Easter Morning

Before I blog about our wonderful Easter, I just want to say how grateful I am for our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love to celebrate Easter, celebrating that our Savior atoned for our sins and that He died and resurrected so that we will all also resurrect. I love how all things testify of Him-- a dormant seed that comes to life, a butterfly that emerges from a cocoon, how winter turns to spring! I am so grateful for our Savior.

























We had a wonderful Easter morning. What could be more thrilling than getting baby chicks? The pictures say more than I can say.

Coloring Eggs with Vegetable Dyes!

Today we colored our Easter eggs. For fun, we decided to do something different. We made our own dyes from vegetables! Only a couple days ago, while at Whole Foods, I found a little handout explaining how to do it! You can make yellow from tumeric, blue from red cabbage, green from mixing those two, red from beets, and purple from blueberries. All of the dyes were made from 1 quart of water, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, and then about 4 cups of each fruit/vegetable. With the tumeric, you only need 3 tablespoons. The girls helped me chop the veggies. Then, we had to boil each veggie with the vinegar for around 30 minutes. To make green, I boiled the eggs in the tumeric to make yellow, then I put the yellow eggs in the red cabbage dye. I was surprised how green it came out! The girls had a lot of fun, even though Ceci got a little crazy and was dipping everyone's eggs in all the colors. I was just wiping spills constantly! But in the end, we all had some nice eggs. The beet dye was gorgeous, but once the egg had been pulled out and dried, it was more brown than red. The blue from the red cabbage was very pale but so pretty! The purple was more gray than purple from the blueberries. The tumeric made a rich mustard yellow. I don't know how we got this very purple looking one-- I think it was in the beet dye for a bit?! I really like how this palette turned out, though! Very fun experience.




Our Hand-Made Bunnies



We worked on these all week, but now that it was Easter eve, we wanted to have them done so we worked on them until they were finished. We got the instructions from Living Crafts magazine, which we love. We made them from wool felt and blanket-stitched them. We stuffed them with wool, too! I made Ceci's and Bella and Lala made their own! I think they came out great, and I am so proud of them! Sweet Easter Bunnies!

Oh, and here are our finished chicks and eggs!

Ceci's 3rd Birthday

Today was Ceci's 3rd birthday. I have NO IDEA how these 3 years went by so fast. They are the fastest 3 years of my life! How I cherish and adore my little Ceci. How I love her! She is such a fun little baby to have and so funny and cute!
We started our day by having a delicious late breakfast at our favorite breakfast place--Heirloom Bakery in South Pasadena. We got some desserts to share and sang "Happy Birthday" to Ceci (for the first time!)

Afterwards, we drove to Olvera Street. We love to go there and we thought it would be a fun place to hang out for the day. We also needed to go there to get some new dresses for the girls for Easter! I LOVE Mexican clothing and I had in mind just what I wanted. When we got there, Ceci had fallen asleep. So I took the older girls and we went to find our dresses. After a bit of browsing we found exactly what I was hoping to find.

I believe they are called "Cinco de Mayo" dresses and they are BEAUTIFUL! I actually bought them at a store where I remember my mom and my grandma buying things from. And I even got myself a blouse to match with the girls. By the time we were done, little Ceci had woken up. We all met up again and enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere for a while. We then went back to the same store to try a dress on Ceci. She loved it so much, she didn't want to take it off!! And she looked liked such an angel in it! But we did finally get it off of her. At one point, she was in just a diaper which was hilarious!

We then went and got some churros. They were delicious! You can get them filled with crema, dulce de leche, and fresa. YUM. We shared one of each. We then went up to the plaza and heard some cumbia music--we danced for a little while. We then went back to the shops and Bella and Lala each got a fan and Ceci got a little flute.


















By this time, it was time for dinner. We went to our very favorite--"La luz del dia" for carnitas. They are the best!

After this it was time to go-- (Craig and I had a secret errand to run with the Easter Bunny.) On our way out, Ceci got to talk to Grandma Ginny on the phone which I thought made a really cute picture. On our drive home, we got to see a rainbow! It had been kinda gloomy all day, but then the sun came out and made this lovely treat! It felt so appropriate for Ceci's birthday!

After our errand, we went to our local bakery, "Perfectly Sweet" where we got a strawberry shortcake and sang to Ceci again. Then we went home where she opened her present of a new set of colorful blocks. She and her sister LOVED them! Happy Birthday to my sweet, baby Cecilia!

So Cute!

Today Bella and Olivia had their art class at the Armory. So I wandered old town with Ceci instead of my usual grocery shopping. I got this picture that I thought was so cute! By the way, there are cupcakes in the box, which is probably the reason for the smile!



















So the girls started their Spring Armory class today. They are now in the same class-- drama. They are so excited and they both loved it!

Home School Easter Party

Today was our Easter Party with our home schooling friends. What a wonderful day!! (I was super-happy because I'd found out that my pictures were recovered.) Weather-wise it was also a very pretty day. We started by having girl scouts. Today, Daisies and Brownies were combined and they played relay races. After girl scouts, the girls got to do a craft that a mom brought to share-- each painted a wooden tulip that became a refrigerator magnet.

Then we gathered the kids to hear the Easter story which was told very beautifully by one of the moms. While the kids listened, we moms went and hid eggs for a hunt. We had all brought a dozen for each or our kids. After the story, we had the hunt! My older girls took off fast to find their eggs. I got to follow Ceci at her little (almost) 3 year-old pace. She loved finding her eggs. Afterwards, the girls enjoyed opening their eggs together. There was candy, stickers, tattoos etc. It was a very nice party and I'm so thankful for such a wonderful home school group.

WE GOT OUR PICTURES BACK!!!

It cost a pretty penny, but so worth it. I just got the call from drivesavers, and I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYY! I thank Heavenly Father with all my heart and thank you to all those who prayed for us!!!! Yay!! I'm off to sing, dance and jump for joy!!

Planting Strawberries

Today we worked super hard on the worst flower bed in the yard. The dirt in it was very clay and it was chock full of weeds!! We listened to General Conference (which was wonderful!) while working in it. We weeded, hoed, pulled out the really hard chunks of clay and then mixed in two bags of compost. It seriously took us all day. When we felt like the soil was soft and sufficiently tilled, we planted some strawberry starts. By this time, we were gardening at night!! We think it looks pretty good now and we're hoping for a good crop!! By the way, the one plant we left in the middle is a sweet olive tree-- it's not doing too well right now, but we're hoping to help it flourish. Sweet olive has the most wonderful smelling blossom I've ever smelled which is why we planted it!

Felting Eggs & Chicks with our friends

We are so blessed! One day last January, when we were taking our walk, we met some fellow home schoolers!! This family also has 3 daughters-- ages 14, 10, and 7. The youngest is now a very dear friend to Bella. We have lots in common and they started to come to our home school group at the park. It's been fun getting to know them and it was especially fun today to have them over to do a craft with us.

I taught them how to wet felt with wool and soap and water. We made the most adorable eggs and chickies!! We didn't finish 100% because they had to go, but I got a picture anyway. Felting is so much fun and we feel so blessed to have these friends!