EASTER

We had a wonderful, relaxing Easter weekend. We were hoping for more sunshine on Saturday but only got a little in the morning and then rain, rain, rain for the rest of the day. So not much yard work completed, though I did get both back decks swept off. Of course after only one day, there's more pine needles, my nemesis!

Saturday afternoon we colored Easter eggs. We did Volcano and Tie-dye eggs. For the volcano eggs we made a paste with baking soda and a little water then added bright neon yellow food color. We painted the paste onto the boiled egg then dropped one drop of two or three other colors of food color. Next we dripped vinegar over the egg and watched the reaction of the baking soda with the vinegar. After letting them sit for a minute or so, we just rinsed them in water.They came out great! Our new favorite way to dye eggs! For the tie-dye eggs we soaked the boiled eggs in vinegar for about 5 minutes, put the egg in a colander, dropped one drop of color on the egg then rolled it around in the colander. We did two to three colors per egg, one color at a time, then rinsed with water. They were ok. We did them last year too but we liked the volcano eggs best. I had also bought a bunch of plastic eggs and candy. Ashlyn had a great time stuffing as much candy as possible into each egg and then trying to get them to close.

The Easter bunny was very nice to Ashlyn this year. He brought her some headbands and barrettes for her hair, a jump rope, some side walk chalk, a chocolate bunny and The Frozen CD. She loved the CD and listened to the whole thing before we left for Grandma's. She walks around singing those songs constantly! She knows all the words too which is just amazing. She's going to be much better at the "Who sings this?" game Jered loves to play than I am, for sure!
At Grandma's house she got a new watering can, new gardening gloves, money, more chalk and lots of candy! As soon as we got home Sunday afternoon she was filling her watering can and watering all of the plants outside.

Easter pics:

Jered and I spent his birthday weekend at 

Grand Lodge. Lots of fun!

Our pretty little poser

 hunting

 look at my haul!

 O M G....its $$

 I love $$

 family pic, but Ashlyn said it was way too bright

 cousins

 eating candy

 being silly with my cousin Grace

watch out Mom, here we come

 helping Daddy mow the lawn. Look at all those dandelions!

Big thanks to Grandpa Eddie for the riding lawn mower!

I compromised with Daddy. I wanted to sleep in my

castle tent from Grammy, he wanted me to sleep in my bed.

our volcano eggs

April showers bring May flowers....right?

This sun has been so awesome! I've heard rain is on the way but I'm going to enjoy the next couple of days of sunshine! We're already loving all the daffodils and cherry blossoms. I've been a little disappointed in the lack of spring flowers at our house. But this just means I'll be planting lots of bulbs in the fall. We want to give the yard at least one year to show us what its made of. So far: lots of trees, maple trees already blooming (ugh, leafs and raking) and not many flowering plants. Although there is a little rose garden on the side of the house. They looked a little rough so I trimmed them back quite a bit when we first moved in and now they are starting to bud. I'm hoping they all do well this summer. I've got lots of landscaping ideas saved on Pinterest and lots of ideas of where I want to plant things. It has to be a work in progress, we do not have the time or money to landscape the whole place in one summer! I have plans for a couple of raised garden beds, I want a vegetable garden this year! I'm also hoping we'll get the chicken coop and composting system up this summer. I have lots and lots of plans (if only I had lots and lots of time and $$)!!

We spent a lot of time working at the house last month but we also managed to do some fun stuff. We went to a Winterhawks game, we checked out opening night of the new arena football team: the Portland Thunder, we did the Shamrock Run for Eli's birthday. We spent a weekend in Washington for cousin Grace's birthday. Hockey is always a good time and if time and money allowed we'd probably go to a lot more games. Ashlyn loves it because she usually gets a popcorn, cotton candy or red rope. This time she shared a cotton candy with my friends' son Drayton. The Portland Thunder game was interesting. It was a lot of fun and I'd go again but NFL its not. Ashlyn, McKenzie and Brady did the Leprechaun Lap at the Shamrock run. Steph and I chased after the three of them. It was a lof of fun and though the kids had to do a lot of waiting around they had a great time and they got a free t-shirt. Definitely something I'd do again if she wants to.

Last week we took Ashlyn for "Kindergarten Round-up" at the grade school. How did this happen? If I could stop time, I would! Our big girl is excited for school but is still thinking her friends from WeeCare will be going to the same school with her. I'm hoping she will adjust easily and the round-up gave her a chance to meet some new kids. Corbett has a 4-day school week. The class hours per day is a bit longer, but they don't go on Fridays. If there is a Monday holiday, then they go on Friday. Ashlyn should have no problem because she's used to being in daycare. I'm going to have to change my hours when she starts school though. I have LOVED working 4-10's and having that one week day off. Ashlyn and I get some one on one time and I'm able to do so many things that would have to be done on the weekends otherwise. BUT going back to 5-8's will work better with Ashlyn's school schedule.

We celebrated Jered's birthday this last weekend. We had such a good time! We had reservations at Grand Lodge in Forest Grove Saturday night and we managed to get 12 new stamps on our passports.We drank some wine, we ate some good food, we soaked in the soaking pool. It was just nice to have a weekend to ourselves. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma G for keeping Ashlyn over night. She had a blast! They made rice krispy treats with frosting and sprinkles and a birthday cake for Jered.

We checked out Grandpa's green house when we were there yesterday afternoon and OMG! It is overflowing! There's tomatoes and onions and peppers and flowers and baskets oh my! Grandpa is going to give us some tomato and pepper plants to plant in my garden. I'm so excited! Hopefully Jered and I can get the garden spot cleared out this weekend.

A few pics from our lunch date to Hood River a few weekends ago:

 I love this sweet face <3 p="">

 looking too cool for school in Daddy's sunglasses

We found this cheese at Costco, she was pretty excited! :)