Dying to Dye

The kiddos have been raring to dye Easter eggs. Hubby and I blew these out, a couple at a time. Hard work! I made my own dye with red, yellow, and blue food coloring, then mixed to get orange, green and purple. The recipe: 1/8 tsp food color; 1/2 Tbsp vinegar; 3/8 cup hot water. (This is half the original recipe, I didn't want much because we were using rags and droppers to tie-dye the eggs.
It takes lots of concentration:


They were having so much fun, I ended up hard-boiling a few, too. We used a glue-water mixture and rolled some in glitter (the glue made the color bleed, though.) We used glue dots and glitter for some polka effect. They used crayons on a couple--I added a bit of vinegar to the boiling water, they drew on warm eggs, then let it set for 30 minutes or so.
Our egg stand, inspired by this one in Family Fun. It's my cake stand on the bottom, then an upside-down plastic cup, topped with a clear plastic dessert plate.

Supermodel

Snuggle-Bug showing off some of her cute, non-hand-me-downs.

Speedy helped Grandma pick out this ladybug outfit.
Princess helped Grandma pick out this heart outfit. This was the same trip where one or both of them (Speedy and Princess, not Grandma) were on the floor crying because they couldn't get everything they wanted for Snuggle-bug.
A smile in a snuggly-soft set from a...great-cousin??
I LOVE the detailing and stitching and appliques on baby clothes. LOVE IT. I've thought about cutting all that stuff off outgrown clothes and making a quilt or blanket...but it seems like a lot of work, and kind of a waste of perfectly good clothes. :)

On a side note, tonight is Kindergarten Round-Up! I hope I don't cry. It's going to be quite a transition for me.

Baby Stuff

Your weekly dose of Snuggle-Bug. :)

The sweet sweater from Regi.What would you do if you saw this?
Laugh, of course! Snuggle-bug's first LOL that I can recall!
She is getting so curious, sitting up in the walker, grabbing toys, looking around, wanting to be included.
She's still sleeping through the night. She sleeps better than the other three do now.
Clean cutie! Speedy asked why she had 'those lumps' on her arms. I was explaining they were fat rolls, and that he had them when he was a baby, too. He said, "but then I got 3 and I didn't have lumps anymore, right?"

Eggy Stuff

I finally got out all the Easter and spring books last week, and did a craft. Good for fine-motor, too. ;) I cut out egg shapes from a pop tart box, then spread glue on a strip at a time.

(Yes, Honey made this neat row all by herself!)
Too many options for Speedy.
The Princess, perfectly filling hers in.
Speedy thrilled, I finally let them mix the beans, peas and lentils together. This provided some extra fun mixing, sorting, dumping and pouring. (Yes, there were some on the floor. I try to get them to keep everything on those trays, but it doesn't always happen.)
Finished eggs! From left: Princess, Speedy, Honey. Only glitch was the glue making the eggs curl. Maybe next time I'll lay wax paper (re-used from the bag inside a cereal box) and then a heavy book on top while they dry.

Always Running Behind

It's ridiculous. I cannot catch up! With anything!! I've got sewing projects, Easter projects, birthday projects, people projects, organizing projects, shopping projects, scrapbooking projects, housecleaning projects, reading projects, bloggy projects...

Part of the reason is because of this curly-girly. She wants to be potty-trained. But she's not. She has started taking off her pants and diaper all the time. And will then sit on the potty and go through the motions of wiping. But never does anything IN the potty. I tried some training pants this weekend, but she'd wet them before I had a chance to have her try going. {sigh}
I'm trying to take heart in the fact that I do have two successfully potty-trained children, and that this will end. Sometime.

Honey wants to do everything her "solf" right now. More and more independence. This morning she pulled a container of water off the counter all over herself and the kitchen floor. Then acted mad at me, like it was my fault for leaving it there, I should know better. :)

Honey and Speedy scrubbed clean and shiny.
This is how Honey finally gave in to sleep one night.
Honey is talking SO much, it's so cute and fun. For example: 'ite, Mommy?' (right, Mommy?) I wish I had video of it for you, typing just doesn't do it justice.

I can't believe I've made it past 200 posts!

Funny Girl

I thought I already posted these--but that was Facebook. ;) Too much technology.

Honey just couldn't hold out until it was time to eat...
I took Honey's picture, so Speedy had to have his taken with that little car...
Headgear of all types is popular with Honey, this particular day it was the bunny ears. On backwards...

Usually my babies kick their socks off. Honey snatches them before Snuggle-bug even has a chance to kick them off!

Turtle-Time!

I'm trying hard to get back to doing more crafts and sensory activities with the kiddos. Last week we made turtles using small paper plates, two shades of green paint, construction paper scraps, green craft foam and glue dots. :) Inspiration from More Mom Time.

Kind of cute and springy--against the blizzardy backdrop. Yep, that's sleet frozen on the screens of our screened in porch. It started melting the same day, so was really not too bad at all.
We read The Tortoise and the Hare. And were trying to act it out one morning--I'm not sure what happened, but Speedy went pouting to his room. And only wanted to act out The Three Little Pigs (the first story we ever acted out). Princess only wanted to act out the Tortoise and the Hare. So we didn't act anything except irritated. :)

Snow Day!

This was our backyard Saturday morning:
There's sleet and ice under about 4 inches of snow.
Cool designs on the chain-link fence, huh?
Frosty the snowman
Honey eating snow/sleet:
Draft horse pulling Princess & Speedy on our sled (aka gator teeter-totter):
Building a fort:
Princess making snowballs.
It was so cute, she'd make a couple, stack them by the bottom of the fort. Hubby kept 'inadvertently' hitting her in the head with snowballs and making her cry. (Like he'd aim for her feet, then she'd bend down. Or he'd lob one over the fort, and she'd stand up into it. He seemed most proud of the time he knocked her hat off with a snowball.)

What's Happenin'

A few days ago, this was Speedy, laid up on the jumping couch. He barely moved, except running to the bathroom, for 2 days. Hubby grants lots of movie time on his laptop for invalids. Shows usually attract a couple non-invalids, too.
Princess does an awesome job making her bottom bunk most of the time. One day I walked in and notice she had a quilt and blanket neatly folded at the foot of her bed, and several friends all in a row. Aww.
Honey and Princess. We have musical beds here most of the time. You never know which munchkin(s) may be in your bed when you wake up.
Feeling better: 3 sillies said 'come take our picture!' They were acting like they were asleep and fake snoring. :)

Smile

Guess who turned three months old?





I think my snuggle-bug is pretty cute. I'm not biased at all! ;) She is getting so alert, wants to be sitting right up, taking it all in. Speedy has a trick to make her smile--he puffs his cheeks way up, then whooshes his breath out. Snuggle-bug is also starting to bat at things and even gets ahold of them sometimes. She pulled Honey's hair for the first time this week. Watch out!

Snuggle-bug also enjoyed the baby swing on our screened in porch for the first time!
Big sis Honey was a little jealous--SHE wants to swing!