mothers day crafting

dahlia and i have been super busy this week making mothers day gifts for her grandmas and aunts. for our first project she painted these adorable girls and flowers with water colors. i took the paintings and then scanned them and printed them on transfer paper which i ironed onto canvas grocery bags. we plan on giving the bags to her aunts. i think the bags are so cute i plan on making one for me too.

for our second craft project we cut out paper flowers and used double sided tape to create a pop up mothers day card that looks like a bouquet. it is so pretty. the instructions are on martha stewart's website here. of course all this crafting has taken much longer than i thought it would so we are way behind schedule for our mothers day party. oh well. who needs sleep anyway.

making cookies

we had a fun weekend baking and decorating lots of cookies. dahlia decided she wanted to make sugar cookies so we baked them on friday and spent saturday morning decorating them with the boys. we didn't really stick to a theme for the cookie cutters. i just let the kids pick their favorites from our collection. i think i need to get some new ones. they seem to be using the same shapes over and over.

miles helped to decorate them with us. connor loved the frogs. dahlia of course was partial to the shoe and crown again, and mason still loves his train and sailboat cookie. for some reason the kids seemed more interested in eating the frosting than decorating the cookies so miles and i ended up doing most of the work. i know. it's a tough job.

huntington library

we took the kids to the huntington library today. we ordered our free tickets a month ago. wow. it was so beautiful. jen, ray, bodhi, and kira met me and my kids there. we only had three hours to look around and really that is not enough time. i'm not sure what was different about this visit but i was completely taken with the place. so were the kids. it was overwhelming to be surrounded by all the beautiful flowers. i wasn't really expecting to fall in love with it but there i was wishing i could stay or come back whenever i like. it is just the right time to see and enjoy all of the flowers. simply gorgeous.

the kids of course wanted to go to the children's section and see the rainbow tunnel right away. they had so much fun running around in there. it was pretty hard to keep track of them. they were all running in different directions. that was fun but dahlia fell down and hurt her knee so she wanted to leave. why i don't carry bandaids is beyond me. i really need to stock my purse.

i was so impressed with how much the kids loved the gardens. they really had a blast seeing the fish in the koi pond and walking everywhere. i was thinking i should get a membership. i don't get out with them often enough. at least in a completely natural setting plus it was such good exercise for me. it is a little expensive though. jen and i are hoping they do a groupon again. that would be perfect.

home sweet home

we have been spending a lot of time at home this week. the kids have all taken turns being sick and now they have decided to share their cold with me. so nice. mason was actually home from school for three days. today everyone seems better. mason went back to school and after i picked him up the kids all played outside.

i love it when they play outside. it is so fun to watch them. they love to run outside and jump on the swing with their belly on the seat dragging their feet in the grass. it is so cute. lately connor has been climbing into his baby swing and putting on the seatbelt. he then calls for me to come push him. how can i resist? today i went outside and found him fast asleep in his swing. dahlia and mason were digging in their "garden." they plant seeds there but nothing has really grown. they dig it up too soon. i love that they play in the dirt though. it would be nice if we could start a real garden. hmmm. i sense a new project coming up.

butterfly party for kira

what a busy weekend we had. my little niece kira turned one on saturday. jen and ray had a beautiful party at our house to celebrate. they had a butterfly theme which was very appropriate for a spring birthday. she was so cute with her little shirt with butterfly wings on it.

i was up crazy late the night before sewing a birthday banner for her. i really must stop procrastinating. i did get it done though and it looks adorable. we hung it next to these paper lanterns that jen had glued butterflies to and the effect was so pretty. a little butterfly garden.

we were worried that it was going to rain but the day turned out sunny. the kids had a great time decorating little terra cotta pots with stickers and then filling them with flowers. miles also brought out the spin art machine so the kids could make some paintings. this was a big hit with connor. he could not get enough of this.

we served sandwiches and salads for lunch. for dessert there was strawberry shortcake and cupcakes. the cupcakes were topped with edible rice paper butterflies. so cute. my sister susan also made these really pretty sugar cookies shaped like butterflies, flowers, and frogs.

the party was very sweet and fun. just like kira. happy birthday little girl. we all love you.

easter sunday

we had such a nice easter this year. our day started a little hectic because we woke up super late. we had to be at church in orange county by 9:30 (a 45 minute drive) and we got up at 8:10. yikes. we had 35 minutes to get all the kids up and dressed in their easter clothes. i was literally running around the house. we made it there only five minutes late so i was pretty happy about that. church was much better this year and we made it almost to the end before miles had to take the kids outside. they were just getting too restless. it was a long service.

after church there was a small egg hunt and then we went to christina's house for brunch. this was very laid back. nice and relaxing. after brunch my sister gave the adults a bag of plastic eggs to hide. over 175 eggs! what??? i don't know what she was thinking filling up so many eggs. there were only five kids looking for them. crazy girl. of course the kids had a blast finding the eggs.

when we got home i thought the kids would want to relax and play with their easter basket stuff. instead they were begging us to paint more eggs. i don't know where they get their energy from. maybe it has something to do with that chocolate bunny they ate.

ahhh sundays

perfect day to play in the hammock