Easter! {better late than never?}

Oh geez I am always behind.
I keep saying I want keep up on my blogging but the truth is, I will always be playing catch with these two little girls keeping me on my toes.

With First birthday celebration prep in full force why not finally share our easter? :)

The Friday before Easter we went to the local bontaical gardens for their easter day. Holy, who knew out town got so into Easter? Luckily I got the time wrong & we got there earlier because litterly there were HUNDREDS of people lined up outside down & around the street. NUTS.

My mom thankful came with to take on the day with the girls. Outings like this alone by myself  make me sweat. {shout out to the single parents of two little ones, shits hard.}

kennedy designed her own bag :)

sister didnt put down this egg all day! she picked it up & by golly it was HERS.

oh come on mom.

Then on our Saturday they had a Easter egg hunt at the park.
I was pretty bummed this weekend that I had to do this stuff alone {which is normal cause of brandons work schedule but it sucks during fun holiday stuff like this} so my parents came along to this too!
In theory it seemed great. It was broken down into age groups ect.
Well the parents were about ridiculous {you could win a bike} & TRAMPLED kennedy. She was bawling & when we finally got her warm up & there was barely anything left kennedy went for a egg a MAN took it, even tho he saw her going for it! We walked away with one egg & some candy :)

scared.

the girls & I!

Then finally EASTER!
I grew up getting Easter bunny prints on my floor, before it was the total rage from pintrest {cough AP } & this was our first year doing it! We had the best day.

the perfect first Easter for this girl!

NOM, PEEPS.

Easter hunting at Nana & Papas

my mom litterly got them WAGONS full of stuff Easter. 

more easter baskets from Aunt Tiffany!

It was the truly the most perfect First Easter as a family of 4.

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Spring!

Ah Spring.

Isn't it wonderful? All that warmth, green sprouting up, birds chirping.....

yeah NOT. There is 5 inches of snow on the ground & its a good 15 degrees out.

While the outside is freezing, we are willing spring inside!

We have had a lot going on in our little family, that I will share about once we know more.

We are making the best out of our down time & here is what we have been up to!

While Kensley was napping, Kennedy & I got some quality time together & decorated eggs with the dye she picked out all by herself, glitter eggs; of course :)

Side note: DO NOT OVER BOIL EGGS, THEY WILL EXPLODE.

Writing sissy a message on her egg.

so proud!

 Daddy hasn't had a day off in awhile, so when we had him on a Sunday we pulled out all the Easter stops.

Which of course includes MORE egg dying.

Can you ever really dye too many eggs?



such a dork. when the girls look back at our photo books they are gonna think, really dad? you've been this big a dork my WHOLE life ;)



Such a great idea, Kennedy was having a awful time with egg dippers. Wire wisk FTW.

Sister just sat back & took it all in.

Next year she will have little dyed finger tips just like bug!

Daddy wrote a little love note for Mommy on his egg! :)

At one point we lost the wisk & just used our fingers ;)

& what Easter shenanigans wouldn't include Peter Cottontail?

Both the girls' first time watching!

Kennedy picked this out for daddy all by herself.

I bought these cool sprinkle stencils for sugar cookies, total FAIL.

These things DO NOT work. haha

At the end of the day, we decided a visit to the easter bunny was due.

Yeah, did not happen. I thought Kennedy may have a problem. We didn't really even think about Kensley. Kensley screamed like a crazy person. I was HILAROUS.

We did however stop & do something else...

Can you spot it?

Sister got her ears pierced!

She was so proud!

She was little older than I would have liked. Kennedy was 7 months. But it ended up being perfect; & she did perfect!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We are excited about family, yummy food & lots of eggs hunts! :)

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Toddler Learning: Letters

Ive had lots of emails & comments about the things I do with Kennedy for "school"

I decided to post so everyone can see & do too if you want!

All of this is stuff I learned in school {i studied early childhood development} & was a pre school teacher for many years, or off website I have found while googling {ei: toddler fine moto skill activites, toddler montessori ect.}

I will try to post one every Friday. Some maybe Montessori inspiried some may not!

I really believe that we are our childs bigget teachers.

Did you know the first 5 years of a child life the most rapid? & the brain grows by 85%?{,- read that link} That alone, since the girls, mostly kennedy for right now; aren't in daycare I knew I needed to step in.

This first one is a mix of letters, colors & shapes.

What you will need:

-Smock, old t-shirt, or like us just go shirtless ;)

-I used these dot worksheets from Tot School, you can always make your own; I donated to the nice momma for making these for all to use! She also has lower case.

-Dot-a-Dots art set

Benefits:

-Right now we are working on recongition of ABC.

- COLOR: I have her use whatever color I write on the bottom

-SHAPES: the dots are circles, talk about that!

-COUNTING: this is optional, I encourage her to count the circles while she doting

-FINE MOTOR SKILLS: this isnt for all, depending on skills of your tot, screwing & unscrewing the dot-a-dot caps!

First, Show your toddler how do it. Doting just a few for them.

Then let them take over.

Just remember, there is no certain way to do this.

They are learning, so they dont have to do it in order.

They will also be learning the pressure. The harder they push, the most paint comes out & vice versa!

If they can't unscrew the cap, dont worry.

Its a toughy to learn!

Show them how you do it everytime you take it off & put it back on!

& have them try!

They will get it soon enough!

If you found this helpful, please feel free to PIN this for others to use as well!

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