The Big Catch

It's spring, and for Mike, that means one thing.  Catching all the rabbits that dare hop across our yard and terminating them.  He'll sit in the chair by the back door and watch for them, only to hop up and dash into the garage after his bee bee gun upon spotting one.  It's been going on for years.
"Your never going to be able to kill off the entire rabbit population,"  I tell him.
"Well, I'm certainly doing my part!" he tells me proudly.  It brings him so much joy that I haven't stopped him from doing it until recently.  The girls and I were playing in the back yard when we noticed a small bunny only about a foot away from us, frozen in place. 
"Is it dead?" Sydney asked.
"No, it's just scared," I told her. 
"I'm going to go get it a carrot," Briana told us as she ran into the house.  When she came back out, she threw the carrot at the bunny and it ran away. 
"I'll bet that was the Easter Bunny!" she exclaimed, "He's probably checking up on us!" 
I assured her that she was correct, and we've been watching for the Easter bunny to come back ever since. 
That night, I saw Mike dashing into the garage after his bee bee gun.
"WAIT!!!"  I hollered at him. 
"If you kill the Easter bunny, you are going to be in deep trouble!"  I told him. 
His solution was to set his animal trap out behind the shed and catch the rabbits in there.  I can only imagine if he catches the Easter bunny that the girls are going to want to keep it. 
Well, he's had the trap out there for a couple weeks, and he hasn't caught the Easter bunny yet.  He did catch something else though. 

We think we'll keep it.

Obsessed!

Ok, I'm officially back on the crochet.  I gave it up a few weeks ago after getting burnt out on a blanket I was making.  But, I'm offically back into it.  After making my coasters today, I put together a matching larger circle that I've got sitting under my daffodils.

 It's bright and cheery and just what I wanted. 

I got the pattern from the Attic24 blog (such an amazing crochet blog!), and I used my cotton Sugar & Cream yarns (which I love!).  Then, I had a whole bunch of yarn left over, so I made some more coasters.

By now, I am completely obsessed with making these flat circles!  So, I made a couple of other things too!

A flat circle for underneath this plant.

And, a smaller flat circle for underneath my aloe plant.  

Then, I found this pattern on the Attic24 blog, and I made this for my mantel!

I love this almost as much as my million flat circles.  As soon as I find a jar that's the right size, I am making another one to keep all my sharpies in. 

What were the children doing while I was crocheting away, you ask?  Well, Briana was creating this:

It's Teddy Bear's Easter dress!  She loves how it turned out.  Be looking for it soon on the Hy-Vee duck tape contest!  She's hoping to get into the top ten and win herself a duck tape prize pack.  I'll be posting a link to the voting as soon as she's entered! 

Happy Easter!

It took two different Easter bunnies, and three girls, but I finally got pictures of the kids with the Easter bunny.  It's the first time Briana has sat on the Easter bunny's lap (or Santa's lap) since she was 6 months old.  At last, we have some cute holiday pictures!

Crocheted Coasters

The next time everyone comes to my house, there will be a very pretty place to put your drink down!  I spent my morning making these very colorful coasters. 

They were really easy and quick to make.  The perfect project for me!

Cheers!

Homemade Find It Games

Last year, we got Briana a Find It game for her birthday.  It has since been one of our favorite games, and we play it all the time.  You just shake it around and try to find some small items that are hiding in the tiny beads of the game.  It's super fun.  We have spent hours trying to find the penny in that game.  It's very challenging. 
I found a blog somewhere about how to make your own find it game, so we made our own version of it.  We just colored some rice and added some mystery items to our bottles. 

They turned out to be very fun.  And, the penny is still the hardest thing to find in these games! 

They are on our list of things to take to Kansas City with us!  We may end up making lots more to take along too!

Big deals

The girls have both had really big weeks at school this week.  Yesterday, Briana got to take Ellie to school for show and tell.  She has been anticipating this for weeks.  I have been dreading it for weeks.  Only because I worry that Ellie is going to pee all over Briana's friends.  But, I took some precautionary measures, and Ellie was able to control herself.  I had to walk Ellie to the back of the school to Briana's classroom, and I was debating how I would get her back there without her paws getting all wet from the grass.  I came up with this solution.

I loved it, and Ellie hated it. 
So, I let her walk on her leash. 
She was well received by Briana's classmates.

She even rolled onto her back at one point so everyone could scratch her belly. 
Briana was in heaven.

This whole week at school, Sydney has been the Star Of The Week.  It's a big deal.  She got to make all kinds of papers with all her favorite things on them that they hang up in her classroom, and she gets to take some of her favorite books and toys to school to share with her class.  She worked on this quite a bit over spring break last week, and it turned out awesome.  I got to see it all today when I had lunch with her. 

I also got to see her desk, where she has her Smurfs books neatly displayed.  Cute!

Spring flowers & curls

Every time I look out my front window, I see this:

It's bright pink and it's gorgeous.  And it makes me happy.  Even better, it's in the neighbor's yard across the street, so I get to enjoy all the beauty of it without having to deal with any of the cleanup! 

And speaking of spring flowers, late last night, Briana went into our backyard and brought these in for me.

I love them!  And, I think they look very cute in my glass milk bottle.  I knew that would come in handy for something. 

Finally, my prettiest thing yet.  Briana after sleeping in foam rollers last night. 

We'll be doing her hair like that every single day from now on.