Easter Prep... Eggs and stuff...

Dyeing Easter Eggs is always fun, but I go overboard and buy way too many eggs, and after a while, Ross and I end up sitting around the table by ourselves!










I did get this kit from Target this year that created the CUTEST jungle animal eggs, here's a preview...







Ross and Zoey did some cake frosting... We made a super adorable cake too! Found on pinterest... love!








And, because this is just a part of our daily life...

blockade

The other day I had a bloody nose. It happens kind of a lot, especially whenever the weather changes, so this isn't something foreign to the kids. Usually they just see me holding my nose with tissue and say, "bloody nose?" and I say yeah... but this one was kind of bad and lasted a long time, and well, I guess it grossed Max out a little... all I heard was him racing up the stairs saying he wasn't coming down until it was done. He just went into his room. I was fine a couple minutes later and forgot the whole thing until later that night, I tried to walk into Max's room. I pushed the door open a couple of inches and it stopped! I was like, wha? what is going on... I pushed a little and stuck my head in and saw this... I wanted to capture this exactly how I saw it, so I just stuck my arm in to get the picture, because I couldn't fit through the door. When I asked him about it, he told me he did not want my coming near him with my bloody nose.

Indianapolis Children's Museum

Since we had to alter some Spring Break plans, we were on the hunt for something a little different and fun to do, but still close enough to make it a day trip... We decided on the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It is the biggest of its kind, which is cool, and less than 2 hours away. We didn't expect all of Indiana to be there on the same day that we were, however! Neither did the museum, apparently. They said it was by far one of the busiest days they've had. So, Ross and I have been to a lot of children's museums, since we move a lot and have family in different areas and all that, but this one was definitely a good one. It was huge, as big as any "regular" museum, so the crowds were tolerable. The wait to get in was a little crazy, but they had these mini replicas of the Seven Wonders of the World (I looked them up, and there are different lists, but all of these fell on one of the lists and there were seven, so that's what I'm going with)... Here is Zoey on the Great Pyramid of Giza! The kids are sitting on the Great Wall of China in the next two... I don't know why they felt they had to wave in these pictures, but its funny. I think other kids were doing it. I didn't expect to get the kids all alone on these shots, either, since it was the only entertainment for all of them while waiting in line. This one just kind of makes me laugh... everyone is getting a picture taken! Sitting on Chitzen Itza Inside the Museum, one of the famous displays was fireworks made from blown glass. They had a blown glass exhibit as well as plastic replicas for the kids to play with... Zoey decided to lounge on a croc... they had a GI Joe display. When we lived in LA, not many kids at Zoey's school ever saw someone in uniform, so when Ross could drop her off, the boys went crazy! They yelled for GI Joe! He has signed some autographs! So, we had to get this picture... And, being in Indiana, they had some race cars from the Indianapolis 500! this didn't turn out how Ross expected... Gooooo.... Zo......!!! We moved on to a mini chapel and heard Max preach... And took a fun house mirror picture! One more picture of the top of the "fireworks". It was over three stories tall and the ramp spiraled around it. Zoey was very willing to have her picture taken, so I certainly don't complain... At some exhibits, our kids stay forever (Max loved this ball moving contraption thing, perfect for his engineer brain) but most of the time they are almost racing to get through everything on the map! We ended with a ride on a 100 year old carousel and headed out. We found a California Pizza Kitchen to eat at in a cool mall downtown (our kids love it and we don't have one) and then we tried to race home before a big storm (we won). OH, and I only mentioned that Indiana is my birth place like, two times;)

Spring Break

Our Spring Break was the last week in March. One day I took the kids to the entrance of our neighborhood where some trees were flowering. I was even a few days too late, but I got to take some pictures. The kids found a little hill nearby and came up with some sort of game.
  
                    The weather in early March was so mild, and like most, we had an early Spring. The week before we were in the mid 80's! It was actually hot and uncomfortable without the AC on!     the week of Spring Break had cooler temperatures, of course, and even rain! We had plans for a trip that we had to change, so we hung out and found things to do each day instead.                                                            I just love pictures of flowers...                 I am thankful always that the kids can turn a tiny hill into a place filled with laughter and giggles. They play really well together, most of the time and it is nice.                                                I did try and get them in a couple of shots with the pretty flowers... they were having too much fun in their game to stop for long.

Birthday!

We often have dinners with some friends and when we make them "themed" in some way, well, it just makes it even more fun! So, Ross and Christopher's birthdays fall within about 2 1/2 weeks of each other (March 19 and April 4), so we decided to have a birthday party!

It was basically dinner with meat (bacon appetizers, and steak) and birthday cake! But we did have party hats and special birthday beers (forties, in paper bags, so classy,and hilarious thanks Andrew)!





Here they are!

St Patrick's Day

Ross loves St Patrick's Day, so we always have to celebrate with some homemade Irish Cream and Corned Beef and Cabbage. We were headed to a friend's house for dinner this night, so we made fun cupcakes as well. The kids are still on their Cupcake Wars kick, so we actually tried one recipe from the show and then a Disney's Family Fun recipe for Rainbow cupcakes!

We started the morning foggy and misty, though...


The kids got busy with the Rainbow cupcakes.



Eager bakers helping out. oh, and that Guinness, that was for the next batch...



Divided up batter! And then came the time to fill the cupcakes with the layers. My helpers were done at this point! Oh well...

here is a cupcake!


Zoey came back to help frost. I actually just let her do it all.



A yummy chocolate stout cupcake with irish cream frosting! It was a treat! Such complex flavors melding together... yummy!



We made mini ones with regular frosting for the kids. They even liked the dark chocolate stout cupcake part.

Here are some finished products from Zoey!



And I got in the spirit too with fingernails! These were so fun!