Easter with the Ferrell Boys

I am so far behind in my posting.  Yes.  It's May and I'm fixing to write about Easter.   :)

School Easter Egg Hunts:

Shane's class had their Egg Hunt at Nana's house.  They have been walking down to my parent's house for the egg hunt ever since Zach was in K4.  It's a nice tradition.

Shane had the best time hunting eggs with his friends.

He got tired of carrying his Easter basket around so he casually hung it around his neck.  :/

He and his best friend, Colt, stopped hunting eggs long enough for me to take a picture.

He's growing up so much. I don't have to help him find the eggs any more.

It just so happens that the day of the Easter Egg Hunt for his class also happened to be Shane's birthday.  He was beyond excited.  It was like the Easter egg hunt was for him and his birthday too!

Easter Bunny Cake:

I always try to make something special for the boys during Easter. . . . like cupcakes, cookies, etc.

This year I decided to make a Easter bunny cake and let the boys decorate it.  It's very easy to put together.  First you bake two round cakes, and then you cut one of the round cakes like shown in the picture below:

You arrange the pieces of the cake as shown in the next picture:

My boys don't care for icing, so I decided to sprinkle the top of the cake with powdered sugar.

Here's our bunny cake after I had sprinkled it:

I personally love coconut icing on my bunny cakes, but the Ferrell boys think that shredded coconut tastes like paper!  Ha!

The older boys were playing video games (boo hiss) so only sweet Shane got to decorate the cake.

He worked so hard to make it look good. Yum!

Hhmmmmm . . . . wonder what I should do next?

Who could have known that our sweet little Shane had a little Picasso in him?  :D

The way the cake looked didn't seem to phase the Ferrell boys at all.

Easter Baskets:

Dave had to work on the Sunday of Easter which really put a damper on our family fun.  It was raining too.  Doesn't make for great egg hunts either.

But I still put together some Easter baskets for the boys. . . crocs, avengers tshirt, duck dynasty tshirt, nerf gun, hot wheels cars, coloring book, candy, play doh, sidewalk chalk etc . . .  I actually had Bible verses to go along with the different items in the baskets, but I never got around to posting about it though.  Maybe next year I will write about it. The boys really enjoyed reading the Bible and having their Easter basket items connect with the verses.   Aren't you curious to know what Bible verses I tied to Crocs, Hot Wheels, and Nerf guns?  Ha!

For sweet Shane . . .

 

For sweet Alex . . .

 

For sweet Zach . . .

Our Easter was rainy and quiet . . . but it was still a wonderful blessed time to spend with my boys.  We did our Easter countdown that I posted about here, so the boys and I spent quality time together focusing on the true meaning of Easter . . . the sacrifice of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. 

And these pictures represent all the pictures that I took for Easter!  Ha!  So not like me! 

Happy Easter (a little late, I know) from . . .

                                   the Ferrell boys and me!

Makeover Monday - Kitchen Table

I haven't been very disciplined in updating my blog.  Sometimes life is too busy and hectic to stop and write about it!  :)

I have been working on each room in my house trying to accomplish the little tasks and incomplete jobs left from when we built the house.  So many rooms don't have anything hanging on the walls or curtains.  So by going room by room, I'm trying to remake/remodel the whole house.  I started in the breakfast area.  One of the items on my lists to redo was the kitchen table.

I got the idea for making over my kitchen table from one of the blogs I follow:  Saving4Six.  She re-did her kitchen table, and I loved the way it turned out.  She painted her chairs and benches all black which I considered doing, but fortunately I found some chairs that didin't require painting.

Here is what my kitchen table looked like in the beginning of this process.

And the side view:

I had only 3 chairs remaining for the table.  The other 3 chairs had fallen apart over time.  I have actually had this table set since approximately 1993.  It held up well until I had the Ferrell boys.  :)

The boys helped me move the table out to the garage.  I didn't think it would take me longer than a week to redo the table.  I was wrong.

I started out by sanding the table top with a hand sander. 

I worked on it every day for about an hour and then I would take a break.  Sometimes the break would be for a couple of days because my arms would be so tired.  Who would think using a hand sander would still make your arms so tired?!

I was determined to get the top evenly sanded.  It was harder to do than I had thought.  You can see the uneven color in this picture.  Some of the stain was harder to sand off than other parts of the table.

After sanding the top down evenly, Dave helped me turn the table upside down on some foam (to keep the top from getting scratched) so I could spray paint the table legs black using enamel spray paint.

I taped the edges of the table top with painter's tape to keep the black spray paint from getting on my table top.  I started off spraying the legs with a light coating of the black spray paint.  I didn't want it to run.

Another coat:

Another coat:

Before staining the top, I wanted to purchase the chairs to go with the table.  I wanted to make sure the table and chairs would match.  I found these lovely chairs and bench at Walmart.  :)

Sweet Dave put them together for me.

Once the table legs were finished and completely dry, Dave helped me flip the table back over onto its feet.  You can see that I finally got the top evenly sanded.  It took several hours and days and weeks, but it was worth it.

I bought some polyurethane and stain mixed together.  I had never used that product before, but I was pleased with how it worked on the table.

The staining process took several days too.  After every coat of the stain/polyurethane mixture, I would let it "cure" for 24 hours and then I would lightly sand the top again.  After dusting/cleaning the top of the table, I would apply another coat of the stain/polyurethane.  I didn't keep up with the number of coats I put on the table top, but I know it was at least 5 coats.  The color of the stain I used was Pecan.  I wanted the top to match the seats of my chairs.  Here is a picture of the table with 2 or 3 coats of the stain:



While I was working on my table, the boys and I enjoyed our meals in the kitchen on a makeshift table. 

I finally finished the table just in time for Shane's birthday party.  I think it turned out great! 

Dave was the one who was really impressed.  When I started this process, he tried to talk me into buying a new table and chair set for the breakfast area, but I want to save my money for new furniture in the living room.  Once I was finished with the table, Dave complimented my efforts by saying it looked like a brand new table set. 

The chairs I purchased at Walmart were very reasonably priced and I was able to get the table stained to match.  Two chairs together cost around $55 and the bench cost around $60.

 I bought 4 chairs and one bench.  The bench works perfectly in front of the window where there isn't a lot of space for moving chairs. 

I love the way the table and chairs look together and it all fits perfectly in the space. 

I'm almost finished with my breakfast area makeover.  It's taken me 4 months!  Ha!  I'm setting next Monday as my goal to be finally finished with this makeover so I can move over to the living room! 

Check back next Monday for more Makeover MADNESS Magic with . . .

                           the Ferrell boys and me!

I'm linking up to these awesome parties!

Shane's Camping Birthday Party

Last summer I had a camping birthday party for Alex's 8th birthday.  I set up a "tent" in the living room and his friends spent the night.

Ever since that party, Shane has been saying that he wanted a camping spend the night birthday party when he turned five.  Here he is at Alex's birthday party -- my little dinosaur camper.  :)



How hard could it be having a few 5 year olds spend the night?  :)

Because Alex's birthday is in June, I set the "tent" up in our living room so the boys wouldn't get too hot.  Shane's birthday party being in April wouldn't be hot or humid like it is here in June so I planned to set his "tent" up in the garage.

I still had the piece of carpet from my parent's house to use for the floor.  My parents had pulled up their living room carpet in December to put down wooden floors, and they gave me a large piece of the carpet to use for Zach's spend-the-night birthday party in February.

I rolled the piece of carpet out in the garage.  Dave helped me set up our tailgate tent in the garage.  I took some safety pins and attached some sheets to the sides . . .

I hung some cute little flip flop lights around the inside of the "tent".

The boys laid their sleeping bags in the tent and set up their area for camping.

Dave set up a television and dvd players on one side of the "tent" for the boys.  (Don't you just love the floral sheets?)

The boys played with the puppies and rode 4-wheelers while my sister grilled hamburgers and hotdogs.  They were trying to be safe by wearing the helmets, but 3 boys on a 4-wheeler isn't a very good idea! 

Time for cake!

I decorated Shane's camping cake with a fisherman in a boat that I got at the local bakery.  The tent is made with graham crackers and icing.  I used real rocks on the cake (after cleaning them very good!).

Happy Birthday Shane!  You are 5 years old!  Yea!  Make a wish!

But who cares about cake when you have lots of presents to open!

Aunt Michelle gave him one of his favorite presents:  Skylanders Giants characters.

Pop-Up Book with Sounds from W.K.

Hot Wheels Stunt Toy from Lex.

Ninja Man from Mary Beth.

Imaginext Dinosaur from Colt.

As the night approached, the boys settled in to watch movies in the "tent" and "camp-out" together through out the night.

All the boys spent the night except for one.  For breakfast the next morning, I made pancakes and bacon.  Shane requested bunny butt pancakes so that's what I made.  :)

Shane had a great time with his friends, and I know it was a birthday party he will never forget. 

Happy Birthday sweet Shane from . . .

                               the Ferrell boys and me!