Belated Birthday

Happy Birthday to my best friend, father of my children, love of my life. (yeah, I'm super cheesy! But, it's my blog, I'll be cheesy if I want to!)
So, Saturday was Robert's birthday. The kids and I made him breakfast in bed. He requested pancakes with peach syrup and we were happy to indulge him. We even went all out and made buttermilk pancakes from scratch! Isaac pulled out the bisquik and said, "Wait, I thought this was from scratch!" So, yeah I don't make "real" pancakes or waffles very often. I go with what's quick and easy. Plus, I can't tell a difference because I don't eat pancakes or waffles! I know, I'm weird.

Maggie dropped egg shells in the batter and they thought this was hilarious!

We spent the day relaxing, playing games and had some fun at the park until it started to rain.
I took Robert out for a romantic birthday dinner at The Bluebird. We hadn't been there in awhile and it reminded me of when we dating and first married. Back before children we went on a whole lot more of dinner dates! Anyway, it was nice to get away and have a quiet meal together. The food was delicious! We even brought some chocolates back for the kids, so they weren't too mad at us for not taking them too.
Daisey took our picture as we were leaving.

We skipped dessert at the restaurant because we had a delicious chocolate mousse crunch cake at home waiting for us.

The recipe comes from my amazing new cookbook but you can also get it here at Our Best Bites.

Is it as good as it looks? Why, yes. Yes, it is!
We didn't have enough candles so we had to make a 31 out of the candles we did have.
Make a wish!

We also made rocky road ice cream in our ice cream maker. It was so yummy! But, I forgot to take pics.
The kids were thrilled to give their daddy his present! They spent a lot of time picking out all of his favorite treats. We watched "Gnomeo and Juliet" and Daddy was nice to share his yummy snacks!

Barf Bucket

After the week we've had I thought I would share a brilliant idea with you. Without further ado, here is the barf bucket:

Now, I can't take credit for this idea, it was the genius of my sister in law, Angie.
You take a clean ice cream bucket, line it with a grocery bag and add a couple paper towels in the bottom. All three of my little sickies were carrying one of these around last week. After they get sick in the bucket, the paper towels soak up the "stuff". Then you simply remove the bag, tie it up and throw it in the trash. Easy clean up!
When we go on car trips we add layer after layer of bags and paper towels. That way when one is used up you can remove the bag, dispose of it and reuse the bucket.
Disclaimer: This is only easy clean up if your child actually uses the bucket! *sigh*

5 Things That Make Me Happy!

Fresh salsa. Yum!

Glitter toes!

Spring flowers...finally....

Daisey's "to do" list. She'd kill me for posting it but it's just so cute!

Purple baby blanket #4 complete! See honey? I finish things!

Mother's Day

To all the mothers, mamas, madres, grandmothers, future mothers and mothers who have passed on. Happy (belated) Mother's Day to you!

Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a mother. When I was a little girl I had little dollies that I would mother all day long. In the morning I would get them up out of their cradle and get them dressed. I would feed them and change them and take them on walks. At night I would put their pajamas on and put them to bed. I remember singing a song about growing up and being a mother to little babies and giving them cookies and milk and yellow balloons. Anyone remember this song? Back then I wanted 6 little babies. And now? 3 is plenty!

Motherhood, as it turns out, is more than cookies and milk and yellow balloons. There was nothing about being puked on, peed on, pooped on in the song, not to mention fighting, screaming, slamming doors or preteen angst. HOWEVER, I wouldn't trade being a mother for anything in the world. There is not greater honor or blessing. I feel incredibly grateful to have these three amazing little people call me Mom!

Not only did I get "breakfast in bed", I got flowers and chocolate! They must love me!

Happy Easter!

Daisey is a girl who just has to know WHY! Even as a toddler "just because" didn't cut it and if I didn't know WHY, then I'd better find out! She's still the same way today. So, when she wanted to know WHY we celebrated the Easter Bunny on Easter I turned to Whyzz (this site has saved me from looking like an idiot many a time.) It turns out that rabbits and eggs are both symbols of rebirth and fertility, representing Spring. Ok, I could have come up with that one on my own, but the Easter Bunny also derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch legend the "Oschter Haws", or the Easter hare. Their tradition was to have the children put out baskets or bonnets the night before Easter. If they'd been good the Oschter Haws would leave gifts in the baskets. So, there you have it, just in case you ever wondered or in case you have a Daisey at your house! You can read more about it here .
Easter is always a favorite time of year at our house. The kids get so excited about it coming! It's the first "Spring holiday". The calender says that the first day of Spring was March 20th, but let's face it, in Utah Spring doesn't really show up until mid April, even May. We're so sick of winter here that we've been doing fun Spring crafts and activities at our house for months!

Tp roll bunnies! Found here. The kids played with these little guys for 3 hours after we made them. No lie! We buy them nice toys to play with and they'd rather play with tp rolls!

Pom pom chickies! Again, they played with them for hours!

Isaac found these wooden eggs at the dollar store and really wanted to paint them. I think they turned out great! (from right to left: M,D,I)

We made this little banner out of paint chips. They did not play with it for hours. But, I think it turned out pretty cute.

Since Christmas I've been a little obsessed with these rag garlands or "ragamuffin garlands" as Maggie likes to call them. Of course, I had to make one for Spring. Mags likes to help me tie the rags on.

And, here she is in her Vanna White pose, showcasing our Spring fireplace mantle!

We made crepe paper carrots, compliments of Martha.

These eggs were fun to crochet. And I have to brag on the apothecary jars a little. I wanted to buy these ones from Pottery Barn but the prices are a little steep (starting at $39.95!) So, you know what I did? I bought 2 glass vases and 2 glass candlesticks from the local dollar store and glued them together with E-6000. Ta Da! Not bad for $4?

Daisey crocheted these little "egg hats". No pattern, she just thought that the eggs needed hats. She's left handed and taught herself how to crochet after watching me do it. She's amazing!
The bunny was made with felt and love. It can be found here.

The egg "specimen art" is made with dollar store glitter eggs and a D.I. frame painted black.

When I saw this crochet flower garland, I knew I had to make one! I made my mom one too.

This spring wreath is my favorite! I might just keep it up all year! My friend, Clarissa and I had seen a lot of burlap wreath tutorials floating around online, so we decided to try making one ourselves. It's really just burlap, jute, fabric rosettes and felt leaves and a lot of hot glue. You should check out Clarissa's too. I kind of wish I had kept mine sweet and simple but once I got started with those fabric flowers I just couldn't help myself! I hung it up right after I finished it in hopes that Mother Nature would see that Spring had Sprung! It didn't help. But, it makes me smile every time I see it so that counts for something!

I also made a "ragamuffin" wreath for my mother in law.

My cousin, Shirley at the Ribbon Retreat Blog made the cutest bunny bows and I just had to make some for my girls! I originally made a brown one because I was out of white ribbon. Maggie refused to wear it, insisting that the Easter Bunny was white. So, I had to buy some white ribbon and make a white one too. In the end Maggie decided she preferred the brown one because she wears a lot of brown. And Daisey, who didn't even want one to begin with fell in love with the white one. Go figure!

We made cookies and chocolates! Yum!



We dyed eggs on Saturday night. It's fun to see how they still get so excited over dyeing Easter eggs and how creative they get with it!

They woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed Easter morning, ready for their egg hunt!


This one thinks he's hilarious after throwing eggs at Daddy!

They each got Hex bugs in their baskets. They've been wanting these little creepy, crawly battery powered bugs for months.

Yum! Peeps!

Guess what else we did with Peeps?

That's right, we lit them on fire!

Roasted peeps are surprisingly delicious! They are sugary and caramelized on the outside and gooey and warm on the inside.

Also, we forgot to leave out our dyed eggs for the bunny to hide. Oops! So, we got to have an outdoor egg hunt after all. It was too cold in the morning but by afternoon it was pretty nice outside.

Yes, that's an extra child you see there but we'll claim her. Ari joined us for the egg hunt. Then Grandpa Kent teamed up with her to help her get ahead! So cute!

Eggs in the tree? That's just mean Daddy!


Gotcha!

We used the dyed eggs to make deviled eggs. Here's Maggie helping! They don't look so good, I won't lie, but they tasted delicious anyway.

We had Britt's mom, Britt's dad, Robert's mom and Britt's brother and his kids over for an Easter dinner. I really should have taken pictures but I kind of forgot. So, you'll have to take my word for it that dinner was amazing. We had a glazed ham, funeral potatoes, a green salad, corn, rolls. Yum! Diane brought a lemon cake and ice cream for dessert. Double yum!