Easter Egg Hunt

Our community does an Easter egg hunt for the kids every year. My girls loved it this year! They were so excited for this and had been talking about it for several weeks. The egg hunt for Brooklyn's age group was first. Daddy helped Brooklyn find the golden egg while we waited for it to start. Once they said "go", Aunt Tasha helped Brooklyn run to the golden egg. There are so many people and kids that the egg hunt only lasts for about a minute. She seemed to get the idea of picking up the eggs and prizes this year. Last year she just stood there and watched.

While some of us were over with Brooklyn finishing up her egg hunt, Kyia and Grandma were waiting for her age group to start. As they were walking to find a spot, look what they spotted.

Yep, the golden egg right in front of her with no one around. Everyone was at the other end of the field. She waited for them to start and off she went. She was so excited!

The girls were able to trade in there golden egg for a prize and this is what they got:

I'd say they made out pretty good! When we got home, we dyed easter eggs. I decided to try it a little different this year. I saw a tutorial on dying them with silk and had to try it. I think they turned out really good! They're almost too pretty to eat.

I went to the Goodwill, picked up some 50 cent ties and wrapped them up. The uglier the tie the better I say.

The girls loved unwrapping them to see how the design was going to turn out.

All of our finished eggs. I'll have to do this again next year!

Pickin' Strawberries

Last week I took the girls to go pick some strawberries. The best part was you could eat as many as you wanted off the vine, which the girls took full advantage of. We had a lot of fun and after almost two hours, the girls still didn't want to leave. We filled up our strawberry box and went home with red stained hands and clothes. We love going to these pick your own fruit farms! Braxton decided that he wanted to be held the entire time we were there and I forgot by baby bjorn so I didn't do much picking but it was a lot of fun to watch the girls and spend time with them.

On our way to the strawberry field.

I think they ate more than they actually picked!

(I'm not sure what brooklyn decided to put together and wear on her head but she didn't want to take it off)

So many strawberries to choose from.

On our way home. If you look closely, you can see the strawberries all over Brooklyn's face and shirt.

April Fools

I really fooled my girls this year. I even fooled Mike for that matter. I decided I would make these for dinner:

and then we had this for dessert.

My family was shocked that I would give them cupcakes for dinner, but when they actually starting eating them they quickly found out that they weren't cupcakes at all but meatloaf with mashed potatoes as the frosting. Kyia is not a fan of meatloaf but these she would eat. I guess its all in how it looks. When it came to dessert, they were equally as surprised. What looked like mashed potatoes with gravy, chicken fingers and peas and carrots, was actually ice cream with carmel, cinnamon twists and orange and green tootsie rolls. Pretty tricky huh?

My Three

I'm slowly getting used to the idea of having three kids and adjusting to not saying "my girls" anymore. This handsome little blonde baby boy fits right in with his older sisters. I decided to try and take a few pictures and had about two minutes where they were all cooperating but I think I got a few keepers.

Braxton Michael

On February 24, 2011 we welcomed a new little addition into our family. Braxton Michael Sparks was born at 1:15 p.m. weighing in at 7 lbs. 4 oz and 19 1/4 inches long. He already has us wrapped around his finger. We are in love.

The handsome little man

The girls are doing great and are so excited to have a little brother. He loves all the attention he is getting from them. Kyia is a little mother hen and loves to hold him and help out whenever needed. So far we haven't had any of the jealousy issues I thought we would with Brooklyn. She just loves her little brother and loves to help out. She is pretty protective of him and was not happy with the nurse at the Dr.'s office that had to give him shots. All three kids left in tears. He is pretty content for the most part and I'm slowly adjusting to three all though it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. We are so blessed to have him in our lives and excited for the adventures to come.

Halloween 2010

I decided to make the girls costumes again in much the same way I did last year. Most of it is no sew which was the best part. I decided I wanted to add a few things this year that had to be sewn. My friend Melanie let me borrow her sewing machine and helped me out, thanks Melanie! Kyia was a fairy princess...again. She was this same thing a couple years back and this year I tried to get her to be at least three different things but she had her mind made up. Maybe next year I can get her to try something different. Brooklyn was a scarecrow, it was a different take than the normal scarecrow but I thought it turned out to be really cute. At least people could tell what she was. She was not a fan of the costume at first but seemed to warm up to it quickly. The hat on the other hand was a fight to keep on. Once she started getting candy, she seemed to forget about the hat for a little while. She loved trick or treating and caught on really quickly. The girls got way to much candy but had so much fun this Halloween.

Party Time

August through September is a very busy time for us with some sort of special occasion every 2 weeks. With our anniversary and Brooklyn's, Kyia's, and Mike's birthdays all two weeks apart, I keep really busy. This year we decided to throw a birthday party into the mix. Kyia turned 5 back on September 5th. We went back and forth on the theme several times before eventually settling on a pirate theme. I think it turned out pretty well and the kids loved it! We decorated pirate hats, went on a treasure hunt, played a few games and made oceans in a bottle. We definitely stayed busy! Kyia and I had fun making the invitations and thinking of pirate themed games. I might just have to use this idea again for the future!

The invitations

The "crew" and the yummy cupcakes