The Easter Egg Hunt and Our Spring Display

This past weekend was our annual neighborhood egg hunt.  The same family every year stuffs 500-800 eggs and puts them out in one of the common areas for the all the kids to have at it. Needless to say, the kids LOVE it!  The bunny hops three times and they're off and running!

Tom Thumb and Red had quite a haul!

Here's Red with two of her best friends at the hunt.

Then the kids visited with the Easter Bunny.

When we got home, we dumped all the candy out of the eggs into a bowl that's now on top of the fridge (otherwise it would be gone by now---guaranteed).  Then, we put Christmas ornament hooks through the top of all the plastic eggs that had holes in them intending to hang them on the tree in our front yard.  It was really windy that day so instead the kids decorated the vase of pussy willows my mom brought by last week and displayed all their other spring treasures.

I got motivated and made a new wreath for the front door out of a $12 twig wreath from Joann (I used a 40% coupon so I got it for a little over $7) and 3 forsythia sprays that I cut up (got those for about $4).  I like it.  It says spring to me. :-)

Now if spring would only come...

Semi-Homemade Valentines

When Red was sick, she wasn't well enough to go to school, but wasn't sick enough to stay in bed.  I had been to Joann on one of her sick days and I found these heart cards in the $1 bin.  You got eight cards for $1.  There were some Valentine's Day rubber stamps in the dollar bin too.  I ended up buying her three packs of cards, 4 rubber stamps, 3 stamp pads, and a couple packages of glitter glue to help her entertain herself.  They did the job! The photos above were taken by Red herself of her finished Valentines that she made for her classmates.

Here's the results of a another Joann purchase.  I made this winter/Valentine's Day wreath from stuff I found in their 90% off Christmas area.  Believe it or not, it cost me less than $2 to make.  It was Red's idea to make the berries into a heart that would float in the middle.

We are on vacation for a week beginning tomorrow so I'll be back with some fun in the sun (I hope it's sunny) photos next week!

Winter decorating, Part 1

After Christmas is over, there always seems to be this decorating gap.  Valentine's Day is in February, but I like to have a little something between the tree and the hearts.  Here's the beginning of the deliciousness that fills that post-Christmas void---

...and a peek into our sleepy backyard.

I'll be breaking out the icicles in the next few days.

And now---the kid quotes of the day:

"What is a love shack?  Is there one close by?" --- Red, after hearing the classic B52s song.

"It's too punchy!"---Tom Thumb commenting on anything he doesn't want to eat, touch or clean up.

Our Summer Display and a party to boot!

We changed our display over for summer on Monday (the first day of summer by the way!) so here it is:

All the cards are from Red's 5th birthday which was yesterday.

As you can see, we changed over the cloth to something a little more vibrant, our beehives and butterflies are out, and we have one lonely mushroom.  The coneflowers broke off our new plant I just planted in the yard, thus, our lovely floral display--- ha ha!

Red's birthday party involved walking with her four friends to 711 for Slurpees, followed by lunch and running in the sprinkler.  Here are the results---

It's great to be five!

Our Spring Display

After going through a hardcore Waldorf phase a couple of years ago, one of the things that remains is our seasonal display.  Also called a nature table in Waldorf circles, it is customary to decorate your display with colors to suit the season, items collected from outside by the children, and figures and other symbols of the season.  Here is a photo of our spring display before it gets changed over on Monday the first day of summer:

We made the wool fairy for our summer display last year, but Red insisted that she needed to come out early.  She found the bird's nest at Greenfield Village today outside the Edison house.  When we got home she filled it with some of her sidewalk chalk eggs.  The flowers are from our trip up north, as is the wee bird with nest candleholder that I bought at BeeDazzled.  Can't wait for the summer display!  And here's Red swinging today---

I love summer!