Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. Because they were predicting rain for Saturday, Andy took Friday off from work and got the swing set built up to the point of working swings. The kids were in heaven. It put a damper on our original plan to have it together on Saturday for the kids to "discover" on Easter morning, but the most important thing was getting swings in the backyard!


For Easter, the kids woke up to baskets and a new doll house. I took advantage of a store closing sale to get the kids a "travel" dollhouse which I imagine will be great for bringing to my sister's house or up to Maine for trips. Beth woke up first and was very excited to see the dollhouse. We tried to discourage her from destroying the set up until Nora woke up. Nora came out of her room shortly after and without really looking at anything came up and was very excited that the Easter bunny had come when she went to sleep. Before really looking at her loot, she said "when I went to bed, I didn't have a dollhouse, and when I woke up, I have a dollhouse that the Easter bunny left for me."

My dad, sister and brother in law came up for Easter and we had fun. Nora and I made some monkey bread, which was very tasty. We had a rather non-traditional meal of baked ziti, which was very nice and easy and spent as much time as possible outside so the kids could swing!

A few days later, when asked what she got for Easter, Nora talks about the carrot she got made of M&M's (actually Reese's Pieces). It was in an Easter package from Aunt Megan and Uncle Steve and will not be forgotten for awhile! 

This is the bunny Nora made at Bluebell. The kids wet felted balls and then the teacher sewed ears on. It's very cute.

 

Here's what the Easter baskets looked like. The kids got romper stompers, a dollhouse and a little candy. 

 Beth playing with the dollhouse before Nora got up.

 Nora telling us about the Easter Bunny leaving her a dollhouse. The Balloons, which we used to help the kids figure out whose basket was whose, came from Hannafords. Nora and I were grocery shopping while Beth was napping and a truck backed into a telephone poll, knocking it over and blowing transformer, blowing the power to the whole shopping area and causing a huge traffic snarl. Nora was a good sport and one of the floor managers gave Nora a balloon. She insisted that she also needed one for her baby Beth. It was very sweet.

Easter Crafting

We did a lot of spring and Easter crafts in the weeks leading up to Easter. It was a lot of fun and Nora really enjoys doing projects - craft, science, baking, or really anything I can come up with! It's sometimes a challenge preparing for the week - coming up with ideas with items I have, and finding the energy to do the projects. It's gotten easier as Beth has started sleeping through the night and hockey season (and late night practices) have ended.

There are so many amazing crafty mom blogs to look at, and finding them has been a good motivator. I think. It may also be just a bit overwhelming! I've also found a few good science sites that have ideas for even little scientists, which has been of great help!
We did a number of Easter crafts. We made coffee filter eggs - I cut egg shapes out of coffee filters and then we colored them with washable markers. Once we colored them, but would spray them with water and watch the colors bleed. It was fun and made for a nice effect. Nora loved making big circles and then spraying to watch the circles bleed and the colors combine. We made some lacy eggs using embroidery floss, cornstarch glue and water balloons. Dip strips of the floss in glue and wrap around a balloon. Once tried, pop the balloon, and you have a pretty shell. While I had the cornstarch glue, we also made flowers with yarn and glue. We dipped yarn in glue and then put it in cookie cutters. We also made a star and butterfly this way. Nora really enjoyed it, and once the glue was no longer needed, I added a bit of food color and we had finger paint! Nora had a blast helping me to color Easter eggs. I blew 2 eggs out, took tops off 4 more, and hard-boiled 6 (we scrambled up the raw eggs for breakfast!). We drew on them first with crayon. Then, we dyed them. The 2 I blew out went in a potted plant in the window for decoration. The 6 hard-boiled became lunch after Easter and the 4 that I took the top off from became candles. They turned out pretty good. I used some soy wax and wicks and we filled the egg shells about halfway with wax. You did have to be careful lighting them, but it was a fun project!

Here's some photos of our Work in progress.

Nora, learning about how balloons can stick to walls if you rub them in your hair first. 

 

Showing off her work sticking balloons to the cabinet using just her hair (and a little help from daddy).

It was a rainy day when we did the cornstarch glue crafts. Nora wanted to go out on the deck, so she put on her rain coat and went out for a bit. She took a coffee cup and tried to make rain-tea. She was actually singing and dancing to the sky to make more rain to fill her cup!

The finished thread-eggs.

 

Nora and Beth, taking a break from helping decorate the window for Easter and spring!

 

The window, decorated with help from the girls. 

 

Some close ups of the art in the window.

 

The lit eggshell candles. Nora LOVED these!

April Fools Day snow

One day we had beautiful sunshine and warm spring weather...

The next day, we had a few inches of heavy wet snow on the ground!




We made the best of it, and built a snowman. It was the first really great snowman-snow of the season. Nora had a blast helping to roll the snowman and patting extra snow in to stabilize his middle. She also found the rocks for the eyes and stick for the mouth.