Painting Bunnies and Kite Flying

Painting is such a relaxing hobby. I often hold my breath while painting. Not on purpose. I really notice that I do it when painting very intricate details. After my brush is up off of the paint surface, that's when I hear myself let out a great.big.breath. My inner peace breathing.

I was able to "slow things down" a bit this week when I painted some fun bunny art. Yes, all of this in my "down" time. I am in charge of games and crafts for Laney's Nursery School Easter party (tomorrow), so I painted a Pin The Tail On The Bunny. I had some scrap canvas that was perfect for this job! And for the tails? I glued stick strips onto cotton balls! I hope the children have a hoppy time!

And I found these cute beach pails and shovels for $1 each at Michael's! I just added each child's name (I had to write "correctly", which was difficult because I always make crazy letters). The children will use these to collect their eggs during their hunt at school. And look who will be sporting some fun bunny t-shirts? It's always fun to paint for my babies! They will be wearing these non-stop until Easter! Ha!

The weather has been absolutely AMAZING today (mid 70's)! Jon, Emily, Laney, and cousins Megan and Madison had a grand time flying kites this evening! Jon's sister, Suzanne, Henry and I (along with their dog and our dog) cheered them on! Here I am "a la natural" with my sweet baby boy! I cannot even count how many times his sweet cheeks are kissed a day!

Happy Wednesday!

Easter Prep and Some Nursery School Art

Spring is here and boy oh boy are we preparing! It's a crazy busy week; as a result, I fueled up early!!

Jon put down new "spring" mulch!

Laney helped clean up a few stray leaves!

The girls put Mr. Quack on display!

I added a bit of color to our front porch urns in honor of our annual Easter Egg Hunt that will be held this Saturday.

The children's Easter buckets are ready to be filled. (Emily's pretty fabric Easter basket was ripped and had grass stains after our first annual egg hunt; therefore, these cheap buckets are perfect. I added fun name tags to each child's bucket!)

I've been stuffing plastic Easter eggs!

I've been working on a few painting projects as well.

I love Spring and cannot wait for our wonderful Easter weekend!

On a painting note...Laney's teacher asked me to create some artwork with the Nursery School class, so this morning I painted with them! Laney was so happy that her mama was at school with her! Laney and cousin Madison creating. Laney (in her trash bag smock) showing the other children my artwork. And finally, Laney's finished thumb print bunnies! After painting with fourteen Nursery School kiddos, I baked and iced 4 dozen cookies for tonight's last session of gymnastics! Wow! This girl is ready for a little bunny snooze! ;)

Dancing King

My sweet baby Henry is growing up! He claps, shakes his head "NO" until he falls down (entertaining his sisters) and now this! (He soooo gets this from his daddy! Ha!)

Beach Baby

Eight days at the beach. Eight days full of sun, sand, water and warm temperatures. Eight days of relaxing. I wasn't even around a computer and and the battery on my cell phone died. Eight days living and creating family memories. Jon's parents and sister and her family vacationed with us this year, making our vacay even more special!

Here's Jon's mom (AKA Grammie) with Emily and cousin Megan. All of the children enjoying Florida!Henry had many firsts this year...checking out the pool water upon arrival. Sand. Pool time. Needless to say, he loved it all!

Pool time was a huge hit for all of the kids. Here are Laney and cousin Madison in their matching pool attire! Jon's dad (AKA Papa Larry) with all 5 grandkids! Beach time wasn't too shabby either!One morning we all drove out to Sanibel Island to shell. The girls collected bags of them, but only a selected handful made it home. (I have a large glass vase that houses shells from our yearly Florida vacays.) While shelling, about eight dolphin friends entertained us! It was stunning!

At Sanibel, we always stop and eat breakfast at Island Cow, an adorable little cottage restaurant. They serve the most AMAZING muffins! Our 2010 beach vacation was a wonderful break from every day life. Now that we are back home, our washer and dryer have been running nonstop, as well as our iron. We've also been cleaning up the 25 pounds of sand that we drug home! I've been cold since our plane reached Indiana. Boo hoo! Although it's back to reality, I will dream of sand between my toes, the sound of ocean waves, long runs on the beach, wine and cheese Thursdays, tiki bar music, wild beach hair, not cooking one single meal letting my girls dress themselves and not worrying a bit about it, and vacation laughs. I love the beach..Cheers to a fabulous Johnson 2010 beach vacay!

It's Spring...Go Green

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone!

My maiden name is Irish; therefore, it's always fun to celebrate the little mischievous leprechaun in me! Ha!

Now that St. Patty's Day is here, I can officially start planning our annual Easter Egg Hunt! Five years ago, our family decided to host an egg hunt for our friends and family. It's grown over the years and it is extremely special because everyone who attends is dear to me! Here are a few pictures from last year's hunt.

The Easter Bunny (AKA our babysitter, Carly) is ready to start the egg hunt!!!!

Ready...Set...Go!We rope off a huge part of our "yard". We keep the grass tall, so those eggs are hidden in the tufts!Our family photo with the bunny!We have refreshments, games and prizes for all! Here are some of the parents ready for their sack race competition! I love this next picture! (And it's not Jon and me on the ground!) I love this picture because you could hear the two that fell just laughing and laughing, while their girls looked on! So much fun!Off to start stuffing plastic eggs. I will stuff one dozen PERSONALIZED eggs for each child! And, if you get a chance...grab a pillowcase and try a sack race down your hallway, driveway, etc. with your spouse...it's harder than you think, but will give you a great laugh!