Easter.

Happy Easter peeps! Get it...peeps...the Easter marshmallow?? No, crickets...ok...moving on...

So, how was every one's Easter!? We had such a great day!

Both kids woke up before the sun, surprise, surprise. Jason had made an indoor egg hunt for Nate to do when he woke up and Easter baskets were out for both kids. Nate was SO excited. Easter might be more exciting than Christmas to this kid. For real. Finding and hiding eggs made his day. We even used eggs we got from the neighborhood Easter party and Jason stuffed the eggs with Cheetos. Hilarious. And good thing Jason set it up indoors because we woke up to snow. Drunk Kansas at it again.

After opening baskets and searching for eggs, I made a french toast breakfast with bacon and fruit. French toast was a HIT with Morgan, but Nate said he wasn't hungry. Most likely because he had Cheetos at 7am.

Dying Easter eggs was next on our list. Nate and I did them together on the kitchen floor. Fun, simple, and relatively clean.

I got in an Easter workout I found on Pinterest after egg dying and then gave Jason a hair cut.

I did 3 rounds FYI

 We Jason used the eggs we dyed to make deviled eggs for lunch. Then we just relaxed until it was time to go to a birthday party for Nate's little friend.

The birthday party was a blast! The kids played with bubbles, went on a playground, cake, pizza, pinata, etc.

During the party I had a friend snap a few pictures of us because we always use our timer. We got a few good ones!

Hopefully the kids will sleep good tonight because we had a very fun-filled active day. I hope your day and Easter was as good as ours!

Not A Blog Post.

This is not a good blog post. I repeat; it is not a good blog post.

I'm just writing a sentence so I don't miss a day.

I am online shopping at Old Navy and ranking the renovations I want to do on our next house. Big adulting serious business right now. While eating Jelly Beans my grandma sent. Because Easter. And because my grandma is the best. I just got buttered popcorn and black licorice so that kinda sucked.

I'm also trying to convince my husband to hard boil eggs to dye tomorrow. I am the WORST at hard boiling eggs.

What is your favorite place to shop online?

If you could renovate anything in your house right now (even if you are renting), what would it be?

I'm not doing a long post because I am working on a more extensive one about our move coming up and how to do it yourselves and make money. It will be a lot of information, but it might actually help other military peeps so I'm trying to make it good with accurate information and links and all that good stuff us military people like.

Here is some humor to end my non-blog post.

See how that was a non blog post. Told you. And you read...still. Suckers! 

Nate Got Beat Up By A Girl.

Tonight we had an Easter get together with our neighbors. Potluck style. Pulled pork, mac and cheese, pasta salad, fruit, hot dogs, rice, taquitos, empanadas, cake pops, s'mores...basically a huge table full of deliciousness. Be jealous.

The kids had an Easter egg hunt, glow bracelets, egg sunglasses (they wore them for all of 1 minute because you can't see out of them well). They all had their little bikes, scooters, tricycles, etc.

Backstory: Nate is sometimes a bully. Like a 3 year old jerk who doesn't want to share and wants what he wants when he wants it. Even if it is a bigger kid. He doesn't care. Hopefully it is just his age and this will lead to future greatness with his stubborn personality and motivation to get shit done. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, back to tonight. Nate and his little friend, who is a girl, started fighting over a bike. He wanted to ride it, she wanted to ride it, blah, blah, typical 3 year old drama. Usually, Nate will win and the other kid backs off. Usually.

Tonight, his friend stepped it up and stood up for herself. And she bitch slapped him in the face. Hard. Like, so hard when she hit him, her nail made a huge scratch on his cheek. She wasn't going to take the high road this time.

So, the question is...how do you handle it? Part of me is thinking, "FINALLY! Someone stood up for themselves and didn't let him get his way!" Another part of me is thinking, "Did he deserve it in that particular incident?"  The little girl has been yelled at and had taken toys from him for the past several months. I bet that hit was bottled up inside and she snapped. I don't blame her either way. She is a super sweet girl that takes a lot from Nate.

Nate was crying because he was hurt from a scratch and he didn't get the bike. Tough luck? In this particular case...yep. He needs to learn to take turns. He needs to learn to let others go before him sometimes, especially friends. He needs to learn to use words to communicate. He needs to learn if he yells and hits, someone is going to hit him back. And harder. Hitting is not cool, kid.

Think he learned his lesson? Probably not completely. But you know what? I will for sure remind me of getting hit. How it made him feel and how he should treat others.

This wasn't a huge issue. small three year old tiff, no biggie. But, it can be a big lesson. A small fight over a bike can be teaching moment for him. And that is what parenting and life and being a kid is about sometimes. Getting slapped in the face by a girl over a bike.

Yes, they are still friends. Because I know you were just dying to know. There are no hard feelings. Both kids had a little moment to settle down, say "sorry" and move on. And the Easter party continued.

Photography.

I love pictures. I take them with my phone all day long, mostly of food and kids.

Today I took pictures of a friend's kids. Easter pictures.

I've taken pictures for friends before, but I am always nervous. I am FAR from a professional. And taking pictures for someone else is WAY different and harder than taking them of my own kids.

There is a ton of pressure. I want them to be good; they want them to be good. The hard part is the kids. They could care less about looking cute, staying still, and posing with some damn fake flowers and Easter eggs. Can you blame them? Not really.

So the 2 boys I photographed today are 3 and almost 1. Talk about hard ages! Oh, and I had Morgan screaming. It was a challenge to say the least. And I was sweating.

I managed to get a few decent ones, but I am still no where near comfortable charging what the majority of photographers charge. I charged a whole $15. I do have my own facebook page, but since I only take pictures for friends as of now, there is only a few sessions to see.

Here are some of my favorites...
And yes, I had permission for Mama to post these.

I give props to all the pro photographers. You guys make it look easy. 

Do you take your own pictures or do you hire a professional?

Toddler Tuesday: Easter Edition!

Easter is coming up! To be honest, I only celebrate because of the cuteness. We are not a religious family, so we won't be going to church.
**If you are religious, please message me if you have questions on why we are not. I don't want this post to be offense or looked down upon because of our personal beliefs.

So...what are we doing for Easter!? I have an Easter basket for Nate, did a couple crafts, and have snack ideas. My husband's work has an Easter Egg hunt the day before so we will go to that for Nate.

Here is Nate's Easter basket.

 What's inside?
*Annie's bunnies. White cheddar and snickerdoodle. They were 2/$4 at Target and bunnies.
*1 M&M egg.
*On the Farm book. It has little felt animals to put on the book. Dollar section at Target.
*Sesame Street bath coloring pieces. Dollar section at Target.
*The Goodnight Gecko book. This is sort of an inside joke. Nate had a gecko in his room one day and now he thinks he is living in there. This book was just so fitting and hilarious not to get. Plus, it will be a Hawaii keepsake. $13
*Bug catcher toy. Dollar section at Target.
*Basket was $3 at Target
Total spent: $23. More than I was going to spend, but I splurged on the gecko book.

Easter painting crafts/art: Easter Egg painting

What you need:

1. Easter egg printable. I printed out 4 so he could do a few of them.

2. Paint.. I gave him 6 colors, but you can choose how many you want or have on hand.

3. Clothes pins. I had 6 for the 6 colors.

4. Cotton balls or puffs. I did 3 cotton balls because they were bigger then the tiny puffs I had on hand. 3 puffs, just have a different size. 

5. Scissors to cut the egg out after.

6. Painters tape (see below for second painting idea)

7. Paint brushes (optional)

 The next one I used painters tape to make lines on the egg. I did one with straight lines and one with lines in different places, somewhat abstract looking. I let Nate choose if he wanted to use paint brushes or the cotton ball/puffs.

After he was done, I let them dry. The dotted ones, I cut the egg out. The painters tape ones I peeled the tape off then cut out the egg. 

Another craft I did but didn't take a picture of the process was footprint carrots. All you do is paint their foot orange, put the footprint on white paper. Let it dry then add a stem using a green pen, crayon, or marker. Super easy. 

Now what!? What do you do with all the art? You can make cards and send them to family. You can make magnets(laminate them if you have one), frame them, etc. I made an Easter banner using all 3 of the crafts. I punched a hole in them and used yarn to hold it up. 

Easter snack:

Bunnies eat carrots. Do kids? Most kids, my son included, don't eat as much veggies as they really need. We went to Costco to get little travel hummus packs for him to dip carrots in. I had some baby carrots I cut into thinner pieces for him and made some "ready-to-serve" carrot bowls. I only did 3 bowls because I ran out of carrots and I'm not even sure then hummus idea will work. 1 pack of hummus in his little toddler bowl and carrots. 

Phew. That was a long post. I hope you got a few ideas for Easter. Let me know what you have planned or anything other ideas! 

Happy Easter!