Good Friday Crafting

We spent much of the day on Good Friday crafting. First, Amanda had her Toddler Art class at the library in the morning. We heard a story about Puppies, crafted a tissue paper puppy and danced!

Then, Natalie had her Let's Travel class at the library in the afternoon. She learned about Ireland this week. And she crafted an Irish flag! She learned all kinds of things about Ireland!

The afternoon continued with painting crosses for the Grandmas for Easter. I got the paints out and let the girls do what they wanted. Amanda's is the purple one and Natalie's is the multi-colored one. Amanda decided to give hers to Grandma Diamond and Natalie would be giving hers to Grandma Catey!

As a final touch we glued a 'diamond' in the center of the cross and they just turned out beautiful. Don't you think?

And last, but not least, the girls made foam crosses for all of their relatives and handed them out on Easter day.

Lunch w/the Easter Bunny

Finally getting to the Easter events. My, we have been so busy celebrating lately. Here are some pictures from our Lunch with the Easter Bunny (March 20). It was a very nice lunch, even for the adults (turkey wraps, ceasar salad!). Mom came with the kids and I. I dressed the kids up in their Easter outfits. I figured it was more more occasion to use them and boy did they look adorable. Anyway, it was a very nice day (weather-wise too) and we may make this a tradition.

Here we all are, luncheoning with the Easter Bunny!

The girls begin 'the hunt' and it was something to see!

They look like little angels, don't they!? :)

The official Easter Bunny picture with the kids.

You must watch this video clip of Amanda getting started on the Easter Egg Hunt. She absolutely went bonkers with excitement. It was hysterical and Mom and I won't forget it. We've all watched this clip a couple dozen times and it's still hysterical. I mean, seriously, does it get any cuter than this?!?

Are you laughing!?!?!?!?

St. Patrick's Day Pictures

Well, here are some pictures from our St. Patrick's Day. I love doing fun little things with the kids for all of the little holidays along the way, to make things fun & exciting. I guess you could say I'm a big kid at heart. So making St. Patty's Treasure Cupcakes, Green Shamrock Milk, Pot O' Gold Jello and talking up the Leprechauns - well, that's just fun!

I started a tradition about 3 years ago with Natalie for St. Patrick's Day. (Here is the link to to where I got the idea:

http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/feature/famf39stpatday/famf39stpatday.html

It's so fun to see the girls get so excited about the LEPRECHAUNS COMING TO VISIT OUR HOUSE. This isn't Santa we are talking about here. The leprechauns do not come to everyone's house, ya know?!

The girls each now have a homemade LEPRECHAUN BOX (Ryan will get his in a year or 2) and to make a long story short, you make a wish and set the leprechaun box in the window before bed (and you can peak out the window to look for them, but they can disguise themselves as leaves and grass). The leprechauns will put your wish in to the box while you are sleeping (it has to be something small b/c leprechauns are small) and hide it somewhere in the house. But they usually leave a path of 'green' to the hiding spot.

The girls both wished for chocolate.....and we read our St. Patrick's Day books before bed. They were so excited, maybe almost as much as Santa or the Easter Bunny.

Reading St. Patrick's books before bed

Amanda peeks out in to the night and thinks she sees a Leprechaun!

Natalie searches for Leprechauns, but thinks they have disguised themselves as grass

The girls have followed a path of shamrocks (printed and cut out by Mommy) from their bedrooms doors downstairs...

...and the girls each find their Leprechaun boxes!!!!!!

Oh the Luck of the Blarney!

Natalie's and Amanda's Leprechaun Boxes filled with chocolate and coins

The girls enjoy green Shamrock Milk and of course chocolate for breakfast, pancakes too!

And to top the day off, Grandma Diamond was "Secret Reader" at Natalie's preschool that day. Natalie was beside herself when she realized it was her Grandma reading that day!

Grandma read a special St. Patrick's Day book we had checked out from the library that the girls had been enjoying.

Our Baby Ryan is 9 months old - So Handsome!

Here is is! Mr. Cute Mr. Adorable. Mr. Handsome. Can you believe our baby is 9 months old already? He is jibber-jabbering, crawling, sitting himself up, pulling himself up on the bottom step and furniture to his knees. He has said the following words: "Mama", "Dada", "Ball", "Grandma" (no kidding!) and "Blocks"! Pretty smart little guy, we think anyway.

Enjoy your Sunday. We are back to the normal routine tomorrow after Natalie was off school for Spring Break for a week+. Kind of looking forward to that, but have also enjoyed our days off at home in our p.j.'s and also had a lot of fun.