Easter again

One more post and Im all caught up again. Phew....thank goodness for Sundays! And Im all blogged out, so your getting the short and sweet version.

Last but not least in March we have Easter. With that always comes egg coloring of course.

And then we have Easter morning courtesy of the big tall bunny man. Yeah yeah. These pictures all got a little out of order thanks to the well functioning blogger program. Were just going to pretend this is how it really went, since it probably doesnt matter much to you anyway.

Zack got an angry birds pencil and notebook set.

All the kids got new smoothie cups, filled with what else? But candy of course. That bunny is crazy!

Alissa and Katelin got mini webkinz.

Brylee is always most excited about chocolate.

And here is Katelins webkinz. See, out of order.

Im guessing that is more candy in her hand.

And some more shots of the candy filled smoothie cups.

Zack trying to drink the candy smoothie. Sounds good to me.

Alissa found a better approach. Breakfast of champions!

And group gifts included Wreck it Ralph...

Pac Man DS game...

and....

wait for it while these out of order pictures get in the way...

Brylees coloring book...

Still happy about chocolate...

another smoothie cup...

another chocolate bunny...

wait...didnt we already see that?

Ahhhh...

and finally the last and most exciting group gift....

In case you cant read it, it says...

"I know it gets cold,

and sitting at home gets old.

So I planned you a trip...

Somewhere with drip drip drips!

I hope you are all feeling well,

because I got you a trip to...

"The Dells!"

(Your leaving tomorrow)

Thanks for the heads up Bunny Man. Sure hope Dad can get work off!

And after the chocolate was wiped from their cute little faces, we got all ready for church in our new Easter Duds. They clean up pretty well Id say.

And one more for cuteness sake.

And I must say although the Dells was fun, it was super crowded! The Bunny Man should have thought of that! I didnt really mind relaxing in a chair with Brylee all that much, when we could find one. And we didnt take any pictures since you have seen enough of the Dells excitement previously. 

Tomorrow marks the end of spring break and the beginning of our spring soccer season and track, so dont expect to see many more blog posts until about July!

Happy Spring!

The Good, The Bad and...

March also brought a couple other events with it.

We had the School Districts annual Orchestra Fest Concert featuring these two violinists.

 Awww...they look like they actually get along here! Kodak moment!

 This year they were seated on direct opposites sides of the gym so the only view we got of them was from the video stream on the big screen. Katelin actually got a few good seconds of close up face time! Of course it sounded fabulous like always and we celebrated with ice cream afterwards.

Next event, if you will call it that, was this little blunder...

 After nearly 15 years of cutting Ryans hair, I finally had my first big oops! We were planning on taking things a bit shorter. I thought I had the 1" guard on the clippers, but it wasnt, so instead of 1", he got 1/8". Pretty much...hes bald. Alissa was so upset when I told her that she wouldnt dare look at him when he came downstairs. She was so afraid of him looking....like what? Scary? Different? Not her Dad anymore? I dunno. But she cried and cried in his lap with her eyes closed and covered until we got him a hat and talked her into calming down. Eventually she looked at him without the hat and realized he wasnt all that scary after all, although it did take some getting used to.

Looks kinda like a Marine...with a smile. A week later he is now saying he might want to keep it this way. Hmmm...we'll see. Maybe not quite that short! Whats your verdict?

Birthday Kick Off

Now heres something I can actually take credit for...the birth of our only son, and his corresponding 6th birthday party. I do have to admit I am getting birthday partied out. It would be so much easier to just be able to take him to a movie and dinner. But being a parent isnt about doing things the easy way...its about competing with all the other parents! Hahaha...but seriously, we wanna make our kids happy so I agreed to take on a bunch of hyperactive 5 and 6 year old boys running through the house plus all the work of a party planner...again.The theme of the year goes to the Green Bay Packers!

Stole this idea off Pinterest. Some lady wanted me to actually buy these from her, but I created my own for free.

 Conviently, Grandma sent Zack a cheesehead which went along nicely with his party choice, and his new Aaron Rogers Jersey.

 So funny story, all of Zacks party guests ended up being Bears fans. We are glad they came anyway. I also found out that boy parties are harder for me to plan and carry out than girl parties. For girls, you can do crafts, paint nails, whatever. And they are so calm and quiet. They listen and are easy to get along with. Zacks friends on the other hand, had a slighly smaller attention span. I had planned to paint their faces like a football player with their team mascot when they arrived, but other than Zack and Brylee, only one kid was interested. They would much rather go running all over the house. Every game turned into a yelling, screaming wrestling match! This was going to be a long 2 hours!

After chowing down some pizza, we played this little ring toss game. Of course, all the boys wanted to wear the goal post hat, but we didnt have long enough attention spans to last that long. 

 Then we emprovised and headed to the basement for a little obstacle course challenge. Of course it got physical at times...Bears vs. Packers style.

Then I found out, boys also arent good at remaining in a circle. Attempted Monkey in the Middle, but it became more like tackle the kid with the football. Glad we didnt have to send any party guests home with broken limbs or stitches. Guess this paranoid Mom just isnt used to boys. This picture doesnt do it justice.

 Finally, a sit down and relax activity...present time!

 Brylee was so excited to give Zack the gift she picked out at the dollar store. She wanted a hug, but I love that Zack is all like..."I sure hope my friends dont see this!"

 Im thinking I need to start buying my cakes. This was way too much work and Im just too picky about the outcome. Of course I wasnt happy with it, but I heard it tasted good.

 This cute face is why I put myself through all this stress!

 Packer cake...inside and out!

 And of course green ice cream to compliment it. Zacks favorite.

 After the screaming Banchi's left, Brylee had time to ask for a picture of her face painting. Not sure which football mascot this is, but shes a fan!

I think Zack should have been born in the summer. It would have been so much easier to let those boys run wild outside the house! Maybe by the time of his next party, the boys will be more calm? Right? Please?

Happy Birthday Little Man! Remember this is all because we love you!

A Lucky Generation of Kiddos

When I was little, all we did for St. Patricks day was make sure to wear green because if you didnt, you would get pinched. If you were really sneaky, you could hide your green so when someone mistakenly pinched you, you could pinch them 10 times back. That was it. Fun, Simple, Done.

Somewhere between then and now, St. Patricks day turned into something much more. I remember Madi coming home telling me about the leprechaun trap they set at school, and wanting to set one up at home. Why would you want to trap a leprechaun? Like hes actually going to tell you where his gold is hidden! Somehow the leprechauns have turned into tiny fairy like creatures that are attracted to chocolate and can fall into a paper cup and never get out due to being trapped by the piece of paper covering the top. Man, that is so way off from the way I always pictured them. Oh well, whats one little leprechaun trap? We can do that. 

But oh no...the next day the kids talk to their friends at school and find out the leprechauns actually visited their houses, played a bunch of tricks on them...and not only that...they left prizes behind! So now the leprechauns are generous trouble making thieves? Something isnt right here, but alas I must play along, because I dont want my kids to be disappointed that they were the only house on the block that the leprechauns didnt visit. I admit, it was fun the first year, when they werent sure what to expect. Now, the kids are watching intently to see if the leprechauns did their magic and turned their clover pancakes green! Dont they know, leprechauns cant work their magic when they are watching!? Its getting to be a real challenge. Especially when the head leprechaun is at church and the second in charge is working solo. But here they are...never taking their eyes off that bowl of pancake batter.

 Good thing the leprechaun in training can work some distraction techniques long enough to sneak the magic green food coloring into the bowl. Leprechaun in training #2 even pulled off some green eggs.

Brylee will demonstrate that they stay green even after they hit your mouth.

 Somehow during breakfast the miniature, almost invisible green fairy men moved everyones church clothes to silly places. They might not be strong enough to make it out of a paper covered cup, but they can lift your clothes up to the ceiling.

 That was the extent of the leprechauns mischief this year. At this rate, next year, he might not even show up at all! One can dream.

Onto our regular Sunday morning routine. Baths and...oh yeah, of course the girls want St. Patricks day hair styles. Lets see the leprechaun pull this one off.

 During church the leprechaun came back...or never left, or something; and left a trail of chocolate gold coins and glitter up to the bedrooms where...

 He left his little prize behind.

Seriously? First, Santa Clause steals our thunder, then we have the Easter bunny and tooth fairy to compete with...and now we have to deal with the stinking leprechauns getting all the credit!? Why not give credit where credit is due? The parents look like good for nothing bums after all these fairy tale creatures invade. When is enough enough? I vote for a fairy tale creature ban...whos with me!? I dont care if I sound selfish. I want the credit, because I did the work. Maybe the kids would appreciate me more knowing all the stuff I do to make their holidays magical. Would they love me as much as they love Santa and a big tall creep bunny man? Anyway, these shirts say it all...

Lucky, lucky kids.

ps. Thanks again for the shirts Grandma. At least you got the credit for those! :)