Easter Part 2 - Dinner/Egg Hunt with James' Family

We had James family over for a Easter/Mother's Day dinner.  It was quite lovely.  We had a ton of delicious food.  After dinner James and Jesse set up an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids.

Ready to find some eggs.

She's got her basket.

Annabelle and Siaara

All 4 McRae cousins - Siaara, Annabelle, Ariel,, Asher

Ready for a treat after the hard work of finding all those eggs.

Easter Part 1 - Marshmallow Drop

There was a Marshmallow Drop at the airport.  They said they were going to drop
200 pounds of marshmallows.  The kids had to only get 1 marshmallow,

bring it to this other area and they would get a bag of treats.

 The marshmallows being dropped from the helicoptor.
You really can't see the marshmallows in the picture, but there is
a little spot right below the helicoptor.

The mad dash to find a marshmallow.

Success!  James and Annabelle got 4 marshmallows -
1 for each of the girls and they gave away 2.

Excited about her treats.

There were a ton of people there.  We were lucky to get a treat bag because we had heard that there were only 500 treat bags.  Luckily for the girls they have a competitive daddy.  I struggle with being competitive so I am not sure they would have gotten anything if it were just me.

Half Way

*I don't really do pregnancy posts but I thought the half way mark deserved a little attention*

Today I am 20 weeks pregnant.  It feels like it has gone by pretty quickly despite the severe and sometimes intense sickness I (and my family) had to deal with.
I feel like I am pretty much in the clear now.  Once in awhile at night I will feel a little nausous, but its not all day and I'm not actually getting sick.
Here I am at 20 weeks.  I really wish I had taken pictures before so I could compare. 

I have gained a total of 12 pounds, but 5 of that was getting back the weight I lost while being sick.  So 7 pounds doesn't sound as bad.  I am still able to wear my own pants comfortably because as you can see in the picture the baby is quite high. 

We had another ultrasound yesterday and we were again told that we are having a little girl. Since we have confirmation that we are having a girl I don't really need to keep our name a secret.  I won't post it on here, but if you see me and want to know I will tell you.  We just aren't name-secret-keepers over here. 
(I actually told as many people as I could Annabelle's name because so many people were pregnant at that time that I  wanted to make sure they knew that was my name.)

Maybe I will do another post in 10 weeks or so. 



Bathroom Update

I have been wanting a new bathroom floor since about the second day we moved into the condo.  Well nearly 6 years later my dream came true! 
I decided to do the sticky tiles because
*I didn't want to spend so much time on real times
*Laminate is not recommended for bathrooms
*Linoleum was reasonable, but the installation was pricier than I wanted to spend

That left us with the sticky tiles.  I was pretty sure that I could install these all by myself.
I measured the square footage of the bathroom. 
Bought the tiles.
Got the floors ready for laying them.
Put down a few and realized that my bathroom wasn't totally straight.
A quick call to Grandpa Pete and I was on my way.
He took off the trim and helped me find the best starting point. 
I did quite well if I do say so myself!
I called him back when I got stuck on some corners.
He removed the toilet and did under there.
He also sanded my trim and re-stained it.

I was fortunate enough to have some great helpers!

My bathroom looks like a whole new room.
I just need some new rugs and something on the wall.

This is a before of the bathroom floor.  An up-close shot shows the linoleum we have been living with.  Although it looks dirty it is actually really clean.  This is as clean as I can get it.  See why I wanted a floor with less grooves?

The girls loved being in the closet.  It was especially fun when that is the area I was working on.

Annabelle was very into measuring and helping.

She was so into it that she took the scrapes and laid them in the kitchen. 
She took the paper off the back so they would actually stick.
Fortunately it is not permanent right away - you have a chance to fix it.
I thought it was pretty cute that she did this.

The finished floor!  I love it.  It turned out great and I think it looks really good.

As you can see I need some new rugs.  These have been up in the closet and I knew they were blue so that is why I went with the blue paint.  Apparently I did not remember the intensity of the blue.

I registered for these when we got married.  Looks like my tastes have changed although I am not so sure that this blue was ever my taste. 

Easter

Easter is coming! 

I believe it is our responsibility as parents to make sure (even at a young age) that our children know what the true reason for Easter is. 

Usually I will read the Easter story many times.  We use this book.  There is more than our girls need to understand the story so we skip some of it .

This year I am going to make my own Resurrection Eggs.  I love this idea.  I feel like it is a great hands-on way for kids to talk about the Easter story. 
I saw them for sale for close to $20 and then I saw this website.  They have directions for making your own resurrection eggs.  I am pretty sure that I have 90% of all the items that I need, plus if you will remember I have an abundance of plastic eggs.  I plan to get that together this weekend and use it all next week.
If you don't know what Resurrection eggs are plastic eggs filled with different items that represent parts of the Easter story: 
Oyster crackers  - represent the last supper
Nail - represents Jesus being nailed to the cross

Another fun thing I found that I really want to do and also share with the preschool Sunday School class I teach is Easter Jelly Bean Prayer.  I think this will be a great thing to send home with the children.  They will want to eat the jelly beans and also talk about what each color represents.

I found this great idea.  I probably won't do it this year because I think the disappearance of the marshmallow representing Jesus' body might be a little hard for my girls to grasp.  I do love the idea and will keep it in my files for another year.

I also found this great idea, but again I don't think I will get around to it this year.  These are Resurrection Cookies.  If I get organized I would love to do this. 

While we feel that teaching the girls what Easter is about, we also like to do the other things that are often associated with Easter. 
We will hide eggs filled with candy for the girls to find
We will give the girls Easter baskets with treast in them (and let me tell you how super cute their flower baskets are)
We will color eggs
We are also planning on going to the Marshmallow Drop that will be going on at the Park Township Airport.

What are some things your family does for Easter?

Michal

I have this really great sister in law.  She has a blog which I love to read.  I feel like I have gotten to know her so well through it.
Anyway the other day she had this post and in it she included this:

Jessica: You're a tremendously good teacher. With the increasingly deteriorating educational system that we're apparently facing it'd be a blessing to hundreds of lives and to the educational system itself for you to acquire a full time teaching job. I know it's your dream and it doesn't make a ton of sense that you've yet to land the position and I know it's belittling to see all the others who've been accepted while you're still trucking away with the migrant kids. But I praise the Lord that you follow Him, that you know His way is perfect and that you willingly submit to His way despite how odd it may seem at times. I'm certain that you're in the perfect place. I see so many teacher moms who take their kids to daycare for tremendous lengths of time 5 days a week. Those moms are great and they love their kids but they're also missing out on the amazing things that you do with your girls every single day. Your children are going to be superiorly special because of the time that you've spent with them while not being a "full time" teacher. I believe you know this but I just had to say it. Additionally it's funny how God works. There might be one migrant kid, just one who's life you NEED to be a part of. For such a time as this and for just one this might be perfect timing. I don't know if we'll ever know God's reasons for certain things but just think you might be drastically changing a life that otherwise would have suffered beyond comprehension. I commend you for a job well done.

(She didn't put it in pink because that is totally not her style but I did because I wanted it to stand out)



I love that she took the time to notice things about me and write them down for me to read.  An added bonus is that it is on her blog so I can go back and read it any time I need a little encouragement.

All Grown Up

This summer we will have been married for 6 years.
This past week our bedroom finally got decorated.
We started out with a very simple (boring) khaki comforter.
It was very comfortable, but needed to be cleaned at the laundromat.
I never really wanted to go to the laundromat so we switched to out comforter that we were going to use for a guest room.
We never used the comforter because we needed the room for our baby.
So we put this stripy full size comforter on our queen size bed.
Then my birthday came along and I thought that it would be a nice idea to ask for new bedding.
My mom bought me a great set from overstock.com.
Then she bought me curtains.
Then she painted my bedroom.
Then my dad hung this mirror that we bought with money from our wedding (we never hung it because we just never felt like it was secure).
Then I put the bedding on the bed.
And this is what a grown up bedroom looks like!!!!!!

I am getting night lights for the sides and getting rid of that tall thing in the corner.

We are also getting new carpet.

I am loving my new room.  It is so cozy and pretty!