Fine Arts Festival

The kids participated in a Fine Arts festival that Generations does every year. Kinsey painted a rainbow, Braden drew a picture with oil pastels and played Sonatina on the piano, and Cailey sang, "Go Light Your World."

I was so proud of my brave chickadees for having the courage to
perform in front of everyone! That is something I am not
gifted in so I appreciate how nerve wracking that can be!

Sister friends, Abby and Kerry

Cailey chose to sing, "Go Light Your World" after toying with a few other songs and Beth came over to help her with it one afternoon. She knew the words ahead of time just worked on singing it out more. There was a verse that starts with, "we are a family..." where Kinsey and Braden joined her and it was SO sweet. Melts a mama's heart! She did a great job!

This picture is pure Cailey. She entertained everyone while we were waiting to start just because there was a piano available. She has a great ear and memory for her songs and people were blown away that she could just sit and play them completely unprepared. She was so at ease...awesome! And sweet Braden did a great job on piano and amazed everyone because he's only been playing six months. The piano was a little harder for his fingers because the keys stick but he loved being able to play his music for everyone. Great job, Braden!!

my sweet friend, Cheryl (and mom to the girls above plus 2 more)

took this picture of Cailey's hair for nonny....and here's a picture of Cailey's voice lesson with Beth

ducklings and chicks

I heard that new chicks and ducklings arrived at a friends house and wanted the kiddos to be able to see the sweet things. They were so excited as they had no idea where we were going (thinking it was another errand).

All of them soaked up the cuteness...and learned a bunch too!


These chicks are meant for meat....so no snuggling them:(.


Then they were able to go and collect eggs...the whole thing brought me back to Little House on the Prairie...LOVE!


getting to meet the different chickens...who knew there were SO many kinds and they all laid a variety of eggs both in shape and size.

Gretchen and her girls were SO very sweet to the kiddos that they were all sad to leave when nap time came.

ephram was playing a game of pull out the egg then put it back in....over and over:)

This was RIGHT up Braden's alley as he loves all things animals.
He had no interest in the awesome swing or great trampoline with friends but soaked
up as much chicken time as he could:).

We had such a great time and can't wait to visit Willow Hill!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The kids made a few decorations for St. Patrick's day yesterday to prep for it:).

We had a GREAT day together enjoying being together and eating lots of green/rainbow food. I LOVE to go all out on Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day because my children will only be small for a short time and they love it...and I love serving them in this way. It's fun! I've done it for so long that they think this is normal and happens in every household:). Every year things are a little different with the common theme being green and rainbows. (This of course, after hearing the TRUE story of St. Patrick and significance of the shamrock first.)

We had an early start to our morning because of soccer games so for the kids "first breakfast" they had green milk, pears, and lucky charms cereal that was free during super doubles:). (Lucky Charms was new this year!)

After soccer we came home and gave the kids second breakfast which consisted of rainbow waffles and frozen grapes...my rule with eating on St. Patrick's day is it has to be green or rainbow:)! Thankfully there are a TON of healthy green foods to choose from.

Us green beans...and we are ALWAYS on the lookout for people who aren't wearing green where ever we go:). This morning on the soccer field there were a TON! I was actually surprised because I honestly thought everyone would at least WEAR green even if they didn't do the crazy stuff I do:).

After the pictures, Ephram and I went on a green hunt outside. Then the girls and I went on a walk while Braden and Ephram stayed home to help Brian with yard work. Cailey found a turtle half way through our long walk and carried it all the way home so it made for great fun for the rest of the warm sunny day!

a snack of green key lime yogurt and kinsey
ate green beans for her snack.

Instead of a rainbow cake this year I decided to try rainbow cupcakes! The kids LOVED them! I frosted them with light blue for a sky and used marshmallows as a cloud.

We were invited over to the Klick's house for dinner and I told Kelly that we usually have green food for dinner. I was quick to say that I could bring things OR not to worry about it and we'd do our green meal a different night but she was SUCH a trooper for my craziness and I was THRILLED when I walked in to a green dinner!! There was grilled chicken on green spinach tortillas, green salad with green peppers, cucumbers, and broccoli, grapes, yummy spinach alfredo noodles, and I brought pistachio salad along with the cupcakes. OH...and she even had a HUGE bottle of green punch. It makes me smile just to think about it. What a SWEET friend to be willing to participate in our 'green eating'.

the kids LOVED it too and I don't think there were any leftovers. YUM!


A couple pictures of them enjoying their cupcakes. We just LOVE this family!!