Obligatory Easter Post and One Shout Out to Livi

I'm working backwards in my blogging world now, because SOOO much has happened in the last 2 weeks I cannot keep up! But I do want to document it. I will finish the Washington D.C. post soon, and there will be a blog dedicated to an adorable new member of our family followed close behind!

But first Easter!! As you know I took a break from social media as my lenten challenge. I will honestly report that I did not make it the entire time. I broke lent on March 22nd at 6:36 p.m. because that is when my first and most adorable niece was born.

And unfortunately my will power is like a dam, once cracked you can't stop it. I will rationalize that since I did not take Sundays off during lent, I did technically fast from twitter, facebook and instagram for 40 days. Does that count?!?!

Anyway, here is our Easter Weekend.

We started off with a little egg decorating. With three kiddos I wasn't willing to get too creative so we just used a kit where all they had to do is squirt dye in the bag and swirl the egg around. Easy Peasy!

Then we headed to Sis's to give this little Easter blessing, Olivia Hastings, a treat and some snuggles. Please notice the little plush ducky is as big as she is! Small but perfect!

Everyone needed to get in on the action of loving on this angel.

Then on Saturday we headed to Breakfast with the Bunny and an Easter Egg hunt at my Mom's church. 

Table decorations!

Somebody was not feeling the Easter Bunny this morning.

But she perked right up when it was time to hunt for candy filled eggs! We had to do the hunt inside because of rainy weather. They separated kids by age and sent them to different parts of the church. Wesley hunted in the old parsonage, which was crazy to me because the when I was young I was close friends with the pastor's daughter and spent many many afternoons and nights in this now abandoned house!

Sunday morning we had fun going through all the goodies the Easter Bunny had left us!

And then we got all fancy to celebrate at church! I love our church so much and I love that my kid loves to dance in the aisles to the worship music! I do not love when this makes me sappy and emotional and I start crying in public...but then again it is such a happy day, bring on the tears.

Helping Dad run the music slides

Little poser

Family picture

Then we headed to my Mom's for a delicious Easter lunch and it just so happens the Easter Bunny had just stopped by there too!

Happy Easter friends!

Happy Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day! I love sparkles and bows, pink and red, hearts and candy. I love the gaudiness of glitter and the excessive use of ribbons.  I even like preparing Wesley's Valentine treats! I mean I bought her present back on January 10th!

So each year, I first have to decide on a theme. Her first year in school (2yr old) I did felt conversation heart lollipop holders, that took FOR-EV-ER, and she only had 12 kids in her class that year! So  I vowed to take it down a notch the next year. And I did. For 2012 I did a fish theme. I made her a cute little fishy love shirt and Matt designed fishy valentines and we gave goldfish cracker snacks.

This year I let Wesley pick her own theme. It was hard for me to give up control, but I want to instill the importance of following a theme early, so I figured it was time. I showed her the blog post from last year, and asked her what kind of valentines she would want to give out this year. I was so sure we would be doing My Little Pony or fairies or princesses. But she quickly decided she wanted to do birds!

I started scanning Pinterest and my embroidery blogs for bird valentine ideas and we went with the tag line "How tweet it is to be loved by you!" And I bought a monogram design for her Valentine shirt.

This was back in January btw.

Oh how the time escaped me. This past Saturday I realized I have to actually act on all the "tweet" planning. So I started with her giveaway treats. I had decided to do heart shaped bird seed cakes. I mean what 4 year old needs more candy right? So I got heart shaped silicone muffin pans, bird seed and clear gelatin.

First you melt 2 packs of gelatin in one cup of water, as soon as it dissolves you can turn off the heat and stir in 2 cups of bird seed. I double this recipe and it filled 12 hearts. After you fill your hearts, stick a piece of a drinking straw through the top to punch a hole for the string you will tie in later to hang it on a tree branch. Then you put them in the fridge to set for 2 hours.

Here is my first batch.

You can kinda see the little heart imprint on the bottom.

I did a little less bird seed the second time around, because the tops of my heart crumbled a little in the first batch and I wanted more gelatin to seed ratio. And the second batch did turn out a little more "solid"

Adorbs, right?!?!

I was so proud of myself for getting it all done. After all 24 were completely hard I popped them into plastic bags to prepare to staple the valentine on top.

Then it was Sunday, church..nap..Grizzlies Game...prepare for work week...etc. So I kinda forgot to do any other preparing.

Then, in a blink, it was Tuesday night. And it hit me. Wesley's class was having a "Sweetheart Ball" on Thursday (V-Day) so she couldn't wear her shirt on Thursday, she needed to have it by Wednesday. Which at that point was 4 hours away. So after bedtime routine, I headed to the sewing machine. Only I had forgotten 1. I had not bought a shirt to sew on and b. all my thread was in the guest room where guests were sleeping. Mom FAIL. I started digging through my blank tee shirt reserves to see if I had anything that could work ( and would just sneak very very quietly for thread later) and guess what I found.

The Lord provided a bird themed Valentine dress! My sweet mother had found it at good will years ago  and it just had a few ripped seams (hence being in my sewing box). I stitched the seams up and ironed that sucker. Bird outfit, done!

I headed back downstairs to tie strings on the bird seed cakes and staple the bags closed. So pleased with myself for already finishing them days before. Oh the pride before the fall.

I went to get the bowl of hearts and this is what I found.

They had MOLDED!!! And SPROUTED!!! GROSS!! 

In three short days, there was just enough moisture in the jello and heat in the plastic bags for my hard work to spoil. 

I was so very depressed. By now it was almost 9pm and it took 4 hours to make 24 hearts, and I would need to go buy more gelatin :( I just couldn't do it. I was too tired. And scared it would only happen again overnight. So I threw all my hard work out, to the birds (literally) and instead bagged up plain old birdseed for the kids to spread at home.

Whomp, Whomp :( Mom Fail number 2!

None the less, Wesley took birdy Valentines, and wore a bird love dress to school the next day to prepare for Thursday.

And last night we played fashion show to pick just the right "ball gown" and put in our soft curlers to prepare for the big dance today.

And this morning she woke to find sweet treats, a Valentine unicorn, and sweet blonde curly hairs. 

And all is right with the world, with or without heart shaped bird seed cakes and homemade Valentine shirts!

Christmas Program Time

As a music teacher it is to my ultimate joy and delight to plan a program. This year, for Christmas,  I planned 1 and 1/2 and got to go to a pretty darn cute one I didn't have to plan!

The one I did direct this year was called "Elfis Impersonator" It was the story of a strange looking elf who never stopped singing and dancing and had trouble fitting in at the North Pole. The other elves accused him of being an impersonator! Of course they all learn their lesson that we must except others differences and not judge a book by its cover etc. Too cute!

In the show we had 19 speakers, 18 guitars, 40 chorus members, 3 third grade classes, two Christmas trees and an Elvis Impersonator. It was a huge production, but well worth it. Everyone seemed to love it.


The show I did not direct was even cuter though. Mostly because of the little girl in it. I'm partial! Here are a couple of short videos from Wee's Christmas production.

Yep, I'm proud! This is the first year she has really sung. In years past she has just stood there, one year she even held her hands over her face the whole time. So we've come a long way.

And finally, my last Christmas music presentation I only count as a half. Not because of it's meaning to me, but because of the sweet angels in it. You see, it will be our first time to have the children sing in worship at church and we are a young church, so most of our children are very young. The biggest age group is the 1-3 range so there isn't a whole lot of understandable singing going on. But they are adorable. Unfortunately, I did not get very many shots of this one, because we were herding the babies in and out which is a lot like herding wet cats so there is no chance to stop and take a picture. Here are a couple I stole from the interweb.

 Merry Christmas!

Week late Halloween Post

Happy {late} Halloween Y'all. Hope you had a sugar rushed day! We had a great one as usual, because Halloween is the coolest.

Here are some quick shots and notes from our holiday.

First up the annual carnival at Wes's school! This year she was big enough to get into the bouncy slide thing!

Sweet friends admiring each others costumes.

Daddy giving "pointers"

Then it was off to Zoo Boo, Wee had way more fun with the free zoo rides all night, she could care less about more candy (for now).

True story: For this pic I wanted her to stretch her arms like the bat, so I told her "Do like Tony Allen" and it worked! Such a good little Grizz Fan #gogrizz

Then it was time for the main event! Trick or treating!!

Playing with her shadow, so apropos 

Such an independent girl!

Trick or treating is best done with best friends!

 {Even if you are pretending to be sworn mortal enemies}

Happy Halloween 2012!!