Inspired

Blick Art Supplies celebrated its 100th birthday with a big party/sale, complete with cupcakes, a live DJ and all sorts of art demonstrations. We watched someone carving rubber stamps, something which we have done in the past, but not with the expertise they showed us. Conveniently, all the stamp making supplies were on sale, so we were able to completely outfit ourselves for our own art projects.

 

Otto even got inspired to make homemade wrapping paper.

Easter Festivities

First things first. The hunt. It's pretty impressive how early we can get up when there is chocolate to be found. We woke up in the boys' new room, by the way. Otto fell out of the top bunk twice in the night. The first time Martin caught him, but the second time, Otto landed on my head and hurt his leg. They really don't want to put in a rail, but we might need to think about something to secure them a bit better.

But this bit of interrupted sleep didn't stop us from our early start. The hunt started at 6:30 a.m.

 

Otto opened his eggs and sorted the contents into jars.

 

  

A very dark picture, but visible in the background is Grigia in her cage, watching the festivities from afar. The Easter Bunny didn't forget the local bunny, however. There were these cool collapsible cardboard tunnels and some bunny treats in the middle of the living room. We had been making homemade tunnels for her out of cardboard boxes, but these are really smart.

The Easter Bunny left a couple of Lego sets, and Otto got to work on his right away.

 

Max made us deviled eggs for breakfast. He has been wanting to make these since he learned about them, sure that he would love them, since he loves eggs and loves mayonnaise. I had planned to make them for dinner, but he was crestfallen to have to wait another meal for them, so we had a breakfast of deviled eggs, bacon and bagels. Not bad, actually.

  

The boys were disappointed there was not an egg hunt in the back yard, so when I went down to check on the chickens, I set them up a little hunt outside. Otto thinks the hunting part is the best part of the whole holiday.

It was a nicer day that we thought it would be, and we walked to the park where we played and worked up an appetite. Luckily, dinner was a pretty simple preparation, because we were all hungry and ready to eat when we got home. We a meal reminiscent of a meal we would eat at my Aunt Esther and Uncle Stanley's house when I was growing up. A big baked ham and a side of potatoes and peas in cream sauce. It was always my very favorite way to eat both potatoes and peas when I was a kid. Turns out, it still is.

Max liked them too. He suddenly realized that he really likes peas. This dish is even better when made with freshly dug up potatoes and peas you have shelled yourself, which is how we always did it at Auntie and Uncle's. But all in all, it was a very nice meal.

From you I have been absent in the spring

There was just so much to celebrate this weekend, what with Earth Day to inspire us to crafts with clementines, Shakespeare's birthday to lull us with sonnets, and Easter to jack us up on chocolate.

Max woke up on Saturday and went straight to work on more watercolors. It has been really nice having a dedicated "art room" that is always ready for action. I had imagined such a thing for a long time, but we are only finally realizing some of my plans for our use of space. The Lego Room continues to evolve, and I need to make a post just for that room soon. But funny enough, they haven't been playing with Legos nearly as much in recent weeks as they usually do. Perhaps moving them into this space has just confused them.

Anyway. The Art Room. In use.

Thank you, Grandma, for these fabulous watercolors. They even inspired us to move beyond paper and into the realm of 3D. Otto had the idea to paint Easter Eggs with them.

They turned out beautifully, although you can't have wet hands if you touch them, or all the hard work is lost. It makes it a bit tricky to eat them, as well, because even peeling them makes a bit of a mess onto the egg inside. But they looked really pretty, and we all considered it a complete success.

Saturday was a really big day. Not only was the excitement was mounting for Easter, but we also had a furniture delivery scheduled. After a year of having the attic at its near finished state, we are finally furnishing it. It's pretty thrilling, I'm not gonna lie to you.

But we were also a bit nervous, not sure how everything was going to go with the boys' bedroom. The boys had picked out the bed, and we even ran out on Saturday morning to get all the bedding they had also picked out (thanks, mom, for the suggestion that it would make sleeping in the room all the more appealing when it was fully outfitted—you were absolutely right).

We have kept a family bed for the last nine years, and when we were planning the room, it was clear that although both boys were excited to have their on space, they didn't fully intend to sleep there on their own. Otto gave me a "What'choo talkin' 'bout?" look when I said something about them sleeping in that room and Mama and Papa sleeping in the other room. I was wondering if they wouldn't want to sleep in there at all, that it would just be a great playroom.

But they were so excited about the bed, the bedding, the glow in the dark stars and planets we hung from the ceiling that there was no way there were NOT going to sleep in there. They both wanted to share the top bunk, and they wanted Mama and Papa to sleep on the full bed below. What could be clearer?

 

Oh, and the season's first picnic lunch on the porch (or, the "terrace," as Max has begun to call it). We are all looking forward to more sunny days like this. But for now, we've got another week of anticipated rain ahead. Ah, spring in Chicago, shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

For the Earth

The boys were pretty serious about their Earth Day celebrations. We managed to spend the entire day away from our electronic devices, used the lights on an as-needed basis (as we should always do, but often fail), and they absolutely refused to take the car out anywhere, even though I suggested a couple of errands that I wanted to run. Martin was off work for Good Friday, for the first time in my memory, which happily coincided with our Earth Day festivities.

We made Earth pancakes for breakfast, which admittedly looked more like "Visitors to Earth" pancakes, resembling some sort of alien with giant eyes (they were supposed to look like planets). Otto kindly said they did look like planets, just not any planets he knew of.

It was rainy and dreary, and although we had originally hoped to go bike riding, we felt more like hanging out at home. We spent the day painting (it helped that a box arrived in the morning filled with Easter presents from Grandma and Grandpa, some of which were watercolor paints and paper), making music with all our various instruments, and playing Monopoly. We played with Grigia and we visited the chickens.

 

 

 

We made clementine votives.

It was only in the late evening that we turned to electronic media, since Watership Down had arrived, and we were all eager to see it.I was so tired that I slept on and off throughout it. I think it's a fairly surreal experience in the best of times, but when you're half asleep, it's a really strange movie. Grigia was very disturbed by all the strange animal noises, and as she hopped around in fear, we realized it was best to take this particular rabbit movie upstairs and away from her sensitive ears.

Baby Chicks (and a few ducklings)

at Belmont Feed & Seed. They had just arrived in the last 30 minutes, only days old. We had flashbacks to the first days of having our chickens. It was hard to drag ourselves away from them. They're just so darn fluffy and cute.

The Advantage...

of having a French baker as your downstairs neighbor: when he borrows eggs, he brings you waffles in return. And by waffles, I mean the very best waffles I have ever had in my life.

Shopping for Furniture

is much more fun when you have a DSi to keep you occupied.

This fabulous bed is going to be delivered to our house in about a week. Now the question is whether or not the boys will sleep in it.