It's Official

Today is my first official day of summer break! I am going to miss these kiddos.


However, I am looking forward to a fun summer with my own kids. Last year was a bit difficult with the girls being soooo needy. We hardly made it outside and when we did it was quick stressful trips. I can already see how much better things are going to be this year!!

My to-do list is a mile long, with one thing already accomplished. Stay tuned for that...

We don't have any big vacation plans. What do you do with a 4-year old and 1-year old twins? We don't get much farther than the park!! I'll take any suggestions : )

Cone heads

Who is in there?
Boo. It's Addy. And she thinks she is really funny.

Connor wouldn't miss out on this one.

There is Molly in the background applying Aquaphor to her face. And Connor's. What nutty kids!

Happy Mother's Day!

I am blessed to have a wonderful mom. She is a great mom and an amazing grandma. I am so thankful for the relationship that we have. I only hope that I can give as much to my kiddos as she has given to me.

Last weekend, we had a great time celebrating her 60th birthday! Here she is with 6 of the grand kids. The twins were taking a nap : )

Thank you mom for showing me how to be a great mom!

Traditions

I love traditions. I still remember many things that we did as a family as I was growing up. We have taken some of those traditions and continued them with our children and we have started some new ones.

I really like this one because it is a new tradition that has been created with my siblings. On to the fun...I really don't know how long we have been doing this, at least 5 years.

The Cousin Easter Egg Hunt! We never have nice weather for this. We have experienced very cold, rain, and today windy!!

Getting the rules from Aunt Natalie

and they're off...

Check out the loot!! Tasting the goods.

Molly learned how to open peanut butter cups today! Good thing Aunt Sarah was there to show her there was paper on it before she ate it.

We are finally on Easter Break this week : ) I was hoping since it is so late in April that the weather would be nice. Nope, snow showers in the forecast! I have lots on my to-do list including more updates. We'll see if I really follow through!!

My lucky charm is 4

I can hardly believe it, Connor celebrated being 4 today in a very big way!

This is what he woke up to this morning (ok, more like 1 in the morning!). He was hilarious.


He and Daddy spent the beautiful day together. They went to Chuckie Cheese for some fun and games. Can you believe they were alone in the place for two hours? All the pictures are on Ken's phone, I'll have to work on that.

After they played some more outside and went down for a little afternoon recharge. Three + hours later, I decided to bring him back to the land of living for dinner and presents. We had a special evening planned for the three of us.

One of Connor's presents was a basketball shirt like Michael's (our baby-sitters son). Michael's team had a tournament game tonight so we took Connor to the game. We have been going, but Connor and the girls had to stay behind. He was very excited and very proud to wear Michael's number. He did lots of yelling, cheering, dancing, and eating popcorn! Sadly, they lost by 2 points.

Party on Sunday...

Happy Birthday Connor!

Finally!

We finally went back to school today after an unplanned 5 day weekend. We went to school 2 days last week and are hoping to put in a whopping 3 this week. This is what kicked it all off around President's Day. We then got ice. Then things started to melt and rained. It was ugly and still is for many families. I'll be honest, I am a little bitter that we are 5 days over on our calamity days. I never remember going over.

While we were trapped we have had some creative fun. I wanted pictures of the girls for their recently painted pink room and I thought pictures in their Halloween Ballerina costumes would be cute. So we had a little photo shoot. I am no photographer. I got a few cutes ones that will be blown up and hung in their rooms.

I hope they always love each other...

You know who wasn't going to sit idle while this fun was going on. Superman came out in full force. Connor and I also made a paper chain to count down the days to the big 4! Where does time go?

4 Day Project

Have you ever checked out Jen's blog? If not, you should. She does the cutest things, makes the most delicious looking food, and has adorable/funny kids that I love reading about. I'm not sure when she sleeps or how she is so thin!! This is where my 4 day project came from!

A long while ago Jen posted the recipe for sugar cookies. I needed a good sugar cookie recipe, the one I had tried was way dry. So, I jotted it down, filed it away, and forgot about it until she recently has been posting these amazing cookies.

So, on snow day number 2 this week I thought I'd give it a whirl. I finally completed them today, 4 days later. I think Jen whips them up in an afternoon. And no, they are not hard!

I learned a few things on my journey.

Before baking during a snowstorm, make sure you have all the ingredients (baking powder...I had some before we moved??! I think my sister tossed it!).

Chill the dough before attempting to roll it out.

Nap time is never enough time.

Make sure the cookies are cooled before storing.

Have enough containers to store them in after cooling.

Make your brown darker so your mom doesn't say it looks like poo.

The cookies without frosting are so good. They are even more delicious with the frosting on them.

Please don't compare mine to Jen's...mine look like a 3 year old made them!

Thanks Jen for sharing so many fun things!! I have another project of hers in the works, I wonder how long that will take?