Easter decorating projects

The girls were really excited to have "Easter week" this week for their home school. For an art project, they made some Easter decorations to put up in the apartment.

We also made these envelope bunnies to put snacks in. Kiersten made an extra one for Whitney, so Kara made one for Tommy. They are very excited to show their cousins the bunnies when they arrive later this week. Tommy's bunny is to the far right, and has a yellow tooth, because Kara said, "he hates to brush his teeth". so I have no idea where she got that from.

I was getting tired of my boring, unpainted nails, so we bought some Easter colored nail polish at the store today, after we left the zoo. After lunch we all painted our nails. Kiersten is so pleased with her alternating purple and green fingers.

Evie got pink fingers, but it is impossible to get a picture of them, I guess. I took 8 different shots, and in every single one, she curled her fingers in at the last moment. this is the only picture that you can actually see one finger.

Kara used pink as well on her fingers, and copied Kiersten's purple/green combo for her toes, which made Kiersten kinda mad at first, til I explained it was cool that Kara thought her idea was good enough to copy.

All of our Easter toes. You wouldn't believe how hard this picture was to take! Notice Evie's cute little green piggies.

During Evie's nap, the girls made this Easter centerpiece. It was so easy for them. They didn't need any help, so I was free to straighten up while they made it. All I had to do was tie a bow around the flower pot once they had all their peeps skewered and placed.

We hung their suncatchers that they painted a few days ago in the window. Kiersten was sad that she couldn't reach as high as Kara.

We finally got scotch tape, so they were able to hang the decorations they made all over the apartment.

They wanted more decorations to tape up, so I had them trace their hand prints to make butterflies.

I had some peeps left over from their centerpiece, and also this green pot that a leprechaun left here on St. Patricks day full of candy. So I made some royal icing and "glued" the peeps around the edge of the pot. I tied a cute piece of ribbon around the edge with a bow. Kara thought it was hilarious to keep saying, "they're peeping over the edge at us". I didn't want to buy more flowers, and after searching through all the girls' stuff we have here, I decided to crochet a few large flowers. Then I just hot glued them onto skewers and decorated them with beads and easter embellishments, and stuck them down in the pot. It still looked a little bare, so I stuffed in a bit of yellow tulle left over from Kiersten's tutu, and ended up with this cute little easter decoration.

now we are decorated for Easter, and didn't have to spend more than a few dollars to get our sad little apartment looking cheery and fun. Tomorrow I think I'll check out pinterest for some fun easter treat ideas!

our tree

We decided to set up our Christmas tree and get out all the decorations on sunday. We've never done it so early in the past, but I'm glad we got everything out. usually by the time I find the advent calendar, several days of december have already passed, and the girls get a bit disappointed to see those doors with nothing in them.

Evie only got to put one decoration on the tree before she went down for her nap. Later, she took and ornament off the tree and broke it. She cut her hand on it, and has left the tree alone ever since.

Kara was so proud to be able to reach high up on the tree. She kept telling Kiersten to decorate the lower brances, and she'd take care of the higher ones.

Of course Kiersten still tried to reach as high as possible.

Now the livingroom feels nice and festive. If only I can get up the desire to finish decorating the rest of the house. I can't wait til Kara's older and can do more of the decorating for me, since she loves doing it, and I'm not too keen. you may notice there is no tree topper. Ben decided he hates the one we have, and tasked me with buying a new one. I found one at fred meyer, and hopefully he'll install it tonight to finish things off. It's a little insane to me that it's not even December yet, and we already have everything purchased and wrapped for Christmas. I'm sure I'll still end up busy the rest of the month, though.

The girls are eating so many apples lately. I feel like I'm buying 8 -10 apples every few days. Once in a while I find a half eaten one in their rooms, but they usually eat the whole thing.

Happy FIRST birthday, Evangeline!

My littlest girl turned one year old yesterday. Doesn't she look so cute napping quietly in her bed? While she was napping, this is what the girls and I were doing. With moving on friday, I had planned to just blow up a few balloons, but Kara wouldn't let up about decorating. I had some pink streamers, but that wasn't good enough, so we ended up cutting some pictures out of a my little pony calendar which Kara had 2 of. They were so proud, and excited for Evie to wake up from her nap.

We emptied the livingroom for carpet cleaning. Then we decided to just leave the couches in the dining room, and we brought down the beds so the bedrooms can be cleaned. We found a renter for our house, and she is moving in the day after we move out. (she'd move in sooner if she could get us out any faster). So I am doing as much of the cleaning this week as I can. The girls thought it was fun to have a family sleep over in the livingroom.

When Ben got home from work, we played some party games, and then Evie opened a few gifts from us. She is also getting her own chair, but we didn't want to buy it to move it, so it will be arriving at our new place after we move. Kara took all the gift opening pictures. I think she did a pretty good job!

She liked the 2 toys she opened, but the clothes barely got glanced at and then thrown as far away as she could get them. this puzzle was her favorite thing. she played with it all night.

I didn't want to bake another cake, for many reasons, so we found this little fudge cake at wal-mart. Kara didn't think it was birthday enough, so I let the girls put sprinkles on, and I wrote Evie's name on it.

I made tacos for dinner. Something that Evie can eat, right along with the rest of us. I told her to smile, and this is what I got. she was pretty tired, and fell asleep in her highchair soon after this.

I had to hold the cake just out of her reach while we sang "happy birthday". she kept trying to grab that flame.

her first task was to pick off, and eat as many sprinkles as possible.

once she got a taste of the chocolate fudge icing, she dug in. I cut some cake off for the rest of us, so that is the part that's missing. Evie mostly stuck with the icing. she did eat some cake, and she did rub some into her hair.

she kept showing me her hands, and waiting for me to clean them off. I'm usually pretty on top of that. But I was letting her get good and messy. Before too long, she started trying to wipe the chocolate off herself, and then started getting a little upset.

I love this chocolately little girl. Here's a picture of her showing us how old she is now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVIE PIE!

haunted house

The girls got to decorate a haunted gingerbread house. I let them decorate the ghost cookies and just eat them, rather than attatching them to the house. Here is Karalee's ghost cookie. Kiersten decorated this tombstone. I kept telling her not to eat the candy and icing, but as you can see, she did anyway.

Kara was so proud of this side of the house. She keeps reminding us about the spider she put there.

It's hard for me to not be a perfectionist and do it myself, but I really tried to let the girls do most of the decorating, and not worry about if it was perfect. They don't always do it how I would, but I probably wouldn't be decorating a haunted house at all, if not for them. Here is how it turned out. I did take over the front door and part of the roof, but they put on all the candy.

here we are with black tongues after eating the leftover candy. Kiersten kept going into the bathroom to stare at hers in the mirror.