through the years...

2005-2009
can you put them in order?
and yes it would appear Anthony has wore the same outfit a couple of years
and if you look close you will see that Yahaira and Rosie are wearing the same dress
in different years. It would appear that this year Anthony broke away from the green
theme, and the girls were not all in pink. This year was also a first for hats, although
previous years certainly had headbands and bows. Love how Nichole changes the set each year, love
how it always matches what the kids are wearing.

Easter pictures...

2009 edition

light crew...

Ok so the pics are not the best it was rather late when I took them.
This was the scene outside my house Saturday night. When I plugged in the heater Saturday night the most amazing/alarming thing occured the lights in most of the house dimmed. When I unplugged the heater, the lights returned to normal.. Ok that was just a bit too weird for me. Of course I tested it again, and again it did the same thing. Thus began a bit more exploring, some rooms worked, the tv worked too, but other rooms no lights would come on, no matter how many times you flipped the switch. So I called the city, wondering about power outages, there were none, but the very kind person on the other end assured me that someone would be there soon to look at it, and that yes it would be safe to stay in my house, by that point I was wondering if my wires were shorting out and just going to simply burn my house down, or blow it up. I did even have a moment where I wondered if we had a ghost or two or three. (I am quite adept at thinking of worse case scenarios) Once the city crew arrived they discovered we were only receiving a part of the power we should have been receiving, eventually they fixed the problem as best they could with a promise to return Monday to complete the work. I am happy to say no lights have dimmed, or refused to turn on since Saturday night.

Cash for Kids auction...

where I spent (donated) a little bit of cash and ended up making those three little faces pretty excited.
The chair is part of the class project Anthony's grade did this year. You may remember my post from last year about the
class project for kindergarten if not this will refresh your memory. I had not planned to bid on the project this year, and yet as the live auction began and I realized there were 8 of those adorable chairs, I decided why not? just one problem there is no way I am going to bid at a live auction...can we say stressed? so I searched for my dad, who apparently had a sixth sense I was searching for him and quite simply disappeared, I did find my sister, who reluctantly gave in to my request (whining) and agreed to bid for me. So we sat by Shirley who most likely has not recovered from the madness that is my sister and I attempting to bid at a live auction. Sorry Shirley, you just shouldn't have such a friendly face. I did end up with a chair, as you can see in the picture above, and I am thankful my sister overcame her fear of bidding (her hands were shaking at one point, of course I figured better hers than mine :) and thank you to Shirley for not just slapping us :) and to the kind man writing down all the winning bids, who just happened to be sitting right next to us I appreciate that you did not stand up and say "Hallelujah" when we finally left the area, he did look relieved tho, as he well should have.

tablecloths...

yes I realize that there is no tablecloth pictured in the photos above, or is there?
Those adorable dresses on those equally adorable little girls are in fact made from vintage tablecloths.
My grandma used to have a tablecloth very similar to the pattern on Rosie. How cool is that???
Pretty sure these dresses will show up in summer pics a time or two.
Here is the spot I found these upcycled dresses.

Cascarones

Cascarones are a part of Easter celebrations in Mexico and Southwestern states in the US.

A friend of Kevin's shared this tradition with him and we decided to include it in our Easter celebration this year. Here is a brief history on this tradition:

Carlotta, the wife of Emperor Maximilian, if often credited for the bringing elaborately decorated perfume filled eggs from Europe to Mexico during her husband's rule in Mexico in 1864. No one really knows how or when cascarones were invented, but it is widely believed that eventually the perfume was replaced by confetti eggs, hence creating confetti eggs. It was in Mexico that the confetti filled eggs came to be known as the cascaron, or cascarones for plural. Over the past century, cascarones have become a fun and popular tradition amongst millions of Americans all across the southwest and its popularity continues to spread throughout the U.S.

and this is the explanation on how to use them from the Etsy site I purchased the Cascarones:

Follow these steps to surprise your friends and family with a cascaron shower:1. Hide the egg behind your back.2. Approach unsuspecting friend.3. Lift your hand about 2 inches above their head. Crush the cascaron in your hand, letting the confetti and eggshell cascade over their head.4. Rub the eggshell and confetti on their head.

and this would be where I found those colorful eggs pictured above.

Easter goodies...

this was part of the happy mail that arrived on my porch today...
first is this not just the cutest packaging...pink and brown are an amazing color
combination, love this mix of colors...

and here is a close up of what was inside one of those boxes..
is that not just the happiest colors you have seen, it is for me.
Serious winteritis here..I am so tired of brown, and grey landscape
it is time for some color...those are tiny cupcakes with a surprise center..
I have not sampled one, yet. The few who have, have had the biggest smile on
their faces tho..and why have I not sampled?

well these would be the reason...
I kid you not they are addicting, I will only admit to eating two (of course there is no way the math would add up)
yes that pic is a bit blurry, my stomach was distracting my focus.

and of course I needed to add another adorable subject to the photo..
she was also my partner in tasting... we both agreed these were pure
wonderfullness...
wondering where I found these amazing delights...
well here you go..
and you simply may not be crabby at me when you too order and indulge.
I did warn you.

MOMS 24/7

Discovered this blog after she started following me on Twitter. Have I mentioned I love Twitter?, well I do. If your not sure what Twitter is just check out that little section to the right, so random and yet it's catchy! But, I digress, so naturally I clicked on her link which took me to her Twitter site and after reading several of her twitters I found I was curious so I explored a bit more and traveled to her blog, where I discovered she is a mom to 5 kids with a bit of an age span too, aahhh a connection we share. Here is her blog just in case you don't Twitter yet, and if you do Twitter here is the link to her Twitter page. So you can follow too.

our past few days

have looked like this.
notice only one is dressed today, it would seem it is the norm that only one out of the three actually wears clothes this week rather than pj's.
Anthony has missed two days of school, yesterday included a trip to the doctor where his cough was diagnosed as viral and we were told to let it run it's course. It's course seems to include coughing all night, fever, sore throat, and now this morning a raspy voice, and still he smiles what a kid. At the moment Rosie isn't sick, although she will tell you she is when:
she doesn't want to get out of her pj's "I sick"
she wants more juice "I sick"
she doesn't want to go to school "I sick, berry sick"
the best...when I suggested she go to bed if she is so sick.
"I all better now" was her quick response.
yes she is 3, no I really don't want to think about what she will be like in 10 years...
yes that would be called denial...

Hands on learning fun

I discovered this Etsy shop last year. I love the idea of an entire theme conveniently stored in a canvas bag. Great organization and great hands on fun inside. I just ordered this set yesterday, and I can't wait until it arrives. Here is a link to the Hands on Learning Fun blog and to her Etsy store Have fun exploring her wonderful products.

Sunday...

I had the privilege of hearing Neal Hagberg perform during the early service at our church. His voice was simply wonderful, I especially enjoyed his children's sermon, loved how he used music to show how unique and wonderful our differences are. He also performed later that afternoon, a concert hosted by the local arts board. I had planned to attend but the three year old wonder had other plans. She napped, and since this only occurs when the stars, moon, and sun are aligned and God smiles I didn't want to risk waking her just so I could attend a concert. So I pouted, (I never said I like being an adult) and then ended up taking a nap with her :) You can hear his music and read his story here . He and his wife Leandra have several Cd's available, together their voices are pure magic.

dance costumes

Thursday the girls brought home their dance recital costumes, naturally they had to try them on right away.
Yahaira was loving the pink and puffy skirt, "watch me spin mommy" she said time and time again.
Rosie was excited about her outfit too, just not too excited about the photos I wanted to take.
so there is a tiny peek at my two tiny dancers, who are simply growing up way too fast.

Pine wood derby

He brought home the kit to make his pine wood derby car in early January. It contained a block of wood, 4 wheels and a sheet of instructions. I looked at it and groaned, thinking my brain cells did not desire to learn how to build a boy scout derby car. The kit sat on the counter, the table, the floor for weeks, upon weeks. As I held out hope that the other parent would be struck with the desire to build said car. A few weeks ago I sent it home with Anthony's grandpa knowing he would be able to turn that block of wood into something resembling a car. He did and returned it to Anthony with instructions to sand it and paint it. Simple. Of course not for us. It sat on the counter, the table, the floor until a few days ago, (after a wee bit of nagging from me, ok a lot) where the search for sandpaper started, (we had none), that required a trip to the store, and the following sandpapering left piles of sawdust in my carpet. (I didn't complain since I wasn't the one having to help construct the car) Next was the search for paint, yeah we didn't have that either, another trip to the store followed. (no black semi gloss paint made it to my carpet, I stopped that thought immediately) They were finishing the car last night at 6:51, the Derby began at 7. (yes the organized, with it, totally on time, all the time person in me was freaking out) I snapped a few pictures of the excited little guy, this was his first derby after all. Handed the camera to his father, who looked at me with annoyance and said, "why do I need to bring the camera with?" "oh, I don't know to take some pictures of him" I answered. You would think by the now the man would simply take the camera and not argue with me. I headed out the door with one kid and he headed out with Anthony (what you thought we attend all activities together, first. if the Haycraft's actually did do that, there would be no room for anyone else. and second, multiple children mean multiple activities and always they occur at the same time, always.) As I am driving to Yahaira's class I am texting Linda with the very desperate request that she take my camera from my husband immediately if it appeared he wasn't taking pics.
So one of the first things said to me, well the first thing after all the excited chatter about the fact the Anthony's car won every race it raced. Yes every race, undefeated in fact, was uttered by Kevin, "I'm sure glad you insisted I bring the camera" oh you think?? Anthony won a trophy for his Tiger Cub group, and he won the Championship trophy.
Well who knew?

Retired

After wearing those giraffe boots endlessly for the past year, the other day when she put them on to head outside it became apparent that the time was here to retire them. If it weren't for the cracks and holes that decorated much of the surface of the boots her little toe peeking thru the bottom was perhaps the final straw. I have to admit I was a bit sad at the end of this era. I mean they were a permanent part of our life for months upon months, if you have forgotten you can look here, here, or here. Where ever she was the boots were certainly with her. So with a bit of sadness I packed them away, not quite ready to throw them away.

I realized that with all the mud and puddles that currently inhabit our bit of the world that to spare her shoes, or the need to replace shoes we would most likely need a new pair of mud boots I made a request of my sister who happened to be heading to Target to look for a new pair...above is what she found...and to the little boot wearing wonder they were totally perfect. They have not left her feet since they arrived at our door two days ago..wondering if cows will grow on me quite as quickly as those giraffe's did. But I do know this the kid can certainly rock mud boots.

Easter hats...

of course I have no idea what dresses they are wearing,
but we do have the hats. :)
Perhaps I should get working on that, pictures are a week away.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

the leprechaun made his first of many visits today. Love how surprised they are each year when they discover the green milk.
Hope your day is filled with a little luck of the Irish on this St. Patty's day.

Baptism day...

This day has been a long time coming.
What an amazing day it was...so worth the wait.
So wonderful to share it with friends and family.

How crazy that all these people were a part of this day...
how blessed they are to have so many wonderful people in their lives.

Grandpa with a few of his grandchildren.