Adison's 1st Easter Egg Hunt

There is a wonderful couple at church who host an annual Easter Egg hunt at their house and last year I was asked if Babies & Beyond would organize it. I said yes and then of course I handed the ministry over to my friend Jennifer! She did a great job of organizing everything and all I had to do was just bring some ice and help put out the eggs.

Mr Williams had a lawn mower which Nicolas just loved.

There was face painting and wonderful food and the weather was perfect.

Nicolas had a caterpiller on his face and both of them looked so cute!

Adison was very happy as Ms Janet and Ms Brenda, her two favorite people from church were there.

Kirsten's friend Hailey, my friend Tiffany, Ms Janet who runs the nursery and Adison

The guys cooked hot dogs and everyone brought a side or a dessert so there was lots of great food and we all sat on blankets on the grass and ate and talked.

Nicolas is now the pro at Easter Egg hunts having done lots. We just scattered the eggs for the little ones but I hid the eggs for the older ones a bit better.

Adison wasn't sure what to do with her eggs to start with but Nicolas soon showed her, and then he sneaked off to eat all his candy by himself before anyone could stop him!

Adison found him, but he'd eaten all his candy by then! It was cute to see them together.

And then their friend Brendan joined them and all Nicolas had to give him was an empty egg!

There was great excitement when the Easter Bunny arrived! Adison hates any kind of costumed animal but Nicolas loves them all, especially the Chik-fil-a cow (he thinks it makes all the milkshake and the ice cream when it's not hugging kids!!)

I've never had my face painted and so I became a rabbit. I kept forgetting I'd had it done and then I'd wonder why people were looking at me strangely.

Nicolas was exhausted by the end of the afternoon so Adam took him home in his " 'peedy car", as that is his greatest treat at the moment. He's too young to realize that poor Adam drives a car that was the cheapest car on Autotrader.com, is barely road worthy and is certainly not 'speedy'!! The sacrifices my angel makes for us!!

A Fun Relaxing Week

Adam was in Wisconsin last week for training and I thought it would be awful without him, and although I missed him, life just carried on as usual. The only benefit about him being away was there was no one to wake me, Nicolas and Adison on Monday, Wednesday or Friday mornings (Jaden and Kirsten spent the previous night with their Mom). I've never had a late sleep during the week before, but the kids slept until 8am each morning and then came in bed and snuggled, played and read until 9am! It was heaven and something we never do. I'm usually awake with Adam by 6am even if Jaden and Kirsten are at their Mom's.

I've been watching Jamie Oliver's food show and it's been fascinating to realize just how Americanized I've become. I accept that kids eat pizza for breakfast and peanut butter and jam sandwiches are considered a good lunch! I may accept it but I don't agree with it, hence the reason Jaden and Kirsten do not each school food!! However there are exceptions, such as spoons of peanut butter (yuk, yuk, yuk!) for breakfast on occasions when Nicolas begs - I can't fight his Woodall genes. It is followed by something less fattening and more nutritious to balance it out though.

Adison doesn't like peanut butter, and who can blame her, so she tends to look at him weirdly when he's eating it. I still hate the stuff, but it doesn't make me wretch anymore when I feed it to the kids.

Wednesday was perfect weather last week so I got out the bike and Katrina, Emilee, Tori and I cycled 6 miles at the park. As usual Katrina pushed me, which I need, and we are doing it again tomorrow. Her goal for me is 12 miles but as I'm on a mountain bike pulling 60lbs of children and she is on a racing bike pulling half that, I've warned her that 9 miles may be my limit!

I have to work our Easter celebration at church tomorrow evening and they are expecting 150+ kids so I have to be able to walk!!

The kids loved it and Nicolas would say 'you can go faster Mommy, Ms Katrina is just in front of us' as Katrina zoomed off up giant hills way ahead of us, and Adison would just say 'weeee' as we went down hills! They were both exhausted at the end of it. I wish I could have had a nap too!
Tori was sensible and just had a relaxing cycle around the park.

Now it's warmer the kids just get homework done and then go outside and play. Blake is so sweet with Adison and will push her around or pull her in the cart.

It's funny to see how big 'cool' boys can be very kind and gentle around toddlers.

Mom and Dad bought Nicolas and Adison rocking chairs for Christmas so I've put them outside now the weather is nice. They love to sit there while I sit on the bench and watch the other kids play or the birds on the bird feeder.

Adison is wearing a cardigan I started knitting last year, thinking it would be done it a month or so. I made if for a 2 year old and finished it last week. I barely fits her, but hopefully my friends little girl in TN will get some wear out of it. Adison will wear it for the next month though just so I feel the knitting was worth it!!

The Yard, Mulched Ready for Summer

Finally after 4 years of hard work, I only had basic weeding and tidying up to do this year. There are still lots of areas I want to plant that I've just covered with mulch, and I'd love to plant more lilies, dahlias and daylilies, but for the time being it looks pretty good.

My grass is still horrible, more weeds than grass, but we'll sort that out in autumn.

Both these areas will one day be planted up but I will probably do my fruit garden here, so they just got neatened up and mulched.

Kenli build Adam a new ramp to his shed and brought me lots of rock, so I was able to edge around the shed. The butterfly bushes should fill in either side of the door and then we will work on better landscaping next year for Adam's 'man area'.

I've laid drip hose all along the fence, manured and mulched, so the plants I have in the beds should flower well and not die in the summer heat like they usually do. Since I took this picture Kenli has covered over the dog cage with fence boards, so once it's painted the fence will all blend in.

All my flowerbeds are edged with stone now which I love as it reminds me of England and it just makes the edges look more finished. I've just chopped all the bushes above to the same height so hopefully they will all thicken out and fill the space better.

I can't wait to see all the flowers bloom and fill in the bed so that your eye is drawn away from the nasty grass!!

This is the view I get from my kitchen window so I can't wait for my roses to bloom and give me some color in my garden.

My grass is not doing well between the pavers but it should come up in the next few weeks and the bushes will all fill out and it should look pretty under the kitchen window.

Kenli and I barrowed at least 60 barrows of mulch onto the pine island and it looks much better than before. I still can't compete with our neighbour's yard as he has perfect grass, but at least I'm doing the best I can!

This is the first year that I haven't had to do anything with the front bed and I'm finally happy with it. Again it needs the plants to fill in for summer but it's looking good already.