Easter Recap

This year we spent a great Easter celebrating with family. We went to church in Grand Rapids, and got to be there as my cousin Shelby made Profession of Faith. Then in the evening we went to my parents house for dinner and an egg hunt with my brother and my sister's family.

Here is Molly showing off her Easter dress!

And Nora! My camera is having some issues, boo, so these all didn't turn out.

The girls! :)

Egg Hunting at Grandpa and Grandma's!

Molly playing with her cousins!

One Year Ago!

One year ago today was very different than today. One year ago we were in the hospital while Molly had brain surgery. It was definitely the hardest day of our lives. Serious highs and lows on an already anxious mind. But we made it through that day and the day after... and some how made it to a year! This week, no matter how much I tried not to think about it, I found myself looking back on everything, and being in awe of where we are today!

Molly is doing AMAZING! Today we had a special Molly day, Nora went to spend the morning with my mom, so Randal and I could take Molly out and about alone. We let her choose, and we ended up at the Children's Museum, then went out to lunch just the 3 of us. After that we went to pick up Nora, and the family went to ride the carousel and let her make a bunny at Build A Bear. Yup, today she got spoiled! I know, I know, but I think we do a pretty good job not treating her different or spoiling her most of the year, but today was special, and fun! She deserved it after the day she had a year ago.

And because no post is complete without a cute picture, here is Molly pretending to call her friends on my old broken cell, aka her phone! I should video tape these conversations, SO funny!

But Mom...

"But Mom!!! I couldn't find Froggy Goes to the Doctor, so I had to take all my books out!"
(note the completely empty book shelf in the back) Nice Molly. :)

Puff Paint Chick Eggs!

We had a bunch of plain colored plastic eggs laying around, so to "Cutify" them, we added a little bit of black and orange puff paint to make them look like chicks. Adorable! I was inspired to make these from a picture in the Oriental Trading Company catalog. So easy to make, Molly has been using puff paint to decorate all the pink eggs with purple polka dots! (a great way to use up the left over puff paint I have lying around from when I made Potter Puppet Pals)

More "Mini" Projects!

Awhile back I didn't have any big activities with Molly to post, so I just posted of few of our "Mini" Projects. We do a few little time filler type activities everyday, I just never thought they were exciting enough for the blog, lol. But, after I posted, so many amazing moms were telling me (which I LOVE to hear) how much fun there kiddos were having with the marshmallows and toothpicks, so I thought it would be fun to try to post more of our quick little "Mini" projects and activities!

CARDBOARD BOX CAR - DRIVE THRU LUNCH
This weeks absolute favorite activity was making a car from an old box. An old classic, but still fun. Anytime Molly was looking for something to do, she got busy decorating her car with pictures, and stickers. She even added a plate for a steering wheel and a spot to put her keys!
Then the girls had more fun driving it around the house this week. Molly's favorite part was that I made them packed lunches in brown bags, and she got to "order" them from the "drive thru" for Nora and her. :) We even ended up coloring to bags to look like Happy Meals.

WINDOW CRAYONS
Another favorite in this house is Window Crayons, we found ours on sale at Target. I know I've posted about them before, and how much we love them. I know the mess scares people, but they really are totally washable and clean up so easy. Actually, half the fun of it is the next day I let Molly wash the windows to clean the crayon off, which she thinks is a ton of fun. (Hopefully she will still think cleaning windows is fun when she is older, but I'm not holding my breath, ha!)

Glass Etching!

If you've ever been to my house, you know that anything I have that is glass, is probably etched! Glass etching is so easy and quick, but it took sometime for me to figure out how to get it right. Yup, quite a few craft fails! The biggest change I do from the directions, that makes SO much difference is: The instructions say to leave it on for 5 minutes and then rinse off. Instead, I use a foam brush and dab on a think layer of Armour Etch, and wait for 3 minutes, then I dab on another thick layer and wait 3 more minutes. Ucreate has a great tutorial I've used for glass etching here. Then I just rinse off! SO much better, it is all etched equally this way and looks great!

Over at A Girl and a Glue Gun awhile back I saw the great idea to etch your name onto the underside of your glass pans, so if you leave them somewhere, everyone will know whose they are. GENIUS! Seriously, if you've never been to her blog, you have to check it out. She is AWESOME, and so funny! I know I can totally relate to a glue gun addiction. :)

Fun Pregnancy Gift!

What pregnant woman doesn't crave "Pickles and Ice Cream..."

I saw this adorable idea for a pregnancy gift over at The Appraiser's Wife, and since I know a lot of fun pregnant ladies, I just had to quick make up a few!

I put a $5 Ice Cream Gift card in an envelope, tied to a jar of pickles. Slapped a bow on the top, and voila! What I think is a fun little gift!

Playdough Letter Mats!

I printed off these great Playdough Mats from Homeschool Creations on cardstock for Molly to work on. They have both letter and word mats you can print HERE. Then I just put them back to back (so they are double sided) and laminated them. I figured since someday Nora will use them too, this will help them hold up longer. Homeschool Creations put them in clear page sleeves so she can change them out. After I finish laminating them all, I am going to link them with a ring in the corner like I do to make our Birthday Card Books.

I was amazed how well Molly did on these mats, and how much time she spent playing with them! It is great to have such a fun way to reinforce working on letters, and to change up our normal playdough play!

Menu Monday!

And back by popular demand, and since I know my sister and aunts get excited for my menus (lol), here in my Menu Plan for the week. :)

Monday- Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Tuesday- Salsa Chicken Wraps (new one)
Wednesday- Fun Taco Cups (Molly cooking tonight)
Thursday- Enchilada Casserole/Mexican Lasagna (new one)
Friday- Pizza for the family

For more great menu planning ideas, visit orgjunkie.com

Why I Blog...

I've been missing from blogworld for awhile, but I definitely miss it, and after chatting with a great new friend last week I am ready to be back into blogging. I won't go into all the details of why I stopped for a bit, it just frustrates me, but basically I think that we all need to be nice. Seriously, being a mom is a hard enough job without other moms judging each other. Usually if I get a mean comment here or there, I just delete it and don't think anything of it, but when I started getting emails pointing out things I was doing wrong and insinuating it could have something to do with Molly's tumor (which is just uneducated and ridiculous), I needed a break. Seriously, why can't we all be nice, it is not our place to judge others, if you think you are a better parent or you don't like my ideas, that is fine, just don't do them. Sorry, that is my rant.

Basically, I just wanted to let you know why I blog. I LOVE blogworld, and get so many amazing ideas from other people blogs. So when we try out a great idea that worked well for us, or we loved, I blog to pass it on to others. I think it holds me accountable to actually do some of the ideas I find, and hopefully someone else will find the idea on my blog and love it to!