Egg Week

So Easter is upon us and I couldn't be more excited! Our Easter weekend highs are 82, 75, 74 with no rain. It will be perfect. Ava stayed home today due to a runny nose that won't stop. It probably didn't have to happen, but we both enjoyed it. We used some of this time to dye our Easter eggs. Ava of course loves the pink eggs. She added some flare to all of them via Ariel stickers which she thinks are just fabulous!

Saturday is our neighborhood's annual Easter Egg hunt, so Ava is really looking forward to that. Audrey won't have a clue what's going on, but I'm sure she'll enjoy eating a little candy (if Ava will share.)

Speaking of Miss Audrey, she's very close to walking autonomously. Her favorite activity right now is crawling to the stairs, getting on the first step, and just sitting there banging her heels against the staircase with a huge smile on her face. She likes to climb the carpeted stairs at her grandparents, but luckily I think our all-wood stair case intimidates her a little.

Our Easter Day will be jam packed. We're volunteering at church to help check in the kids (something we do a few times a month, but since Easter and Christmas are any church's biggest traffic days it will be busy). After church we're going to our good friends, the Clarks, house for our 4th annual Easter brunch (this is, assuming their first child doesn't arrive just six days early). Lastly, we're having our good friends, The Cains, over for Easter dinner which will be prepared courtesy of Honeybaked Ham (yet another tradition of mine.)

Spring Has Sprung

It's officially spring here in Carolina. The highs are in the 60s almost daily (72 last weekend) and my bulbs are a bloomin! (see pic) It's been a long time coming, and we're all glad it's here.



Not too much new at our house. Audrey's getting closer and closer to walking solo. She loves to climb on things, especially her and Ava's soft pink chairs. She's pretty good about getting off of them too, so that helps me rest at ease.

Ava is enjoying her pre-school/daycare more and more, so we're thankful for that. For a while we were tinkering with the idea of getting a nanny, but she's made good friends so we think we'll leave her until she heads to Kindergarden in about 18 months.

Vacation season is upon us. We have a few mini trips planned. The first is to Tybee Island, GA, which is basically Savannah's beach. I have a wedding there April 24th, so we're going to spend the whole weekend and explore the area. After that in mid May, Jim may attend a conference in Orlando. If that comes to fruition the girls and I will join him and hit up Disney for a few days. Ava will be over the moon! She's still obsessed with princesses, although it seems to be waining slightly in favor of my little ponies. I'm sure it will swing back any day now.

Happy Spring!

Projects

I've tackled a few projects this month. Seeing the Hopes super fun playroom inspired me to re-do our girls' playroom which wasn't very functional before. We had three really tall bookcases who's bottom shelves were getting all the use (not to mention they were a danger zone as they could easily topple if one of the girls pulled on them). As well we had an old couch taking up too much room and rarely, if ever, getting used since A + A like to play on the floor. Both of those went on Craig's List and were gone within a few days. Next we made a trip to Ikea on a Sunday morning thinking it would be calm (this is the South... everyone's in church but we went the night before as part of our strategy.) Did our hypothesis work? No! It was super busy and they were out of half of what we came for. Fast forward one week. I had a meeting in the city for work, so I decided to leave early and hit Ikea on a Thursday morning at opening time. Much better plan. Got everything I came for with time to spare.

Here's the transition. New cubbies/shelves for the girls' playroom along with a new table/chair set. We have a foyer on our second story that leads to the upper porch and Ava's bedroom. I have a small craft desk where I keep all my stuff. I decided to give Ava an area for her arts and crafts, so we put her new easel here and I bought her a giant dry erase board on Craig's List to color on. Fun times!

The most rewarding part of the playroom makeover was when Ava saw it for the first time. I got the best compliment ever: "Mommy, this is just like Maddie's playroom!" Ahh, the sweet smell of success...

Before:




After: The new bookshelves are from Ikea as are the inserts. I'm going to buy tiny wooden signs at the dollar store, paint them in chalk board paint, tie twine through, and sew them to the bins so I can label each one for the girls.




Foyer: For now, this is as good as it's going to get. I still need to hang the dry erase, but you get the idea. Someday I hope to have a real desk with built-ins on both sides and above. Talk to me in a year or two...



The second project has been doing some applique work. While in Colorado my girlfriends and I stumbled past the CUTEST boutique called Magical Scraps. I instantly fell in love with all the cute clothes. Prices were fair, but I realized quickly that the project idea itself was really, really simple. So now I'm basically making my own versions of their items for way less. I've made two baby gifts and a shirt for myself so far. Cute, huh?

A friend in the neighborhood just had a baby girl, so I appliqued this onesie.




Another friend in the neighborhood has a daughter turning 1 this month. I'm going to make a matching barret with the help of fabric and hot glue soon:




This one's for me. I mimicked the stitch I saw in Colorado, but have decided I prefer my zig zag stitch that I did on the above two projects. I like the cleaner feel of it.

Movers and Shakers

I honestly don't know where the rest of the month went. Audrey learned how to pull herself up and walk (with assistance) while we were in Colorado (she stayed with her grandparents), so that was pretty cool. She gets a HUGE smile on her face if you start walking with her. It's a newfound freedom she can't get enough of! As well, she enjoys the water. Bathtime is her favorite. We can't wait to get her in the pool this summer! Here are a few pics of our baby girl.


Audrey prefers the tub. Mom prefers the sink.




She LOVES to go round and round the house on this. We're thankful to have a girl 3 feet tall to push her.


Walk me, Daddy!

Colorado Ski Trip

Where has the last month gone? So much to catch up on. First and foremost, our super fun trip to Breckenridge with the Hopes and Varcas. We had such a great time and loved seeing everyone. We hope to lengthen our trip next year, as four days just wasn't enough. Ava did really well with everything, but wasn't a huge fan of the snow. I'm afraid I'm raising a southern belle. Time to toughen her up, midwestern style! We lasted about 10 minutes in the snow before she wanted to go back in and play, play, play. Such is life... next year she's going in ski lessons. We hope to also incorporate a Carolina beach trip into everyone's lives starting in 2011. We miss our friends dearly, but are thankful we all live in great places to visit one another!