Starting Where I Left Off: The Egg Hunt

Sorry for the blog silence of last week. I found myself bone-tired, uninspired and it suddenly dawned on me that I have a baby boy due in a few weeks and we have done almost nothing to prepare. So, instead of actually doing something to prepare, I chose to spend my "me" time sleeping.

Despite the fact that the house is now a complete mess and the fact that I'm still tired, it was a nice vacation. After a week off though, I've been thinking that I ought to start things up here again. So, I'll start where I left off with our Easter egg hunt.

Just a typical egg hunt:

He found the blue egg!

Counting her eggs.

Adding another egg to her basket. Buddy is pleased with the eggs he found.

Searching for the last elusive egg. I was a little bit tricky on a few of them.

This year I was inspired by a book that my son's preschool teacher read in class and then let us borrow because Buddy was so obsessed with it: The Great Easter Egg Hunt.

It is a fun book with a cute story and bright illustrations. The real fun is that it is a look and find book. Buddy loved searching for the letters hidden on each page. At the end, the letters end up spelling "Happy Easter."

He expressed the hope that our Easter egg hunt would be like the one in the book. While, I had no plans to visit a chocolate factory during our egg hunt or any of the other fantastic things that occurred in the book, I did think it would be fun to hide letters in some of the eggs so Buddy could unscramble them and spell "Happy Easter." It turned out really well. Buddy was thrilled and Jellybean was happy to find that the eggs that she had thought were empty, actually had letters hiding in them.

Opening the eggs, secret message unscrambled, money, jellybeans, anything better?

Here's a little video of the moment he finished the secret message:

Happy Easter! from A Happy Song on Vimeo.

Perhaps I'll think up a new secret message next year and hide some more letters. It was a nice way to cut down on the candy.

Though, it seems that Jellybean was all about the candy. 

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Buddy's Easter Hat

Buddy's preschool put on an Easter parade complete with hats this last week. I had a fantastic idea for an Easter hat using the Stetson I inherited from my grandfather (it was such an awesome idea, too). Buddy rejected this idea. Instead we went with a Spiderman theme.

Since I'd never made an Easter hat before, we looked online for inspiration. Buddy was dead set that he didn't want a "girl" hat. That meant, no flowers and no bunnies. So, Spiderman was a great fit. And after a lot of nagging on my part, he actually helped with the hat, too. (I was not going to be making this all by myself.) I was a little concerned that our creation would not stack up to what the other kids were going to wear.

I was right that it wasn't remotely like what the other kids brought. All of the other hats were flowers, bunnies and eggs. Buddy's hat was in a class of its own. I especially love the spiderweb he created for the side. You also can't beat the scene on the very top with Spiderman duking it out with The Lizard. Awesome. All in all, my child definitely nailed it on originality.  It may not have been what I envisioned, but it turned out to be just perfect for the occasion.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Bunny Paper Cut

Looking for more Easter decor to put up around the house, I decided to design another paper cut for the season. You might remember that I designed this paper cut for Valentine's. I've mentioned before that I'm definitely an amateur when it comes to the art of paper cutting, but I still enjoy it. The bunny design I put together has a couple of flaws, but I still like the way it turned out.

The above shows my cutting process. There are more detailed photos of the process on my Valentine's paper cut post. The pattern needs a little tweaking and I modified it a little as I went along, but I still thought I'd provide my sketch in case you'd like to try it out yourself.

Download the Bunny Paper Cut PDF here:

Bunny Paper Cut

Easter is coming up so quickly and I feel very unprepared. Jellybean's birthday is in a week and I keep forgetting that I need to get our Easter plans figured out for just another week after that. Then, of course, there's the whole birth of our third child looming. I still have about 6 weeks to go. I told D today that I need a baby-cation. I'm thinking that involves me, a hotel room, room service, movies and some serious alone time. I doubt that's possible, but it's nice to dream about. 

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Swinging With Papa

Easter Sunday, swinging on the front porch with Papa.

 and a video, too!

Swinging with Papa from A Happy Song on Vimeo.

Joining in on Wordless Wednesday!

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Easter 2012

We had a fabulous Easter weekend!  We kicked it off with an Easter egg hunt.  The kids enjoyed searching for the eggs. I purchased them a couple of wheelbarrows and let them use those for egg collection.

The Hunt:

Once Buddy spotted the Spiderman eggs, he only had eyes for those. 

Jellybean was less particular and ended up with more eggs than Buddy. Every time she spotted one, she exclaimed, "More!"

Surveying the Spoils:

Say, "Ahh."

Easter Sunday Photoshoot:
On Sunday, we had a quick photo session after church.  (That seems to be a good time for photo taking.)  Jellybean picked out her own Easter dress. She insisted on the pink ruffled dress. How did I end up with such a girlie girl? The Easter clip she is wearing was made by me.
She is such a sweetheart and so full of personality.

He is a total ham and refuses to do a normal smile for the camera. I had to promise a treat to get these photos.

 

This photo melts my heart.  They really love each other.

I hope your Easter weekend was full of fun as well!

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Watch Out for Bunnies!

Just noodling around with a Martha Stewart template and creating some holiday appropriate road signs.
Enjoy!

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

This post is participating in:

What heat will do to you...

It has been hot here. The incessant heat made me think of this video I found through Stumbleupon. I have seen it many, many times. My three year old son regularly requests it. I'm not sure what that says about him...

Enjoy!

Chocolate Bunny from Blink on Vimeo.