groundspeed

Marching Right Along

March!

What a month!

I'm not going to say it's been busy. To me busy infers hectic, frazzled. Our March has not been these things.

But it has been full.

And looking back over the month I am especially grateful that Toby has kept pace. He has his moments, and we have to build in our accommodations, but we don't mind accommodating. I don't even get the impression that Kaden and Blue mind it. That's just our Toby. He has moments and more often then not I (armed with snack or juice) can bring him down out of the moments or sometimes we leave things early. Eh. It happens.

But I can't think of anything we've had to leave early. I can think of a few moments where I've gone off to the side and pulled Toby in close to my lap or strapped him down in the stroller and once I've made his space small and manageable again then, pretty quickly,... he's back. Wanting out, ready to go back to the fun.

About that fun...

On the 1st we headed to Miami for the Fragile X 5k and a weekend with my dad where we did a whole lot more than just the 5k. The afternoon after the run/walk we headed over to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. The lighthouse there was built in 1825 and reconstructed in 1846. It's the oldest standing structure in Miami-Dade County.

Aw. Toby wasn't tall enough to go up.

There he is with Daddy while the rest of us were at the top. Ok, let's try that again zoomed in...

And the next day we hit up the zoo.

First time touching a rhino. Super cool.

Then, March 7th, came Kaden's birthday and the next day we were off to Legoland with my mom.

From there we continued on to Tampa where boat day fun and more birthday celebrations awaited.

The twins got a tire swing for their birthday!

Kevin and our youngest niece, Stella.

Cousin fun - trying out the new trampoline together.

A cake for Kevin, Kaden, Chloe and Colton - the March Stratton birthdays!

But we had at-home fun too. Like a little shamrock painting sesh...

Mom - if I just press them all together it goes faster.

Toby and I did all the painting and then the big boys did most of the cutting and then... happy green-ness which we hung all over the kitchen. 

(Walls and pantry door - but how many pics do you need really?)

And then Kevin's birthday came around and we hosted a dinner that was not a birthday party - just a dinner on a birthday :-) with three other families. We were expecting a bunch of kids and it was the day before St. Paddy's so I added green sand to the sandbox.

I was so busy that this is the only picture I took.

But Kevin was celebrated - promise.

Meanwhile there's also been baseball...

Bunnies...

Blue being Blue... (which often keeps things full and hectic and frazzled)

(More) Birthday party fun... (This time celebrating our friend, Ayden turning 4)

It was a camping theme and I scored the centerpiece log for the party hostess. Saw it while jogging. I may not be losing any weight, so at least it's nice to know my regular excercising is good for something!

This was right after singing. Toby got excited and ran outside but then he kept saying, "Happy Birthday" from here. So friggin' cute.

Momma's boy for sure.

And for the rest of the month -  Spring Break.

Which we spent playground hopping, 

having friends over,

and riding ponies.

Ok. Same pony, but multiple times going out to ride.

And... traditional Easter shenanigans:

Here our eggs are vibrantly colored but then... we tried out an idea of putting food coloring on whip cream and rubbing them around on the eggs for added color.

Caught!

Pretty much we made our eggs uglier, but they boys had fun doing it.

And now today, on the last day of the month... we're off to a hunt.

If Blue reads two books today he will have filled every single line on his monthly reading log for the first time this school year. The books I get him keep getting longer, but he's loving it.

No pictures of that.

And no pictures of our discussions of Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Passover, The Last Supper, Judas, crucifixion, and life. Eternal life.

No pictures of bike rides and wiffle ball in the backyard.

Or surprisingly chilly mornings where I, yet again, drank my "last" hot chocolate until next winter.

Small moments. Big family events.

Full.

(Go, Gators! Elite 8 here we come!)

35 January Gifts for 35 Years of Me

For me the new year starts January 5th. That's my birthday. MY new year. So I always give myself till then before I feel as though I need to have set some goals for the year, clean up the house (mostly) from Christmas, and finally feel ready to move forward with the post-holiday, less-sugar, back-to-normal diet, because ya know, I have to wait till after the birthday cake is gone.

And so, January 6th is when I started this post, but alas, finishing up my 2012 album, more organizing around the house, a church project, getting the kids back into the school routine, and... no blogging, so I took ten days to come back to it and another few to finish. Whew.

Last year I started my year off by reading Ann Voskamp's 1,000 Gifts. This year a friend and I are planning on getting together once a week to go through the study guide for this book just as soon as we get them ordered and in! (Details!) In the meantime, we did meet once and went for a pedicure - that's close right?

In 2012 I didn't end up being very good at my written list toward 1,000 thanks inspiring things, but I still had a much better perspective, moving forward through the days and months in a more positive way. 

I have a long way to go.

Time to start over. Time to refocus. Time to linger, to acknowledge again the things I've been noticing that have filled my heart, fuelled or refuelled when tedium or irritation encroached.

So here are my first 35 (because of the new 35-Year-Old Me) gifts at the start of this year...

1. January beach days and large clam shells, cockles and carditas, white, gray and red in abundance, perfect for decorating our sand sculptures.

2. Beautiful, magical novels. I have started this year off by finishing a fantastic novel and reading another, with a powerful memoir consumed in between.

3. Brave parents who bravely tell their stories. I read January First. I started it in car line on a Tuesday and I finished before I was back in car line on Wednesday. 

4. Animated book groups to discuss such books. (Love our little Meet-Ups.)

5. Speaking of parents who bravely tell their stories, my friend Rebecca, who I've mentioned a few times here, has jumped into the blogosphere with amazing perspective and inspiration. Read her at See Luminosity.

6. Birthdays with Donna. We have known each other since the second grade and we have the same birthday, our entry into the world separated by twelve hours, and we often have shared that birthday together. (Perhaps more often than not, but we've never stopped to make a chart or anything.)

Here we are at 15:
 

Here we are at 21:

Here we are, college roommates, sipping champagne from crystal flutes, and that was it for our 21st birthday imbibing. Nope. We weren't your typical college ladies!

Here we are at 35:

After dinner and game night fun!

7. Birthdays with Kevin. This year we dropped the kids off at my mom's, went out to lunch, went to see Les Miserables, and then went to Donna's for dinner and game night.  A good birthday. My first birthday with him was January 5th, 2000 when I turned 22. Apparently I had a party in my college apartment because this is in my scrapbook, but what I remember in better detail is that over the holiday break we went up to Virginia so I could visit a friend and he could continue on to some ski slopes. During the trip I got my presents - he had planned it so that I had one to open every time we crossed a state line.   

8. Toby's new words. Whenever I hear Toby use a word for a first time it always surprises me what he's paying attention to. The other day he called me "Feedra." Another time he saw Cinderella and said, "princess." Of all the words to have picked up!

9. Neighbors. I love that our new kids have really taken to our new neighbors across the street. Kaden is always asking to go over and see them and their dogs. They, ready for grandchildren, but without any in sight, seem to enjoy the kiddo distraction.

I love that when we are playing in the front yard and "Mrs. Kathy" another neighbor is walking her dog, she always stops and chats and lets the boys visit with her dog. (She too has grown kids my age but no grandchildren.)

I love that I have a neighbor I carpool with, so she drives kids to school every morning and I pick up every afternoon.

I love that the girl next door will ring our bell and just hang out and play.

I love that I may finally get to know a family I've been meaning to get to know (We've said high on walks - we see them at the ball field because their who is Kaden's age plays too.) because I just rang their doorbell to invite them over. It didn't work out that day but we chatted and exchanged numbers.

10. The occasional good parenting moment. I'm thankful for the day when I didn't get mad or yell or start revoking privileges when children would not listen, would not follow through, would not stay to the task and instead we played a Simon Says-ish listening game showing the boys that the can listen that they can obey quickly. What could have been just another lecture was fun. The point still got across.

11. Cuteness. I'm not sure where he picked it up, but Toby has started to say, "I am a robot," in a robot voice and move his arms stiffly. 

12. Junk = cash. Many months ago I cleaned out my jewelery box and threw some old tangled necklaces and bracelets and ugly earrings in a bag. This week I finally brought that bag to a place that buys gold. Walked out with three crisp $100 bills. 

13. Kevin's hard work. Every time I go over to the house we bought to renovate I get prouder and prouder of my husband. He. Did. So. Much. Work. Look at this kitchen! He did it all himself! Seriously. He ripped out everything that was once there and started over. This kitchen alone makes me wonder if we should change the plan, sell our house and move here.

14. Boys playing basketball. 

This is Kaden's second year playing Upward Basketball and Blue's first go at being a baller. Two games in and so far so good. Coach Dad (yup, Kevin is coaching both their teams) seems to be having fun with it too.

15. Service. After the boys' games on Saturday we headed up to MFI because they were hosting a Feed My Starving Children event in the hangar. Loved seeing the hustle and bustle of so many happily filling food bags during their shift. And we put Kaden to work while we were there.

16. A new call. We are excited for our pastor and his family as they dream big, step out of his salaried church-staff position to a support-salary (like us) and follow the call to serve Haiti through Northwest Christian Haiti Mission. John writes more about this new role here.

17. Change. We love LifeQuest, our local church, and we are excited that the church voted to continue after John announced his stepping-down (see above!) even though this reality left it without any staff and the church is facing challenging financial difficulties. That said, Kevin and I feel that this time of transition and change is also the right time for us to transition and change. We will be searching for a new church. Part of me dreads this. To break from a body of believers we have known and grown with for two+ years. We've never left a church for any reason other than the fact that we've moved out of state and even then, we haven't really left those churches. I refer to Winter Park Baptist as my North Carolina church and LifePoint as my Texas church. But. We're in agreement it's time to move on. Even without a clear sense of what church God is calling us to partner with, I'm excited about the change knowing that new dreams will be realized on the other side.

18. Toby's come so far. I'm thankful when I stop to think about how far Toby has come since this summer when he was an anxious, hyper-aroused mess. Maybe it's structure. Maybe it's the increase in his communication skills. Maybe he's maturing. Maybe... it's a combination of all those things and something I'm overlooking as well, but he's potty trained! He's doing fine with his afternoon school hours and dropping his nap! We've had no problems with the transition to a big boy bed! Looking back over this first 20 things in this post, it's clear that Fragile X doesn't slow us down!

But it does make us different.

I've been thinking about this post which addressed the question, "Can people with Fragile X have a normal life?" 

On Saturday we had back to back basketball games, then we spent about an hour at MFI, then we had a quick stop at Walmart and then we headed to Chipotle for lunch where Toby promptly broke down because they accidentally put hot salsa in the veggie bowl he and I were sharing instead of mild. After all of the above, there was no bringing him back. So I grabbed him and the car keys and rapidly fled the premises. In the van, I urged him to chug water and gave him a few fruit bars to get the spice out of his mouth. He calmed down, stripped naked, and proceeded to play. Fine. I sat in the front and played on my phone. So that was our family. Three in the restaurant, finishing up. Two in the van - one of whom had stripped naked. That's probably not normal. But it's so not a big deal. When the big boys finished they brought me my food and some plain beans and rice for Toby to eat at home and on we went with our day.

Fragile X makes our road bumpier at times, but at this age I can confidently say that Toby is living a mostly normal childhood punctuated  by quirks, good and bad, and that's ok.

19. Just one of the boys... At a party last Sunday.

20.  Our 2012 Family Album came!

21. Blue's smile when I pick him up from school at the end of the day. There is no face. Just smile.

22. Silliness. Toby will break out into "This is Halloween" (From Nightmare before Christmas - I had it on a play list I played in October) at any given moment. This song, over all the carols of Christmas, is what rattles and lingers in his little brain. Makes me laugh.

23. Stars. I was outside so briefly one night (car to house) but the stars demanded my attention.

24. Fresh mint and basil always available in an earth box beside the house.

25. Waking up to brother noise. Ok, this depends on the brother noise, but one day last week the littlest had climbed into bed with the biggest and it was pretty stinkin' cute.

26. Friends! Plans working out! Some day last week Blue came home with a slip announcing Thursday to be Twin Day, so I asked him who he wanted to be his twin. I wrote a note for that boy's parents and sent it to school with Blue instructing him to pass it along. The mom actually called. And we coordinated for our boys to be twins. And our boys were the only ones cool enough to have an in-class twin (others twinned up with siblings in other grades.) 

27. New friends made in unexpected ways. 

28. The stubbornness of the tomato plant we thought done, stopped watering, but still produces.

29. The sweet patience of our old dog.

30. Downton Abbey. (Could there be any doubt I'd be a fan?) At the end of Episode 2, Season 3 I both laughed and cried at Mr. Carson's adorable reaction to Mrs. Hughes news of good health.

31. Boys who play outside ALL DAY because after our snow day, when there was no snow, just gorgeous Florida weather, that's where they wanted to be. 

32. Legos. The boys will be underfoot. The boys will be fighting. The boys will be ON MY LAST NERVE and then I can say, "Go make (insert made-up lego assignment here)." And... quiet. It's incredible really.

33. A love note. 

34. Cooking and not cooking. I love trying new recipes, having the kids love them and feeling as though we're all eating well and healthy without compromising on flavor, (Here's an example of a current family fave.) but at the same time I love having a night off from cooking because I'm going to book group and Kevin says he'll make frozen pizzas or my mom drops off a batch of lentil soup because she doesn't know how to cook for one person.  

35. Dreams. I can't call my hopes for this year goals. I don't have measurable, practical plans. A continuation of old dreams, tenuous ideas I hope will grow and make something of themselves. Too big to share. Too big to let go.

Of course there are more, just days into the year and already so full! Thankful for the fullness, praying it doesn't distract from reflection, overburden or frazzle, but remains simply... full, a cup ready to overflow, and that goodness and love will continue to follow our family as we dwell in the house of the Lord eah of the days of our new year. (Psalm 23: 5-6)

Florida Snow Day Play Date

There was a day over Christmas break where we were on a bike ride/walk, and Blue asked, "Mom, is it winter?" I could see how being outside in shorts, tees and flip flops and sweating under the blaring sun in December could confuse a kindergartner who is learning about the seasons and has homework assignments such as, "Write three words that rhyme with snow."

I preceded to teach him the Florida seasons: Summer, Hurricane Season and Love bug Season. 

That is all.

But this conversation got in my head that we should still have a snow day this year. I even considered surprising the boys one morning with snowflakes all over the house and announcing it was a snow day and they could skip school. Except they're off so dang much as it is... and when I realized that they were getting off both Friday and Monday for MLK we picked today for our snow day and made it our play date theme.

We had four friends join us for snowman picture making, snowman snack making, and a Florida snowball fight. (Shaving cream)

But back up to last night. First we tried a little Borax snowflake experiment. You mix borax with boiling water and leave a snowflake shaped pipe cleaner dipped in. Let it sit over night, and...

We made four and hung them on cabinet knobs.

Then I tried to rope Kaden and Blue into helping me make some snowflakes. Blue made 0. Kaden made about 8. I proceeded to stay up and watched a movie and managed to make 60. 68 snowflakes wasn't quite the winter wonderland I'd hoped for, but I needed to go to bed. My archways still looked pretty.



And then after we made our snowmen, they added to the decor.

For the snowmen, we just used a circle punch and then I threw paper scraps, markers, and glue sticks on the table and they went at it.

Oh, and while they created, I had these powdered donut snowman faces for a snack.

Disclaimer: I took the time to cut nice pointy cantaloupe noses this morning, but then when I went to make the faces my noses were gone, presumably stolen and consumed by a certain three or six year old. So... these noses were much more quickly done and not as nice as the first batch.

Then we cleared the table and readied for the next mess: marshmallows, chocolate chips, and pretzel sticks which we gave to the kids and told 'em to put together and make a snowman. I demonstrated how to use the preztles as rods to hold the marshmallows together and then just let 'em play with their food.

Hey look - that's Daddy's head. (Kevin took the day off to finish the landscaping on our other house which will go on the market next week. He was gone all morning by once the snack came out he showed up. Nice, suspicious timing there, Dad.)

And then... for the grand finale the "Snow Ball" Fight.

Here were the only ones game:


Ready... Set... GO!

Toby decided to join in too! As for Gus... well, it wasn't his decision.

Is that shaving cream yummy, Gus?

I guess Blue was the funnest target, because after their cans were emptied, it was Blue who was the biggest mess!

So that's how we do snow days here in sunny south Florida. The weather even complied. We woke up to a 50 degree morning and it was probably only in the mid-60's as we played. Brrrrr! 

I'm Here. I'm Thankful. Really.

We bought a second home to restore and resell. Kevin's there almost every minute he's not at MFI and I get to single parent. It's been ok. Just busy and not always fun.

In the meantime I got sick of Toby's room being torn up. We've been planning to update it since his birthday last May. We finally moved things around, which involved moving a dresser which had been bolted to the wall for safety, which left holes in the wall. Then we closed on the other house and Toby's room got ignored and stayed ghetto. Until last week. I gave up waiting for Kevin and took it on myself. It's not done but it's been freshly painted and the wall art is up for 2/3rds of the room. I have a giant sea turtle I've started painting that is only 1/3rd done and once we have some more money and Kevin can get back to doing things in OUR home, there's a book nook plan. Oh and right now his new box spring/mattress are on the floor because I haven't decided what I want to do about a bed or headboard, but with his cute new bedding (early Christmas present from my Mom. Thanks, Mom!) it still looks better than the run down crib turned toddler bed. Mid-way through it's still a major improvement.

And I'm planning Blue's birthday party so there was that night I stayed up making homemade invitations for his class that probably won't come, but the boy wanted to invite his whole class and that's how it goes...

And slowly I'd like to update my Christmas decor (less Santa more angels) so I'm selling a bunch of the old stuff on ebay.

And we traveled for "Tampa Thanksgiving"

And, and, and...

Life.

Ya know?

So here's your catch-up photo dump:

MFI hangar banquet

Kindergarten Thanksgiving feast at Blue's school.

Blue reenacting his pow-wow because Mommy was painting and forgot all about it. (Sigh)

A whole 'lotta Stratton kids. (Kevin's parents and the ten grandkids.)

Poppy came to Tampa just to take us to lunch. 

Kaden and his BFF cousin, Will ice skating in downtown Tampa.

Toby looking forlorn but still incredibly cute after a too-long Christmas card picture taking session. (Consider that your sneak peek.)

Ready for his first night in his new bed.

Snuggly.

Oh and our super-fun Thanksgiving plans include not leaving the house so we can give potty training a more serious go. Woo-hoo!

Yup, totally thankful.

Pecan Bars (Let the Fall Baking Begin)

I pinned this recipe many months ago and now I am happy to report it was a successful start to the fall baking season.

Ok maybe I've already made some pumpkin muffins for breakfast and pumpkin corn muffins to go with chili for dinner one night, but that was before we had our first "cold front" (Hey, the kids wore sweatshirts one day last week. It counts!) so it didn't feel like fall then.

Fall has officially come to Florida when it's finally cool enough to turn the AC off at least two days in a row. That happened this past week. Tomorrow we are having a Potluck in the Park, the first ever attempt to get Treasure Coast Fragile X families together, and I was hoping it would be cool enough to bring my favorite cider (it's a citrus cider not apple) but nope. High of 81. That's Florida in November. Cool enough for long sleeves in the morning, but you're ready to be in shorts and a tank top by lunch. No cider. But I'm still bringing Pecan Bars.

I love a good pecan pie, but at potlucks and parties cookie and bar desserts are easier for people to take and always end up more popular than pies or cakes. Because this makes yummy pecan pie easy for these events, this recipe is a keeper for sure.

I tried my best to follow the recipe exactly, but... kids. bath-time. chaos. Also, lower budget kitchen with no stand mixer and no stand mixer paddle attachment. 

My final product was still totally yummy, (I did a little sampling during the cutting and platter placement.) so here goes how I did it.

Watcha Need:

Crust: 
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt (maybe 1/4 teaspoon)

Topping:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar (original recipe calls for light but I only had dark in my pantry)
1/3 cup honey
2 cups chopped pecans 
(Original recipe calls for 2 T heavy cream also, and I had this on hand, but someone it totally slipped my mind to put it in!) 

Watcha Do:

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together butter and sugar.

(Cheapo hand mixer... still gets the job done.)

Add in the flour and salt - I did this using the spatula scraper and mixed by hand until crumbly like this..

Press along bottom of pan and bake 20 minutes. Or, forget to set the timer and bake for who-knows-how-long, decide you have about ten minutes left, and set the timer at that point. (Remember, kids, bathtime, chaos...)

Meanwhile, chop your pecans, and then, at about 5 minutes out, heat up the butter, sugar, and honey in a saucepan. (I LOVE that this recipe calls for honey and not Karo syrup.) Wait to stir in the pecans in the syrup mix until just when the crust is ready.

Pour into the pan. Oh, and be sure to pour around the pan and not dump it all in the middle like I did, thinking you'll just spread it around - it stuck to the crust and pulled it up, so then I had to be super, super gentle. Kind of a pain.

Return pan to oven and bake another 20 minutes. (This time I set the timer from the start!)

Remove and let cool fully in the pan - I set my entire pan on a cooling rack so at least air can go under and heat can escape from the bottom instead of just heating up the counter and staying hot. It was fully cool in a little over an hour.

Use foil to lift up, remove foil and cut. Original recipe simply says to peel away foil... Um, how exactly when the foil is on the bottom?  I cut into slices on the foil and removed one slice at a time to my platter, then cut into bars on that.

All ready to go for tomorrow! Time to wrap in foil and hide in a high, high place so they last until the party.

My (not-so) Little Pumpkins

Are they getting too old for pumpkin patch pictures? Don't tell me. I don't really want to know.

Although I should be happy to forgo this tradition. Our Octobers are rainy and hot. The ground was soggy and my attempt to get to the patch early in the morning so they wouldn't have sweat running down their faces only worked so-so. 

But. All Villages had a fun new photo spot.

And pumpkins, in spite of the glaring, hot Florida sunshine reflecting off their shiny surfaces, still manage to put one in a fallish mood.

Extra bonuses this year - All Villages had free face painting and a free bounce house.

Um, make that arm painting.

The kids even managed to finagle some extra cash out of me for cotton candy and popcorn.

But my picture taking attempts were mostly just that, attempts.

Daddy wasn't with us, and without him standing behind me making goofy faces, it's hard to get the boys to look and smile.

So I used my picture taking standby... "Tickle, Toby!"

At the end of it all I think we brought home the tallest pumpkin in the patch and on that accomplishment alone - successful morning? Check.

Splash Party!

We hosted a splash party play date this morning.

Even though it's just a play date and these are my good friends who don't give a rip, and I could just as easily throw a bag of potato chips out and call that the snacks I promised... that's not what I do.

Because what is the point of pinning an octopus made out of a pepper or mandarin orange sailboats sailing on a blue jello sea unless I eventually make such things? Pinterest has SO raised the bar.

So yes, it was a sea-themed snack table.

Those are goldfish in the small bowl and a fruit platter in a starfish shaped tray. In the middle of that was a yummy fruit dip.

To make the dip, let's call it, Sweet Almond Dip, here's what you do: In a mixing bowl beat softened cream cheese (8oz package), 1/2 cup brown sugar, a splash of vanilla extract, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, and about 2 oz of almond slices. I used a honey roasted almond slice package found in the produce section called "Almond Accents." It was a 3.5 oz bag and I used about half. 

This is good with strawberries but especially yummy with tart apples (Granny Smith) because I like the sweet and the tart together.

But a splash party isn't really about the food is it?

We just  have a kiddie pool, but I also bought a plastic snake thing that you hook up to a hose and it sprays water. But Kaden was at camp and this was just a party for the pre-school set (technically they still are - Kindergarten hasn't started yet!) so it was enough to keep them entertained.

Oh, and we kept the water balloons coming.


Here they are waiting for me to say, "Ready, set, GO!" so they can attack a new batch of balloons.

At one point I cheated and broke out a can of silly string as my ammo.

Aside from a moment when Toby threw up on me, it was all good fun. (The boy thinks he can go around and finish off everyone's juice boxes, drinking and drinking and drinking, but... he can't.)

A few more shots of the fun:

I so love summer.

It's Sprung

I know spring is here because I have friends in North Carolina and Texas that are now posting pictures on Facebook with beautiful azaleas in the background. A friend in Virginia posted landscapes with blooming Dogwoods and Empress tress. One of my best friends, also in Virginia, has the most amazing yellow Forsythia in her front yard. She just posted a family picture in front of it that included her newest addition, her two week old son. (Two weeks now, more like one week in the pic.)

Blooming Forsythia AND a newborn.

Now that's a spring picture.

I'm a little jealous.

Here in Florida, our weeds are looking healthier. 

I'm all about year-round beach weather, but it is a shame we have to sacrifice spring.

Still. I try. This week I added a little centerpiece to the table that cost me all of... nodda. (Salvaged the flowers from an old bouquet, had everything else, will need to spend a little when it comes time to replace flowers, but so far not a penny.)

Earlier this week Blue and I colored Easter eggs across our driveway.

On Thursday I sent Blue to school with three hard-boiled eggs and today he came home with this cuteness:

Also today... little colored plastic eggs at the mouth of drain pipes, corners of windows, tucked into plants...

I hosted a little play date and we had our first egg hunt.

Every egg contained spring stickers so after the hunt the kiddos could use their stickers for an Easter picture.

Toby was all about the egg collecting.

Then happily stickered it up.

This was AFTER we'd already made a heckuva mess inside using shaving cream and paint to color flowers.

My sensory seeking boy could not get enough.

He liked making a mess and painting my friend's knee.

But we did manage to get a few flowers painted.

As for the set up... I don't have a table in my breakfast nook. On purpose. I like it open. I like to put my Christmas tree there. I had extra disposable plastic tableclothes from a previous party so I just taped one to the floor in this open spot. Yes, shaving cream and paint still got on the bench seats and tile, but it wiped up fine. 

As for the how-to using shaving cream to paint. Go here.

And because it was a playdate there had to be a spread.


Mini fruit pizzas. Yum!

See? Even our food is getting more colorful :-)

Happy Spring! And happy Friday!

Starfish Wreaths

Our front door Christmas wreath wasn't nice enough to make the move. Christmas 2009 we were at my mom's. Christmas 2010 we were in our new home but TWO new wreaths (because we have double doors) wasn't in the budget, so our doors stayed naked.

This year it wasn't really in the budget either but...

Oh well. 

I wanted wreaths.

I wanted blue and white wreaths to match my blue and white house.  I wanted star fish on my wreaths but I wanted them to be Christmasy not just every-day beachy.

Surprisingly enough I haven't come across exactly what I wanted in a store anywhere.

So I set out to make wreaths. This was my black-Friday project.

I don't consider myself crafty and I've never made a wreath before, but I bought the plain twig wreaths and figured with a glue gun, how could I go wrong?

I spray-painted my wreaths white, bought a bunch of star fish and two shells at Shell Bazaar, a few blue ornaments and got out my glue gun. The star fish and shells are just glue gunned on. The ornaments are tied together and then on and then glue gunned in spots to be exactly where I want them. 

That's it. One afternoon and done.

Looking around most nice wreaths cost between $50 and $100 and I'd say each wreath cost me about $25. (It's only that high because I spent $29 just in star fish and the two shells!) Definitely a worthwhile DIY project.

Thankfulness Tree

In the corner of the dining room sits my attempt at a thankfulness tree.

Supplies: a few limbs from a nearby empty lot spray painted gold because of the spray paint we already had on hand this seemed best, a vase I already had, some potpourri pinecone mix thing I bought at Michaels to fill up the vase, leaves cut from cardstock, and some yarn I had on hand. Oh, and the big pinecones at the bottom will be for something else. It's just a place to put them for now.

The idea: periodically during family mealtime discuss our thankfulness, record on a leaf, and hang. Unlike most fall trees that lose their leaves our tree will grow fuller as we get closer to Thanksgiving. 

I've had the tree up for about a week but tonight was the first night we added some leaves. Blue was the first to chime in - he's thankful for the our new outdoor basketball goal that some friends passed on to us and Kevin went and picked up Saturday.

I decided to date each leaf because, who knows, maybe I'll keep them and then, if this becomes a tradition, we can look back and see what we were thankful for in years past.

The discussion went well with the kids, but Kevin was my cut-up (pain in the butt). I can never get everyone to behave at once. Sigh.

It's not much now, but I think once we keep hanging the leaves it will turn into the colorful reminder it is intended to be. (And we're a sit down to dinner every night kinda family so, shouldn't be long.)

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:18