Sugar and Spice & Everything Nice

Keziah "invited" a friend for a little play date the other morning. Micah was at preschool and Silas was napping, so it was a morning dedicated to these sweet little ladies.

It was cute to observe these 2 - who both come from boy-dominated families - enjoying some "girl play" together.

Tea party time with strawberries and corn bran squares :)

Play-dough time. I love the focus on these faces...

And there was enough time for the 3-year-old version of Candyland - in this version you can both pick up cards simultaneously and go whatever direction you want!

But even though Keziah doesn't have a sister, she has an older brother who is more than happy to play dress up with her!

Enviro Cloth

If you've never seen Norwex microfibre in action, or if you have any doubts about how effective they really are for cleaning, you need to watch this!!



The Enviro Cloth costs $15.99 and is available in yellow, green, blue or pink.

Snips and Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

Meet "Snailey".

Micah found this little guy outside the other day. And while most snails we find are hidden inside their shell, this particular one was bravely coming out to greet us. He's "the bravest snail I've ever met!", according to Micah.


Micah asked if he could keep it, so I found a jar that would be perfect for little "Snailey's" home. I couldn't help remembering all the times when I was little and collected caterpillars to keep in a jar, making a fun little jungle of grass and twigs inside and punching air holes in the top.


Micah has been infatuated with him ever since - announcing to us that this is his "very first pet!"


And here are a few more pictures of us enjoying the great outdoors recently. Last week, we went down to the States. Of course we had to stop at Edaleen Dairy for the best (& cheapest!) ice cream. That's where we took this great picture:

While we were in Bellingham, we took an evening stroll down the boardwalk.

This looks like Micah is practicing for Kindergarten :)

And earlier this week, a beautiful evening at Mill Lake; having a picnic and watching the ducks.

The Smell of Spring & Other Things

We just enjoyed one of those perfect spring days that ended with an equally perfect spring evening. We were still comfortable in our shorts and t-shirts as we enjoyed a picnic supper and a walk around Mill Lake tonight. There were plenty of new baby goslings and ducklings to spot and a brand new playground to enjoy. Everything is green and growing like crazy. But I think my favourite part of spring this year has been the smell. Especially the rain. Spring rain definitely smells different than winter rain. I love having the windows open and letting the freshness seep in.

I'll have to upload the pictures from tonight's park excursion another day. But for now, I've got some others to share, including a few cute ones of Silas. He learned to hold his own bottle since his birthday:

Also, he got his first buzz cut last week. We had to make it pretty quick considering he screamed the whole time:

After it was done, he suddenly looked a lot more like a toddler than a baby. And he also suddenly looked a whole lot more like Micah.

But despite how cute and happy he looks here, he actually got sick with a high fever later that night and ended up on antibiotics for a throat/ear infection. Thankfully now he seems back to his smiley-Siley little self.

Erik has been working hard building some new furniture for our place. I've been wanting a new TV cabinet for awhile, but Erik went the extra mile and built a new dining room table and bench at the same time :) I feel pretty blessed to have such a talented husband who can build beautiful things.

The table is a bit big for our space right now.

So now I'm on the look-out for some new chairs. Here are a few from Ikea that I'm considering:

The first one is black-brown, the second one black, and the 3rd one would need to be stained to match the table.

The new TV cabinet:

Silas discovering the new TV cabinet.

The kids are enjoying the surface space that the new table provides.

Micah found our Settlers game the other day, so I made up a game he could play - rolling the dice and building roads and cities on the corresponding numbers :)

And a classic picture of Keziah. She can be found - at any point of the day - lounging face-down like this on the floor. She does this sometimes on the carpet, but she seems to prefer the dirty, cold laminate in the kitchen. She does it mostly when she's tired, but it's not limited to tiredness.

She just lies there for a few minutes with this glazed look in her eye. And then she'll get up and go on with her day. She's definitely a funny one, that girl :)

Coming Events

*Update: Erik's Germany trip has been post-poned because of the volcanic ash cloud. We'll wait for the dust to settle (literally!) and hopefully Erik & Doug will still get a chance to go in May.*

There are a lot of things happening these days.

1. This Friday Erik is going to Germany for a whole week with his brother Doug. They have an opportunity to help with a church building project in Berlin. So, little old me will be flying solo with the 3 kids during that time. Erik has never been away from me and the kids for more than 2 or 3 nights (and never since we've had 3 kids), so this will be a first for us! I'm feeling alright about it at this point, but I am bracing myself for some LONG days and an even LONGER week.

2. At the beginning of May we get to see these 2 get married in Atlanta, Georgia!

Erik's cousin, Chris & his wonderful fiance Jessica (who we got to meet at Christmas) are getting married on May 8...

3. Which brings me to the next exciting part - my mom will be coming to stay with the kids so Erik and I can go to the wedding without them :) Plus I'll still get to spend some time with my mom here in Abbotsford after we get back from our trip.

4. And the final bit of excitement is a new baby for these 3:


Congrats Doug, Elissa & Caleb! I'm looking forward to meeting my new niece or nephew in August :)

Paska: Better Late Than Never

I had really wanted to bake paska (aka "Easter bread") before Easter and then I just didn't get around to it. I kind of felt like I lost my chance after the Easter weekend passed, but then I thought, Hey, I can make paska whenever I want!

So I did.

I've never made bread or buns of any kind before (other than in the bread maker, but I don't think that really counts). It's always seemed a little too intimidating. So, I half-expected it to turn out weird or wrong or burnt or something. But, it actually turned out beautiful and delicious and perfect!

I used a paska recipe that my friend Rachel posted on Facebook last week from the blog "Mennonite Girls Can Cook". The Paska Post opens with the statement: "There is no other recipe that has found me more friends than this one."

So, from the get-go it promised to be a gooder.

And it definitely was.

Yummy :)

Easter

Easter seemed more meaningful this year. Now that the kids are getting a little bit older, we're being more intentional about explaining it all to them and I suppose it naturally makes us reflect on it more ourselves.


I wanted to start some Easter traditions this year. So, I decided to make a homemade version of the "Resurrection Eggs". I did a quick online search and found this simple website. It gave me instructions for what what to put in the eggs - most items were things I could find around the house - plus Bible verses to coincide with each item. We opened one egg every day for 12 days leading up to Easter Sunday. On the last day (yesterday) the egg was empty to signify the empty tomb.



We've also been reading a fantastic kid's Bible. We're borrowing it from our church library but I'd really like to have one of our own because it's so great. It's basically the entire Bible summed up into 52 short stories. There are pictures on every page and just the right amount of words. Plus the stories are written in a way that's really easy for kids to understand. This past week we read several of the stories leading up to Jesus' death and resurrection. That, along with the resurrection eggs (which Micah also did at his preschool), seemed to reinforce all the truths of the season of Easter for the kids and for us.

(you can't actually click to look inside here, but you probably can if you go here)

Of course there's all the other fun stuff about Easter too. Keziah got to make this cute bunny craft the day we visited Micah's preschool.


And don't forget Easter egg decorating.


And Easter is the season of tulips and daffodils. We've been enjoying these tulips picked from outside our front door. Of course, the kids are under the impression that dandelions also deserve a place of honour on the table...


Here are the big kids dressed for church and squinting in the Easter morning sun.


Silas was looking quite dapper too :)


We did a little Easter egg hunt in the house after lunch (can't wait until we have a nice big backyard for this someday!).


Easter afternoon turned out to be the perfect windy weather to fly our new kites. Micah got the hang of it quickly and both kids were pretty thrilled to watch their favourite Disney characters dancing through the sky.



A picture of myself just to prove that sometimes Erik takes pictures too.


Keziah made a bee-line for this dandelion patch as soon as she spotted it.

I wanted her to take off her red fleece for some "prettier" pictures of her in the grass, but she was not to be convinced.




Oh, and I have to share my favourite Easter day quote. After we came home from the church service, Micah asked if we could sing the "Up From the Gravy" song again.

I love how a 5-year-old's mind thinks :)