Easter

Easter. A Reflection of Spring. A Sign of New Life. A New Beginning. An Excuse for Celebration.

 I used to always want a lovely, yet cheap bouquet of flowers as a centerpiece for my table on a sporadic, yet fairly consistent basis. So, I decided that we now get some calla lilies. They were inexpensive, hearty, and absolutely beautiful. 

The boys dyed lovely eggs. 

Egg decor I made from scrapbook paper.

Carrots. :)

Easter baskets. This year, each of them received a field guide for when we take hikes, a personal book (the 2 older boys received camping guides and Dylan got a vintage Easter Golden Book.) Additionally, Lukey received a trivial pursuit game, Jared had a game of Set, and Dylan got lacing dinosaurs. The boys were also given some cool gifts from Grandma. Simple, functional, fun!

 On an egg hunt....Oh my goodness, Lukey was so wonderful and mature in leading almost the entire show. He made it so fun and magical for the littles. He kinda reminded me of me...really. :)

We just kept it simple without any frills, and it ended up being so....well, complete. We made it a fun celebratory day. We welcomed spring and the fertility therein, which is truly what Easter was historically recognizing. Really, we just made it our own thing and put our own twist on it, just like every individual family does. I hope you enjoyed your Easter, as well. 

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Happy Birthday, Dylan

My youngest boy turned 4 years old on the spring equinox this year. In fact, the actual time of the equinox and the moment he was born were only about 2 hours from one another this year. Sorry it has taken me so long to post...we get busy! I was going to go with a dinosaur theme, but I thought that would be too hard when making all of my decorations. So, I went with a mod, masculine spring flower theme, developed from scrapbook paper I have had for years.

On our mantle we have spring scene pictures, complementary flowers to the adjacent wall that I began the motif in the first place, and a matching flag banner. 

I have included some complimentary books and fabric on the mantle, as well, to tie the colors together.

This was the main wall art I created. It ended up being 5 feet across. I love how it turned out!! It almost looks like a purchased wall decal. 

Thereafter, I matched Dylan's cake to the theme...My goodness, those food coloring pens were a pain this year!

 Dylan's birthday ring, with some painted inspiration rocks, and a center candle that Jared made.

The morning of his birthday, I made a short stack of pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup. 

The birthday ring characters come alive....

Birthday cupcake decoration. Wow, that one was messy. 

 Make a Wish.......

His actual birthday was a school day, where they too celebrated his 4th birthday, so we kept it simple. However, I read him a birthday verse the night before and some on the day of. So, we made it special. The excitement happened 4 days later, when a few guests came to join the celebration. 

 Here, I made bags from garden fabric in my stash, and stuffed them with healthy treats and spring-inspired goodies.

Here they are, stuffed.

Presents.

Ooooh, Grandma's present was so exploratory right off the bat. 

 Just a little apron that Mama made......well, I painted it anyway.

This was the whopper. This time consuming creation turned out superb!! He loves it!! I made a road map from old green corduroy, blue corduroy, and dark wool felt. I hand sewed all of the streets and bodies of water. The blue fleece backing was machine-stitched, though. It even doubles as a cozy lap blanket. :)

Here is Dylan in action.

I did a vegetarian thing. Appetizers were homemade hummus and crackers/chips and a veggie dish my Mom brought, along with homemade soda (juice and sparkling water). The lunch was this fantastic tortellini salad I made and a green salad from Daniel's mom. Everything turned out perfect!

 Ah, yes, the kids. They had a total blast!

Everyone painted their pots for planting their own seeds.

 The girls stand back as the boys tackle the biggest boy.... ;)

 Make a birthday party wish......

Oh, by the way, this was a monster canvas he received from our friends and he painted it quite well, if you ask me. Teehee!

Happy Birthday, Dylan. Welcome to a new year of life!

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Gone Bowling

A few weeks ago, a friend and I got together one very rainy evening for a couple hours of good old-fashioned bowling with the little ones. They had such a blast! In fact, they keep asking me when we are going back. We have just been so busy lately. Hopefully sooner than later. :)

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A Visit From Lucy

My girlfriend came to visit nearly 2 months ago to allow me to meet her new daughter, Lucy, who was 8 weeks old at the time. Lucy was so beautiful and engaging. Her mom was really pleased that she slept so seamlessly both in the car on the ride up and all night long when they stayed over. I wanted to share a couple shots with you all.

From the moment they arrived, my little ones were absolutely intrigued by little Lucy. 

Lucy with Mommy.

A shot of the boys and Lucy was truly difficult with the low lighting of my house, my refusal to use the flash so as not to blind the baby :), and the fact that they all could not stop moving. This one turned out pretty good, considering. 

Fixing her gaze upon high contrast.

 This was another blurry shot as Mom was putting on her wrap, but I just love the look on her face.

 I am shown holding her as she stares up at the bright blue sky and the gnarly silhouette of oak branches.

Here are a couple of clear shots with the littles holding her. Clear shots....not from my camera, of course.  

Wow, somehow Mommy looks like a proud Jedi in this photo. Hahaha!

I hope to have more of these visits as she grows older. What a delight to have them over. I am truly grateful for moments like these.

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Christmas At Our Abode...Though a Bit Late In Posting It...

Wow, I have been more unplugged lately than I have been in a long time, which is wonderful. I am obviously with the kids more, enjoying this insanely sunny winter so far, and since Xmas, I have lost about 13 Lbs! So, I finally loaded a month-and-a-half of pictures onto my computer today because I have been super busy...even too busy to worry about quilting. So, here is a collection of photos from Christmas time.

The boys and I made ornaments with some friends out of little cloth dolls that my girlfriend found at the thrift store. Here is my silly little elf. He reminds me of a court jester.

On Christmas eve, the grandparents stopped by to give the boys their gifts. They were awesome!

 

Jared has since had fun making some of his Eco Crafts...

 All I can say is that this is one of the coolest things a 12-year-old can receive as a gift!

Dylan got a little tree home with three finger puppet forest pals, two of which him and Grandma are playing with. So dang cool!

Lukey is drawing a winter forest scene...maybe he was trying to summon the snow...

 For Christmas Eve dinner, I made a vegetarian meal, both because turkey and ham are expensive, and because we are eating meat and poultry less and less frequently. Above is an apple butternut squash torte before it was baked, so that you can see the yummy innards.

 The torte was baked with cheese on the top, and the meal was accompanied by green beans with shallots and sherry and a bowl full of garlic mashed potatoes.

 We also had veggie jambalaya to round out the whole meal. It was fantastic!!

 Christmas morning was mellow and super exciting for the boys.

 Santa really spoiled them this year. I think next year the "old jolly man", a.k.a. Mommy, should flex better skills of frugality. They made out like bandits. Also, Note to self: we need to get our tree later on than last year. Getting it the day after Thanksgiving is not conducive for a small home that constantly has the wood-stove running. It was pretty dry by Christmas. Oh well.

 Dylan showing off some of his stocking stuffers...

 Lukey was excited about his hats and his skinny jeans and his funny pajama bottoms and.....

Dylan sporting some serious fashion here.....Jared getting stoked off of his many Barefoot Books...

They all got some super cool games and puzzles.

Lukey checking out his Official Handy Game for Boys....

 The Littles playing with their new Connectagons....

 Mickey Mouse pancakes for Christmas morning. I totally forgot until recently that my mother used to treat me to these when I was little. :)

Jared helped make flax seed meal shortbread cookies.....

 Here are his finished cookies.... They were buttery and delicious!

 Dylan was so cute when playing with his dinosaurs on the grasslands with a river and mountain range.

And lastly, for Christmas we indulged in an enchilada recipe that I am consequently unable to find, and I am not wasting anymore time looking for it right now. It was in one of my Vegetarian Times magazines. And, of course, mine never looks as good as the photo in the magazine. This was accompanied by avocados, lime wedges, sour cream and we served sauteed kale on the side. It was superb!

We drove to Tahoe, but unfortunately there was no snow and almost everything was closed so it wasn't as fun as it could have been. That is okay. We already figured that before we went there. Other than that, we stayed home and enjoyed each others' company. Merry Very Belated Christmas!

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