Lots of stuff to talk about!

Ok, so I think I'll work backwards here. First of all, I hope everyone had a great Easter!!!! We did! We decided to go completely against tradition and start a new one of our own. We made egg rolls and fried rice:) It was the first time that I made either of those dishes myself, and both turned out really good. We also made Rice Krispie treats in egg shapes! Of course, the kids got their Easter baskets first thing in the morning. Oh, and we also had an egg hunt. Justin, the kids, and I dyed eggs Sunday morning and then Justin and I hid them. We had 26 eggs to dye and hide and out of that 26, Justin managed to dye 3. He was all insanely meticulous with the wax crayon thing, making designs and dipping in different colors to make stripes, then making more designs and re-dipping in new colors. It took him roughly 15 minutes per egg. I asked him if he was like that as a kid and he said yes. Anyway, here's a picture of the kids with their baskets. Get a load of that bedhead on all 3 of them!!!



Next is some lovely and colorful evidence of egg-dyeing. Notice whose hand is not in the picture? Yes, Justin's. (Well, and Dorian's, but he was too little to help yet.) He didn't have a single speck of dye on his hands. Lo-ser.



Ok, and now for pictures of the egg hunt! In case anyone is wondering, Justin mowed the yard exactly one week before these pictures were taken. So, it's not as unruly as it might look with all those weeds and whatnot. Also, the big brown spot is where the pool was last summer. As always, click to make the pictures full size.







Yes, that is a Halloween pumpkin bucket. We had to scrounge because their real Easter baskets were all full of candy and stuff. Also, how do y'all like Justin's spiffy orangutan pj pants? Haha.


(I love this one! I got Sebastian and Justin both smiling:)









After taking the pictures, I got out there to help hunt for eggs. We failed to recover 3 of them due to Justin's overly difficult hiding skills and the fact that he couldn't remember where he hid them. Ok, so that's all for Easter! As I said, we had a wonderful day and I hope all of you did too:)

Next up--talk of Bethany's birthday! Bethany's birthday was Friday (April 10) and she turned 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I seriously cannot believe that I have an 11 year old child. It seems surreal. Anyway, we had such a good time! The Hannah Montana movie premiered that day, so Bethany and I went to see that while Justin and the boys stayed at home. We picked them up after the movie and went to a restaurant of Bethany's choice (she picked O'Charley's). As presents, she got some money to spend, some headphones, earrings, and an mp3 player with video screen (for which we bought some new music off of iTunes, including the Hannah Montana movie soundtrack). We had an awesome day and she really enjoyed her birthday:) I don't have any pictures because we had freakishly bad weather that day. I planned on taking some pictures of her outside the theater, but it was unbelievable how bad the weather was. It was actually hailing on the way there, which was pretty freaking frightening considering that they were releasing tornado warnings for a town that's 15 or 20 minutes away when we were about halfway to the theater. By the time we got to the theater, I was just so relieved that we made it one piece (or 2 pieces? whatever). Anyhow, it was raining torrentially at that point and pictures weren't possible. Sorry!

Lastly, here's something else I sewed! I made this for my little niece, Allie. She's 2 1/2 and she's just as cute as she can be. I forgot to ask my brother for permission to post pictures of her, so I won't, but trust. She is adorable. Anyway, I present to you Allie's kimono shirt!







It was made using the Habitual Kimono Pattern, which is surprisingly easy to follow. You basically make your own pattern, using the measurments that she gives and then follow her directions. I'm really happy with how it turned out! So, that's all for now. Till next time!