Our Valentine's Day in Numbers

116:  number of homemade valentines that were made for four school parties, one Activity Day exchange, and one preschool party

304: number of pink and red Pretzel Hugs made for valentine goodie bags and class parties

1: number of trips to the bulk barn to get other assorted valentine treats and wrappings for goodie bags

16: number of times Nathan had to write his name on the back of his valentines (he did such a great job and did most of them in one sitting)

57:  number of goodie bags made up for classes, piano teacher, visiting teachers, and friends

1:  number of cheese and cracker platters made up for Nathan's class party, since the teacher had requested something moderately healthy

465,279:  number of calories consumed by five kids in the form of chocolate and candy

17: number of calories consumed by five kids in the form of salmon, rice and veggies I cooked for dinner

12:  number of roses Scott brought home for me, even though I told him not to get me anything as we already went on a fun date Saturday night and have another date planned for this Friday

12:  number of pink flowers Scott brought home for Samantha, who was so excited to get her fist bouquet of flowers that she took them up to her room and fell asleep later with the flowers right beside her

1:  number of helium balloons Scott brought home for Clara, which she has not stopped dragging all around the house

0:  number of photos taken of kids on Valentine's Day

Easter Weekend

Here are some more photos from our Easter weekend. Some highlights:

• Samantha and I had a fun Mother-Daughter Activity Night at the church. Lots of crafts, decorating cupcakes, friends, and fun.
• Aunt Heather & Uncle Pete planned an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids... in the hen house! Such a fun idea and the weather was perfect.
• Clara loved the chickens.
• We headed to Colasanti's after the Egg Hunt. Our kids had fun playing with their cousins. I love the photo of Landon chasing JD.
• Brett and Scott enjoyed some time with Papa watching Hockey and Man Tracker.
• Nana made a beautiful and tasty Easter Ham, and decorated two tables for such a big group.
• Clara scavenged all of the chocolate eggs left behind by the older kids and had her own dessert party on the kitchen floor.
• We came home for Easter Monday and spent most of the day cleaning out the garage.
• For Family Night we made treat baskets to drop off for unsuspecting families. Our kids love to ring the doorbell and race to the getaway car (aka the van).

Happy Easter!

Easter Baking: Some Fun Treats

We found some yummy treats to make this Easter from a great website called Our Best Bites.

First we made this Glass Block Jello.

The kids were really excited about the Jello blocks and they looked awesome!

But they were happier eating the coloured blocks in the pan before the white layer was added. So next time we might just stop there and have colourful jello salad.

We also made these Cadbury Egg Cookies.

They were wonderful! I highly recommend these.

I made two modifications to the recipe. I used all butter, instead of butter and shortening. And I also reduced the flour to 2 1/4 cups. I think that was due to altitude, so you might need the full 2 1/2 cups where you live.

Now that Easter is over, I'm thinking these would be good to make with M&M's. And you wouldn't have to crush them up.

Enjoy!

Good Friday on the Farm

We spent Good Friday with two dear friends of mine. We figured, during the visit, that the three of us have been friends for about 23 years now.

We don't get together very often, as none of us have lived in the same city for several years. But when we do get to see each other, we just pick up where we left off.

I love visiting the farm. It makes me want to move out to the country and become a farmer.

So beautiful!

These calves were only a week old.

The kids were so excited to pet the cows.

Christmas Day

JD woke up at 4:20 AM on Christmas morning. He ran into our room, ready to wake everyone up to go down and see what Santa had brought.

I told him that he had to wait until at least 6:00 to wake up the whole gang. So he settled for waking up Brett, and the two of them sneaked downstairs to check it out.

At approximately 5:59 AM they were back in our room to hold me to my words.

Pretty soon, this:

Turned into this:






Nathan with his Buzz Lightyear Lego Ship.

The rink was finally ready!



Brett spent Christmas day building Lego. This huge set took most of the day, but he did it all on his own, and couldn't even be bothered to stop for bite to eat or to get dressed.

I just adore this photo. Clara loves to see herself on the camera after she gets her picture taken.

Christmas dinner... Must have been awesome because apparently I was too busy eating to snap any photos.

Only a week after Christmas it was time to say goodbye. Sniff.

JD saying goodbye to Kepler, or "Kep" as he likes to call him.

Clara gets left out of everything during nap time.