Time for being girly

Since Alia is finally getting some hair I decided she needed some bows and barrettes so she doesn't show off the mohawk she seems to be growing. I went in search of some barrettes and didn't find any I really liked. I was bummed until I remembered the barrette a friend made for her when she was born. It was such a cute barrette that I've been holding onto for over a year and I had forgotten about it. A few trips to various craft stores and I now have a few barrettes for Alia. They are fun to make and I can match them to outfits she already has. I have many more to make but here are a few so far. I can't wait until she has enough hair so I can make her bigger bows to wear. PTC friends, do you know of any other crafty stores that would carry the trim to put on the barrettes? I didn't find many at Michaels or Jo-anns and I don't want packs of 50.



This is my friends site, she sells them here on Etsy.

Azaleas

Azaleas are in full bloom here and they are beautiful! Since this is our first Spring here, we were excited that the big shrubby bushes in our yard were actually azaleas.









We headed an hour south with the friends to visit Callaway Gardens because they have a breathtaking display of more than 3,400 azaleas.






This was in the horticultural building. They had a children's trail with smaller furniture and bushes that were trimmed to look like animals. (Yes, she has her finger in her nose.)




Avery looked like this when we pulled into the driveway.

Independence!

I am just thrilled that she is finally walking! No more whining and clinging to me every second. She is also very excited see for yourselves....

Did I mention that she decided that the best time to walk on her own was at the airport on Saturday?

Birthday Time!!

Happy Birthday Scott! I love birthdays for the homemade cake and homemade ice cream. I was nervous for this year's cake recipe because it sounds awful especially since I HATE prunes but I knew Scott liked them so I gave it a shot. The recipe came from Pioneer Woman's blog. It's called prune cake and it was really good except I think it could have used a little more of the caramel frosting. I think I will double that recipe next time. It reminded me a little bit of the spice cake Scott's mom used to make for him every year.



Alia really liked turning the crank. No one had the heart to tell her she was turning it the wrong way.

Great Kid's Bible

I meant to put this with the Easter post but forgot. A friend of mine recommended The Jesus Storybook Bible a year or two ago. I love this book as does Avery. It does a great job telling the stories in a way that are understandable and exciting. I hadn't yet read the Easter story to Avery until this year because I wasn't sure how to explain Jesus' death on the cross to a 3 year old. This year I read him the story and he understood the story much better than I thought he would. I was afraid he would be fascinated/mad at the soldiers but he really seemed to grasp that Jesus chose to give up his life. I highly recommend this bible if you are looking for a good children's bible.

Seriously, a FROG!?

Easter Weekend

We enjoyed a long weekend starting on Friday. The weather here has been nice, but already much too hot at 80 and 85. The locals all say that this is beautiful, cool weather but we are used to a much cooler Spring. The pictures will tell the story of our Easter weekend.




I started off the weekend by trying to make Scott homemade bread for Easter. Since I don't have a bread machine I used the hook on our Kitchen-Aid. The bread turned out great! Here is the recipe.

Avery went to 4 egg hunts this year. By the end he was finally getting the hang of it.

The first hunt was with his preschool class.


The second was at the Mom's Club hunt. We had a nice picnic and then let the children hunt for eggs.


For the third hunt we went to Serenbe Farms. It was a competitive hunt so Avery only ended up with 5 eggs but he had fun. They hid the eggs along their wooded trails. It was a really pretty hike looking for them. They also had animals for us to pet and feed.


I have no idea why they colored their chicks.


I thought these chicks were cute. It's just hard-boiled eggs, a cut carrot and chocolate sprinkles. I found the idea on Crafty Crow.


We used a fun monster kit to decorate our eggs this year. Avery was quite excited. This was the first year he really got into decorating.


Alia just played with the fuzz we used for hair.


Our monsters



The last hunt we did was at our house. Earlier in the week Scott had Avery take pictures around the yard of a golden egg hidden in different spots. He printed those pictures off and used them as clues to find each of the eggs.


I really liked this picture, look closely who do you see?


Finding an egg and the next picture clue. This one is a picture of the hammock.


We had an egg hiding in this hole not knowing it was the frog's home. When Avery grabbed the egg out, the frog tried to keep it. We have it on video and I will post that next.


This was Avery's prize at the end of the hunt. He was quite excited for the dragon.


Alia found her basket!


Alia being cute. I love these flowers! I think they are purple phlox.

We also took advantage of the long weekend and took on a house project. Thanks to Tony's graphic skills we were able to choose the perfect color to match the rest of the house. I was nervous to paint the walls the purple color but it looks good. See for yourselves...

Before


After

Bunny Basket

Here is a cute and simple bunny basket I am doing with Avery's class tomorrow for Easter. I was in charge of the craft for his party. I found the basket here. I made a few changes to ours. I wanted the bunny to stand out more so I bought sticky back foam and cut the bunny shape. I also used that for the nose. I think the colored pipe cleaners add a little flare. They are the perfect size to hold an Easter egg or small treats.

Thank you!!

A special Easter package came in the mail today for Avery and Alia.


Avery was excited about EVERYTHING that came in the package. He played with the packaging all day. He said that we all needed to dress up with it, so we did.


He loved these monsters. He said the one with the yellow hair looked like Grandpa Davis.


Bowling


He especially liked this chicken that laid eggs. He played with this for quite awhile. I like where Venus is, she knows where to be when candy is involved.

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Davis, we love you!

Blog Book

A little while ago we were commenting that it would be sad if blogger ever stopped because we have so much on our blog that we would like to remember. We debated printing our blog so we at least had a backup, then we found Blog2Print.

We now have nice glossy color book of our blog. The whole process was pretty easy and in about 20 mins we were done.

Welcoming Spring

We enjoyed the first day of spring today with lots of activities. The weather was gorgeous out and we spent it all outside.


We started the day off with a 3 mile walk to help raise money for the meals on wheels program.






Then we headed out with the Mom's Club and enjoyed pizza and icees!


Rita gives away free icees on the first day of Spring.


We ended our day by going to a local church festival. They set up their grounds to look like an ancient town from biblical times. It was a really fun, interactive experience for all of us. Avery enjoyed the camel rides, jewelry making, grape stomping, and using a sling shot.

Typical

When your kids get older you expect them to get stronger and faster. They should be able to help with the little one. Avery decided that he was going to help be Alia's personal trainer and it was his job to help Alia get strong so she can walk soon. Here is his favorite workout routine for her.

Fun for all.

From WI with Love

We enjoyed a visit to the zoo. I liked this zoo, especially the gorillas. The zoo mimicked the gorilla's natural environment and it was neat to watch them and picture what they would be like in the wild.


We were able to feed the goats. I remember when Madison used to do this, but stopped because of safety issues. This zoo did a great job by making it a pet only area, without feeding. That way you weren't trampled by the animals who thought you had food. Alia liked petting them and Avery was fascinated by how thick the sheep's coat was.


We spent a lot of beautiful days walking and going to various parks. The paths through town really are wonderful, even when you read the map wrong and get lost! Good thing Grandpa offered to push the stroller that day since it weighs close to 100 pounds with both kids.








Enjoying a moment on the deck after a 3 mile walk. It was a little hot out and I over-dressed both kids. I guess I just didn't think Spring was really going to come.


Yes, she STILL drools! I'm hoping this ends soon as she's outgrowing her bibs.


I was a good hostess because I made sure to leave the yard work for Grandma when she came. Just kidding, Grandma was sweet and offered to make the yard look acceptable since she LOVES raking. Thanks for making it look great!