Happy Resurrection Sunday

What an amazing Easter Sunday morning. To be honest I have never done anything celebratory on this holiday. We just pretty much go to church and back. If the kids happen to have a nice outfit great if not that's great too.

However, this year my father purchased for the kids some nice dressy clothes and I decided to go with it.

Saturday night I had the kids plant 'candy seeds' in the hopes they would grow into lollipops in the morning. Lo and behold they did. Lol. Kimani placed the lollipops and in the morning they were so excited when they found them :) that was cute.

Sunday morning was so impactful. I made breakfast and shared with the kids the real reason of Easter and they actually listened and participated in the activity (resurrection rolls). At the end we all gave a loud shout to thank Jesus for dying for us.

We took some pictures of the kids dressed in their Sunday best. After that we went to have an early dinner.

Finally, we got home for the Easter egg hunt and basket reveal.

I had gotten a different puzzle for each kid and took the pieces and placed it inside different colored plastic eggs to distinguish it from the others. So Kimberlee's puzzle was hidden inside pink and purple eggs. Nehemiah's in blue and orange. Daniel had to find yellow and green eggs. When we came upstairs they opened the plastic eggs that contained their specific puzzle and assembled them together. As we were doing that Daniel said, I had a great day Mommy.y heart melted and it made my backache worth it.

I am one exhausted Mommy, but I feel like the kids had a well rounded day.

Happy Easter my children.

USCG Graduate (Cape May, NJ)

Last Friday my nephew graduated from the United States Coast Guard. We are so proud of him. He made it through boot camp. We have had some really cold weather up here in Jersey the past few weeks so I am quite sure it wasn't easy for this Florida boy. I tried to write him once a week to keep him encouraged. I missed only one week - and the week of graduation I didn't send one out because I knew I'd see him. I was quite proud of myself for accomplishing that goal. Sometimes life gets busy and I don't get to do as above and beyond as I'd like, but this time I actually did it. Go Titi!

I knew the ceremony would be quick and my favorite part was when the cadets received their completion diplomas. Many of them had family members in one of the military branches and would be presented the certificate by those people. I thought that was beautiful, but the real surprise to me came when I saw my niece, his sister, getting ready to present him with his diploma when it was his turn. She is a corrections officer and was also in full gear. I teared up. I had no idea she would be doing that in his ceremony. Wow! What a way to share the moment with those you love most.

I was so proud of them for making such great career choices, but I was also super proud of my brother and sister in law. They have done such a great job with those kids. I look forward to learning a lesson or two in parenting from them. They definitely have proven results in their approach. No one is perfect and no two kids are alike, but it is good to glean the things you can from those who have succeeded around you.

Congratulations Mikel! The future is bright before you. Keep trekking ahead.

Love you!

A Man's Love

I have heard many times that there are women who get jealous of their "daughter" taking too much attention away from the husband/dad. I never really got that. I just don't quite understand how jealousy could make its way into that kind of interaction.

Tonight Kimani and Naomi were just falling in love. They stayed comfortably in cloud nine as she babbled to her daddy and he showered her with kisses. It was so beautiful it moved me. I was in heaven too, but in a different way. I was so glad to see them bonding and connecting.

At that moment I got it. When a marriage is rocky, unstable, or a woman is unsure and vulnerable it can be easy to feel like the daughter is taking attention and maybe even 'love' away from her.

The sad part is that they are two separate relationships. Totally different and apart. Fulfilling different needs and needing different things to make them successful.

When those lines/boundaries are crossed I can then see how a woman may feel jealous of her little girl emitting so much love from her father when she, as a woman, is having difficulties in the relationship and may yearn for such responses.

As for me... I'll stand a room away for a little while longer and watch the loves of my life fall in love with each other again...and again.

Challah bread

My good friend Leah brought her awesome bread maker over and we made this delicious loaf of bread (below).

It tasted so good. I'm gonna try to make some bread without the machine and see if I have any success.

Baby or Not!

I was feeding N in her feeding chair recently, which was D's chair for the past two years. Once done eating her carrots I took her out of the chair and D squeezed himself past me and sat on it.

- "I'm a baby mommy!"
- "you are. So I have to feed you." I took a spoon of the left over carrots, began the airplane sound towards his mouth. He quickly covers his mouth. "Come on baby, time to eat."
- "no Mommy it's just pretend."

Ha ha ha!

I chased him for a bit 'trying' to feed him. So funny.

Tutu... and it's cute too!

I made this cute tutu for K and she absolutely loved it. She wore it all day...literally!

It was so easy to make. The only reason it took me a couple of hours to do is that I started right at bedtime and the kids kept interrupting me. Other than that easy peasy!

When I finished I put it on N to test it out and she looked so cute! Now I'll just use the left over tulle to make her her own.

Applebee's

Tonight we were invited to an adult birthday celebratory dinner. We were actually quite excited to go, but of course with no sitters to call upon we had the crew.

Wow! Did we turn that place upside down. Our kids had a bad case... a very bad case of cabin fever. So when I say they went wild at that restaurant it may be a little under statement.

Somehow or other Kimani and I got home full of joy having had a really good time out with the kids. Yes we did it to ourselves by giving the kids ice cream at 8pm. Yes we had them walk 20 laps (from couch to kitchen) once we got home to burn off the sugar high, but even in that we laughed the whole time. Below are the 'sane' pictures before the desserts arrived.

Fun night for sure!

Sister Love

Tonight Naomi had finally fallen asleep while at the same time Kimberlee woke up. Unfortunately, I HAD to take a shower. So Kimberlee was sitting quietly eating her cereal next to Naomi while I hurried to shower.

I get started and what do I hear, N crying on and off. i also hear K talking to her, trying to keep her quiet. I begin to really hurry and finish up my shower when I hear K say, "no N don't touch my cereal". I then jump out of the tub and peek out at the girls and I see K holding N on her lap and trying to sooth her. That touched my heart so much. N was being a true baby and tried to take K's bowl of cereal, but it was so beautiful to see how K just took it upon herself to help her sister while I was in the bathroom. That girl is a true gem of a daughter and sister.

Kimberlee's First Cake

Very many times when we go to the store with our children they add items to our final order not initially in our list. However, at a recent trip to Shop Rite Kimberlee saw this cute piggy spatula that she said she would make me a cake with.

How can I resist such cuteness? Well we finally got the chance to make the cake and she did quite well. We had a good time.

******Kimberlee you did a great job with the cake today! I'm so proud of all your enthusiasm and abilities. The cake was super delicious.

cheerleader

(this post is so old, but I thought I'd put it up anyway)

Kimberlee is the sweetest sister ever. The greatest  cheerleader. Recently she would break out into a loud round of applause when ever Daniel would sing or hum or stumble through the ABC song.  Such a supportive sister.

Egg-citing Projects

I recently ran across this lovely Egg Candle project on Pinterest and have been wanting to do it for a while to see how easy it really is to make. (Sometimes people have projects online and claim they are super easy and it turns out that they are more cumbersome than the author lets on).

Well, I got a chance to work on making the eggs and it was actually fun to do and quite easy.  I am now thinking of the next step.

I (of course) made my own adjustments. I used scented, colorful candles (not crayons). I used the wick that came inside the purchased candle for the egg I was creating.

Next time I plan to do four colors simultaneously and alternate the colors throughout for a striped look.  I may not be able to use scented candles for that as all the scents may not blend nicely together.. We will see..

Anyway here is a picture of the first two candles.  Mountain Green and Clean Linen scents.