.

FIRST FAILURE

10:11~ Okay, rocky start, but here we go. I set the timer for 15 minutes

10:20~ She stood watching TV and peed on the carpet and didn’t even look up from the TV, just kept watching.  When I asked her how it felt to have wet underwear she said, “it’s warm” and went back to watching TV until I told her she had to take the underwear off and start over.  She was unfazed.

SECOND FAILURE

10:45~ We made it accident free until the timer went off.  We sat on the potty and after 10 minutes of sitting there she hadn’t gone so she asked if she could get up and I said yes.  As SOON as she got her underwear on she peed, right there on the bathroom floor in FRONT of the potty.

THIRD FAILURE

11:15~ Tried the potty, nothing

11:30~ Tried the potty, nothing

11:45~Tried the potty, sat there for 10 minutes.  This time she stood up from the potty and her underwear weren’t even on she just peed standing over them.

FOURTH FAILURE!

12:00~ Girlfriend goes down for a nap and mom takes some time to regroup!!!

0-4 before nap time…not quiet what I had expected.

2:00~ Mom thinks she has gotten smart…we won’t wear underwear anymore because maybe that is giving her a false sense of security

2:00~ Emrie wakes up from her nap with a dry diaper (because she has peed unsightly amounts all over my carpet earlier, of course)

2:10~Run downstairs put her on her potty, wait 3 minutes….SHE PEEEEEEEEEED!!!!

FIRST SUCCESS!!!!

SO excited I gave her TWO oreo bites and a sticker and called Nana to tell her the big news!

2:15 walk back out into the living room with the timer set for 15 more minutes

2:25~PEEEEEEEED ALLLL OVER THE CARPET

FIFTH FAILURE

2:30~Put her on the potty and sat on the floor next to her there with the iPad for the next hour, she went once at some point, but it was so small I don’t even know when she actually did it.  She got a treat and we made a big deal about it anyway.

MINI SECOND SUCCESS

The rest of the day we had 1.5 (Phil kind of caught her in the middle) more accidents and 1 more success (She went when I put her on the potty).

DAY ONE:  3-9.

Phil said that’s not a bad batting average, but my carpet and my nerves would say otherwise!

DAY TWO

8:00am~ No underwear today…went straight to the potty and 3 minutes later PEEEEED in the potty!

FIRST SUCCESS TODAY!

8:10~ Peed on the carpet

FIRST FAILURE

8:20~ Peed on the carpet

SECOND FAILURE

8:35~ Went in, sat on the potty for 3 minutes…nothing

8:39~ Walked out into the living room and PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!

THIRD FAILURE

I had kept my cool all day yesterday (hey, accidents are part of the learning process)…BUT COME ON! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD IN THE EVER POURING RAIN!!!  YOU WERE JUST ON THE TOILET!!!!

I may have lost it a little bit on her….”WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHERE DO BIG GIRLS GO POTTY?”

In less than a day and a half we were 4-13….TERRIBLE!

I FINALLY HAD MY EPIPHANY!

SHE ISN’T READY!!!!!!!

Well duh…she never asked to go to the potty, she doesn’t care when she does pee all over herself, she didn’t get that excited when she did pee in the toilet and the ONLY ONE WHO WAS GOING INSANE WAS ME!!!!

I had said we would give it the full out effort for 3 days before I decided to stop or not, but I couldn’t do it.  I could not last one more minute of being on edge.  I could not last one more minute cleaning up pee off the carpet.  I couldn’t last one more minute of being frustrated with her.

So here’s to calling the carpet cleaner and trying again when the weather is nicer and she can pee outside all she needs to until she gets it!

Last Year in My 20's!

Twenty Nine

Veintinueve (Spanish)… neunundzwanzig (German) … negenentwintig (Dutch)…vingt-neuf (French)…

29

The last year of my 20’s. 

I love birthdays, I love parties, I love celebrations and who doesn’t love presents!

With each birthday I celebrate the memories of the past year and anticipate the moments of the coming year.  Thankfully, I don’t really get hung up on the number of candles on my cake.  One year older, one year wiser and one more year of experiences under my belt, in my scrapbook and in my heart forever!

Typically I don’t set goals or make resolutions with my birthday, but this year I have made a pledge of sorts to myself.

This year I would like to honor my last year in my 20’s by being more spontaneous!

While I am fairly decisive, I am usually VERY practical and calculated in my decisions.  This year I would like to throw caution to the wind a little more often (still within reason of course, nothing that will land me in jail I hope), especially with things of less significance.

So if I dye my hair an unnatural color, strike up a conversation with a stranger, wear something really bold (ie. ugly), paint my front door orange, pack my kids up for a random road trip to give Phil the weekend off, host a pool party last minute without a planned menu and a trip to the grocery store, get a tattoo (still not likely), buy a Vegas weekend package on Thursday night, etc., well, you’ll know why!

The one spontaneous (rather impulsive) thing I will NOT be doing is adopting a pet…last time that didn’t turn out so well…make that mistake only once…chalk that up to the wisdom with age;)

To celebrate my birthday weekend this year, Phil and I went to dinner with his parents to one of my FAVORITE places, Ocean Prime.  Then Phil and I went out to watch the UFC fight, but didn't stay out late enough to see it (that's when you know we're getting old;).

 

 

Amazing petite filet with glazed blue cheese...Um, Yum!

 

Black raspberry sorbet...a tease of spring to come

 

And for those of you who know my husband, you only have to take one guess at what he gave me for a present....yup, you guessed it, a watch!

The rose gold and white was a nice selection...thanks honey!

Then ON my actual birthday, after I woke up to this sweet little face, we started potty training (what the HECK was I thinking).  Let's just say it was, um, less than unsuccessful!  I'm sure you can look forward to a blog about that at some point!

 

Here’s to a great last year in my 20’s…one full of
adventure I hope!

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Just for fun you should read this whole blog with an Irish accent:)

Our St. Patty's day started off earlier than I would have liked...at 5:45 am when Emrie decided it was time to wake up...AND STAY UP! So we got dressed in various shades of green (nothing over the top or planned out) and headed off to church for the lovely, early, geriatric 8:00 am service (which we always go to and every week contemplate going to the later service, but our kids always wake up early so why not just go for it!)

Nothing special at our house this year (no leprechauns visited, no green milk or lucky charms, not even a new green bow haha!).

The one little fun thing we did do was a "shamrock hand painting", but even that disappointed Emrie, because she kept asking if she could use purple instead...my little lass, shamrocks are green;)

Cheers to an uneventful and thankfully ordinary St. Patrick's Day 2013!

Failing Miserably

I fail miserably as a parent.  EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I fail at least once an hour.  I YELL, I IGNORE, I WISH MY NAME WASN'T MOM. The list goes on and on.

And then I have conversations in the car like this one that remind me that although I am failing, I am doing some things right too:

Emrie: Mom, what's that? (pointing out the window)
Me: They are building a church
Emrie: It's a house for Jesus?
Me: Yeah, it's like a house for Jesus where we go to worship him.
Emrie: Mom, Jesus love me.
Me: Yes, Emrie, Jesus loves you so much.
Emrie: I love Jesus too.  And I love A-fin, 'cus her my sister!

I fail miserably as a parent.

 

But every once in a while I see glimpses of hope and I am encouraged.

Burlap Wreath

It is hard for me to decorate from January through March.  The weather is blah and there aren't any holidays I love decorating for (I know, Valentine's and St. Patrick's, but I am kinda 'blah' about those as far as decorating goes).

I dug around in my craft room (WOWZERS, it needs a major make over)

 

and scrounged up some items I had laying around (it's amazing I can find anything in that mess)

Here is the project I came up with for my door. It will probably hang there until the end of March when I officially announce that it is SPRING (regardless of the weather, April brings spring in my house).

I started with this straw wreath (I had left over from this wreath project)

 

 

I cut burlap into strips and hot glued them around the wreath.

 

 

 I made some weird bow out of burlap strips and glued it on (I don't recommend gluing the bow on until the very end...you'll see why in a second)

Stencil your house numbers on the side (here is why you don't glue the bow on first, my numbers ran into the bow a little too much...oh well!)

Not the fanciest of projects, but good enough for me!

Maui ~ Aloha

The recap of our trip can be read here: our rocky start, the first two days by ourselves, meeting the rest of the group, the Luau, our time with friends and whale watching first.

But it was finally time to go home.  We had a fantastic week, but missed our girls.  We were refreshed and ready to get back to life!

Our little good bye present out over the sugar cane fields.

God's promise that He is always with us!!!