Easter Sunday 2016

We had such a good Easter Sunday.  I was a little worried because as per usual, Josh had to work overnight Saturday night.  I knew it was possible he wouldn't be home on Sunday morning for the surprise of Easter baskets and he'd also be sleeping most of the day after working all night meaning he'd miss church.  I know I say it about almost every major holiday, but it really is tough to be away from all of our family.  I prepped the girl's Easter baskets and set everything up the night before.  I get WAY too excited about the thought of Ryan's excitement but when you are a stay-at-home mom, it's the little things in life.

Thankfully, Josh did make it home just as the girls were starting to stir and he was able to witness the finding of the baskets.  Ryan's excitement lived up to my expectations although she was definitely most thrilled about the jelly bean filled eggs and the fact that we let her have some treats for breakfast.  Rory was content to take it all in for her first Easter.  But I will say that both Gumby and Pokey have made excellent teething toys and were the big highlight of her basket.

After, I scrambled around getting myself and the girls ready for church which is absolutely no easy task.  We left the house covered in plastic eggs, fake pink grass, and half eaten jelly beans and made it to church only 10 minutes after the start of the service.  I basically call that on time when you are a mom of two and doing it solo.  It was a beautiful day by Massachusetts in March standards and we were able to spend some time in the backyard playing after church.  It took about 207 pictures for me to finally get a couple of decent ones of the girls in their Easter dresses.  They sure make me work for it these days!

We even got Dad to join us outside for a bit at the end of the afternoon.  I made hamburgers for dinner and we treated ourselves to ice cream from a local creamery for dessert!

It was a beautiful and low key Easter and we were so thankful to celebrate together as a family of four.  I hope everyone's Easter was equally fun and that you were able to spend some time thanking  Jesus for sacrificing Himself to be the Savior of the world.

Easter Week

I'm ALL about the build-up for holidays.  Christmas preparations start the day after Thanksgiving.  Halloween attire can be worn the entire month of October and pink and red should be rocked all of February.  This year, there wasn't much time between St. Patrick's Day and Easter and so I felt the need to jam pack the couple of weeks leading up to Easter Sunday with lots of Easter goodness...bunny ears included.

This was the first year I let Ryan dye Easter eggs.  Josh asked me after the fact what the point of this activity is.  And to be honest, other than having pretty colored eggs I'm not entirely sure.  But Ryan thought it was fun and that's all that matters right?  I let her dye nine eggs.  I think 6 of the 9 made it through the toddler egg dying process without getting cracked.  Not too bad.  However, then at least three more ended up cracked when said toddler tried to get them off the counter later.  Thank goodness I hard boiled them!

Rory wore this "HOP" sweatshirt almost every day last week.  I found it at Gap last year while I was pregnant in the "boys" section for about $4.00 and I'm so glad I got it.  I wish I would have bought it in like every size!  There's just something about babies in sweatshirts that I can't help but love.

And forget the Easter Lilies.....I'm all about the tulips.  Like all about them.

We didn't visit the Easter bunny.  Shocking I know.  But I've never been a huge fan of seeing the Easter bunny.  We were actually at the mall on Friday and we saw him from a distance.  I asked Ryan if she wanted to go see him, to which she said yes.  But then when I asked if she wanted to go sit with him she said "nope."  So we waved from the gate and there were no tears and I got to save my $30.00.  We'll chalk that up as a win.

St. Patrick's Day

This year,  March 17th passed without too much excitement, unlike last year when we announced that we were expecting Rory.  Even though we kept St. Patrick's Day pretty low key, I still had to do a few festive things for the girls.  I mean hello, I am still me guys.

We started the morning off with green pancakes complete with whipped cream and Lucky Charms.  Ryan had never had Lucky Charms cereal and though she was pretty excited about the green pancakes, she was absolutely THRILLED about the marshmallow cereal.  She kept telling me it was "so licious."  Her version of "delicious."

It was a nice Spring day weather wise and so we used the opportunity to go outside clad in all green and blow bubbles.  Ryan is now a bubble fanatic after learning how to blow them herself.  She blows them and then pops them and then blows them and then pops them.  It's pretty fun to watch.  And as a side note, I love that Rory gets to wear all of Ryan's "first" holiday outfits.  It's so fun to see them worn again and on top of that, Ryan is wearing the same shirt she wore last year.  Girl hasn't grown that much since then!

We ended the day with green spinach smoothies and green milk before bed.  Ryan has since asked why we can't have green milk every day, or red or blue milk for that matter.  I tried to explain to her that the Leprechauns did it and they only come once a year but I'm pretty sure all she took from that was that little men come in to the house and play tricks so it's possible I may need to rethink my explanations in the future.  Especially since she likes to tell people the most random things like that Daddy bites her (pretends to).  Next thing I know she'll be telling people that little men come into her house at night.  Oh brother!

DIY Living Room Gallery Wall

Over the last couple of years, I have discovered that I have an obsession for gallery walls in my home.  We have one in our master bedroom, one in Rory's nursery, and one in the playroom so I guess it should come as no surprise that I decided we needed to have one in the living room as well.  I used to be really overwhelmed by the idea of creating a gallery wall.  I would see all these great ones on Pinterest and I felt so inadequate in terms of being able to create one in my own home.  But at some point I decided to just go for it and it's been a love affair ever since.  However, now that almost every room in my home has one, I guess I'm done.

I've had a few people ask me "how" do you do this?  Well, I like to incorporate a combination of things in my galleries.  I use pictures as well as other wall decor with differing sizes and shapes in a variety of colors while still trying to maintain an overall cohesive look.  For this wall, I purchased frames from a number of different stores.  Home Goods, Kohls, Target, and Michaels are all great places to look.  I also love framed art prints, wooden signs and wall hooks, as well as other original Etsy finds.  Some of my favorite pieces in this gallery project are the wooden heart from Olivewood Designs and the wooden signs from Rustic Little Roost.  I also advise using photographs that look as though they belong in the room in which you are putting them.  I try not to put up photos where the colors we are wearing don't match the look of the gallery.  This may limit the photos that you can hang, but in my opinion, it makes the gallery look so much better.

Ultimately, I think the biggest thing needed in putting together a gallery wall is patience.  I didn't just wake up one morning and find everything I needed for my wall.  It took weeks/months of collecting and searching for the right pieces to fit my wall. I started with a couple key pieces and built around them.  As I was out and about with the girls, I'd randomly find new things that I knew would fit well with the look of my wall.  Once I thought I had enough items to create a gallery, I measured my wall and then laid out all of the pieces in different configurations on the floor.  I take pictures and try to decide what looks best before ever putting a hole in the wall.  Sometimes, I lay the pieces out and realize I'm going to need a few more in order to fill the space but usually I then have an idea of the size of item I may need.

As far as hanging the items, I eyeball it.  I know there are all kinds of creative ways to help you hang galleries, but I honestly look at my pictures of the layout and then eyeball where they are going to go, usually working from the corner pieces inward.  I usually don't even mark the spots where I'm going to pound/drill.  It may not be the most precise way to go about it, but it somehow works for me with little to no frustration and usually very few "whoops" holes.

I'm thrilled with this wall and it adds so much visual interest to my living room.  Despite the fact that I love the wall, I'm always a little sad when my projects are completed.  I guess it's on to the next thing, whatever that may be!

Easter Brunch & Egg Hunt

Yesterday, we Scurlocks hosted a potluck Easter brunch and egg hunt for some of our best friends and their kids.  Josh has to work next weekend and I really wanted to do something that allowed him to celebrate some Easter festivities with the girls.  Plus, I really needed a reason to thoroughly clean my house and having company come over always promotes that. :)

I spent a majority of the week running errands to get the necessities for the party with my two tag-a-longs in tow.  One day we even ran to Target in our pajamas because getting kids changed and out the door at 9am... ain't nobody got time for that!  Although my Mom definitely told me on the phone later in the week that "She NEVER took us out in our pajamas when we were kids and she had four of us."  Well, I don't remember her drinking a glass of wine at 5pm most nights either but hey, Moms gotta do what Moms gotta do.

In order to keep the hosting costs at a minimum, I made the party a potluck.  We provided a "waffle bar" which was a hit as well as mimosas and a few fun and festive treats.  However, at 10pm the night before as I was decorating the 24th cupcake and the 20th cookie and hand dipping bunny peeps in chocolate and sprinkles I did wonder why on God's good Earth I do this to myself (cue the reason to serve mimosas).   It's all for the kids right?  Hmmm it's possible it's entirely for me.  Or Josh. Okay that's definitely not true.

The egg hunt however, was totally for the kids.  It was a chilly 30 or so degrees but they didn't care.  They were so excited to go hunting for the eggs.  This was the first year we had tried an Easter egg hunt with Ryan and I'm just so thrilled that she had fun.  Although the plastic eggs have barely left her sight since she found them and she keeps asking when we are going to go looking for eggs again.  I'm pretty sure we will be hunting for non-treat filled plastic eggs around the house every day until the novelty wears off.

Ryan won't let Rory play with her eggs but she is willing to show them to "Ro-roars" as she likes to refer to her.   If Rory does manage to get ahold of one, Ryan is quick to grab it away.  Sister love at it's finest.

It was a truly fun day and while I wish stuff like this where the whole family is together could happen more often, it makes the days that it does seem extra special.  We are so blessed to have all of our friends here in Massachusetts and so happy that we get to celebrate these kinds of things with each other.