Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post, where did those 4 weeks go?! Spring is busy! Activities, playing outside, spring cleaning, and today - sick kids. It's the last week of school and both kids have ear infections that have them running a temp and feeling pretty cruddy. But on top of that, Mackenzie has a UTI, and Rylan has a little patch of impetigo on his face. I'm thankful that these are all treatable with antibiotics and we only made 1 trip to the Dr. for everything, but holy moly - we're a mess over here! So it was a day of lots of rest and He-Man on Amazon. Since I only had to leave the house once today for our Dr. appointment, I've also had time to rest and catch up on blogging! Today are long overdue Easter photos!
Coloring/decorating Easter eggs!
We got the same type of kits we used last year from Target - they are awesome!
It was fun to participate a little less and watch them do more on their own.
Mackenzie's wild jungle
Rylan's alien invasion
Easter Sunday was perfect. The church service was beautiful as always, the weather was gorgeous, I got to snuggle my girl and watch Frozen, and we went to Nick's parents for an Easter egg hunt, delicious dinner and fabulous company.
Ella and Mackenzie searching for eggs. It was still a little wet out, so we opted for play clothes, rain boots and plastic bags instead of Easter dresses, white shoes and baskets.
Ace, Dutch, Bruno & Jack were all wondering what was going on. Thankfully, no dogs touched the eggs.
Combine cream, water, butter, salt, pepper, garlic clove, and pasta in a pan.
Bring to a boil and stir.
Reduced heat to a low simmer and cover.
Let pan simmer, covered, 15-20 minutes, or until pasta is tender.
Remove pan from heat, remove garlic clove and stir in cheese.
Serve immediately.
Apparently the key is to use freshly shredded parmesan, which I had never done before. I bought a 5 oz. block and it was almost exactly 2 cups when I shredded it. It really was so good, I wouldn't dare try it any other way. We added pieces of chicken we cooked on the stove and it was the perfect meal. We tried it another night adding peas and I didn't like it as much, I would rather eat the peas separately. Give this recipe a try, it really doesn't get much easier!
We recently had another blizzard and while we're totally sick of winter, at least it covered everything with beautiful ice crystals. I decided if I couldn't make it all melt, I might as well enjoy the beauty of it.
Thankfully it has all melted away and we're really hoping it's the end!
We added to our family! A little yellow lab who we named Dutch! He's the sweetest puppy and we love him! We still have our black lab, Ace, but he'll be 10 years old in August. Ace is still in great health and is still a great hunting partner, but Nick wanted to start training another hunting dog beside Ace, so we're a 2-dog family now!
Dutch was a total surprise to the kids! They had no idea we were getting a dog. We explained all the puppy stuff we were buying by saying it was for Tom & Patti (Nick's aunt & uncle). They got Dutch's sister, Rowdie, so we said all the stuff was for them. The breeder is from out of state, so they came here for a weekend to drop off Dutch and Rowdie. They still had one of the other puppies too, so when they got to our house, they unloaded 3 puppies and let them run around. We went outside and Mackenzie was just smitten, but when we told her that we would be keeping one of them, she said, "Why?"
Rylan was at a birthday party when the puppies were delivered and when he came home we were puppy sitting for all 3. He was surprised to see 3 puppies in the kennel and when I told him that one was ours to keep, he just squealed!
Dutch on the left with his brother and sister.
I'm thankful we only have 1 puppy!
Look at all that wrinkly skin! He was so cuddly the first week!
Needless to say, Dutch gets lots of love! Although he's no longer in this sleepy shy brand-new puppy stage where he sits still for story time, the kids love him and have fun playing with him.
As to be expected, his first night was rough - whining and crying for his mom and siblings. Although he in staying in the house in his kennel right now, Dutch will not be a house dog. Eventually, he will join Ace in the (heated) garage. So while it was hard not to comfort him that first night, we knew that bringing him into our room or acknowledging his crying would only make it worse. But the second night brought not only crying, but barking too. For hours at a time, he would bark - and in our house it just echoes and is loud! Still we couldn't do anything though because responding to his barking would only reinforce it. (We made sure he had been out so it wasn't because he had to go potty) So we laid awake in bed just listening to it. The next day we did some brainstorming as to what we could try to soothe him at night. We had already been keeping the radio on for some background noise, but we decided to try a stuffed animal in his kennel too. The kids dug through their huge stash and surprisingly the only thing that was willingly given up that didn't have hard parts to be chewed off was this stuffed Dora. She worked like a charm, no more crying or barking at night!
Unfortunately, just last week we had to get rid of Dora. He had been gnawing on her and she was falling apart, but the final straw was when he had diarrhea in his kennel one day while we were gone. Dora didn't survive. :( But he hasn't had any problems without her, still sleeps just fine.
Dutch is doing well with his training. He gives us warnings when he needs to go out, he fetches the dummy for Nick, and when we put his food dish down, he will sit and stay for up to a minute before we tell him he can get it.
He's a little bugger though - total puppy - grabbing stuff and running away from us, constantly torturing Ace when they are outside together, and sometimes barking for attention. Oh well, he's adorable and we love him!
Both kids were in skating lessons this winter again and while Rylan didn't want to be in the skating show, Mackenzie did and she did great!
The preschool class skated to "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" and they were all so cute!
Showing off her skills!
Thumbs up and waving at the end! She did so well, it was so much fun to watch her! I think she's excited to keep improving too, she loved watching all the older girls. Both nights she wanted to stay until the end of the show and watch the whole thing, so we did, and she was disappointed when it was over. I would love it if she sticks with skating and we can attend many more shows!
We have an 8-year-old!!! I seriously can't believe it! And while my nostalgic momma heart wants Rylan to stop growing - it just keeps getting better so we're really enjoying watching him grow and develop into just the kid God wants him to be!
We've had a great time celebrating his birthday with friends and family, Lego Ninjago style! We took Rylan and a few friends bowling last weekend. They had a great time and we're thankful for good friends for him.
Each boy went home with a Ninja goodie box. I loved the idea of putting everything in take-out boxes, but knew they would be way more expensive than a gift bag. But lo-and-behold, I found these on clearance at Target!
I wrapped Blow-Pops in crepe paper and taped the ninja eyes on the outside.
Rylan and I made snake (the evil Serpentine) bracelets on the rainbow loom.
I printed and laminated cards of the 4 Lego Ninjas.
The favorite was the little wooden bowling set. I used a fine point Sharpie to draw the face/mask on, then painted each wood peg in the Ninjago colors. They turned out so cute and were the perfect favor for a ninja bowling party!
We had our family party at home and had a waffle bar for breakfast. I LOVE doing breakfast birthday parties! Breakfast food is awesome, it doesn't seem as hectic to me, you still have the whole afternoon to clean and relax, and kids are in much better moods in the morning!
I found a gal's blog with a whole bunch of free Ninjago party printables and they were perfect! I just cut some yellow card stock to look like lego pieces for the banner letters - I love how it turned out!
Yes, Mackenzie is dressed in her dragon costume. Rylan had his ninja costume on for the beginning of the party and she couldn't be left out of costume fun!
