Do-It-Yourself

Back in January I read on another blog a mom's goal to try a new do-it-yourself project each month. I loved this idea and decided to give it a try. Here's what I've done so far:

• April: Hair Clips... I've wanted to try making some for awhile now. I bought all this ribbon (plus blue and orange that I didn't use yet) for $1 (Target Dollar Spot). The clips were from Hobby Lobby (25 for $3-$4, but I know I can get them for less if I get them on sale or use a coupon.) The buttons I had on hand from scrap booking. I loved doing this--Sadie helped me. I spent about 30 minutes making all of these. I will be keeping my eyes open for more cute ribbon!


• March: Thank-You Cards... I've never made super-cute stampin' up cards (nor do I have any supplies to do such) but I figured we could save money by making our own thank-you cards for the kids' birthdays. For Macey's cards I used a picture from her party and some cute flowers. I also put her hand print on the back with pink ink. For Sadie's birthday, I got her involved making her own cards. We used a stamp set she got for her birthday to make these cards. It was a fun project to do together!


• February: I first tried making Chocolate Fondant to use for cake decorating. I am still loving it!


• January: I tried making soft pretzel bites with cheese sauce.

Other ideas for the future: re-usable napkins, ketchup, granola bars, pop tarts, fruit roll-ups, baby wipes, wheat thins... I'll try to keep posting!

Easter

Our Family

The day before Easter Aunt Trista took Sadie and her cousins to go see Hop. Sadie was so excite about going to a movie--she's been asking for awhile now! After the movie I met them at the mall to take Sadie shopping at Claires. She had a gift card to spend. Even though she's indecisive and it took us over an hour to spend $10 I LOVED it! I'm so excited to keep shopping with her as she grows. I was cracking up because I introduced her to bargain shopping by pointing out the clearance racks. After I told her the prices of a few things she quickly started asking "Where are the sale headbands?"... etc. She ended up with princess press-on nails (her only non-clearance item!), a zebra striped headband, a fake hair extension clip, and a Disney princess necklace. She was also very excited to get her picture taken with the Easter bunny!

Easter morning Marc's mom made breakfast. The kids were up early so we let them hunt for baskets before breakfast. Apparently Sadie had already scoped out Macey's basket because when we told her it was okay to start looking she walked right over to it and said "Macey, I found your basket!" They had fun looking for baskets and checking out their goodies. After hunting we ate breakfast and then baths and church.

Yes--Kinnick got a Dora book in his basket, he LOVES Dora. He also got some new undies. Maybe we'll be trying them out in the near future!

Notice the bug net... Sadie and Kinnick each got one. When we were unloading our stuff Saturday Sadie saw the nets in a bag with all the Easter goodies. She kept asking me what they were for and were we going fishing. The day after Easter she said, "Mom--remember those nets me and Kinnick got? I know that you really got those for us. Did you tell the Easter bunny to put them into our baskets?" Yes, Sadie--that is what I told him.

After church we enjoyed a yummy lunch with Marc's parents and sister (and a teacher from Janet's school) and then Aunt NeeNee had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. Easter night included playing outside, eating popcorn, putting the kids to bed early, and a movie for Marc and I!

Polka Dot Party

Back in October, Sadie went shopping with me to pick out paper to make invitations for Kinnick's birthday party. At that time she declared "I want to have a polka dot party!" Honestly I didn't think it would last until March, but I thought it would be a simple fun thing to do. Luckily she remembered and when I took her shopping for polka dots, she chose these plates and napkins and I was happy with the results. When I was working on her cake Friday morning she came into the kitchen when it was about half way decorated. Her eyes got huge and she said "Mom, I LOVE my cake!"

Her grandparent party this year was in Burlington. Grandma Janet made pizza for dinner and we all loved it!

After we ate dinner I set up Easter Egg decorating for the kids. Sadie and Jadyn did most of the eggs while the boys got out every toy in Marc's parent's basement!

Aunt Jessica helped Kinnick decorate an egg with stickers.

Jaren and I did a couple together.

Their masterpieces!

Sadie spent almost the entire time decorating this one pink egg--she was very proud of it!

Sadie chose this outfit for her party... a sleeping beauty dress, (with a leotard underneath to cover her top), fancy nancy shoes, a LOTS of jewelry. I let her choose 4 necklaces, 4 rings, and 4 bracelets. Her headband and pink hair are from a shopping trip to Claires earlier in the day. I'm really trying to work on letting her express her own personality whenever possible (even when it means wearing the same black and pink "princess" outfit every day!)

Precious Moments Elephant for her Birthday Train

Emma got lots of new things... a cubs outfit, a princess outfit with ballerina slippers, a matching nightgown set with Sadie, and two pillows. She also got twinkle toe shoes... and you can't tell in the picture but Sadie got twinkle toes as well. She was VERY excited!

Sadie wanted to pick her own candles for her cake. I let her even though I had matching pink and green candles (this was even harder than letting her pick her own outfit!) We ended up with one pink, one red, and two striped candles.

We had a GREAT party. So glad most of her grand parents and most of her aunts and uncles could come!

Awana Awards

Last week we had our Awana Awards night. I'm glad to be taking a break from Awana b/c Wednesday nights were somewhat stressful trying to bathe and feed all three kids on my own and get the kitchen cleaned so we could be at church by 6... BUT I loved helping with Awana and I LOVED how much Sadie learned this year. I'm very excited to be involved again next year... and Kinnick can't wait to be in Cubbies (even though he still has one more year in Puggles!) This is Sadie's award for finishing her book. This little Cubbie Bear has a Velcro patch that attaches to her vest.

She looked like a big girl marching in with her class.

I know this picture is not great, but I had to include it... This is the Puggles class I helped teach this year. They don't get awards, but they sang two songs for the program and they were ADORABLE! Kinnick did great! (Macey is up there too!)

Sadie helped me decorate these Easter cookies and we put them in little baggies with "Thank You!" labels for her teachers.

Happy Easter

On This Rainy Good Friday...

*We made waffles for breakfast. It's been awhile since I got out the waffle iron--the kids loved them!

*Sadie said: "It's a good day to wear jammies all day, not a good day to play outside!"

*Sadie and I put on our boots and jackets to walk Wrigley in the rain.

*I played "house" with the kids for an hour. (Sadie got to be the mom.) When she put us to bed my phone rang. I did not answer it. She came in the room as I was looking to see who called and she said "Mom, do you want to look at your phone? You may see your phone for 2 minutes and then I will come in and tell you it's time to put it away."

*I decorated a hot pink and neon green birthday cake for Sadie. She came in during the process and said "Mom, I love my cake!"

*The kids watched Beauty and the Beast. I had to run in during the "scary" parts to snuggle with them.

*Macey entertained herself for quite some time by throwing a light up crazy ball on the floor. She would watch it, giggle, and toddle to get it again. I loved watching her discover cause & effect... and seeing her cute smile!

* I talked to the kids about what happened on Good Friday--Sadie had lots of questions.

*Snuggled with Sadie to watch the rest of this week's "Dancing with the Stars" after M & K were down for naps... it's our show.

*Folded laundry, worked out, started some packing, and cleaned up the kitchen during rest time.

*Talked on the phone with Jennifer--it was great catching up!

*Kinnick worked on puzzles all during his rest time--he's getting really good at doing 20-25 piece puzzles on his own!

*We "sorted" Easter candy to put it away. Each kid got to pick one piece to have. Kinnick ate his and wanted more--Sadie shared hers without me saying a word!

*Sadie turned off the lights and hid to surprise her daddy when he got home.

*Sadie had a melt-down during dinner and spent some time in her room. When she re-joined up she was much better. Kinnick asked everyone "How was your day? How was your worst part?" (He doesn't really understand the concept of worst yet--he always tells two "favorite" parts and calls one of them his worst!)

*Put the kids to bed and watched "Passion of the Christ". First time I've watched it since I've been a mom... it was a whole new experience.

*Went to bed exhausted.

Making Brownies...

with my favorite 2-year old helper!

Our Sweet, Sweet Macey

Unfortunately the Gorsch-household has had the flu... again! It didn't seem quite as bad this time. Kinnick wasn't feeling too well Sunday and Sadie complained of a tummy ache Sunday night. Sadie was the first to throw up Monday afternoon and by Monday night Marc was getting sick (he had it the worst). This brings me to sweet little Macey... She seemed to be feeling fine on Sunday and Monday--her normal happy self. On Tuesday she slept until about 9 (somewhat typical) and we didn't hear a peep from her Monday night. When I went to get her up Tuesday morning she was smiling and happy and... covered in puke! She was hugging her blankie that was covered and the whole left side of her head/hair had dried puke matted to it. I could tell it was probably from very early in the night because it was so dried and hard. I feel horrible that my little girl slept in her pukey bed all night. We don't typically peek at her b/c she's a light sleeper and wakes up easily. I can't believe she didn't cry at all and she was all smiles in the morning.

I took her right to the tub and snapped these pics while I was cleaning her up. What a trooper!

Egg Hunting

Let the Easter festivities begin! We braved the weather Saturday to attend two different egg hunts. Aunt NeeNee was here visiting so she went with us! The first egg hunt was put on by the Streator Youth organization--it was in the morning. Steph and I took Sadie and Kinnick and Marc stayed home with Macey. When we left it was just a drizzle so we decided to go for it (later as I was standing in the pouring rain to claim our prizes I was re-thinking my decision!) It wasn't too bad during their hunting time--the kids had fun! Waiting for go-time...

"Basket-Heads"--Sadie and Kinnick with their friends Emma & Eddie

Showing off their loot... some of the eggs were filled with candy, some had tickets inside that you trade for prizes.


Our 2nd egg hunt was at our church. They did everything inside due to the weather. We had lunch, played games, made a craft, and ended with an egg hunt. The kids had fun and we went home with LOTS of candy (too much candy!)

Kinnick playing an egg relay race...

Macey felt like such a big girl when she got her very own prize and bag of candy!

Sadie and Kinnick with their friend Mikenna... showing off their cool new prizes. Mikenna won the jelly bean guessing game and went home with a HUGE jar of jelly bellys!

Weekend at Uncle Jack & Aunt Jessica's

Last weekend we headed to Edwardsville to hang out with Jack & Jessica. Marc took Friday off--which made for a perfect start to the weekend... sleeping in, big family breakfast, and time to pack up together. We hit the road around 2 planning to arrive around the same time Jack would get home. As it turned it out he passed us on the interstate sometime after Springfield--great timing! Friday we grilled out and walked down to the lake to feed the ducks and geese (a favorite activity at Jack & Jessica's!) The ducks were pretty timid, but Marc and Sadie got this goose to come right out of the water. I also had to apologize to this goose because I said he was ugly and apparently that might have hurt his feelings!

Saturday morning we planned to get an 8:00 start to head to the zoo... unfortunately we had a little surprise when we started to load up the car. We left our sun-roof open and it had POURED rain during the night... A LOT of rain! It was quite a mess--mostly just in the front. By the time we cleaned this up and packed up it was 9... oh well! We covered the front seats with towels but Jack and Marc were a bit wet when we made it to the zoo.

The weather was perfect... very warm (in the high 80's) with a little breeze. I hadn't packed any shorts for the kids, but they could have worn them for sure! We had a great morning at the zoo. Sadie's high light was riding the train (she really wanted to do this!) Kinnick loved naming all the animals and Macey was so excited to look at the different animals--she was very happy and easy-going all day!

Snack time--waiting for the train...

Kisses for the penguin!

After the zoo we went to the Spaghetti Factory for lunch. This was our first time taking the kids here and they enjoyed it. They especially loved ice cream at the end of our meal. They also liked walking down town and seeing the horse-drawn carriages.

Saturday night we enjoyed a "movie night" and walked down to the lake to feed the ducks again and also to play on the playground. This playground was on sand and was next to a sandy beach leading to the lake. The kids loved playing in the sand.

Sunday we went to church and then back to Jack & Jessica's for lunch... Macey got a little snooze in on the way home from church!

Sadie wore her new birthday dress from Aunt Jessica (with her pink boots b/c I hadn't packed any appropriate shoes!) On our way home we stopped one more time to feed the ducks, but didn't have any luck--they wouldn't come close enough... I did snap a few pics of the girls though:

We loved the beautiful weekend weather and had a great visit!