The Madness of March

Throughout the winter I pay very little attention to college basketball, Eric will follow it better and usually knows more of what is going on. So when March Madness comes around it has become a fun time around our house. 

Every year since we have been married Eric and I have done brackets and the kids have done them as well. With Livvy we had her pick papers and then we wrote them down on her bracket for her. With the first weekend of the tournament is the most exciting and this year we decided to have a little basketball party. 

We thought it would be fun to get some buffalo wings from Buffalo Wild Wing. We were each able to to pick two different sauces to try so we had a nice little variety. We also had a nice veggie tray and an orange basketball punch for watching the games. All in all everyone liked the wings, there were one or two that the boys said were too spicy but we were able to get them to try something new. 

For dessert I found this peanut butter dip. Because we were having a basketball party I put it into a round pie dish and made it look like a basketball with Reese Pieces. The boys were pretty impressed. I let them pick what kind of things they wanted to dip in it. So on our tray we had pretzels, apples, graham crackers, and a waffle cookie. It was pretty yummy, and Livvy had fun more fun picking out all the Reese Pieces on the top. 

Rides and games

Before and after the Easter egg hunts they had some little ride and games for the kids to play. Each kid got 6 tickets to play the games and they could ride the rides as many times they could until it was time to pack up and leave,

Olivia was still a little young for all the rides and games but she had fun watching the boys and eventually took her nap. 

There was one ride that at first both of the boys really wanted to try out. It was this little dragon roller coaster ride. When it came their turn to ride on it Thomas started to get second thoughts but Sup was ready to go and was able to drag him along on it. When they got off Thomas said it was fun but didn't really want to do it again. Sup on the other hand could have ridden it all day if he could and did end up riding it a few more times by himself. 

The games were pretty basic and everyone got to pick a prize for just trying the games. I am sure the prize bucket was a little picked over because we went after the egg hunts as most of them were more girly prizes. So the boys were happy to play the games and then give the prizes to Livvy to play with : ) 

Easter egg "hunt"

Every year Toyota host an Easter egg hunt and the last two years we have taken the kids and it seems to be a fun little activity.  

Last year Livvy just slept though the whole thing and it very muddy as well as Eric had strep so we didn't really do all of the activities and it was more of a get your eggs and leave type of experience. 

This year it was a little further away and the weather was really nice we were able to have more fun. I don't necessarily think or call these egg hunts just because they are all laid out on the grass and its just how fast you can pick up the eggs and put them in your basket. 

It is nice that they have the ages spilt up and at different times so we were able to walk each kid to their section and watch them collect their eggs. As the ages increased the time it took the kids to collect their eggs decreased. It took Livvy's group a lot longer then all the others because after the kids had a few eggs in their basket they were happy. 

When it came to Thomas and Sups age it was more of a mad rush and the eggs were all picked up in like five minutes tops. They also picked the exact spot were they thought it would be the best to get the most eggs. 

Thomas came with a system where he would fill up one basket and then dump the eggs in the stroller and try to fill up the next basket. 

The things inside the eggs were a little lame and not really thought out at least in my opinion. For Livvy's eggs they didn't have candy which would have been fine but for the 0-2 group they were little toys which were more of a choking hazard for that age. The boys all had tootsie rolls and gum which Sup couldn't eat because of his teeth so he ended up with Livvys choking hazards : )  

St. Patties Day

St. Patricks Day is more of a fun little event for our family. Thomas says this is one of his favorite days because it is a day all about green, which is his favorite color.

We don't really do anything real fancy but we do find our green clothes and have a few special things with dinner. With Phillip in kindergarten they have a green tasting day where you are assigned to bring in some kind of green food and they try it. He discovered that green beans and broccoli were pretty good, so I was happy that he is branching out with his veggies. 

For our special things for dinner was a fruit rainbow with marshmallows on one in of the rainbow for the clouds and Rolos wrapped in the gold wrappers for the "gold" at the end of the rainbow. Also we had green mint milk shakes with shamrock sprinkles. My children will think anything is fancy if it has sprinkles on it : ) 

First bike ride!

Finally in the middle of March, this was on March 15th, we were finally getting some spring like weather! After the warmer temps all of the snow melted and we were able to get out our bikes. 

We have a few bike/walking paths around us so we took all of the bikes down so the boys could ride their bikes on a better surface and Livvy could test out her new carrier. She was pretty excited to get on and get going. 

Both she and Daddy had a lot of fun on their bikes. The boys thought it was fun when she would clap for them when they did a good job with the few up and down hills. Eric preferred this method vs the pull behind carrier that we had for the boys. Although it worked really well because the boys are closer in age and having them both in one carrier was nice. But having to pull them behind was a little more work ; )

Picnics inside

With the thought and hope that spring was near the kids wanted to practice having some picnics. 

Olivia has a couple of picnic baskets she got for Christmas so Thomas was able to gather everything together to have a picnic with her in the kitchen. He actually did a very nice job playing picnic with her and seemed to have some fun with her. 

They didn't have real food but Olivia was learning the art of pretending. I think for the most part we didn't have too many bite marks on the plastic ; ) 

Snow Storm #2

March 5th we were hit with another batch of both snow and ice. Not even a month after our first snow storm. The boys were excited for the time off school again but soon realized with the two snow storms they would end up having to make up seven total days. 

Since they knew they would have these days off the night before they were able to sleep in a little and have a little extra energy. Yes this may seem like the same picture from the February post but they were still excited to get out and shovel some more snow when they seen the side walk was covered again. 

So that morning they were out and happy to shovel the snow I thought it would be fun to have a fun "snowed-in" day. While they were busy and happy outside I made a couple of batches of different kinds of mini muffins and hot chocolate to warm them up for a fun breakfast. They loved this and ate pretty much that whole plate of muffins. 

After filling our bellies with a warm breakfast, I let them play on the Xbox for a little bit. Livvy is always interested in playing too but she usually just ends up turning off the Xbox because that light is so inviting ; ) or the TV. And I will always know the moment she does this as the boys make it very clear when I hear the yelling ; ) 

For not pre-planning this snowed-in day I was happy that I was well stocked with my food items. I made some pizza dough and let the boys make some snowman pizzas. The dough was really easy to make and this ways we could shape in into the snowman shape. 

After cutting up the pepperoni they were able to make a face and buttons on their snowman and then pop them in the oven. After about ten minutes they got their snowman's out of the oven and were ready to eat them. 

Later that night we again knew that they would be out for Friday so we made a special treat. They were able to play a game with Daddy and I made hot chocolate cupcakes. As you can see this was a pretty exciting treat. 

 There was a big marshmallow in the middle of the chocolate cupcake and then chocolate whipped frosting. Livvy was able to get some in her mouth and some on her so it was a good thing it was bath night for her anyway ; )

On March 7 the weather started to break and we were able to get some nice sunshine and warmer weather. At this point we were all hoping that we would be done with this winter. So we let them go outside and play with the snow before it all melted away. 

She walks! : )

Olivia was our earliest crawler and our latest walker. She seemed very content to just crawl to get where she needed to go. We were not concerned at a year that she had not taken a step on her own yet and really were okay with it  : ) 

At her year mark she was walking along chairs and other furniture and was mastering the art of climbing. On February 27th in the evening I was able to catch her first steps! After that evening she really took off and didn't take her long to figure out how much more fun it was to walk.  

Snow Storm #1 of 2015

On February 16th we got our first real batch of snow. Around here we usually do not get a lot of snow and I cannot remember the exact number of inches it seems to me it was at least 6 inches. 

The boys were pretty excited and we ended up missing four days of school that week. For Monday though Thursday the both the boys and Olivia had fun playing in the snow. Later in the early afternoon when the snow stopped we had everyone get all bundled up and head outside. 

This was Livvy's first real experience with the snow and didn't seemed to be too bothered by it. Because she hadn't started walking on her own she was having fun just crawling around in the snow and moving around it around. 

The boys were out playing in the snow a little longer then Livvy, but they all had fun with it. There was some thoughts on trying to build a snowman or fort but with the temp being so cold it was a very light and fluffy and snow. So this idea was abandoned and they restored to just throwing snow at each other. 

One of the things both Sup and Thomas really wanted to do was to make snow angels. I think we ended up with about five angels in our front yard. It was nice that could have fun and get some fresh air for a little bit : )

After Daddy got up the boys wanted to help shovel the sidewalk. They were actually a good help and each had their own shovel to do their share : ) I am not sure if people really don't care about the side walk or driveways around here but we seem to be one of just a few people in our neighborhood that do this. Behind the boys is actually the street which at doesn't look touched, and we never see a plow truck even come down our street so it makes it lots of fun to get in and out : (

Keeping Livvy happy : )

With the colder weather settling in and being coped up in the house the boys came up with creative ways to help keep Olivia happy. 

For her birthday Gramma Diana got Livvy this little scooter, the boys soon found out that they could keep her happy and laughing for a good while by pushing her around. 

With a little help with the boys pushing with their legs they also found that they could sit on it as well and let Olivia "push" them around as well : )

Valenties Day

The last few years for events like our wedding anniversary and/or Valentines Day, Eric and I like to do an "eat-in" type of celebration. This year was no different. 

Especially with Valentines being on a Saturday I am sure that the restaurants were pretty crazy anyway. Eric and I came up with a menu for us and the kids got to pick what they wanted for their special meal. While I was able to prep some stuff during the day( which Livvy enjoyed the "clean-up").  Eric and I were able to make the rest of the meal that evening. 

The kids like to do "dinner and a movie" so while I ran up to get their "special" meal, which were  McDonalds happy meals. We do not get these very often so they were excited to have them. Eric was able to set them all up in our front room with TV trays and chairs so they could watch their movie while they ate. 

After the kids were all set up, we were able to set up out "grown-up" meal. I thought it would be fun to get our our nice china and have nice meal with just us. We made some homemade cheese garlic bread, toasted ravioli, minestrone soup, strawberry chicken salad, and homemade cheese ravioli with water and sparkling cider. It was delicious! Everyone seemed to enjoy their food and evening : )

For our dessert we had the kids come in and join us. We decided to go with a layer the kids were very intrigued but all the different layers and almost couldn't wait until they got their own mug. 

This was the final product, and it was pretty filling the kids and us as well. There was chocolate mousse, chocolate chip cookie, brownie, white chocolate pudding, strawberry jam, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings layers.  The kids were not able to finish it but they enjoyed it. 

School valentines

With Valentines Day being on a Saturday this year, the boys had their valentine exchange for school on the 13th. At their school they do not have parties but sometime during the day they let the kids pass out their valentines if they brought any in. 

This year the boys decided to give out Angry Bird Transformers. It was actually nice that they both choose the same type. Since the packs came with a pencil we decided to forgo putting the Hershey candy on them this year. 

Pretty mush as soon as the boys got home from the bus they were ready to look inside their valentines bags to see what kinds of goodies they got. They thought they could just dump out their treasures on the couch and they would be okay. Little did they think about how easy it was for Livvy to reach as well.

It didn't take long for her to wonder over to see what all the fuss was about. She to became very interested in what kinds of candies were laying around ; ) The boys were pretty good at sharing some of the candies she could eat. 

Superbowl 2015

We are a pretty big football family so we usually have our own little Super Bowl party. This year we could all participate in picking and eating all the fun football snacks.

We let the boys pick a few items and let them help in making a few things. Like always I over planned on food so we actually didn't make everything we picked so we had a few snacks for an after Super Bowl party ;)

Sup and Thomas were pretty helpful this year and seemed to be happy helping with at least the snacks they helped picked out. Livvy was happy to be part of the " clean-up" crew. This type of activity seemed to be the easiest and most fun of the jobs. Even with the super bowl starting later we started cooking when we got home from church.

Not every often do I have so much help in the kitchen, but it was fun for everyone to have a hand in making our yummy treats : )

Because we had a lot of things planned this was going to be our lunch and dinner and we just kind of ate as things were ready. One of the things Thomas picked were these chicken and waffle sandwiches. They were actually pretty easy to make and Thomas was able to assemble them on the platter and did a nice job with them. It seemed to be a hit with everyone.

Sup really likes salami so one of the things he picked was this cream cheese salami roll. The original recipe had thinly sliced green peppers as well but he is not a huge veggie eater so the deal was we could make them as long as we left out the green pepper. So as much as I wanted to have a the pepper in I left it out for him, which made him pretty happy when he seen the final product. 

I had seen these jello squares where you could make them the colors of the two teams that were playing. Because of the chill time I was a little impatient so my Seahawks squares didn't turn out but the  Patriots did, which I guess was a sign that they would end up winning. The boys love Jello so they couldn't wait for these to be done. 

During the game to help the boys pay attention and maybe learn a little bit about how the game is played we thought it would be fun to do a Super Bowl bingo. I was able to print off 5 different bingo boards and when something happened they were to cover the block. I had originally used mini marshmallows to cover the squares but quickly realized I wasn't thinking when I thought that would be a good cover. As all the kids were more interested in eating the marshmallows, we traded them for pencils so they could mark the square. 

For dessert we went with this Oreo cream cheese football thing. This was a huge success! Once Livvy saw this she went right for it. We usually don't allow eating in this room but with the game being pretty good this year we made an exception. So when Daddy put this down Livvy went straight for it, and grabbed it by handfuls. Who needed the wafers to dip? ; )

First taste of Orange Leaf

For celebrations or for a fun treat we like to go to Orange Leaf. In the winter time it is a little less appealing because it's cold and frozen yogurt really doesn't seem to be very top on our list. 

But Eric really wanted to take her there after she was one so he could enjoy and have all the fun things she wanted. So at the end of January for a family outing we decided to take Miss Olivia out for her first Orange Leaf. 

At first she wasn't sure, especially if you see the first picture. But after a few bites Daddy didn't really get to eat a whole lot of it. She pretty much ate the whole bowl!

The boys usually are not too adventurous with the different flavors but with the toppings you never know what they are going to put on top. It seems the gummy worms and sprinkles are usually the most popular topping.