Easter Bunny Cakes

Bunny cakes I have made in years past...

My Grandma used to make this one.  

The bunny face is made from two round cakes.  

One for the face and then the ears and bow tie are cut from the other one.

 Each bunny here is one round cake cut in half and the halves put together side by side.  

(Ryan wanted to put a trail of raisins behind them...)

I'm thinking of trying these bunny cupcakes for Easter Sunday this year...

familyfun.go.com

A Buzz Wanna-Be

Toy Story 1 (must define the original in this way or Clare thinks I don't know what I'm talking about) has been on repeat here lately.

The other day I found Jude like this on the kitchen floor and, thinking something was wrong (especially after seeing those crazy eyes!), asked him what he was doing...

Oh, just pretending to be a wounded Space Ranger...

"It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." - Honest Abe

(From Jack) 

Thank you to my nephew, Jack, and to everyone else that made me feel like a "prinses" yesterday!  I was very grateful for the birthday cards, phone calls, texts, and other messages I received.  (And the delicious birthday dinner!  So very thoughtful!)  

I am very blessed to have a wonderful family and such good friends!      

 

"A visit to the farm."

 I recently took the kids to a local farm with a special "Easter Village" and they loved it!

We started out swinging on the rope in the barn.

The tractors in the corn were a big hit.  

It has me thinking we need to make our own box of dry beans into something bigger since they enjoyed this so much.  

Jude LOVED petting all of the baby animals! 

It was hard to get pictures of him because he was literally a blur of excitement running to each animal!   

They were all pretty cute!

Big smiles!

These lambs were twins.  

There was also a cow milking demonstration.  

Clare and Jude each had a turn milking Amy the cow.  

One last stop by the piglets.  It was their first day out on display.  

Petting the bunnies.  

Of course no trip to an "Easter Village" is complete without a visit to see the Easter Bunny!

Somehow I usually luck out and always get a decent shot of my kids with any holiday figure on the first try.  I thought I got a good one the first time here, but it wasn't until I got home that I noticed poor Ellen.

She's better here, but Jude is totally intrigued by the bunny...

And Clare told me that she knows the Easter Bunny is just someone in a costume.  

I can't say that I blame her questioning a giant rabbit sneaking in to leave Easter goodies.  

Or maybe she remembers when Grandma chaired "Breakfast with the Bunny" one year and Aunt Margaret tried on the bunny costume...

A giant bunny head with human hands...hmmmm...

Anyway, this was the scene in the backseat as we pulled into the driveway after our day on the farm.

 My idea of a successful outing = everyone asleep when we reach our garage!

Lenten Countdown

This is something the kids like doing every year for Lent to countdown to Easter.  

We make a big purple chain with good deeds to do for each day of Lent.  

The link for Easter is yellow and also has an "action item" on it:  

We have our's hanging where we can see it every day.  

Here's what's left:

Clare and Jude enjoy waking up and immediately tearing a link off of the chain.  

It also gives them a visualization of how many days are left until Easter.  

While I was working on gluing the chain, Clare made some Lenten symbols with the leftover scraps.  

(A cross, a rope, and a nail - I have to say the nail is my favorite.)

PS - Part of the territory that comes with potty training...

Success!

M&Ms + "Worker" Stickers = Potty Training Success!

He is purposely making a "train" with his stickers.

Jude has managed to stay dry during the day!  Yesterday morning he got up, was dry, and used the bathroom by himself!!  He also told me twice that he had to go and was successful!!

Making some serious progress over here!!  

Weekend Update

We had quite the productive weekend!  I was mostly thankful to my dear husband for letting me paint all day on Saturday.  Other happenings that went on...

1. Easter egg hunt Saturday morning.  We were separated from the boys because the kids were in different age groups, so I only got pictures of Clare.  (Ryan says things like that are definitely a 2 parent event!)

Waiting patiently.

Ellen was more than ready for her morning nap!

 The loot.

Getting a balloon.

Very excited for her pink princess crown.

 Some jumping.

And resting.

"Driving" the fire truck. 

2.  As I mentioned before, I pretty much painted the rest of the day on Saturday.  The kitchen is almost finished...I just need to do a second coat along the ceiling and we should be good to go!  Hooray!  (And I am thankful my kids raved over the crockpot dinner I made so I could paint all day.)

3.  Anxiously awaited the arrival of my new goddaughter, Elianna!  She was born on Saturday to my good friend from college and her husband.  Congratulations Theresa and Jeff!  I can't wait to meet her in a few weeks!    

4.  Lawn mowed.  (Well, I really can't take much credit for this.)  Thanks to the men in my life for taking care of the grass this weekend.

5. Cut Jude's hair.  (Always an accomplishment!)

6. Made some strides in potty-training Jude!  (This is another reason why I am thankful Ryan let me paint on Saturday!)

6.  Enjoyed a relaxing and delicious family dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's house on Sunday.  Always a nice way to end the weekend!