Easter at Oma and Opa's

The kids and I road tripped back to Odell to spend Easter with Oma, Opa, Auntie Liz, and cousins.  Poor dad stayed back home, as he had to work, which was disappointing and yet unavoidable. Regardless, we trekked to the Bures farm for an Easter weekend of family festivities.  

With lots of room to explore, a nifty playscape, and animals to feed, the farm is a lively place to visit.  But when cousins are in town, double the fun is a guarantee.  These kids played sun up till sun down!

Our weekend festivities included Easter egg dying, an Easter egg hunt in Odell, dance contest, roller skating, family Easter egg hunt, and an early birthday celebration for Amelia.  With so much action our stay zipped by at lighting speed.  The result was a jovial, memory making weekend, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord!  

Snow Day in April?!?!

Ugh!  

We have snow in April.  

Snow is like the holidays, 

charming and welcome during a certain time of the year,

irritating and obnoxious when out of season.

However, kids have this enduring quality of making the best out of a seemingly dreary situation.  In our case, the kids built a ginormous fort in the basement, with secret tunnels, corridors, passageways, and chambers.  They played the blizzard away in a make-believe world I sometimes wish I could join!

   

Happy 14th Anniversary to us!

Next year is a big one, 15 years, although hard to believe, as life just seems to be trotting along at a brisk pace these days. For now I am happy to say we celebrated 14 years of wedded bliss (for the most part) this past April 13th.  As I reflect on our shared years I understand just how lucky we are to have each other! The great adventure called "life" is best shared with your best friend, who is always supremely adept at helping one "keep it real"! 

Love ya Shane!

Cake Wars!!!

The theme for Amelia's 9th birthday party was "Cake Wars".  "Cake Wars" is a show the kiddos adore on the Food Network, and if I am being totally honest, I love it too.  Because Amelia was over the moon excited for this party, she eagerly participated in all party planning aspects and spent days anxiously awaiting for the birthday bash to arrive.  

Just like the show "Cake Wars" this party included three competing teams with two different tasks. Lucky for me Kathy showed up just in the nick of time, because rolling out fondant for 9 cupcakes and 3-three tiered cakes, to be used in our competing tasks, is a laborious process.  Our task themes originated from upcoming April events; the release of the movie "Jungle Book" and Earth Day.  

For our first task participants were gifted a copy of the Jungle Book, which was used for inspiration, as they were asked to make a story book character on a cupcake in less than 20 minutes.  Some cupcakes were super creative and some were not, but everyone seemed very much into the challenge.  Shane and Denny served as judges, playfully teasing participants, leaving party members on the edge of their seats during the decision making process.  Winners received first dibs on choosing one of the 3-three tiered cakes to be used for the second task.

For our second task participants were gifted a copy of "What a Wonderful World" and asked to thumb through pages, seeking creativity for an Earth Day theme, from the colorful pages of this whimful book.  We gave the kiddos 45 minutes for this task and finished cakes included fish, waterfalls, mountains, rainbows, butterflies, trees, oceans, a stars and stripes flag, and planets.  There were so many fun ideas!!!  

In the end judges couldn't decide on a winner, so as a reward, everyone was able to help blow out at least one candle on their cake.

This was a fun party for a fun girl!