Easter Projects...

Today we finally dug out the Easter decorations, and luckily it stopped raining long enough for the kids to help me hang some eggs on our tree outside. We have lots of crafts to make for Easter next weekend, but in the meantime here's what we did last year: http://thelittlelilypad.blogspot.com/2011/04/easter-projects.html

Can't believe how little A and E looked in their old highchairs!

Highlights

Things That Made Me Smile This Week

• Five crock pot meals (I created) in a row.
• Early morning runs outside.
• Jameson rocking his Invention Convention- The Ready Rod Retractable Fishing Rod.
• Listening to my Ella who is big into making up songs these days, sing from her darkened room tonight, "I love my mom, I love my Dad, I love my Jameson, I love them all, I love my Dubby, I love my Addie, I love my Avie, I love them all."
• Seeing Avery and Ella grab their plastic doctors kits and head upstairs to Jameson's room when they heard he wasn't feeling well.
• Standardized testing week at the boys' school, my favorite week of the school year- no homework, no projects, no papers, no library books to remember! The kids can come home from school and just be kids- meaning they play outside and don't bug me til dinner.
• Knowing that boys had a blast skiing with Jim, and Aunt Megan and Uncle Bobby. It was a great weekend away for them and a relaxing weekend home for us!
• Having a great time with my girls in the city over the weekend, visiting with cousin Gemma, Aunt Tammy, and Aunt Allison.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• A tea party with my three girls.
• A new ritual when we read Fancy Nancy at bedtime. The girls gather clothes, accessories and shoes for me and for them from my closet so we can be fancy while we read.
• The perfect weather making the time between naps and dinner fly by as we all play outside.
• First Popsicles of the season.
• 

• This email I received from Jameson's Social Studies teacher: Good morning,I just wanted to let you know what a terrific job Jameson is doing in my class. He does not know yet because report cards don’t go out until next week but he received 100% average in Social Studies. I only have one other student who has done that. It is not something I see often so I thought I would let you know. Congratulations!

• Working a lemonade stand with the boys today and discovering they are both great salesman.
• Addie entertaining herself.
• Whispering at the dinner table.
• Boys and girls playing together.

Ten Signs Summer Has Arrived in March

1.) Sundresses on my girls revealing the cutest, chubbiest, pastiest little arms.

2) Trampled crocuses littered throughout the yard

3) Avery has a splinter on her foot

4) Cameron made $5 in a lemonade stand with the neighborhood boys

5) Tubs the last 4 nights in a row

6) The driveway looks like this at the end of the day

7) 10 skinned knees

8) Sandbox sand in hair, shoes and diaper

9) Ice-cream truck at the playground

10) Lawn chairs line the sidewalk of our cul-de-sac while kids play into evening (my chair remains vacant due to a fearless little wanderer who keeps me on duty).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The girls and I had a fun St. Patrick's Day while the boys were away skiing for the weekend. A Leprechaun left a rainbow made of colored ribbon trailing from the top of the stairs through and around the downstairs until it finally ended in a pot of gold coins. The girls had a fun following the rainbow and were delighted with what they discovered at the end! There was also a path of shamrocks leading to another treasure of green Hershey Kisses. Nothing like chocolate before breakfast to start the day off right! The silly Leprechaun left his hat in the refrigerator so we've had some fun posing with that! We also played Four Leaf Clover Bingo, using a board I made to work on shape and letter recognition. I got this great idea from Mandy at Twin Trials and Triumphs and just altered it a little to make it work for a St. Patrick's Day activity using green marker and shamrocks to cover the spaces on the board.

We then headed in town to spend the day with Aunt Tammy, Aunt Allison and cousin Gemma. The girls loved spending the morning in the city with some of their favorite people! To conclude our St. Paddy's day activities the girls did some finger painting with green pudding- YUM! They helped me make vanilla pudding then each added a drop of green food coloring. They finger painted on plain white paper then licked their fingers clean.

Tonight when the boys got home we ate our Irish boiled dinner as a family, a day late but worth the wait!

Payback

If I thought the first day back from vacation was hard, nothing could have prepared me for yesterday. It was payback time around here! The kids apparently were not thrilled that I took four days for myself, relaxing and enjoying all the things they would also enjoy; the sun, the beach, the pool- so now they are letting me know. Let's just say the girls woke over an hour earlier than usual in the morning and things only nosedived from there. None of them would nap, a certain almost-two-year old hit me in the face, a three year old who has been potty trained for almost a year, pooped in her pants and a certain eight year old threw the biggest fit I have witnessed yet. It was something straight out of a Super Nanny preview. It ended with me, packing up a trash bag of that eight year old's favorite things (everything from his handheld gaming devices to his Pillow-Pet) to put away for long time and him being sent to his room without dinner (before DSS is called he had had a rather large snack before the temper erupted). Not exactly the homecoming I was hoping for. Luckily, the ten year old remained pleasant and helpful throughout this ordeal or I might really have grabbed my still packed suitcase and headed back to the airport hoping to catch the first flight to anywhere. Today things are better; I got an apology card and a big hug from my little man who is now oozing with sweetness, the girls actually asked to go in for their naps, and the almost-two-year-old gave me an unprovoked, "I wuv voo."

St. Patrick's Day Art

The girls have a vague comprehension of St. Patrick's Day-a day to wear green and celebrate our Irish heritage. We looked on the map to see where Ireland is, and have talked about leprechauns and four leaf clovers. We made these 3D pics to get in the spirit. The girls glued foam shamrocks onto paper then stuck on pipe cleaners to make rainbows. We counted pennies then glued on our Gold (or copper) and silver (aluminum foil).

Gearing Up for Saint Patrick's Day

(So excited to be the featured Blogger at Multiples and More! If you're stopping by from there, please feel free to follow along! Leave me a comment so I can follow back...)

I guess I kind of get into (read- overdo) the holidays around here. Big or little, I love an excuse to decorate, cook and get into the spirit of things and feel like a kid again along with my kids! We've been crafting for Saint Patrick's Day, and will soon get baking making Irish Soda Bread, shamrock cookies and candy Irish potatoes. I'll also be making the traditional corned beef and cabbage on the big day. We have a tricky leprechaun who visits our house every year on Saint Patrick's Day. He causes all kinds of mischief and always escapes the trap the kids leave out for him. In the past he has been known to dye the jug of milk green, replace the healthy fiber cereal we set out with Lucky Charms, leave a trail of green sprinkles across the counter leading to a pot of pennies, leave tiny foot prints on the rug, turn the carnations on the kitchen table green (add several drops of green food coloring to the water in vase before going to bed), fill a room with green balloons, and hide gold coins all around the house. I wonder what our leprechaun has in store for us this St. Paddy's day?

Shamrock Cheer...

St. Patrick's day is fast approaching so over the weekend the kids and I made some cards to send to loved ones near and far, Irish and not! We needed to use supplies from around the house so I decided to take a few clovers from the Oxalis plant which has served as our kitchen centerpiece this month. The kids arranged the petals (face up) on card stock, which was placed on top of a thick book which served as our work surface. We laid wax paper over the paper and petals then the older boys took turns hammering the leaves all the way to to the edge to ensure that the green pigment from the petals fully transferred onto the card stock.

The kids then removed the wax paper and peeled back the clover petals to reveal the shamrock prints!

We have tried this transfer before with fresh flowers and often the pressed (or hammered) leaves and petals look so nice affixed to the paper that this becomes the final step.

Weekend Wrap- Up

(Making banana bread with my little sues chefs)

A busy Saturday was followed by a relaxing Sunday here at the Lily Pad. Saturday, Jameson had an early hockey game and then an indoor soccer game, Cam had two soccer games of his own and then sadly we had a funeral to attend for a mother of one of Jameson's teammates. Jameson got a little choked up from time to time, but I'm not sure he totally grasped everything that was going on, however, it was nice he did get a chance to try and cheer up his friend and hang out with the rest of the teammates. The girls stayed put at home and did some crafting, some dress up, a few dance shows, and some baking with me. Last night Jim and I went to an Auction for the boys school. It was nice to get dressed up, sit down for a nice dinner and a couple glasses of wine and have a chance to catch up with friends. It started early which was a treat in itself as we were able to leave the dinner and bedtime routine to the capable hands of our sitters (Papa and Aunt Tammy). My gang should always have at least two babysitters at a time! We bid on a couple of summer camps for the kids so now I guess its time to start thinking ahead to warmer months. I was also glad to see that the class auction project I put together for Jameson's class went for big bucks! It was a dessert themed cookbook featuring the students artwork and photographs which I took, coupled with some hand painted glass ice cream dishes and glass jars filled with all the toppings for ice cream Sundae bar which I had the class paint one afternoon when I went in. It was a little time consuming, but worth it when I saw how it all came together!
Today we had a lazy pancake breakfast then bundled the kids up to play outside for a while. I took Jameson shopping to get supplies to begin working on his Invention Convention project where he decided to invent a retractable fishing rod after becoming hooked (no pun intended) on fishing during our recent trip down south. We finished the day off with a make-your-own taco dinner at Cameron's request. The clean up always take a little longer on taco night and I think we could easily fill 3 tacos with the food found under and around Addie's highchair. Now I'm just enjoying some Girl Scout cookies and happily browsing through the LL Bean spring catalogue where my Ella happens to be looking up at me from page 23! http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ShowCollectionOrdering?categoryId=510697&outfitId=510728&storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1

Shaving Cream Art

The rainy snowy day outside has got the creative juices flowing inside! The girls and I had fun making shaving cream stationary using just 3 ingredients which we had in the house- shaving cream, food coloring and paper (the thicker the better). The girls now smell like freshly shaven men but the artwork was worth it! We have also tried making stationary in the past with both whip cream and cool whip when I was worried about curious mouths sampling the foam and it worked fine but the shaving cream definitely lends itself to the brightest colors and sharpest designs.

1) Fill a large baking dish with shaving cream and spread out with a spatula.

2) Place a variety of food coloring drops onto shaving cream.

3) Using a plastic knife or toothpick draw lines through food coloring drops until desired design is achieved

4) Gently place paper onto shaving cream and tap lightly ensuring entire paper is pressed onto surface.

5) Peel back paper and place face-up on table.

6) Use spatula to remove excess shaving cream from paper revealing design.

7) Allow paper to dry

Some other shaving cream activities for the toddler crowd we came up with while polishing off Daddy's toiletries included:

Finger painting with Shaving cream

Writing letters in shaving cream

Using different size paint brushes to paint with shaving cream

* The favorite part of the activity however remains spraying the shaving cream out themselves and watching it expand!!!