Sunday, April 8, 2012

HAPPY EASTER 2012

This year, we just had my mom over since Dad was working and Adam was busy. We had our usual holiday food with a few new recipes to try. Mom made "deviled chick eggs" and I made a new strawberries and cream dessert. We played Wii bowling, tennis and golf with "Gran" and we got her playing Angry Birds for the first time.  We did a little facetime with Aunt Peggy on the Ipad. Nothing too busy. I love laid back holidays where there is not a ton of stress, so this was as pretty close to perfect as it gets. Later we dug out the outside "toys" and put up the battmitton set and bid Gran farewell with her arms full of leftovers for Grandad.


My mom's attempt at craftiness! SHE actually saw this on Pinterest and decided to make it! I was very proud of her!! If you understood, my mom just does NOT do crafts or anything close to it, you would be proud of her too!


The Easter Baskets were the big "Prize" at the end of the annual egg scavenger hunt this year. I try to find cheap fun things to put in them. This year I also added an ITunes gift card for her and an Amazon gift card for him.


Gracie's


                                                     Frankie's

      
                                   Each egg has a clue to the next location....

                                         Hidden in the Dove chocolates


Hidden in the jellybeans

     
 Hidden in Gracie's "sleeping area" (she has taken to sleeping on the floor.....don't ask)


                                              Hidden in the linen closet


Hidden in the medicine closet


Hidden in Frankie's bed


Hidden in the shower


Hidden in the fridge


                                                   Hidden in the pantry


Hidden in the dog food


Hidden in the deep freeze


Hidden in the movies


Hidden in the dryer


Hidden in the dishwasher


The final hidden space...under the table


The first Egg clue.....














                     Yes it IS horrible carpet, but it's been low on the priority list to get new, as long as the kids continue to spill this, drop that, etc....but I always feel like telling people, NO I did NOT pick that carpet out!






This year I had them going downstairs then upstairs then back down....on and on wearing them out! It was the most running around they've done in a long time! It was so much fun to watch them though. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful home and family! And to have a Savior that loved me enough to die on the cross, so that my sins would be forgiven and I could go to Heaven, just by accepting HIS gift! Thank You Jesus!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

An Easter suprise!

The past few weeks, I have been talking about ways we could try to cheer up my mother in law. She has been thrown many trials in her life the past few years and been particularly sad lately. So I was discussing possibly sending her some care packages. I thought Easter would be a really fun one to make the first one. However, my MIL is diabetic so she really can't have any candy or sweets. She does however love her "peeps" and so I'm sure it stinks seeing them everywhere and not being able to have one. So my wheels got to turning, which in most cases CAN be a good thing!

My first thought, how fun is it to open Easter Eggs and the excitement of what's going to be in them! So I purchased 36 eggs and filled them with ecouraging verses, some inspirational quotes and some really funny things I saw on pinterest. So each egg has something different in it, she has to open them all to find out what. Two of the eggs had something from my kids. Frankie wrote her a letter and Gracie drew her an Easter picture.



I also found some "stuffed" Peeps that she CAN have, as obviously they are sugar free! HA! I was so excited to see those and immediately thought of her! Coming up with treats that aren't sweet or food turned out to be a challenge for me...hmmm I wonder why! lol Guess I need to do things like this more often! I love making "flankies" which are handkerchiefs made of flannel. They are so soft on your nose, eyes etc... So I used this package as yet another excuse to go to JoAnn fabric and pick out some material just for her and sewed her up some flankies. Then while at the store, I passed the display of gift cards. I know how much she likes the oriental chicken salad at Applebees and that is one thing she can have! So grabbed one of those as well.  Heading to the checkout, I saw these cute little signs, (yes, I am the type of customers that they put all the end caps up for, I am a sucker!) and knowing her space is limited, I thought this would be a cute little decoration she can hang up, yet slip into a drawer to store afterwards. So this is a pic of all that went in to the box!



Finally, the card. Wanted to put one more smile on her face, so this is what I wrote:

Sending you this Easter box,
With love, care and warm thoughts.
Even though, there are no candy sweets,
It doesn't mean, you can't still have peeps!
Thought you might enjoy some hankies,
But when made of flannel, we call them flankies.
Would like you to have a meal on "we",
So we included a card from Applebees.
Everyone can use a laugh or two,
So we included some funnies in there for you.
Some words of wisdom, you'll find in there,
Along with some reminders of Our Father's care.
And last but not least, to remember the time,
We included an Easter Blessing sign.
We hope this all brings a smile to your face.
This Easter, we wish we could visit your place.
But since we can't, we send this gift to you.
We love you and hope to hear from you soon!

 

Made by Lena