Easter Bunnies

 On Easter Monday we celebrated with my mom. (Why don't I have any pictures of that? Good question!) That afternoon we visited my Uncle Dennis and got to see and hold and pet some really cute baby bunnies.

It was so much fun! Thanks so much, Uncle Dennis!

We ended the day with a glow stick bath. The kids were so calm and so quiet. It was a great ending to a great day!

Easter Celebrations

 We had a really nice, really busy Easter this year. We went to Dad's on Saturday to celebrate with the Grossheiders. All I wanted was a nice picture of the kids with Grandma. Sadly, this was the best we got. At least I now have a picture of all three of my children with her.

 Later Clarey asked to sit on Grandma's lap. We go visit her often and Clarey loves to play with her. We had a nice day. It was so good to see everyone that was there!

 Easter morning couldn't have been more perfect. It was a truly beautiful day.

 Isn't that the most adorable little girl you've ever seen? Isn't she wearing an absolutely adorable bonnet? I made it! I'm so in love with it. It was so simple and she actually liked wearing it. I see more in her future...

 And what handsome boys! I love it when they're all dressed up. Levi was showing me a bb he found in the yard. Yes, this is the only picture I have of him (alone) actually looking at the camera.

Of course Levi smiles when he's being held by his Aunt Anna! (I should have had her hold him for all the pictures...) Could he not be their child? Just sayin'...

 What holiday is complete without a meltdown? Clarey picked up one of his eggs and ate all the candy in it before I could stop her. It's not like he didn't have 300 other eggs full of candy. This is the perfect argument for the importance of a nap.

 Sooooo, Levi's still angry about the egg. Gotta love Clayton's enthusiasm, though!

Grandma Arnold with her birthday cake. We celebrated her 80th birthday on Easter Sunday. It was made and decorated by yours truly and was enjoyed by all.

Happy Easter!

Easter Cookies

We're in full swing getting ready for Easter. Because we haven't in a while, we made sugar cookies. The kids really enjoyed rolling and cutting the dough.

We cut out eggs and carrots.

After we baked them, it was time to ice!

Clarey was taking a nap, which made it a lot easier on me!, so it was just the boys.

To keep it simple, I iced the cookies and the boys decorated them with sprinkles.

Aren't they beautiful! They can hardly wait until Easter when we get to eat them!

No Fail Sugar Cookies

1 c butter, softened

1 c sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

3 c flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add in the egg, salt and extracts. Beat well - until fluffy. Slowly add in the flour. Mix until combined. Roll out and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 350º for 9-10 minutes, just until set.

I like to roll this out between two sheets of parchment paper, waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill the dough until it is very set. It makes it much easier to cut out the shapes for the kids.

Toba Garrett's Glace Icing

1 lb powdered sugar

3/8 c white corn syrup

3/8 c milk

Combine and mix well.

I used half a recipe for this batch of cookies. This is a great smearing icing. It covers really well. It is NOT good for piping or intricate designs on cookies. It dries with a nice shine from the corn syrup.

April Showers

This was our morning. It was rainy and wet and chilly. The April showers had come. So we found lots of fun things to do inside.

Levi wanted to play with Play-Doh and a tractor. He rolled it flat and then made tracks.

Clarey liked using the Easter cookie cutters in the Play-Doh.

I found a fabulous website, PreKinders.com, that had free pattern block printables. We printed off a butterfly, a turtle, a rabbit, a flower, a caterpillar and some others that I can't remember. The boys worked so hard figuring out what pieces went where to make the shapes.

Clayton easily filled in the puzzles. Levi had to think about it a bit more.

We sorted the pattern blocks in a muffin tin so that Levi could find the pieces he needed more easily.

Clarey enjoyed putting the pieces in the muffin tins. Of course, since it was a rainy, stay-at-home day, my children chose not to wear any clothes...it's all about choosing the battles.

Once Levi was no longer interested in figuring out the puzzles, he decided to play with the pattern bears.

He matched the colors and then built a fort out of the pattern blocks. It was the perfect activity for a rainy day.