April, part 1

I keep thinking life will slow down a bit, but so far, I just can't seem to catch my breath with all the activities and busyness! Mostly it has been good stuff, including family visits, lots of playing outdoors in the beautiful spring weather, Easter, and MOPS crafts and garage sale. Here are a few highlights of the past month.

Charlton and Rylan made a rack to display his belts from karate. It now hangs prominently in his room with the old white and yellow belts on the bottom rungs.  Rylan was so proud to hammer right alongside his Daddy.

I spent hours making our old chore chart and almost as soon as I was finished, I didn't like it.  This attempt #2 was inspired by Pinterest and used some leftover supplies from one of our MOPS crafts.    And who doesn't love magnets? I learned the hard way that it is very hard to decorate a non-stick cookie sheet (nothing sticks to it, duh!) and had to go buy the cheapest cookie sheet I could find.  The kids are excited about it and I think it will be especially helpful when we have to stick to more of a schedule when Rylan starts school.  In case you can't tell, I printed clip art pictures of different chores, modpodged them onto flat backed glass marbles, and then hot glued a magnet to each marble.   When the kids finish a task, they move it to the "done" side.  We also have magnetic "tickets" for ipad and TV time that attach to each side and the kids can redeem those tickets for screen time.  I would like to incorporate some kind of monetary reward system on a weekly basis, but haven't figured out exactly how to do that yet.

We have had an unusually warm spring, but of course, our Easter egg dyeing day was cold and wet, so we spread out an old tablecloth and set up indoors.  Caroline loved dyeing the eggs, but was especially concerned about wiping up the drips on the tablecloth.  I kept telling her it was okay, but she really wanted to clean the colorful spills.

Rylan is an old pro at this egg dyeing thing!

Last year our eggs were cracked to bits, but this year the kids did amazingly well.  When Rylan was finished, Caroline re-dyed all the eggs and made some interesting color combos.

Our gym held an Easter egg hunt for the kids.  The hunt itself was rather lame for the kids, especially after we have had so many outdoors at home.

I love this picture Charlton took of me with my best little man!

T

The kids were thrilled to see the Easter bunny! I was so surprised, because the Easter bunny is not a big deal at our house.  I don't have anything against him, he just wasn't a part of my growing up traditions, so I haven't really incorporated him into our new family traditions.  Rylan ran right up to him and smiled so big. Caroline snuggled and posed so cute, and then as we turned to leave, she ran back and gave him a huge hug!  She was definitely a lot braver than with Santa.

I love all the egg hunts and cute spring clothes and goody baskets that come with Easter, but I also want my kids to know the true meaning of this special day.  As we were leaving the hunt,  Rylan commented, "The Easter bunny is really cool, but he isn't the best part of Easter. Jesus is the best part!"