Easter 2018

I'm so thankful for a day set aside to remember that Jesus came to this earth with a purpose...to die for me. He took the punishment of death so I can live eternally in heaven. And because He is God, Jesus conquered death, He rose three days after the Crucifixion and is still alive today.

When the children woke up, they had to find their Easter baskets AND their goodies that had been hidden around the first floor of the house. Some items they received were chocolate rabbits, a favorite candy, sunglasses, and books. They also each received an egg with cut out letters inside. They had to unscramble the letters to make a word. Evan made the word NEWS. Esther made BOYS. Meghan had a tough time with her scrambled letters. She was ready to give up when I repeatedly asked Evan and Esther to say their words...then Meghan figured out her word was CONCERT. Later this month we'll attend a Newsboys concert.

Before church the children tolerated a photo.

 After church service and potluck brunch, we were invited to our friends' home. The Armstrongs put on a great Easter dinner. They have two teens and a young adult still at home...and we enjoyed all of their company!

Though I had been warned of a big Easter egg hunt, I was surprised by just how big it was. Three children had to find over 300 eggs after dinner. I think the Armstrongs had just as much fun hiding the eggs as the Whipple children had finding them!

After the egg hunt, Evan and Esther spent several more hours in their LEGO room. The rest of us visited, snacked, and played games. We played two versions of CodeNames. Lots of fun for a group...enough fun that Meghan thinks we need to get a version for our family! 

There has already been a request by the children to return to the Armstrong's next year. What a blessing friendship is!

Easter 2017

Christ is risen!

(I know I've posted several times in the past week here. I don't expect it get back to blogging regularly. During the children's spring break I couldn't work on my regular writing so I blogged...and I had photos to share.)

We haven't had many Easters at home without company, but this was one of them. (Last year was another, but that was a very different Easter for our family.)

Meghan gave herself bangs (again) a couple months ago. I think she's ready to grow them out again.

Evan asked to not wear a shirt and tie this year.

 Esther's hair was still wet from her bath.

 All of those photos were before church.

We stayed for the brunch after church so we had a late (for us) Easter dinner after 3. (We weren't full enough to hold out for a true evening meal.)

The children have come to love Easter egg hunts. Even Meghan, at ten. We had a few indoor hunts earlier in the week with the children hiding eggs for one another, but I knew they (especially Meghan) wanted more. The past several years their grandma provided a fun scavenger egg hunt for them.

I decided to include our resurrection eggs in the hunt. Evan and Meghan have lost a lot of interest in the resurrection eggs. Last night I filled empty Easter eggs with a few "coupons" and a few other things in sets of matching colors. Then I placed them around the yard. (I won't call it hiding.) Each set of eggs had one or two resurrection eggs with them.

They had to find the eggs in proper order to open the Easter eggs.

They seemed to enjoy it. 

If you aren't familiar with resurrection eggs, you can read about ours here. 

Happy Easter!

HAPPY EASTER!

 Cousin Arden was willing to pose for some cute pictures. 

 This was the only dressed up picture of the three cousins.  (More pics to come later from the weekend.)

 We gave the children sunglasses, baseball mitts, and a little candy for their Easter baskets.  More goodies came from GnG W and GnG J.  

 Just in case you are curious how a little guy named Evan might eat a miniature Reese cup, it is in ONE bite!  What a mouthful he had!

Since the day was absolutely beautiful, the children quickly changed out of their clothes so they could play outside.

We actually broke our (self-imposed) rule that we don't use air conditioning until May.  With three small children and nine adults in our home, it was a wise choice, especially with the oven on for a bit.

Brandon and Steph took lots of pictures, so I have more to share, but for now, I just wanted to thank you all for checking in with us!  We're all doing well, and had a lovely weekend celebrating Jesus with our family.  (But, boy, I think we are all exhausted!)


(You may notice that Meghan's hair was wavy.  Meghan had requested that she have curly hair for Easter.  Since she was supposed to sing at church today with other children, I talked her out of her Easter hat.  Instead, she wore her hair in a "crown."  (See here for what I mean of a better photo of her.)

Our Baskets

The children's Easter baskets are ready. Derek picked out the baskets. Can you tell?

In Evan's baseball basket are two GIANT bibs, 2 family DVDs, the teddy bear I made, and two of Meghan's old toys that had been set aside.

Meghan's basket has her button book that I made, 2 DVDs, washable markers, sidewalk chalk, chocolate bunny lollipop, and a few eggs with a piece of candy in each.

The DVDs were definitely a splurge, but since we don't have cable TV, it will be nice (for all us) to have more variety. I like the idea of keeping things simple and without much candy, at least for now. That may be much harder when the children are older.

Derek already found his peanut butter eggs. I guess I can't blame him since I've had them for several weeks now. I had hoped to make some, too, but I don't think that's happening any time soon.

Happy Easter!

Egg Hunt Part 1

Today we had the privilege to go to an Easter egg hunt at a friend's home. Jeanine put on a great hunt for our local MOMS Club. (National organization-It stands for Moms Offering Moms Support, and boy did I appreciate them when they delivered meals after Evan's arrival!)

Can I just share how well Jeanine thought of everything? She had two different egg hunts (same time, different locations) for 2 and under and 2 and older. The only difference were the prizes. The younger had stickers and fruity Cheerios in their eggs. The older had stickers, coins, and I am guessing a bit of candy. In addition to the egg goodies, we were given goody bags of the rainbow Goldfish crackers. With as many treats as we'll be eating this weekend, I thought that was so appropriate!

Yes, Evan was with us. He hung out in his carrier in the shade.

While Evan napped, a friend took this picture.

Yes, that is an egg "tattoo" on my hand. Meghan didn't want one. :) Daddy will be proud of her!

It was a beautiful spring day! It's nice enough that Derek took an unplanned half day of vacation. He is heading to Baltimore for a baseball game. The Yankees are in town. So though it will be a long evening for me, I know he'll enjoy it. Just in case you are wondering, Derek is actually a Mets fan, but really he is passionate about baseball in general.

If Evan will nap, I hope to get outside and weed that garden plot that I have been avoiding so well.

(I titled this part one because I hope we'll have another hunt this weekend at our home.)

Button Book and Button Eggs

Buttons Buttons!

I made a button book for Meghan's Easter basket. It was fairly simple to make. I got the idea here. Since Meghan tries to unbutton and button my shirts, I thought it was time that she had a more appropriate place to practice this fine motor skill. I used two pieces of felt, plus addition felt for the pocket and shapes. Embroidery floss holds the buttons on and the book together. Simple!

Here is the inside of the book with the sewn buttons and removable shapes.

I decided not to use the recommended blanket stitch. Instead I just used the whip stitch.

The outside has a handy little pocket for storing the felt shapes.


Though this picture is upside down (and I don't know how to fix it), it shows the button and ribbon closure. I hope she likes it!
Meghan's Reaction:

Silly me. When I made this button book I didn't consider Meghan's compulsive tendency. I will be making new shapes for her in matching colors to the buttons.

Meghan decorated an egg shape with buttons with her left hand

and her right hand.

Don't you love seeing how much she concentrates? Amazingly, school glue holds the buttons to the paper without any problems, unless a little girl tries to peel them off!

Button Sort

Derek's grandma recently shared her large button collection with us. Although I didn't have plans for them at the time, I knew they would come in handy, and they have!

We are sorting buttons. Meghan really enjoyed this and sorted the buttons two times in a row!

I used an egg carton and colored small pieces of paper to show Meghan where to sort the buttons. I colored both sides of the paper in case they flipped, and I was glad I did.

Meghan seems left-handed, though she does use her right hand a bit. I thought the brown, black, and navy blue would be confusing, but she did great. Though I had selected which buttons she would sort, there were three buttons that confused her a bit. One was blue/gray, though more gray. She quickly decided that it would be on its own. A bright pink, nearly red button became a color of its own, too. I can't blame her since the other pink buttons were very pale. A maroon button went from the red to the brown to the red pile. In the end she did choose the red pile for the maroon button.

This is a supervised activity since Meghan still puts small objects in her mouth.

Meghan saw the plastic eggs I purchased, so I gave her one. She quickly associated the egg with the chicken from the Little People farm. So I made her a little chick using pom-poms, eyes, and a felt beak. Meghan thinks it's cute and that's all that matters!

An Easter Bear and More

I made my first fabric (not just felt) toy since Home Economics in junior high. Mrs. Chandler would be proud of me. No broken needles, no blood, but not as cute as I had hoped either. The bear's pattern is here.

On Day 1 during nap time, I cut the fabric and embroidered. Silly me, I thought the worst was over. And embroidering was extremely hard for me...tiny stitches. When Day 2 came, I was excited to sew it, "knowing" it wouldn't take long.

I learned very quickly that sewing flannel isn't as simple as other types of cloth. Also, those turns are tricky. (I don't even have straight lines mastered! What was I thinking?) The total height for this may be six inches. Turning it inside out was tough! This little bear will find it's way to Evan's Easter basket. Until then, this bear will wait patiently for his hugs and drool.

Meghan hit two line drives right to Evan. It must be the bat!

Last weekend we planted corn for the garden. Some of it has poked through the soil, but a lot of the soil is moldy. Do I need to throw it out? Please help!

Meghan was collecting rocks again. Without Donna here to push her around in the big wheelbarrow, she had to resort to using her own.