Our Easter Adventure 2013

Our Easter weekend started Saturday morning at the neighborhood park.  Every year they hold an Easter egg hunt for the kids and every year we attend.  The kids love it and I love watching them. 

 

This was the first year that Kinley fully understood the concept of Easter egg hunting. 



 
 Unfortunately we got there a little too early and they started the 0-2 age group a little too late and Kinley was about fed up with the waiting game.  By the time the whistle was finally blown, she was over it!  Instead of grabbing as many eggs as she could, she threw her bucket and decided to pout instead.  So, as any good Mother would do, I took pictures.....

What goes around, comes around.....That's right Kinley, I'll be pulling these suckers out in about 30 years when your kid is being a BRAT!

It quickly dawned on me that if she didn't get any candy, I wouldn't get any candy so I had to think fast and figure out a way to get what little eggs were left in her basket.  It suddenly occurred to me that she had NO IDEA that the eggs had candy in them so I picked one up off the ground, cracked it open and let the candy do the talkin' for me.  As soon as she saw candy fall out of that egg, she was on it like white on rice!  She couldn't get those eggs in her basket fast enough.

Once the hunt was over, she was pretty pleased with herself .

She and her Daddy went right over and sat down to check out her goods.

We had to wait a while before Bailey and Colton's age group could go, so we decided face painting would be a good way to pass the time.





Kinley said she wanted to get her face painted, but when it was time to get it done, she started having second thoughts.



We had to do a little persuading.

I had my face painted first to help with the persuading. 

Bailey and our next door neighbor Caitlyn
 

 

Colton and his friend Zane. 
Colton isn't a hug your friend type of Boy,
so I thought it was funny that Zane grabbed him right before I took the picture. 

Bailey and her friend Hannah.

The kids waiting for the hunt to start.  They were all standing around trying to figure out where the "golden" egg was.  Rumor had it that there was a free pool pass in three of the golden eggs.
Then rumor had it that a Parent and his toddler grabbed one of them up before the race started.
This did not go over well with these kids......and some of their Parents.

 

My Little Bubba
 

And they're off!!!

I can only assume that they are discussing the fact that neither one of them

had a golden egg in their basket.

 

 



All went well and the candy was gone within minutes!

 

Then...The next morning, the Easter Bunny came!

I say morning, but it was still dark outside when Colton excitedly ran

into my room to announce that the Easter had left him an AWESOME backpack.

 



and the water bottle he had been asking for.

and the Chocolate Bunny that he refuses to eat, but instead has it displayed

on his dresser.  He told me the other day that he was saving it for his son.

REALLY!!!!  My kid has some very strange sentimental tendencies.



Bailey got some one direction duct tape...

and who knew but she's not really

that into them anymore.

Kinley was a little tired. 

but not too tired for booger picking.



 

That's right!  My little country boy gets excited about rope.



Ranger even got some treats from the Easter Bunny.

Time for Church!

My son doesn't normally stand like he has to

go to the bathoom, but he's in this stage

where when Bailey touches him, he freaks out a little.

Hopefully this will pass.

 

So, we get to Church and sit in the middle of about 200 people.

It comes time for the Children's offering and all three kids go up to the

front to drop their money in the offering plates. 

Apparently, one time wasn't enough for Kinley because she waited

until everything was quiet and decided to run back up to the alter

which ended in an all out game of tag for me and her.....

A game of tag that included an audience.

 

Excuse me while I pray....

 

   Dear God,

  I can only assume that you surprised me with this little angel two years ago

because you thought I needed a lesson in patience.  LESSON LEARNED!!!

I GOT IT!!!!  LOVE IT PATIENT!!!!

You can turn her into the little Princess I know she can be

ANY TIME NOW!!!!

 

In Jesus Name I pray, AMEN!!!!!

 

 

1 Peter 1:3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Colton and Bailey's Third Grade Valentine's Day Party

 

When the Third Grade Teachers called and asked if I would like to plan the Third Grade Valentine's Day Party, I happily accepted.  I love that kind of thing, but like most things that I throw myself into it consumed my life for three weeks straight and the day of the party, I still wasn't prepared.....Again, I learned my lesson and next time I will do better.  The First thing that I had to do was to figure out how to incorporate Manners into the Party...it was a requirement.  I thought Manner Bingo....then I thought Manner Simon says, but then I started thinking how much the kids like to listen to music so I came up with a game called Musical Manners....it was a lot like a cake walk, but every kid eventually won a prize.  I apologize for the lack of pictures on this game....I got so busy that I actually forgot to take pictures of a lot of things. 



 These were some of the Hearts I used for the Musical Manners...I laminated them before the party and added some more colors....but of course I forgot to take pictures.  Anyway, we laid the hearts on the floor and had each kid stand on a heart.  We started some music and the kids walked in the order of the hearts until the music stopped.  When the music stopped the kids stood on the heart that was closest to them and then a manner was drawn out of a box and read aloud. The kid that was standing on the matching heart got a prize.  So, they got a game, got to listen to some music, had a lesson in manners and won a prize. Win, Win all the way around!

 



we played until they all had prizes.   In order to try and save a little money,  I made some coupons to go along with some of the other prizes for the prize box.

Two weeks prior to the Party, we sent out a flyer to all of the Parents asking them to email a love note for their child.

Most of the Parents emailed really sweet notes.  I made cards out of them and they were sitting on the kids desk when they came in the room for the party. The  kids were thrilled to have personalized letters from their Parents the day of the Party.  It really added a special touch.  

 

 

 



There were a couple of Parents that didn't send love notes, so I wrote sweet little poems, put their names on them and signed them..from Mom & Dad.

They never knew the difference.

 



For the craft, I typed up a poem and had the kids put their handprint on the same page.  Needless to say, I pulled an all nighter the night before the Party getting all of these premade Parent gifts together, but they turned out really cute and it was worth it. 

 

 

Let the painting begin....

 

  A work in progress.....

 

The Finished Product

of course we had cupcakes

 and centerpieces....

 

 Not bad for dollar store materials...I filled the centerpieces up with conversation heart candies and the kids at each table wrote down on a paper heart how many candies they thought were in the centerpiece.  At the end of the Party, we went around to each table and the child that was closest to guessing the right answer got to take home the centerpiece at their table.

Colton's class

 

 

Bailey's class

 

Earlier in the week, I asked the Teachers to have the kids trace their hands and send them home with Bailey.  I cut around their handprints onto scrapbook paper and put them aside until I decided what I wanted to do with them.  The night before the party, I decided I would try to make some kind of card for the teacher out of them.  This wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but this is how the first one turned out.

of course, I got in such a hurry that I forgot to finish it.....

I think the Party was a success. I had other Home room Moms that stepped in on Party Day and did an awesome job!!!!  It's times like these that I wish Colton and Bailey were in the same class because one kid always gets more of my time than the other....in this instance, Colton got more of my attention because I was helping out with his class.  

 

 

 

I think all of the kids had a good time and I really did have a great time planning it for them.

  

Needless to say by the time I got home from the Party, I was exhausted!!!!  I fell asleep on the couch about 5:00pm and didn't wake up until later that night when my husband was waking me up and telling me to go to bed.  My kids were already sound asleep and I fell into bed and was asleep again before my head hit the pillow.