Easter Sunday - 2014

As I said in my previous post, I decided to scale down my Easter activities this year.  Instead of getting so wrapped up in planning the perfect Easter holiday, I just went with a more laid-back kind of holiday.  I think it worked out fine.

The Easter 'bunny' came by our house.

Zach and Alex don't believe in the Easter bunny anymore, and I don't really promote it with Shane.  Radical, I know.  :)

The cute Easter bags came from my favorite online shopping site:  PickYourPlum!  Love PYP!

I hit the Dollar General in my town and racked up on cheap toys for the boys.  They were having a half-price sale on certain items so I took advantage of that!

The boys picked out the Infinity and Swap Skylander characters they wanted for the Wii while we were shopping at Walmart, and I put them back for their Easter baskets.

We went to church for a super special Easter service.  I love the church we go to!  Here I am with the Ferrell boys after church. (Don't know where Shane's shoes are!)

As a special surprise, Dave and I got the boys new bikes.  It was originally supposed to be for Easter, but we gave them to the boys on Friday since it was such a pretty day.  They ran outside after church to get on their bikes and ride without changing out of their Sunday clothes!

I think Alex's seat is too low, but he won't agree to raising it.  :)

Shane got a bike with training wheels, but he's hasn't quite gotten the hang of riding it yet.

Shane prefers his 4-wheeler over the bicycle any day!

So while we were waiting on Easter lunch to get cooked and while the boys were still in their Easter outfits, I decided to try and get some pictures of the boys.  Alex and Zach stopped jumping and posed for one picture on the trampoline.

I wanted to get a picture of all 3 boys out in the tall grass with the pretty yellow flowers, but Shane just wasn't in the mood to take pictures.

Most children get bunnies or chicks for Easter, but our boys wanted goats!  Two of the goats are still babies, but one of the goats (Shane's) is a year old and has been trained with a leash.

Shane loves his goat.  He actually posed for a picture. :)

All the boys love the goats.  I've got to get collars and leashes for the other 2 pygmy goats so Alex and Zach can train their goats to walk with them.

And then it was time for lunch:  crockpot spiral-cut ham, hash brown potato casserole, mac and cheese, green beans, and rolls. It was soooo good!

After lunch, Dave and I took a 3 hour nap!  Happy Easter to us!

Then it was time to get up and play with the boys.  Zach wanted to go fishing.  Zach always wants to go fishing!  :)

He only caught one fish.  

He says it's because Shane was riding his 4-wheeler too close to where he was fishing . . . 

   and because Alex kept skipping rocks on the surface of the lake.

Shane spent time walking along the bank of the lake getting as much mud on him as he could.  

But it's hard to get really upset with someone who's as cute as he is! (I don't know why we brought a bat to the lake.)

I love this picture of Shane and Zach with the fish.  Zach is so proud of his catch while Shane seems intent on squeezing the poor fish to death!  Ha!  Boys are so weird.

And because everyone needs their pet goat while fishing at the lake . . .  Boys are weird.  :)

And then it was time to pack up our fishing poles and go home . . . a boy with a goat, a boy with a fishing pole, and a boy on a 4-wheeler . . . and their momma taking pictures along the way.  :)

To finish off the perfect Easter Sunday, the boys and I got out their Glow in the Dark Sand Art that they got with their Easter stuff.

Alex is so intent when he's working on something.  :)  Check out all our dogs laying around in the background.

It was fun, but the sand didn't glow too brightly in the dark -- much to our disappointment.  I'll have to set it out during the brighter part of the day tomorrow and see if it will glow better tonight.

It was by far one of the best Easter Sundays I've ever had with the boys, and I didn't get all stressed out about planning the perfect Easter day.  In fact, we didn't even hunt eggs!  We're planning to have our Easter egg hunt on Monday afternoon.  Do you think the Easter bunny will make a special trip back to Ferrell farm to hide our eggs?  :D

Having fun on Easter in a less-stressful more impromptu way with . . .

                              the Ferrell boys and me!

Easter Fun - Dyeing Eggs

Easter is my favorite holiday.  I usually get very busy trying to do lots of Easter activities with the boys, but this year, I decided to scale back a little bit.  Just stick to the basics of the holiday. :)

Saturday Zach and Alex had a couple of friends over to play. They played outside all day . . . jumping on the trampoline, fishing, riding bikes, and playing catch.

One of the boys had to go home early, but Matthew got to stay a little longer.  We decided to dye eggs.  (a very basic Easter activity)

I cheated this year and bought plastic eggs that can be dyed.

And some Q-tip-like dyeing sticks to paint the eggs.

The boys painted and decorated eggs for quite a while.

The only drawback to dyeing plastic eggs . . . they float in the colored water so you have to keep pressing them down with a spoon or something . . . and according to Alex . . . you have no boiled eggs to eat!

Before dyeing the eggs, I got out our Resurrection eggs and we went through the story of Easter.  

Each boy took turns opening an egg and telling the part of the Easter story for their egg.  The Resurrection eggs are an Easter tradition for our family.  

I made the Resurrection eggs that we use every year.  You can read how I put our set together in my Easter post from a couple of years ago . . . the Link is HERE.

After Matthew went home, the Ferrell boys were so hyped up after dying eggs that we had a difficult time getting them to go to sleep!  

I think it was also the anticipation of Easter morning adding to the excitement of . . . 

                          the Ferrell boys and me!

Little Boy Blue

It's a tradition in our little town that every child in kindergarten participates in the Mother Goose parade.  This goes back to even when I was in kindergarten, and I was Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary. I have a picture of me dressed up in my costume, but it's currently stored in my sister's safe deposit box at the bank.  Apparently, it's a real treasure.  :D

When Zach was in kindergarten, he was appointed the Candlestick Maker of the Rub a Dub Dub, 3 Men in a Tub rhyme.

I put a lot of thought into his costume.  Researched candlestick makers . . . bought a sewing machine to make his costume . . . 

Seriously, I chose rubber boots and a leather apron because of the hot wax associated with making candles.  I used my new sewing machine to make the "leather" apron and a cute little peasant shirt and newsboy hat in keeping with the time period.  I thought his costume turned out real cute.  But . . .

I really, really, seriously put way too much thought into it.  :) 
Here are the baker, the butcher, and the candlestick maker.

Zach is my first born child.  He gets the most effort on my part in all his growing up activities and basically exhausts my efforts with regard for the other two! Ha! 

Okay, that's probably not a true statement.  Shane's birthday parties certainly involve more effort than any of Zach's birthday parties.  I think maybe I have learned some shortcuts since Zach was little.

When Alex was in kindergarten, he was selected to be Ole King Cole.

I made his robe and golden shirt and crown.  The red material I used to make the robe came from some red velvet material I had purchased to make a Christmas tree skirt but never got around to making it.  Look at how little he is in this picture!

He was so cute and the kindergarten class uses Alex's Ole King Cole costume every year now.  :)

This year it was Shane's turn to be in the Mother Goose parade. 

I didn't have to create or sew any part of his costume.  :/

Oh well, as I said, I've gotten better at finding shortcuts.  :)
I borrowed the cow horn from my friend.  I bought the hat at a local store.  Here is Shane with his best friend, Colt, who is wearing the newsboy hat from Zach's costume.

The children parade through the school in their costumes going in all the classes to show off their cuteness.  Notice the Ole King Cole walking behind Shane.  :)

Here's the whole group posing together before leaving for the local library.

 Shane and his two best friends pose for a picture.  Aren't they funny!  I love these boys!

Each child said their nursery rhyme at the library, and then got a detailed tour of the library.  Our library building used to be the county jail, and the library books are housed in restored jail cells. 

There's even stairs with 13 steps leading up to the trap door area where they used to hang prisoners.  That area totally fascinated the children.  In the picture below, you can see the trap door underneath the floor that Shane is standing on along with the 13 steps/stairs the children are climbing.

Here are the children in front of the Library.

Let's see if I can remember each nursery rhyme character:  from left to right:  Polly put the Kettle on;  Little Bo Peep;  Mary had a Little Lamb;  Little Miss Muffet;  Jill of Jack & Jill;   Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary;   Queen of Hearts;   Ole King Cole;   Jack Be Nimble;   Jack of Jack & Jill; and my sweet Little Boy Blue.

After the library tour, the children paraded downtown to several businesses and banks where they were given all kinds of goody bags and candy.  Shane racked up more treats that day than he did on Halloween!

The children ended the parade at the two local nursing homes where they said their nursery rhymes and sang a few songs for the residents.

It was a great day.  The children were so precious and sweet.  Each of them could say their rhymes clearly and were not bashful at all in front of everyone saying their rhymes.    :)

And so ends another tradition or rite of passage for . . .

                           the Ferrell boys and me!

The Best Day

Saturdays are usually the day I catch up my house cleaning, laundry, and rest.

This Saturday, I decided to take the boys and spend a little time with them and totally blow off the house cleaning, laundry, and rest.  

It started off at 9 o'clock with a birthday party at the local Jumpers place.  We were late -- 45 minutes late -- but we got there in time for the boys to jump for over an hour.

After the birthday party fun, we went to the Dollar Tree.  I had some items to return not used for the pirate birthday party so I let the boys pick out 2 items a piece.

At this point, Alex and Zach both agreed that it had been the best day and it was just 11 o'clock!

My boys have certain places where they love to eat.  Their number one pick is usually Applebees.  I really didn't want to eat there, so I mentioned another place -- Pepper's.  

Zach --  decided for the boys -- that since it had been the best day that they would eat at the place that Momma picked.  Yay!

And now Pepper's is the boys' new favorite place.  :)

We left Pepper's to go play at a local park.  It is really a neat park.  They have a really cool play castle to climb on with slides, moving bridges, and lots and lots of steps and towers.

The boys loved it.  They ran and chased each other.

Shane on the moving bridge!

The boys even stopped for me to get a picture of them together.

Zach had as much fun as Shane at the park.

Shane made some friends.

And it was quite relaxing for me because there were plenty of places where I could sit and watch the boys.

Once we had been at the park for a couple of hours, we decided to move on to McDonald's for a snack . . . then on to the Air Force Base for the air show.

The Thunderbirds were the main attraction at the air show.

They were awesome!  The boys and I loved the show!
It was really loud sometimes.  :)

They had several helicopters and planes for the children to climb into and explore.

It was such fun for the boys to freely explore the helicopters and planes.

Shane would be very involved with all the buttons and gear shifts of the helicopters and then he'd spot another helicopter or plane to see!

I could barely keep up with Shane.  Luckily, Alex and Zach would run ahead with him and watch over him.  The three of them were about to get this plane started when I finally caught up with them. The man with this plane wasn't paying attention, and almost jumped out of his chair when he saw them moving the propellers! Ha!

I let each boy pick out one souvenir plane before leaving the air show.

Brrrrrrrr .... 

We had a great day.  Alex said it ranked #3 among our family vacations . . . after Dollywood and last summer's cross-country trip to the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains!  I explained to him that this didn't qualify as a family vacation, but I appreciated the sentiment!  :)

And so . . . there you have a sample of "the Best Day" with . . .

                           the Ferrell boys and me!