Easter Synopsis Part 2

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Jennifer

Let’s see, where were we when we last left off…

7:24 am – Oldest Bunny decides to change attitude

7:27 am – Shoes are on and baskets are empty – let the games begin. First up, the front yard.

7:38 am – The backyard. Happiness overtakes sleepiness when candy bar is found.

7:39 am – “There’s even an egg up here!”

7:47 am – The examination begins.

This is the dumper. Each egg is opened and emptied into a pile.

The examiner. Each egg is opened. Looked at. And closed again. The candy will be removed at each eating session. This technique is quite frustrating to Momma Bunny when she’s searching for a quick treat in the pantry.

The Eater. Open an egg. Eat whatever’s inside – all of it – as fast as you can.

8:02 am – Yep, she’s still eating.

8:25 am – Momma Bunny jumps into the shower throwing Dad the kids outfits, yelling that they need to leave in 35 minutes if they are to get to the 9:15 service.

8:30 am – 8:55 am – Pleading, negotiating, threatening all take place.

9:14 am – Bunny family slides into pews two rows from the back.

9:17 am – Momma Bunny pulls out a pad of paper and a pen for Littlest Bunny to play with.

9:19 am – Momma Bunny is tracing Littlest Bunny’s hand for entertainment.

9:24 am – 30 pieces of paper later Littlest Bunny decides she needs a new distraction so Momma Bunny pulls out some magnets and paper clips.

9:26 am – The priest tells all of the children of the church to answer him this question, “Doesn’t the church look beautiful now with all of the flowers in it?”

Middle Bunny shouts out, “No!”

Momma Bunny quickly brings her hand to Middle Bunny’s mouth while Poppa Bunny gives him a stern look.

9:28 am – Oldest Bunny and Middle Bunny start arguing over who gets to hold the hymnal so Momma Bunny takes hers and gives it to the Middle Bunny. Momma Bunny and Poppa Bunny just stand now and move their mouths as if to show they have memorized every Easter song.

9:30 am – Littlest Bunny starts talking loudly. She is escorted to the front yard by Poppa Bunny for a prolonged botany lesson.

9:58 am – Church is over and Momma Bunny is ready to leave. Unfortunately, Littlest Bunny has been outside for the last 30 minutes watching the egg hunt being set up so there is no chance of that.

10:04 – Littlest Bunny mentally prepares for the challenge ahead.

10:05 – Middle Bunny and Oldest Bunny talk strategy with the Littlest Bunny for the hunt. There is talk of pushing and shoving if deemed necessary.

10:08 am – The hunt begins. Littlest Bunny is not keeping her eyes on the prize. This frustrates Middle Bunny and Oldest Bunny who are doing their best to form a human wall discouraging other Bunnies from snatching eggs in the vicinity.

10:11 am – The victory walk.

10:14 am – Champions Easter egg hunters

10:30 am – Bunny family arrives home.

10:31 am – All designated Easter clothing has been stripped off and thrown to the ground by little bunnies.

10:32 am – Momma and Poppa Bunny tell the bunnies to go put some clothes on and stay upstairs. Momma and Poppa Bunny have designated this time as mandatory quiet time.

10:33 am – The Bunny children just laugh at their parents. They know their sugar high will last until right before dinnertime when all three will meltdown at the same time at the sight of their dinner.

Easter 2012 is deemed a success!

Chicken Pot Pie and Lemon Cake

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Jennifer

Instead of trying one new recipe, we’ve already tried two new recipes this month!

I found a Chicken Pot Pie recipe over at Chef in Training and a Lemon Poppy Seed Cake recipe in last week’s Dash (included in the Sunday newspaper).

For the chicken pot pie, I used the pillsbury premade crust.

People…RUN OUT AND GET SOME OF THESE!

After using these extremely easy pie crusts I vow never to waste my time making a crust from scratch…this will probably be pretty simple since I’ve never made a pie crust in my life.

I found my package on clearance at the supermarket for only $1.49 -that’s only 75 cents per crust plus it took me only 10 seconds to unwrap and fold over the pie.

By the way, the Chef in Training‘s recipes are printable which makes it super easy for me to just print off and bring to the kitchen.

***For dinner a few nights later I made a beef pot pie using the same recipe, only using ground beef and beef buillion cubes instead – delish!***

Have you tried any new recipes lately?

An Easter Synopsis

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Jennifer

9:00 – 10:00 pm Easter Eve – Momma & Poppa Bunny fill Easter eggs with candy, check to make sure the gifts (books, coloring books, card games, stickers are equal).

10:05 pm Easter Eve – Momma Bunny complains her stomach hurts from eating so much Easter candy already.

10:06 pm Easter Eve – Popppa Bunny is not sympathetic and says, “Well that candy was for the children.”

10: 15 pm Easter Eve – Momma & Poppa Bunny watch the news due to rain possibility.

5:30 am Easter morning – Alarm goes off in Momma & Poppa’s room

5:35 am – Momma & Poppa Bunny check the online weather report. Debate over next move due to lots of green on the radar.

5:37 am – Momma & Poppa Bunny go to the front of the house and put out eggs for littlest bunny.

5:40 am – Momma & Poppa Bunny proceed to the back yard where they lay out eggs for the boy bunnies.

5:46 am – Momma Bunny writes note to little bunnies explaining the layout of the hunt.

5:47 am – Poppa Bunny goes back to bed. Momma Bunny takes dog for a walk since the backyard is now a “No Pooping Zone.

5:59 am – Dog poops on lawn three blocks from home. Momma Bunny surveys the area for any witnesses. Debates about possibly leaving poop on the lawn due to the fact that’s it’s dark outside and no one will know. Momma Bunny begrudgeonly picks up poop.

6:10 am – Momma Bunny and dog return home. Momma Bunny turns on the tv and sits on the sofa.

6:15 am – Momma Bunny has to tell dog for millionth time that she cannot go outside until all the kids wake up.

6:20 am – Momma Bunny retrieves the newspaper and sits on the sofa again.

6:50 am – Middle bunny comes downstairs ready to begin Easter hunt. Eagerly looks out window yelling, “I see one!.” Momma Bunny bursts his bubble when she says he will have to wait another 20 minutes before waking up other bunnies.

6:51 am – Momma Bunny suggests he look for a note to see if the Bunny left instructions about how the yard has been divided.

6:52 am – Middle Bunny finds note. Reads it and notices one bunny has been left off the list while another bunny has been given two sections of the yard.

6:53 am – Momma Bunny curses to herself for writing the note in the dark and quickly explains that the Bunny must have meant something else.

6:54 am – Middle Bunny asks if the note was written by Momma Bunny since it’s on the back of a bingo card.

6:55 am – Momma curses again but says the Bunny must have used whatever paper was available. Vows to buy special paper next year.

7:15 am – Momma Bunny tells Poppa Bunny it’s time to get up. Poppa Bunny looks at the clock and gives Momma Bunny an ugly look.

7:15 and fifteen seconds am – Momma give Poppa a dirty look hoping to convey her wish that he enjoyed his extra hour and a half of sleep.

7:20 am – Littlest Bunny and Poppa Bunny stumble out of bedroom. Littlest Bunny was ready to hunt at 2 am but was persuaded to sleep in Momma & Poppas bed as a consolation prize until morning.

7:22 am – Oldest Bunny stumbles downstairs complaining of lost sleep.

7:23 am – Momma & Poppa explain to oldest bunny that he can go back to sleep and in doing so relinquishes all rights to his candy.

7:24 am – Oldest Bunny decides to have a better attitude.

Continued on Thursday 🙂

Family Hall Art

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Jennifer

One of my March goals was to complete a family art piece for our hallway.

Long ago I saw something similar to this piece and I knew I wanted to make one for our house.

source

My sister gave me a picture she no longer needed (Kelly, it’s the train picture from ZGalleria) and I held onto it for several years. Actually last year I spray painted the canvas white in an attempt at starting this project but sadly I never got any farther and it just sat in the garage.

Two weeks ago I finally completed the piece and just love it.

A look down the hallway

1) Spray paint canvas white

2) Cut out words on silhouette machine

3) Place the vinyl words on the canvas

4) Spray paint the canvas black

5) Peel off letters

6) Spend hours going over white area with white paint pen due to black paint “bleeding.”

I just bought 3 gallons of ice cream at the store yesterday because it was on sale, no other reason.

So yes, we do A LOT of ice cream.

April Goals

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Jennifer

Anything you plan to work on this month?

Easter Mess

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Jennifer

Two days ago we had tornadoes come through the Dallas Metroplex.

Around 2:00 the sky started to look ominous. My oldest was home sick so I went to see if I could get my six year old out of school a little early. I was told the school was on lock down due to the tornado threats; no children were being released. I went back home and watched the news coverage for the next hour, all the while listening to our city’s tornado sirens. I knew my six year old was safe in the school but it was quite nerve racking to not have him in my sight during this time.

Roughly an hour after school should have let out, the school starting releasing students. I picked up my son who enthusiastically told of being stuck in the teacher’s bathroom for an hour with his class. (In my mind, his teacher should receive Teacher of the Year for being in a bathroom for an hour with twenty-two kindergarteners – can you even imagine?)

So… because of the storm…our night activities were cancelled…so….we were able to do two Easter “crafts.”

First off, dying Easter eggs (and yes, Caroline does not have clothes on, it’s cleaner this way for everyone).

Notice the fingers…that’s what happens when your technique for dying the eggs is completely hands on.

Once the eggs were dried, it was time to decorate with stickers.

Just because it was time didn’t mean it actually occurred.

Apparently, peeling your eggs was more fun (I’m looking at it from the perspective that it was a scientific learning experience).

My six year old said, “Oh yuck! These smell like rotten cheese! No, wait. They smell like rotten ham!”

Just for the record, he has never been served either one of those options.

For our second craft of the night, I thought it would be fun to create some No Bake Chocolate Egg Nests which I saw on the Chef in Training blog.

This is what we were going for…

but this is what we ended up with…

but we sure had fun making them…

although I’m not sure if anyone but Mom really completed any nests…

since they were too busy “cleaning up.”

Easter Mess

=’s

Easter Fun

March Goals Revisited

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Jennifer

So let’s see how many of my March goals I accomplished:

Paint headboard – Does it count that it’s in the garage ready to be painted? Nope.

Make family subway art for hallway – Check! I’ll show it to you soon.

Buy a pair of quality sunglasses – Check and check! Why two? I bought a pair of outrageously expensive ($300) sunglasses (Gucci baby!) but decided I just couldn’t pay that much, so they are sitting on my counter waiting to be returned. I did compromise and buy myself a pair of sunglasses at the $90 range (Michael Kors) and am going to keep those. If this seems like a waste of money, just remember I’ve never bough a pair of sunglasses that was more than $10, plus it was a goal, I had to follow through 🙂

Here’s a picture of the sunglasses I finally settled on. And by the way, they look exactly like the $300 pair and the $10 pair. Apparently as much as I wanted to step out of my little fashion box, I just can’t.

Buy only environmentally friendly cleaning products – Check! Although these products are typically more expensive I only had to buy three this month and I feel good about buying safer products for our family. I found that all of these products worked well and I plan on buying them again once they are used up. Here are the three that I bought:

Mrs. Meyer’ Liquid Dish Soap