A Pinterest Inspired Easter Party

Spring is such a fun time of year.  With grass turning green, weather warming (although this year it seems to be taking a little longer), and Easter peeking it's head around the corner, what better way to celebrate than with an Egg Hunt and Easter Party!  Lucas invited some of his school friends to join him for an Easter Party the week before Easter.  Sunday, March 24th, 2013 started at Our Lady Queen of Peace where we had breakfast with the big guy himself, the Easter Bunny!

After breakfast, we all headed to our house for more fun.  We started with a craft! Q-Tip Painted Easter Eggs were a hit.  The kids loved painting their eggs in a variety of colors.

After our craft time, the kids went outside to play for a bit while I put lunch in the oven.  Mini Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, Mac & Cheese, Peanut Butter Sandwich bunnies, Strawberry Spinach Salad & Cotton tails were just a few of our yummy treats we enjoyed

The egg hunt was organized by color.  Each kid got their own color basket and had to find that same color egg.  This way, all of the kids got to recieve the same "prizes" and had eggs to find.  I always hate it when we go to egg hunts and one kid gets 20 and the other gets 3.  This made it even.  It worked perfectly.  The hardest part was finding a variety of egg colors.

The kids were eager to go insde to see what the bunny brought them in their eggs.

After lunch, the kids were starting to get a little rowdy so we played an energetic easter game.  My favorite was roll like an egg!

After our energetic game, we played Pin the Tail on the Bunny....which I learned is a bit difficult of a concept for a 3 year old to figure out. We got the job done though, non-the-less.

Our last activity of the day was creating stained glass eggs. I remember making these when I went to Sunday School as a child.  They turned out beautiful and I'm looking forward to hanging Lucas' for many Easters to come. :)  All in all, I'd say we had a pretty special, memorable, fun day!

Thanks for reading!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Train Tot Book

I've been preparing for our summer of Tot School over the last few weeks.  Most of my tot books I am getting from 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 (A FANTASTIC SITE where a mom has spent endless hours preparing things for her children and is sharing them for FREE on her site!) Inspired by her Tot Books I created 2 of my own.  A Train Tot Book and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Tot Book. I am trying to figure out how to attach them to this Blog Post.  Once I figure it out, feel free to use it with your little ones!

Wow has it really been that long since my last post!?

Time flies when you are having fun.  This summer we did a lot of stuff with Lucas' best buddy, James. The week before James' mommy and I went back to work for the school year we had a fun filled week.  Storyville, Aquarium, Chuck E. Cheese, and Md State Fair.  We were sucking up every last second with the boys...

Cars Week

This week was Cars week at Tot School.  Lucas spent some time with some toy cars, and various other "travel" toys as he played we talked about counting, colors, and shapes! Learning the letters of his name is something we are working on each week, too!

Our Week with Lily Part 1

Our first week of summer has been spent with Lucas' "girl friend" Lily while her mommy and daddy are on vacation in Mexico.  It's been a crazy week being a mom of 2 but it's making me feel like I can totally handle it when my time comes. Here are some highlights:

 Lily LOVED our Let's Dish Meal of Three Cheese and Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

 Lucas liked it too but he prefers to have his picture taken and say "cheese".

 My failed attempt at taking their picture in the plaid outfits.

 Sweet Lily girl!

 The Gymnast

 Lily at Terrific Tots...She loved all the big spheres (balls sounded bad)

 Parachute Time..Lucas with all his friends! Luke, Zoe, & Jackson!

 Lily petting the Sheep at the Live Petting Zoo

"Hello Mr, Goat and Mrs. BaBa! I'm Lucas and I'm here to terrorize you!"

"YeHaw!"

"Mommy, it's HOT! Can we go home now?"

Sticker Art

I used to teach 1-3 year old Sunday School at our church.  Since Lucas was born I have stepped back from that position but am trying to remember some of the favorite activities we did with the kids. Due to nap time, Lucas hasn't been going to Sunday School so we're going to try some at home.  Today was his first art activity and he loved it.  I got some stickers (free from those return address labels that come in the mail) and a piece of construction paper.  I only had to show him once how to remove and stick the sticker on the paper and he took off until ALL of the stickers were gone.  He had a blast.  Today, I bought some truck stickers from Target dollar section as i'm sure we will be doing this activity frequently.

The monkey on his back is his favorite thing of the moment.  It was purchased as a leash but we removed the "Tail" and he uses it as a backpack.

A New Idea

The last few days I've been researching different things I can do with my 17 month old son, Lucas, to enrich his days and keep him busy and away from the television.  I'm not the type of parent that has the unrealistic approach of NO TV but I also don't want him parked there all day long.  So in comes crafts and learning through play. I'm a full time teacher so my time at home is limited and most of what I am planning will be done over the summer when we have a lot of time to fill.  My plan...to post our adventures together on this blog!