Friday, April 29, 2011

Friday Randomness

One of my friends started doing a post to recap her week by posting pictures from her cell phone.
I thought it was a fun idea so I am totally copying her.
Here's a glimpse at my week through the super cool hipstamatic lens of my iphone.

Mackenzie got a new pair of super cool sunglasses.
She now takes them e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. we go.
We finally took Wesley to his 18 month old well check appointment.
He's 22 months old.
Opps.
Good thing he is healthy!

New shipment of coffee from Brazil arrived.
Living in Brazil has totally made us coffee snobs.
Nothing but the real stuff will do.

New sandals
plus pretty toes
make ugly bunion scared feet a little less ugly.

Our car has been blasting this awesome new kids CD we got.
Mackenzie had her 2nd swim lesson which she was so.so.so. excited for.

She did awesome!

It's official.
My kids like to play with everything except their toys.
This week their favorite game was pretending their toy boxes were car seats.

We most definitely made a stop at Baskin Robbins to enjoy our 31 cent scoops of ice cream.

Little man decided to empty the entire contents of 2 drawers during his time out.
Good times.

Hope you guys had an awesome week!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Maternity leave

Madelyn is coming in 3 weeks or less
and I'm so.not.ready.
I'm definitely going to need the next couple of weeks to get ready for our baby girl (and to rest up before all the sleepless nights)
so I've decided to go on a little maternity leave.

Lu Bird Baby will be closed from next Friday, May 6th until June 6th
so be sure to get all of your orders in soon!

Maybe you have been eying a tie or bowtie onesie for your little man or an upcoming baby shower...

or you have been waiting to get your hands on a one of a kind vintage lace hair clip/brooch.
Don't wait any longer!

We also have tons of cute headbands for those of you with baby girls

and fun felt food sets that will keep your little chef entertained for hours.
Plus lots and lots of other goodies for you and your kiddos.

Pop on over to my shop to take a peek :)

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

What I Wore

Hey Guys!
Can you believe it's Wednesday again...already!
The days are just flying by.
Only a couple more weeks and Madelyn will be here!
I'm so excited to meet her yet not totally ready for the reality of a 3rd child.

Anyways, here are my weekly accountability pictures :)
Oh, how I can't wait to be out of maternity clothes!

top- Target maternity
jeans- Old Navy maternity
flats- Naturalizers

later that night I went on a little girl's night out that my friends put together to celebrate Madelyn's upcoming arrival

top-Target
jeggings- Forever 21
boots- Cathy Jean
belt- vintage
necklace- Nordstroms

top- H&M
jeans- Old Navy maternity
shoes- vintage

top- Old Navy
jeans- H&M maternity
boots- Cathy Jean

teal tank- Old Navy
cardigan- Target
jeans- H&M maternity
boots- Cathy Jean
necklace- Forever 21

magenta dress- H&M
boots- Cathy Jean
necklace- Walmart

top- Walmart
jeans- Old Navy maternity
sandals- Target

tank- Old Navy maternity
jeggings- Forever 21
sandals- Target

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter 2011

I hope you guys had as awesome of an Easter as we did.
It was a jam packed, crazy busy but super fun weekend!
In fact, I think I am still recovering from it.
We spent lots of time celebrating Jesus' death and resurrection, hanging out with friends and family and going to a zillion Easter egg hunts.

Oh and I thought I should report that the kids loved the Easter story visual I made for them!
I was so happy it worked out and the kids were into it.
Hopefully it helped teach them the real meaning of Easter because we sure got enough Easter eggs to totally confuse them into thinking Easter is all about candy.

Here are some pictures from our Easter celebrations...
enjoy!

Friday we went to an Eggstravaganza with my MOPS group.
They had bounce houses, yummy snacks, crafts,

face painting,
and of course an Easter egg hunt!

The kids loved hanging out with their friends
and getting to play with all the fun stuff.


Aaron was even able to come with us which made it extra fun and so much less stressful.
I'm pretty sure I may have lost a kid in the madness if I didn't have him around to help.
I love my husband!

Then, later that day I went to my parents house where my sweet mom and dad hid a ton of eggs for the kids and surprised them with all kinds of Easter goodies.

They are totally spoiled :) and well loved by my parents...
I'm not sure what I or we would do without them!

Then on Saturday our Community group from church hosted an Easter egg hunt for our neighbors.

It was so much fun and we had a great turn out!

Mackenzie's favorite part was definitely the bounce house we had.
I think she was in it for 3 hours straight.

And of course we got more candy and eggs.

Then on Easter Sunday we went to church and then to my aunt and uncles house to hang out with all my cousins and family.
Did I ever tell you that I pretty much have the best family ever.
We always have so much fun when we are together!

Aaron was even able to start teaching Wesley how to be a master ping pong champion
(which my family always plays when we get together).
We had a great time celebrating Easter.

Hope you guys had a happy Easter too!

Jenny and Teddy Creations winner!!

And the two lucky winners
who will receive 3 crochet patterns of your choice are...
Anne and Jenni!

Congratulations!

Email me to claim your prize!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Oh Happy Day!

He has RISEN!
He has risen indeed!
Hallelujah!

Hope you have an awesome Easter Day celebrating the victory Jesus had over sin and death and reflecting on the free gift of eternal life He has made available to you.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Teaching our kids about Easter

As much as we love going to Easter egg hunts and eating chocolate bunnies
I want my kids to know that Easter has nothing to do with plastic eggs, candy or giant people dressed in bunny suits.
And I desperately want them to know that it has everything to do with one god man named
Jesus.
That Easter is about the death, burial, and glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

For a couple weeks now I have been brainstorming something special to do with the kids to teach them about Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.
Something that would help bring the Easter Story to life.
And for a couple weeks now I have come up with absolutely nothing.
Or at least nothing cool enough to do.
Then I saw this post.
I loved the idea behind it but since me and gardening don't really get along I decided to switch things up a little bit.

I started by making the cast of characters.
This year I decided to just make Jesus and a Roman solider but I may continue to add some more people as the kids get older.

To keep things simple, I made my little guys out of clothespins, pip cleaners, felt, and ribbon.

Here's a quick run down on how to make a clothespin man:

Use some markers to color a face and some hair on the clothespin and then wrap the pipe cleaner around the torso to make some arms.

Then cut a long rectangle out of felt, fold it in half and cut a half circle from the center to make the top of the tunic.

picture of the tunic opened up

Slip the tunic over your man's head and tie a piece of ribbon around his waist for a belt.

Easy peasy.

Next I gathered a few accessories for Jesus.
I made a little crown of thorns out of felt and grabbed a couple thumb tacks to use as nails.

Jesus testing out the crown of thorns

I happened to have a foam cross laying around (you can find these at Michaels or Walmart) so I grabbed that and added some brown marker to make it look more like wood.

I cut some strips of felt out and colored on them with red marker to make the strips of linen Jesus would have been covered with before he was put in the tomb.

*The strips of linen in the Easter story are really clean when put on Jesus but I wanted something to show the blood that Jesus shed for us on the cross so I added some "blood" to the strips of felt. I'm pretty sure when the strips of linen were wrapped around Jesus they got bloody too.

I also whipped up a little Roman guard complete with a sword and a shield.

So here's the plan of what we are going to do:

Friday morning (Good Friday) Aaron and I are going to read the story about Jesus' crucifixion to the kids from their Children's Bible.
Then we are going to take Jesus' clothes off, put on his crown of thorns and nail him to the cross all while talking to the kids about the sacrifice Jesus made for us by dying on the cross.

I want to talk to them about the unkind things the people did to Jesus (they hit him, mocked him, etc.), how the cross would have been very painful and how Jesus didn't do anything to deserve death. I want to tell them how he died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins because he loves us so much.

I'm thinking I should have rethought the smile I put on Jesus' face.
Whoops.

Then later that night we will take Jesus off the cross and wrap him in the strips of linen (i.e. felt).

Then we will read the part of the story about Jesus' burial.

We will take Jesus outside and place him in a tomb made of rocks from our garden

and place the Roman guard in front of the tomb.

Then on Sunday morning (Easter) we will go out to the tomb to see that Jesus is gone and has risen from the dead!

*The night before Aaron and I will have taken Jesus out of the tomb and hidden him somewhere else in the house so the kids can search for him and find that Jesus is alive!

My hope and prayer is that this little hands on visual will help to drive home what Easter is really all about. I'm so excited to see how it goes! I love teaching our kids the truth of God's Word!

P.S. This is the Children's Bible we have and love and will be using as we read the Story of Easter to them.

What do you guys do with your family for Good Friday and Easter?