odds and ends

This is one of those posts that I need to write before I post what I really want to share, which was Merritt's Peter Rabbit play and his English Tea Party at school today. But I think tonight I will just post these odds and ends and be done with it, as I am exhausted - from what I am unsure, but by the time 9:00 rolls around I am done. And it is 8:53 so this needs to be brief.

What have we been up to lately? LOTS of outdoors time, for sure. This past weekend was a long one for the kids (no school Friday or Monday), and we logged close to 20 hours of outdoor play. It was amazing. We were dirty and tired and exhilarated from being outside. We did yard work, had epic army men battles in the sand box, dragged every toy possible out of the garage, swung on a rope like Indiana Jones from the play structure, rode bikes, played sports with friends, ran around with neighbors and their dogs, got sunburned, and did lots of tick checks. It was like we condensed our entire absent spring into the first sunny warm weekend. And it was awesome.

We have also been attempting to adopt less snacking and more mindful eating with the children. In other words, 3 healthy meals a day and one large snack mid to late afternoon. I have been reading 'French Kids Eat Everything' and have discovered that I am apparently French. Or at least I believe in kids eating what is put in front of them and *gasp* enjoying it. So far, the less snacks 'it's OK to be hungry in between meals' mindset has worked beautifully. I personally stink at it, but my kids rock at it. 

We quickly ate our way through the citrus my parents gave us in Florida. Our last grapefruits were broiled with a crisp mixture on top - YUMMY!

LOTS of art being generated here...no piece of plain white paper is safe.

 Merritt brings several projects home from school to finish...he is quite particular about his creations and they sometimes, well, take a bit longer than everyone else's.

 Here is one of his finished projects for school....

...and another drawing he spontaneously did on his own the other day.

We have been hanging out with buddies,

 and earning cool trophies!

And did I mention we have been eating? Like, a lot?!? The grocery bill is climbing steadily. Active, growing boys! I had to take a picture the other day as I was prepping our veggies for the week. This is ONE WEEK'S worth of vegetables. And besides some spring mix left in that huge container, it was consumed in a week (it got finished off a few days later).

We worked on a fun little project for Merritt's class - the top of Big Ben. Of course, we may have taken it a little over the top. We do love a good art project. But we wanted it perfect for Merritt and his buddies (hmmm....wonder where he gets it from???).

 (here is the finished project...the full Big Ben reveal will be in the next post)

 Easter was early and lovely and thankfully right in the middle of our glorious long weekend. Besides enjoying a wonderful Easter Sunday church service, we also made and painted salt dough eggs, ate too much sugar, got visited by the Easter Bunny (although I think he gets a bit too much credit), and hosted our neighborhood Easter dinner. I failed miserably at taking many pictures, but rest assured we had a fabulous time and, once again, had too much food. But oh the food! It was so wonderful, as was the company and the children running around looking for hidden eggs.

I also just realized that poor Gav has been excluded from this post somehow...these days he cannot be found without a lacrosse stick in his hands, and most of the time, he cannot be found at all! 'Tis spring!