Egg Carton Flowers

Amber first told me about this idea. The girls got really excited when I told them we were going to make flowers out of an egg carton. Okay, well, let's be honest. They get excited when we do any sort of art/craft project!

I cut the egg carton up and gave them each six "flowers" to paint. It took some coaxing to get them to cover all of the gray egg carton with paint and enough paint to be bright. They had fun mixing colors together and deciding what to paint on each one. When they were finished, I sprinkled some glitter on them so it would dry in the wet paint. After letting everything dry thoroughly, I poked a whole in the bottom and put a pipe cleaner through, tied a knot in the pipecleaner and voila! Instant flower. I couldn't find a super great vase in our house, but made due with one. I was going to get marbles to put in the bottom, but that never really happened.



They have been sitting on our kitchen table for a few weeks now and I think they are sort of fun to look at. This might be a good project to do this week and leave at people's doors for May Day on Friday. :-)

Nana's Treasure Box Craft

Before we visited my mom, she called me and told me she had these little bags that she wanted to get something for the girls and give it to them. We didn't really want to do candy or anything. So I suggested that maybe some art/craft supplies or stickers or even SCOTCH TAPE (because we never have enough of that in our house and I can never find any when we need it) might be a good idea. The girls always LOVE craft stuff. So she filled each one with a scissors, glue stick, stickers, and ribbons. Then, she got a plain white box from Michael's for each girl (they have all different sizes and shapes of boxes to choose from). The girls were very excited to open their bags and start in on their project while we were visiting Nana!


As a little background story for you. When I was really little there was an older couple, Martha and Les, who lived in the same apartment complex as my mom and I. They were sort of adoptive grandparents for me. Sometimes they would keep an eye on me when my mom had to work or had a business trip or something. And other times, they just entertained me. Their grandchildren lived far away so it was nice for them to have me around too. Martha taught me to cross-stitch when I was five or six or so. And she was a very crafty person in general. She was Danish and I remember her making those cool Easter eggs where you blow the yolk out. And she would paint them and glue ribbon around them. Very Martha Stewart before Martha Stewert was really around (funny, they have the same name). Anyway, I'm digressing quite a bit. The whole point of this story is that Martha would make these lovely little handmade gifts for my birthday or Christmas. One of them is a little jar with my name cross-stitched on it that you will find on my mantle to this day at Christmas. My mom has since made matching jars for Andrew and the girls as well. Martha also gave me a sewing box that I treasured as a child. She covered it in fabric and ribbon and cross-stitched "Holly's Sewing Box" across the top. I still have that box and even though, I believe I might have used it as a Barbie bed for a while as a child, I somehow knew it was very special and treated it very well.

So getting back to the Nana's Treasure Box idea. My mom thought it would be a nice thing for Ella and Lily to have their own box from Nana. And since they are a bit younger than I was when I received my box, we decided at this point, it would be a better idea to leave the boxes at Nana's house and Nana could put something special in it every time we come to visit, either a special treat, money for a trip to the dollar store, more craft supplies, or whatever Nana feels like putting there. :-)




I think this is such a fun idea! And I'm excited that hopefully my girls will treasure their Nana box as I treasure my Martha box. And maybe when they are older and can make sure the box is treated well, they can bring their box home and put their own treasures in it.

Puppets, Birthdays and MORE!

We traveled to Cedar Rapids the first week of April to help my mom celebrate her birthday. We went down on Wednesday night getting in pretty late and really started our visit on Thursday morning. It was so nice because Andrew took the mornings off to hang out with us and then worked in the afternoons. Thursday morning we went to Barnes and Noble for a snack and to read books.


The girls played three games of Candyland with Nana Mary Thursday afternoon. Then, our good friend, Molly (Ella's godmother) came by for a visit to see the girls for a bit. Andrew and I then left with Molly to go out to dinner at a new Cedar Rapids restaurant: Cibo. It was a totally different restaurant than we're used to going in Cedar Rapids. Sort of bigger city style. It was really nice. The food was good and it was a lot of fun to catch up with Molly and Derek (Molly's hubby who met us there).

Friday morning we had craft time at Nana's (which I'll post in a separate craft post: Nana's Treasure Box) while Andrew hung up my mom's new valances and blinds in her guest room. She recently redecorated in there and it looks great. I mean, really, it was probably time to get rid of the black, pink and mint green circa my middle/high school years. Okay, the room itself had been redecorated since then, but my valances and wallpaper border were still in there as well as those colors. Don't worry people, the splatter paint comforter of the time has since been relegated to my trunk as a beach/picnic blanket.

Anyhoo, we had a pretty low-key day on Friday. It was gorgeous so there was a lot of playing outside in the leaf pile and with Nana's wagon. If I am remembering correctly, we colored eggs on Friday afternoon as well. We had a yummy chicken piccatta dinner cooked by Nana. Then there was general relaxing in the evening.




Saturday was our crazy day! We started the day out with a nice homemade breakfast. The girls, Andrew and I ran a few errands which included a stop to the candy store at Lindale Mall. This candy store has been there since I was little. I remember going in there every so often to get those sugar-coated fruit slices...do you know the ones I'm talking about? YUM! Actually, you can see them on the cake my mom made below. It was so fun to see the girls look at all the candy choices and make their decision. My mom slaved away in the kitchen most of the afternoon making her OWN birthday desserts. But look at them! Don't they look great!


In the late afternoon we made our way back to Lindale Mall where there is a puppet theater (if you can believe it!). The Edgar Wibble Puppet Theater just celebrated its two-year anniversary and we thought it might be something fun and different to do with the kids. Fun, maybe. Different, definitely. (Sidenote: Here's a link to a youtube video so you can understand what I'm talking about when I say this was a bit of a weird experience.) The front part of the theater is actually a toy store filled with every kind of puppet imaginable from finger puppets to full marionnettes. We got there a bit early and the girls had fun looking at all the puppets and playing with them, Ella especially loved this. Then we grabbed our seats and settled in for the show. First, we were treated to a short show about some aliens who teach a television chef a lesson about recycling. It was amusing, albeit a little weird. Then came the feature production, a version of Phantom of the Opera. I have to say, Ella and Lily did terrific. The show was OVER an hour and they sat really well for the entire thing and actually seemed engrossed. If I were choosing a show to put on in a puppet theater, I might choose something a little more exciting than this music-less version of the Phantom (come on, it's the music that makes that show so incredibly awesome!). The adults sort of looked at each other not really sure what to think of the whole experience. BUT, the puppets were interesting. These people make them all as well as the sets, write the shows and the little bit of music that goes along with it. So I have to hand it to them, they are doing something they love and making a go at it. Very admirable. And now that I know Ella and Lily can sit through that and be totally into it, I definitely think more children's productions (like the Nutcracker) are in our near future.


(Sorry the photos aren't that great. I had our cheapy camera. That last one is Lily sittingin the front row to watch.)

After the puppet theater we headed over to the Vernon Inn, my favorite restaurant in Cedar Rapids (yummy Greek food!) for my mom's birthday dinner with David's dad, Judge and his friend Carline. It was a great meal and the girls were still really well behaved for the entire meal. We all adjorned to my mom's house for some of her yummy dessert. And really our trip came to an end that night. Bad weather the next morning moved our departure time up a bit. We just packed up and left as soon as we could.

The girls loved visiting Nana and Papi and couldn't get enough of Nana's cat, Lucy. They chased her all around and tried to pet her as much as they could. Lucy tends to sleep for a full two days after we leave to recuperate from all the "playing". Anyway, I think my mom had a nice birthday and we had a fun time in Cedar Rapids! Whew...that was the longest post ever (except maybe the Hawaii post). More to come soon! I promise!

Photos link

Here's a link to an album of photos from this past weekend. You can also click the "Latest Pictures" link in the sidebar on the right to get to it. Yes, I haven't added anything to the photo site since Ella's birthday (sad, but true). I suppose I should start doing that again. But, since I have three different blogs (this one, the book blog and the photo blog) to keep up with now, I've sort of narrowed down my computer activities...or, at least focused them a bit more :-)

Weekend of Fun!

I was doing so well for awhile there about getting posts up on a regular basis. I'm going to skip ahead for a minute and get to last weekend because I know there are some people out there who are just dying for some photos. Last Friday morning, we packed up the car and the girls and headed east to Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The Enlunds so graciously invited us and the Carrolls for a weekend visit! We all went to Knox and while I knew Bob while we were there, I've gotten to know Amber, Chris and Abbie over the last couple years. It's amazing how well you can get to know someone through a few visits and their blogs! We were so excited! It has been TWO years (well almost in July) since we were all together at the same time. We had so much fun last time and this time we had two additional kiddos to add to the mix! It was also a great excuse to finally meet those new kids: little Sam and baby Bryce.

The group circa July 2007.

And all of us today. :-)

We just hung out on Friday afternoon and Chris grilled a great supper of hot dogs, brats, polish sausage, hamburgers and venison burgers (are you guys STILL eating all that food?!). The kids all had a great time exploring the little sandy area at the back of Chris and Abbie's property. After bedtime, the adults played a rousing game of Euchre where the ladies wholloped the boys 2 out 3 games (or did we win that last one too? It's a bit fuzzy.) ;-)


Saturday morning, the guys headed off to the golf course while the ladies and kids had a very relaxing morning at the house. The older girls all got filthy playing in the sand (so glad they were dressed in cute outfits for it) while Abbie, Amber and I just chatted. Oh, we had craft time too of course. They made princess wands and handprint angels!






When the guys returned and the kids were all sufficiently napped, we headed to a great park nearby. For you California readers out there, it was quite a bit like Shane's Inspiration at Griffith Park, all accessible. Everyone ran around for a bit and we headed back to the house. Chris and Abbie discovered a bit of a plumbing problem that made us rethink our Mexican feast for the evening in favor of pizza. It all worked out great! And the adults played Wii World Tour for WAAAY too long the rest of the evening.



(hopefully, I don't get in trouble for posting this last one. I just thought it was a cool photo from Wii World Tour.)

We had a leisurely Sunday morning and then headed home! It was a truly great weekend for us to get away from it all. I think I only saw Andrew check his phone and his computer once! That has to be a record. So nice for him to relax and not think about work for two whole days. And the girls had such a fantastic time playing with Brianna, Sam, and Bryce. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather either! We really have to get together more often! And we are already looking forward to our non-kid visit at the Knosher Tournament in June! Thank so much for a great time Chris and Abbie!!

PS. I'll be getting our trip to Cedar Rapids and Easter up very soon (I might space out the post though to make things more exciting). :-)