Easter Bunny Time!

Easter season is upon us! The kids began spring break today and, unfortunately, Oliver spends his spring break in Indiana with his father's family. I'm glad he gets to spend time with them and I know it's very special for him, I just always miss to him to pieces when he's gone. Spring break is two weeks long here, which means Oliver will be out of town for Easter this year. Thankfully our town had a little Easter event in the town square this morning and I was able to snap some Easter-y photos with the kids before Oliver left.

The bunnies were such a hit. They were precious!

They also had chicks.

And ducklings!

Violet refused to pose with the Easter bunny. She wouldn't let him hold her and she was basically climbing up my shoulders to get away from him if we went near him. This was the only picture that she didn't look petrified in. Oliver snapped this one for me.

Thrift Thursday

Joshua and I love playing board games together and owning an iPad has totally revolutionized our game time together. We LOVE playing Life on the iPad, but the game is really lacking in some aspects. We've been tossing around the idea of purchasing the physical board game, but it's pretty pricey for a board game and I'm not a fan of the whole credit card system they have in the game now.

This week I was on a hunt for vintage sheets when I came across this beauty...

An original 1960 Game of Life. I figured it was a long shot, but I went ahead and opened the box to check out the board. I assumed there would be missing pieces, but amazingly the game was completely intact! The cars, the little peg people and the dollar bills are all there and in excellent shape!

Josh doesn't love vintage stuff as much as I do so he wasn't as thrilled as I was with the find, but I think he's secretly excited to play the "real" Game of Life with me this weekend! I know I'm excited! The weather has been amazing the past few days, but Saturday is supposed to be rainy and perfect for playing board games!

Tuesday Tunes

This week's tune is brought to you by the very lovely Ingrid Michaelson. I can't get enough of this song lately. Enjoy!

Project 365

I have been keeping up with my Project 365, but I haven't been posting them on here. Shameful! Now that we're all settled into our new home I'll get back into the routine of posting my photos weekly. Until then, these are some of my favorites from the past month or so...

Thing 1 & Thing 2

Last week was Dr. Seuss week at Amelia's school and to celebrate the school invited the parents to dress up and volunteer to help out. I love any opportunity to help out at the preschool and Amelia loves it when I come spend extra time with her at school. Wednesday was crazy hair day, so Amelia and I dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2.

I felt like an idiot in that wig, but we were a hit with the staff and the kids. I thrifted the red t-shirts and made the Thing 1 and 2 patches with felt and fleece I had in my stash. I used Liquid Stitch to hold them together and attach them to the t-shirts and bought the wigs on sale at a local costume shop. The project cost me around $12 and it was worth every penny.

Thursday was pajama day, but I refuse to go out in public in pajamas (huge pet peeve of mine) so I dressed up as the Cat in the Hat and spent a few hours visiting the classrooms and reading to the kiddos.

The hat and bow were bought at the costume shop (also half off, yay!) and I whipped up the tail in under 5 minutes and drew on whiskers with some eyeliner. I had such a great time! Motherhood is a wonderful excuse to dress up and be silly!

My Natural Life #1

Since moving into our new home I have completely changed my thinking on the things I put into and onto my body and my family's bodies. I have switched us over to a 90% whole food diet and have slowly but surely been replacing our hygiene products with all natural products. I'm not willing to throw away perfectly good food or other items, so we're using up the old stuff and replacing it with the new, natural stuff. 

Shampoo and conditioner are two things we go through pretty quickly around here so it was one of the first hygiene product replacements I made. The first set I tried is the Lavender shampoo and condition from Whole Food's 365 brand. 

This stuff is all natural, smells great and is quite cheap so it was my first choice. I purchased the shampoo, conditioner and body lotion. I skipped the shower gel because I'm a bar soap kind of gal. After about a week of using the shampoo and conditioner I was miserable. My hair was disgusting, tangled and completely unmanageable. The shampoo doesn't contain any lathering agents, so I had a really hard time getting my thick hair clean with it. I started to notice my hair brush getting gunky because my hair was so oily that lint and dust from the my clothes, my bed and just the air were beginning to stick to my hair. Josh wasn't fond of the shampoo either so I decided we weren't even going to finish the bottle. Now, I've read some great reviews of this product online, so I wouldn't advise against it, but I just don't think it works for everyone or all hair types.

I did some research before making my next purchase. I wanted a natural shampoo that had some lather to it and rinsed clean. I decided to give Nature's Gate a try.

I bought the herbal scented shampoo and conditioner and have been pleased so far. I have been using it for three weeks now and I'm not experiencing any of the unpleasant symptoms the 365 shampoo/conditioner was giving me. This does cost more than the 365 shampoo/conditioner, but it's worth it! It's still less than the name brand conventional shampoos and conditioners that are loaded with icky gunk I really don't want to be slathering on my head every other day.

Pictured on top of my shampoo and conditioner is my bar of soap, but I'll save my soap reviews for my next MNL post.

Tuesday Tunes

Most of our possessions are out of boxes, but now I'm finding piles of things that don't have a home yet. Ah, the many stages of moving and unpacking. I'm spending today catching up on laundry, working on a very Seuss DIY for Seuss week at Amelia's school next week (photos coming soon!), and listening to this tune. Violet and I are loving to dance to this song! I find it even more endearing that the lyrics were written by kids and then the songs are performed by professional musicians. Awesome.

App-Tastic!

Hooray for new features! We don't purchase a ton of apps for our iPad or iPod Touch, but when we do purchase an app and ends up being awesome, I like to share this information. It's nice knowing the $.99+ is money well spent.

The first app I want to share is Toca Hair Salon by Toca Boca. This was one of the very first apps I downloaded for the kids and it has been a complete and utter hit. It costs $1.9, but it's so worth it. I originally downloaded this for Amelia since a hair salon game seemed right up her alley, but Oliver has enjoyed this game just as much as Millie. Both kids have played this app for than any other app I've downloaded.

Kiddos can choose from six different clients whose hair they can cut, shave, color, wash, blow dry and more. Josh and I have even played with this app. The game is (in my opinion) awesome visually and inspires creativity. My kids have proven the replay-ability (totes a word) of this app over the past 7 months.

If you want to give it a spin without investing the $1.99, Toca Boca put out a free, very similar app at Christmas: Toca Hair Salon - Christmas Gift. In this app you can style Santa's beard and a Christmas tree -- for free!

We love Toca Boca apps in this family so look forward to my next App-tastic! posts also covering some of our favorite Toca Boca apps.

UGH!

Moving has been so ugh. It's been an unusual move with circumstances unlike any move I've experienced before, which has really thrown me for a loop. 

Normally I get all my stuff moved in one, I'm fully unpacked within three days and life resumes by the fourth day. We've been in our new home almost two weeks and I'm still unpacking and we still have a few belongings scattered around in storage and at my mother-in-law's house. Having half of your possessions with you and half in storage has been frustrating to say the least.

On top of all that weirdness, Violet and I became very ill last week. We came down with croup (thankfully no one else in the family caught it!) and spent a solid week looking like this:

I managed to do a lot of unpacking despite my condition, but Violet also being sick put a huge damper on my progress. 

Since I'm always looking for a bright side, the good thing about having so much of your life in storage for a few months is that you really get a new perspective on what you need and what you just hold on to for no apparent reason. I've donated over 20 bags and boxes of clothes, toys and miscellaneous items to a local charity during that move, which is a win-win for everyone, especially since we've downsized from a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house to a 2 bedroom, 1 bath duplex. 

Tuesday Tunes

I'm slowly easing back into my blogging routine! I know this song is virtually everywhere right now, but it has been lodged in my brain for weeks. Enjoy!