It takes a village...

They say it takes a village to raise a child...well, it also takes a village to get a picture of a group of children!  Picture this....6 mommies, 6 daddies, 2 grandma's, 2 grandpa's, and 1 great-grandma plus 9 children under the age of 4!  We had a fabulous time hunting for Easter eggs in an absolutely beautiful location!  We decided to get a group shot of the kiddos...all hands were on deck for this mission!!!

Let's dump the eggs out of the basket...

OK, everyone sit down...

Are we ready???

Is anyone looking at the camera?

Wait, don't leave yet...

Where's Jack???

almost there...

close...

Happy Easter 2012!!!

You should have seen us!!!  The "paparazzi" lined up trying to get all of the kids to look in the same direction at once!  Eventually, we made it work and I think we all had such a great time!!!  Special THANK YOU to the Amber and Jim for hosting all of us!  Check out how awesome our backdrop was for today's festivities...

Not too shabby!!!

Happy Easter!!!

 

Bunny Bait

After posting a picture of some Easter treats that I made for Aiden's class, several people suggested I blog about it!  So here it is...the details of "Bunny Bait"!  First let me say that I did not design or even think of this idea on my own.  Like many, I found this cute idea on Pinterest and just had to try it!  I will tell you how I did it and then I will tell you what I would do differently!!

Ingredients:
2 cups rice chex
2 cups pretzel sticks
1 bag of tender white popcorn
1 bag of white melting chocolate
Easter M&M's
Spring Sprinkles (think cupcake sprinkles but in spring pastels)

Spread Chex cereal, pretzels, and popcorn on cookie sheet (I used wax paper on my cookie sheet)
Melt white chocolate according to directions
Pour over first 3 ingredients and stir to coat
Sprinkle on spring sprinkles (do not stir after this or else you will coat colored sprinkles in white chocolate)
Add M&M's
Let sit until chocolate is completely cool (to speed up the process put it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so)

Break apart and put into bags with pre-printed label...again, I did not design this label...I simply found the template, printed it to card stock, cut it out to fit the candy bags I bought at Michael's!  Easy Easy...

Here is what I would do differently...
Less popcorn...the amount of popcorn was overwhelming and it sucked up all of the chocolate.  I only used 3/4 a bag...next time I will use 1/2 a bag
More Chex cereal...I think Chex with a chocolate coating on it is way more appealing than popcorn...the chex got lost in the popcorn so next time 3 cups of Chex.
My pretzel sticks seemed really long so next time I will break them up
More Chocolate...I used 1 bag...could have used more!
More Sprinkles and M&M's...I found myself adding sprinkles and M&M's to each bag for color...
One last tip...spread the mixture as thin as possible on the cookie sheet...it was hard with all of that popcorn but it makes it easier to coat everything in chocolate and spread the sprinkles and M&M's more evenly for better color appearance!!!

Aiden Approved!!!

Gearing up for Easter...

The other day Aiden was in one of his chatty moods!  If I have failed to mention it, the boy loves airplanes.  He always talks about going on an airplane and taking trips on an airplane (or helicopter haha).   Sometimes we have the funniest conversations...here is our conversation from Friday.
"Mommy, we are going on an airplane tomorrow"
Me: We are?
A:  "Yeah, we are going to Charleston to see Nana and Pops."
Me: Awww sweetie, I wish we were but guess where we are going tomorrow?  We are going to an Easter fair to see the Easter bunny.
A:  "Oh, I love the Easter bunny, he's my favorite.
Me:  He is?  Aiden, do you know what Easter is?
A:  "Yeah, it's the Easter bunny's birthday!"

I had about 2.5 seconds to make a parenting decision.  Do I correct him, even though I think for a 2.5 year old his response was a.) adorable and b.) pretty ingenious (Christmas is Jesus' birthday so Easter has to be someones birthday) or do I quickly figure out how to explain the true meaning to him???  I tried to do a little of both...encourage his imagination and creativity with a laugh and a hug and then I tried my very best to explain to him the Resurrection of Jesus Christ...I'll be honest, he didn't get it!  But I did my best...So Moms out there, how do you explain the true meaning of Easter to your LITTLE ONE with out stifling his imagination and still preserving a tiny bit of magic and excitement that only a fluffy bunny can bring???

He gave the bunny a high-5 but wouldn't get near him with out Mommy...better than his response to Santa!