Flashlight Egg Hunt

This year we chose to celebrate Easter a couple of days early. As it turns out, it's hard getting four different family schedules to work out so we can get together. Some have to work the weekend and others have prior obligations. But we always seem to find time that works for all us and we always have a great time and make many new memories. This year was no different - we celebrated and we celebrated big - or so I felt like we did.

My mom and I have been putting together an Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids in the family for years. It started out at my mom's house and has now turned into an annual event at my house. We have a fairly large house with lots of room and a large yard with many hiding spots.This year, like the last few, it seems the weather gods have not been on our side. But we improvise and get creative and make it work. Normally we would have hid all the eggs outside and had designated areas for all the kids. You have to keep everything even as to make it fair for everyone. But - because it chose to RAIN and RAIN and RAIN - we decided to hide the eggs indoor but indoor with a twist. We turned off all the lights and had a flashlight egg hunt. Each kid had a designated room and had a blast. Here's some snippets of what it looked like at my house on Good Friday..

                                              

Here's someone searching for eggs with their flashlight.

Mia searching High and low for her eggs.. Even in the boxes.

Payton looking in the tunnels and playhouse to find her eggs.

Maddox finds one sitting in a candle stick. He was extremely excited!

Down the hall go Mia and Alexis. Nice to see Big Sis' helping out Lil' Sis.

There Daddy and Mac searching in her room.

It appears Brandon has his hands full and a bag full of eggs.

Payton and Maddox teaming up to find all of theirs. Good Team Work!

Brandon crawling all over to make sure he didn't miss any.

Finally - notice Miss Mackenzie's cheeks. Apparently she was more worried about how many jelly beans she could stuff in her mouth rather than making sure she found all of her eggs. Priceless!

We Have Growth..

Well a couple of posts ago I shared that I was venturing into starting my garden by seed. Well so far so good - we have growth. It's been fun tending to my little plants and sharing with Baby V the growth of these  little seeds that she help me plant. I haven't had luck with everything I planted but that's okay. It's been fun seeing these plants emerge. Some are a complete mystery as to what is growing because I can't remember what I planted and I accidentally used a wet erase marker instead of a permanent one. However, it makes it more fun to see what might emerge. I also have been fortunate to be able to use my four season room for this project. It gets a lot of light and I can monitor the temps of the room which has helped. Now I just continue to water and keep these babies thriving. Once they get a little bigger I believe I can start fertilizing and then start hardening off so I can plant in the ground. But, I'll keep you posted as this project continues.

Unseasonably Warm Weather..

Here's what we do on warm sunny late afternoons - enjoy it at the Park!

Baby V is making a run for it to the nearest slide - she's excited...

This was the first and last trip down the BIG slide all by herself - yep she took a header when she got to the curve. It wasn't pretty but she was a trooper and cry all that much.

She's my monkey climber and did this all by herself.

And she found the sand -- oh the sand

She loves the dirty icky sand... Even more reason to take her to a beach resort this summer to soak up the rays and catch some relaxation. Oh - did I really say that - relaxation. I'm convinced that will not come until she's all grown up with children of her own.

If you're in the QC area - get out and enjoy this awesome weather we are having. We can't get outside enough right now.

Homemade Irish Cream

Prior to St. Patty's day a co-worker and I were conversing about several Irish recipes - mainly Corned Beef and Cabbage. He had told me that a dear friend of his always made sure to have him for over for dinner and some good ol' homemade irish cream. Me, being me, was shocked that someone would actually go out of there way to make Irish Cream. I actually thought - really - you can make Irish Cream. But the more I thought about it, I realized that was a really stupid comment. You can virtually make anything you want if you want to take the time to do so. So the next day at work, I got my very own bottle of homemade Irish Cream from this little ol' gal and it was devine - absolutely devine. It was the best Irish Cream I've ever had. I really enjoy a good bottle of Irish Cream but I don't treat myself to it very often because the good stuff can be quite pricey. However - I was lucky enough to get the recipe to share with all of you. I'm not sure I'll ever buy Irish Cream again.

Irish Cream
makes 1 quart

1/2 cup White Rum
3/4 cup Whiskey (any kind)
2 cups Half and Half
1 small can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons Chocolate Syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put in a blender and blend away. Store in a quart jar and use at your leisure. Make sure to keep it refrigerated.

Blogging..

I've decided I'm a blogging adict. I think I need some sort of support group for all the blogs that I find it necessary to read on a daily basis. Sometimes I find it necessary to read them more than once a day. I apparently have some sort of fear that I'm going to miss out on something. It's not like it would matter if I missed a post and caught it the day after - but I'm absolutely obsessed with blogging. Not so much my own blog - as I'm still learning and it's still all foreign to me. But just the humor I find in some; the recipes, cooking and baking ideas I find in others, and just the pure joy of reading what others have to say or suggest or their opinions or what not. Maybe it's just the nosiness in me that finds them so fascinating. I've gotten a lot of ideas from all the things I enjoy doing. I've gotten great recipes, interior decorating ideas, gardening help and when I'm down I can find some laughter in some I read. Look at my blog list and see if you can find some great stuff too. I would hate for you to miss out and besides, you may have to join the support group with me too -- that is once I find one.

Gardening with Seeds

So I've decided to try my hand at gardening. It's not like I don't have enough on my plate as it is so why not. We bought a new house last August that has a large yard with very nicely developed landscaping. I've always been one to enjoy fresh veggies, so I thought it would be good to start a Vegetable Garden. I've been itching for nice weather too - so I thought I'd try my hand at planting seeds in hopes that spring would get here soon. So, I've been reading up on what I'm supposed to do and what not to do and I have found the book "You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail" to be a huge hit. She has so many ideas from starting your garden by seed, to your soil problems, to bug problems, to nifty ideas on container gardening and using herbs for teas, soaps and so much more. Even though I have a large yard, I've been thinking about integrating my garden in the existing flower beds I have. I have many and the soil seems to be very well established. Besides - we have clay issues where I live and that can be disastrous to work with. Also, I think it would be neat way to garden. I may find out differently later but I think I'm going to give it try --- assuming my seed plantings are successful, we will soon find out.

Here's what I bought to get started:

**Special soil to get your seeds started

**A miniature, disposal greenhouse with the peat pots

**Seeds -- lots of seeds (tomatoes, peppers, basil, cilantro, carrots, cucumbers, squash and more)

**Marker Sticks to mark what was planted (please note you can use Popsicle sticks, cut up yogurt containers, just about anything that will not absorb water and ruin your labels)

So if you are itching for that nice spring air and warm weather. Grab your little helper and get started on your garden. It'll at least make you feel like spring is around the corner. Then I'll let you know in about a month or so if ours was a success or if they simply drown due to my over watering or froze to lack of heat.

Run Run Run....

Okay so I've written and re-written and re-written this post over and over.. I could go so many directions when it comes to the subject of Running and Track. V (my husband) is all about track. He eats, sleeps and breathes track - thus my daughter and I are consumed with track. Not necessarily by choice but almost of out necessity. He's the Varsity Head Coach of our local girls Tiger Team. Needless to say I constantly get times thrown out at me or heights and lengths - all of which I'm not sure if they are good or bad. I just nod, most of the time, and say "Yes Honey I heard you the 1st time you told me." I get name after name said to me - and mind you most are nicknames like Chuck, Boneyard, Barney, Pebbles.. and the list goes on and on. So with all of this coming at me full force these days - I try to keep up but it's kind of maddening and exciting all at the same time. I never was in the track realm. My brother ran for a couple of years in high school and that's about all I was exposed to growing up. But now being with V for over 8 years and married almost 6 years, I'm now finding I really enjoy track. I enjoy the atmosphere that surrounds me at meets, the excitement of seeing the girls' hard work pay off and the adrenline rush you get from that neck and neck race coming to the finish line. V has been very fortunate to have some outstanding athletes come through his program. He's very humble at what he does and prefers to give the credit to his athletes for the programs huge success. Without them and their hard work the program would not be what it is today.

Saturday there was a meet - the Galesburg Indoor Invite to be exact. It was a good meet, a large meet and a successful meet for our Tiger Girls that ran and jumped and threw that day. However, it was the first time my, soon to be, 2 year old daughter got to get the full effect of an indoor meet. I've taken her to meets since she was an infant but now that she's almost 2 - she truly got a feel for what track is all about. It's not just about the events taking place, it's about the full experience of the crowd, and the starting gun and everything around you. I'm very thankful my mother decided to go with me to experience a first for my daughter. It was a hoot watching her reactions as the day continued. She started out with realizing that the blowing of the whistle meant that the gun was going to be shortly behind it. Well, as you can imagine, a gun going off in a building for a 2 year old, who has no idea what is going on, is not pleasant. She would jump into my arms every time that whistle started to blow. Then V comes around to explain to her why the gun is going off - then you can see the wheels turning and the excitement of it all setting in as she realizes that means they are going to run and RUN FAST. So she went from being terrified to a pure state of excitement where she could hardly contain herself. It was hysterical and a hoot watching this all evolve. Everytime that gun would go off - she would jump and scream with all her might - RUN RUN RUN!!!! Until they crossed the finish line and then she'd clap. Then it would start all over with the next race.

We didn't stay for the entire meet as it started at 10am and didn't get over until 6pm or so. That's a long day and not one I wanted to quite expose her to yet. I'm going to save that for the State Meet in Charleston come May. However - I'm glad we went. I don't remember watching more than just her that day. Which is sad but that's what happens sometimes when you are at a track meet. Like I said - the atmosphere, the gun, the screaming and yelling - it all sucks you in and you may end up watching the meet itself or the people around you. For me - it was my daughter that day - this is the beautiful face I got to enjoy!