congratulations, laura :)

My sweet friend, Laura, just had first baby this past Monday and I got the privelege of going to see her and baby Leah today for a couple hours. Laura asked if I would mind taking a few pictures of Leah and so here's some of what we ended up with. :)

I love her little feet! :)

Awww!

Leah the fairy butterfly.

Such a sweet baby girl! :) Laura, thanks for letting me come see her! You're going to make a great Mommy! :)

out of the house!

My kids and I are usually at the house all day every day so when we get the chance to get out, we take it! This past week we went to a playground that I used to play on when I was growing up. Somehow it has shrunk a little bit now that I'm a grownup...! :)

The playground is set in a huge field of grass - which means lots and lots of room for my kids to run and run and play and wear themselves out! :) It is in a quiet neighborhood and is so peaceful and relaxing.

First we all explored the cool places on the playground.

Then we tried out the slide. Shannon and Jonathan met us at the playground too! I love having another adult to talk to - makes me feel not quite so isolated and lonely. I know all of you stay-at-home/homeschooling moms understand that feeling. While I fully realize I am not actually a stay-at-home mom, I am with three small children all day, every day and while I love them and love being with them oh-so-very much, it's nice to get to talk to someone over three feet tall! :)

There are steps all over the place on this playground - good exercise for little legs! :)

Jonathan explored a little bit of everywhere.

See? Like I said - all those steps were good exercise for little legs! :)

My baby waited till the slide was clear to try it out. He loved it. :)

Next we moved on to the swings. This picture cracks me up with Jonathan totally being sideways!

But he loved it! :)

Both my girls loved having other kids to play with and also looved this tire swing!

After swinging we took some balls and a bat in the field to run off even more energy. While the girls were using the baseball bat, Jonathan found this random piece of purple plastic tubing and announced that it was his bat! He hit the big ball several times with it too.

We all had a blast getting out in the beautiful spring weather and playing hard and we hope we can go back very very soon!

babies

A couple weeks ago I was going down my stairs outside when I heard a bird underneath my deck. I looked down between a crack and there, just a few inches below and a small ledge, was a little nest with five eggs in it! I tried to get a picture but my camera couldn't quite zoom into a crack that small. Last week, we discovered that the eggs had hatched and so I now have 5 baby birds under my deck. Lauren was over last Friday and discovered that her cell phone could zoom past the tiny crack and get a fairly decent picture of the birds...so here they are!

It's hard to see all five in this picture but you can see on fluffy head and beak in the middle pretty well. The eggs themselves couldn't have been more than about one inch long so these birds are pretty tiny. I will try to get another picture of them as they get a little bigger - whenever Lauren comes back over with her cell phone! :)

"miss rebekah dresses"

So here is a free and shameless advertisement for Chickadee Circle ! :) I was so excited to request that my friend, Rebekah, make dresses for my girls. If you've read my post on Chickadee Circle then you know that Rebekah is adopting a baby and all the proceeds from her etsy store go to the adoption fund. While I am happy to be able to help even a tiny bit towards bringing their baby home, I am also just excited about the dresses! :) I think they are adorable and simple and comfy. My girls were excited to wear them and to know that Miss Rebekah made them especially for each girl. We had to take a few quick pics to show them off...so here they are! :)

These dresses can be worn all year long! In the summer as a sundress, in the spring with a short sleeved shirt underneath, or in colder weather with a long sleeved shirt and tights.

Ok, I had to throw this picture in here with all three kids. Notice my baby's sunglasses...upsidedown! :} My girls and I love the dresses - thanks Miss Rebekah!! :)

He is risen! :)

The enemy has been defeated

And death couldn't hold You down

We're gonna lift our voice in victory

We're gonna make our praises loud!

~Hillsong United

For a change, here are some scenery pictures. Easter was such a beautiful day and the flowers at my parents' house are so gorgeous that I had to share a few pictures of them!

april fools!!

Both my girls have been excited about April Fool's Day coming. Yesterday my middle child told me, "Kiki, daddy says I should do a prank on you. But I don't want to do that to you! That's mean! I don't want to be mean!" :) So we discussed "funny" pranks that are not mean - like, "Kiki, there's a spider on your head!!.....April Fools!!" Then she was excited again. And today I had quite a few spiders on my head! :) But my kids were also in for their own surprises...mostly yummy ones....

First came breakfast. Just cereal as usual...until we pored the milk in the bowl. All of a sudden there were exclamations of "Hey! My milk turned blue!" "Aa! Mine's pink! What color is yours?!"

One of my favorite places to find fun, simple craft or food ideas is www.familyfun.com and this is where I found this fun idea. Before adding dry cereal to the bowl, just add a couple drops of food color. Add cereal and milk and listen to the surprised comments! :) My kids thought it must be magic cereal until I explained the April Fools trick. Then they thought I was pretty tricky!

Conveniently, they then thought I was done with tricks for the day. Little did they know I had just begun!

This was today's lunch. Looks like a pretty good lunch, right? Fish sticks and ketchup, mashed potatoes with gravy and butter, and peas and carrots.

My oldest knows something is up, but she's not quite sure what!

About to taste the food.....

WHAT?! All is not as it seems!! The fish sticks are actually single sections of Kit Kat bars covered in peanut butter and rolled in graham cracker crumbs with seedless strawberry jam for ketchup. The mashed potatoes are really vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and a yellow Starburst candy on top. The peas are green Sixlets candies and the carrots are cut up orange Starbursts!

Lemonade to drink??

Nope!! It's Jell-O!! :)

Now for any moms worrying that I actually just let them eat this for lunch, don't worry, good, healthy, "real" food was eaten also! :)

Then it was on to the "things" I told them I had found in my house.... :}

Eww! Rats!!! Licorice and Marshmallow flavored. We all decided they didn't taste very good - but they were funny to hold and look at! My baby especially thought they were pretty cool.

Next, it was time to prepare "dinner" for Mommy and Daddy. It was similar to lunch, just using a slight twist.

Cupcakes! One of our favorite things to bake together! :) Here we have corn on the cob with butter, salt (although you can't see it in this pic) and pepper, and the items from lunch - peas and carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy, and fish sticks! Mommy thought they looked pretty cool. :)

Today was a fun April Fool's day with yummy "pranks" - the best kind! :)