Easter Egg-citement!

Our Easter week in pictures (lots of them)...

The Monday before Easter we dyed eggs with our friends, the Burns'.

Then, since one egg-dying session a year isn't enough, we did it again on Saturday with the Price's.

Then we had to find all of our special dyed eggs, along with a bunch of plastic ones. There were more than enough eggs to go around! Cousin Colby, Wyatt, Madison holding baby cousin Sadie, and cousin Ethan.

After a fun day with the Price's, we had to head home so the Easter Bunny could come. That amazing Easter Bunny knows all of the kids names. He brought Levi a bunny, some balls, and a bath toy. He brought Wyatt a plastic bat and ball, some flip-flops, and a Webkinz. He brought Madison a jumprope, some flip-flops, and a Webkinz.

I love these kids!

Since Dad had to work on Easter, we went to visit him at the fire station. We were surprised to find eggs everywhere! We found them on the fire trucks, around the station, and even in the supply room. Dad even gave the kids Biohazard bags to use as their egg-collecting baskets. The firefighters all thought the kids looked great dressed up in their Easter clothes. They especially loved Levi's little tie.

Movie Night

Friday night is movie night at our house. More often than not, this is how movie night ends for Madison--backwards on the recliner, head in hands, fast asleep. (Saturday morning is usually movie morning so she can see how it ended.) Wyatt, on the other hand, will make it through any movie, no matter how tired he is, or how long the movie is, or how many times he has seen it. The kids think movie night is such a treat for them. I love the break from the normal nightly routine.

My STAR of the Week

Madison has been so excited for star of the week since the very beginning of school. It was FINALLY her turn! She told her first grade class all about herself and got to bring in some of her favorite things.

My name: Madison Jill Elam

My birthday: March 23, 2002

Where I was born: Tucson

My favorite food: Lasagna

My favorite color: Pink and blue

My wish: To fly to the moon

What I do well: Swim and jumprope

My favorite book: A Bad, Bad Day

A person I admire: My mom and dad

What I like most about our school: My friends

Today was "50's" spirit day at school in preparation for the "Happy Days" school carnival tomorrow. If the kids brought $1 to school, they could be out of uniform and dress up in 50's clothes. What a deal. And the first I heard of this was the flyer she brought home from school yesterday afternoon. I don't have much of a 50's wardrobe lying around and decided we weren't going to dress up (and save our dollar for something good). But when Levi wakes up at 5 am, what else could I do all morning? I made a poodle skirt!

Happy April Fools Day, You Fools!

Hope you all have some really good jokes going today! We had April Fools dinner last night since Darin is working today. I had the food all ready to go in the oven last night, and waited and waited and waited for the oven to preheat. I finally opened it to see if it was feeling hot. No heat, just lots of gas smell. Ha ha, funny joke. Broken oven. While I carried the food to our neighbor's oven, Darin dismantled ours. And being the handy husband that he is, he was able to fix it. Good thing, because our warranty just ran out exactly four months ago. Isn't that the way it goes? We had cupcakes for dinner (meatloaf with mashed potato frosting), biscuits with ketchup (strawberry jam in the ketchup bottle that we just happened to finish off at lunchtime), and chocolate milk (pudding...this was so funny when Madison tried to pour it). Darin asked me how long it took me to put the jam in the ketchup bottle. Not long, I just did it while the oven was preheating! I found the recipe for the cupcakes a few years ago, and have made them every year since. Besides the fun, they are really good and not hard to make. Madison asks for them all year. Here's the recipe if you want to try them tonight:

April Fools' Colorful Cupcakes

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 egg
1/2 tsp celery salt (I didn't have this-I used salt and celery seed)
1/4 tsp pepper

3 cups mashed potatoes (Real are better, but I used instant)
food coloring

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 muffin tin cups with foil bake cups.
In a large bowl, mix together first six ingredients until well combined. Divide the mixture evenly among the lined cups (the liners should be about 3/4 full).
Place the filled muffin tins on cookie sheets and bake the cupcakes for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.
Divide the mashed potatoes among three small bowls and stir in a few drops of food coloring into each batch to create blue, yellow, and pink pastel frostings. Spread a generous dollop on each cupcake. Makes 12 cupcakes.

Check out this blog for a fun April Fool's video, and a contest! http://lilypstudio.typepad.com/lily_p_studio_and_design_/

Wyatt Goes to Preschool

Wyatt started preschool today. It is a home-based preschool with eight kids and a great teacher. I think it will be just right for him. He was a little nervous when I dropped him off this morning, but he came home so excited.

Puppy Party

We celebrated Madison's birthday on Friday with 10 of her friends. She invited girls from primary, school, girl scouts, and the neighborhood. Just before the party started, I was a little intimidated, knowing I would be severely outnumbered by little girls. No need to fear...they were amazingly well-behaved and we had a great time. We had hot dogs for dinner, then played "pin the nose on the puppy" and "puppy walk" (like a cake walk except they walked on puppy paw prints, and the prizes were stuffed puppies). After all of them won a puppy, they got to choose a name for their puppies. Then Darin engraved the names on little dog tags for them, and we attached them to a little puppy collar. After cake (don't miss my amazing cake decorating skills) and ice cream and a big pile of presents, the girls all spread out their blankets and pillows and we watched the movie "Bolt" about a super dog. I'm so proud of my super seven-year-old. Happy Birthday, Madison!

Can't believe she's 7!!!
Doing the Puppy Walk--I love that Madison is wiggling loose teeth as she walks!

All of the girls with their puppies.

Cute girls! I'm so glad she has such fun, nice girls as friends.
Amazing, huh? The dumb sprinkles wouldn't even stick to the cake. Just call me if you are in need of my services for your next party.

You Got It Going On

"The Amaaaazing Madison" and her cousin "The Amaaaaazing Sarah" put on a fashion show for me the other day. I was cracking up at the music they chose for their modeling walk: "You got it, got it, got it, got it going on..."