april fool's!

Late last night I suddenly remembered it was April Fool's Day. Previous years (2010 & 2009) I've done fun stuff for my boys for either breakfast or dinner but this was all my exhausted body and mind could think of at 11 last night.  (You should've seen my poor swollen feet/legs after standing forever to trim, wrap and freeze 40 pounds of chicken. Ugh! But at least I got a fantastic deal on it and won't be buying chicken for a very long time. :)

We already have plans to go out tonight so I decided I'd give the boys breakfast in crazy dishes and utensils. When they asked what was going on, I just told them I was getting breakfast ready. It took a while for them to figure out it was for April Fool's - but eventually they did.

Froot Loops with a huge bowl and spoon

Pancakes on a cookie sheet with a huge fork

Yogurt with a baby spoon

  (And I also gave them bananas that I had cut through the skin with a toothpick, so when they peeled them they fell apart in big chunks - they didn't think that was a 'trick', only that I was magic. :)

I also made them rotate every two minutes so they could try everything and they thought that was extra cool too. I even got "this is the best breakfast ever!".

Later that morning I was taking a 'before' picture of a frame that I bought at the DI that I'm hoping to try and make beautiful and as soon as Trey saw the camera he stood in front of me and said "cheese! cheese! cheese!"



Happy April Fool's!!

Happy St. Patty's

Here's a couple highlights from our St. Patrick's Day...

Rainbow Pancakes for Breakfast

I gave Seth a pair of shoes (get it? so lucky to be 'paired' with you... :). I was kind of looking at it like a very late Valentine's present cause one day in January while walking around the mall, he said he'd love a pair of Converse, so after I stopped laughing cause I never thought he'd wear shoes like that, I mentioned that Valentine's was coming up. But then Valentine's came and went and I never got him anything at all. So that's why I did that. Just a litle FYI.

That picture above also shows the pot of gold I gave each of my boys.The night before I hid little four leaf clovers that spelled out their names so while I was making pancakes they had to find their names and on the back of the clovers it gave clues to where they could each find their own pot of gold. It was really fun, but Easton got really frustrated because I hid his harder than the others, which is why there is no picture of him with a pancake because he refused to smile. It was super easy to put together and they thought it was very cool. (I didn't get pictures of any of that going on because I was working on pancakes.) They also had a picture with their pot that said "You're my lucky charm!"

This is a Leprechaun trap that Easton set up. He came home from school on the 16th talking about how Leprachanuns are real and he wanted to try and catch one. So he came up with this trap.

Unfortunately it didn't work. The Leprechaun ate the cupcake (but left the wrapper - how rude!) and left a tiny, tiny note that said "You'll have to try harder to catch me next time. Thanks for the treat. And you rock too!"

craft attempt

My attempt for the Wood You Like to Craft (a blogging craft group). I had to do a much simpler version because I was trying to use only things I had on hand and not spend any money. (Which I succeeded at.)
I chose to do "No Soliciting" because starting like 2 weeks ago we start getting salesmen like crazy. And I usually try and be polite and listen to them, especially since Seth had to do something similar for a while and I know they're just trying to earn money, but (and maybe it's just cause I'm pregnant) they are driving me crazy. So hopefully this will deter at least some from knocking... wish me luck with that! ;)
Also, the picture is really bad because it's hanging inside until Seth helps me find a way to get it outside.

trey

I've actually been taking quite a few pictures of Trey lately so I thought I'd do a little update on my baby. [Can't belive in 7 weeks he will no longer be the 'baby'!! I'm definitely worried he's going to have a much harder time than any of my other boys had when we had a new baby because we've all been treating him so much like a 'baby'. Oh well... I guess we'll deal with that when it happens. Who knows? Maybe he'll surprise me!]

I realize the next 2 pictures aren't very attractive, but I had to include them because he's lately become obsessed with sunglasses, gloves and hats. Whenever he finds any of those he immediately puts them on or asks me to.

He has recently decided he will put himself down for naps. And it's never late in the day - lest you think he does it just because he's exhausted or I've been neglecting him. Between 9 and 10, he'll climb up on our bed, move the pillows around, lay down and go to sleep. 

He LOVES helping load and unload the dishwasher. Whenever he hears or sees me open the dishwasher, he runs over, climbs up (which I totally know I shouldn't let him do) and holds his hand out for the next item to load.

loading it

how it looks when he's finished

A few other pictureless things he's started doing lately:

-instead of crying when he wakes in the morning, he just calls out "Mom! Mama!" over and over til I get him

-whenever I give him anything, he says "Gakes" [thanks :)]

-runs to the front window when Easton and Cole are walking to the bus stop to wave

-blows kisses when his brothers tell him goodnight

We love our baby Trey!

valentine's dinner

So here's a few pictures from our Valentine's Dinner.

I had set out some candy on the table for decoration and Trey pushed a chair over to climb up and reach the candy.

caught in the act

Realizing mom is holding a camera (and she doesn't seem to be taking away the candy :)

 My 5 Valentine's (see what I mean in my last post about everything being the same from the previous years. Oh well! At least I'm documenting it.)

Drinking Strawberry Lemonade

I loved this idea when I saw it. Heart Shaped Tomatoes! It even encouraged the boys to try them since they aren't big fans of tomatoes. Except for Peyton who loves these and ate any he could reach.

Peyton eating fondue. (If his eyes look red, it is because yes, he was crying, he was having a very emotional night from lack of sleep the night before. He would squeal - yes squeal - with excitement when he saw the chocolate or dip in a marshmallow and then burst into tears when there was too much chocolate or when the food got stuck in the chocolate. It was actually rather amusing. Poor kid.) 

For some reason Cole wanted me to take a picture of him making this face (and since none of the other pictures I took turned out any better, I decided to post this one.)

The fondue was really easy and delicious! I actually do have a fondue pot but didn't realize I needed to buy some kind of gas for it, so it was just in a bowl, but nobody seemed to mind and it made clean up much easier.)