Fun in NY! (Part 1)

For Spring Break (and a Tax Season break) I decided to be CRAZY and take the kids to Buffalo to visit my sister.  It was a total surprise to them and my sisters kids and I think they all loved it!  They woke up that morning and acted like they were getting ready for school but then I told them we were actually going to get on a plane to go and see cousins!  Lilly's first question was "but can we sleep over?"  You bet Lil.  Here they are playing princesses on the plane.

Eventually things got a little boring for this one and she fell asleep, with 10 minutes left in the flight!  Don't fall asleep any earlier than that or anything Mabel!  Thank goodness she was able to sleep for a little bit since we had to wait for our gate so we sat on the ground for a good 40 minutes.

When we landed it looked like this.  Not exactly the spring break weather I was looking for but being with family is worth it!  We got in late (and even later with the delay) so I felt bad my sister waited for us so long!  She brought her little Kate to the airport so we could surprise her.  When we got back to her house she had Sophia go and knock on the door. Bruce answered and saw Sophia and just said "hey".  Then his eyes got really big and he yelled out "Jane!  Sophia's here!"

 The cousins were all so excited to see each other and had fun playing for a little bit until we made them go to sleep.  The next day her kids had to go to school so the rest of us went to breakfast at a really yummy crepe place called "Break N' Eggs".  Sophia loves crepes and Nutella just a little bit.  She was in heaven!

When the kids got home from school we had fun playing with cousins!  I totally love Mabel's outfit.  A dress up, with an army coat and colorful hat.  I also love that she has no shoes on!  It's not like it was cold out there or anything!  I also love how James put a nice white towel in the mud puddle at the bottom of the slide so that they could go down it.  I think his mom loved that too.

I also brought along some fun Easter crafts from Grandma and the kids had fun making cards and other things.  They also loved the dress ups just a little bit!

We also brought along some nail polish so the girls had a little foot bath before we painted nails.

Her kids didn't have school the next day (thank you Good Friday!) and so we had a movie night.  The kids were pretty sure it would be complete without movie posters.  Here's Sophia with "Megamind"

Lilly and Kate making their own poster.  Side note - my sister and I were totally cracking up about how Lilly never made a normal face in pictures.  This one kind of proved it!

More movie posters - Muppets and Megamind

 Incredibles

 and "Wreck it Ralph".

The next day we went to the zoo.  It was a little freezing but we still had fun.  They have a really fun zoo.  It has an awesome Rain Forest in the middle that the kids just loved.

Later that afternoon my brother-in-law took the older kids to see "Oz The Great and Powerful".  My sister and I took the little kids to Chuck E Cheese.  My girls were in heaven!  I have seriously not seen them that happy in awhile! Later Doug asked me if I knew I didn't have to go to New York to go to Chuck E Cheese.  Silly Douglas.  Mabel was absolutely in love with this horse!  She kind of has a things for horses and rode this one about 100 times.

 Here's miss Kate on the clock.

 Mabel enjoyed the clock too.

Kate and Lilly on a "roller coaster".

That night we had wings for dinner and they were delicious! 

The next morning we went to their church for their ward's Easter egg hunt.  They hid 1300 eggs and each kid only got about 10!  And I though Utah wards were big!  Here's Lilly and Mabel waiting for the hunt to start.

And Sophia and Lilly post hunt.

Later that afternoon we colored eggs with cousins. 

It was a pretty great time.

After that my brother-in-law took the older kids on a hike in the Niagara Falls area.  Liza and I took the little ones to see the falls.  It was a little chilly so we only got out to see horseshoe falls.

It was crazy how much ice there still was in the river!

While we waited for them to hike we drove up to this cutest little town called Lewiston.  It was seriously the cutest place.  I just loved it.  It was also kind of interesting to learn about because it was the last stop in the Underground Railroad before the slaves went on to Canada.  Here's a statue they have commemorating that.

The town was right on the water.  It was so gorgeous!  Across the river you could see Canada.  There were some pretty big beautiful homes right on the water over there.

Here we are in front of the Niagara river.

 Right on the river they had this cutest little park where you could sit on these swings and look out over the water.  So fun.

Loved this little plaque on the swings.  Don't mind if I do.

Random Happenings

Here's a few of our Easter and other celebration randoms.  The Sunday before Easter we colored eggs since we knew our Daddy would be home that day.

 I think they turned out ok.

My CUTEST friend Jen sent me this ADORABLE Easter banner.  I totally love it!  She's a tax widow as well so we like to commiserate (and craft) together.  Thanks again Jen!

The Sunday before Easter we celebrated my dad's birthday with some delicious Indian food.  I also brought this chocolate crunch cake along to celebrate.

This little cutie had picture day at preschool a few weeks ago.  She wanted her hair curly.  I think it definitely is!

A few weeks ago my mom asked me to make cupcakes for their RS birthday party. I was more than happy too and they were really fun to make!  I made coconut creme, root beer float, lemon with cream cheese frosting and chocolate hazelnut.

Happy Green Day!

We had a pretty fun St. Patrick's Day!  It was a little different being on a Sunday and I really didn't have time to do much before 9 am church! 

These pictures were actually taken a little bit ago but I thought they still applied to the holiday.  The girls were playing dress ups one Sunday and came up looking like this. This girl absolutely cracks me up!

A beautiful clown

and a gorgeous princess.

Here's the girls in their green (minus Mabel and don't mind Sophia's closed eyes) getting ready to go to church!

 Here's Mabel and Daddy after church.

This girl. I just love her.

We waited for Daddy to get home from church and then pulled out our St. Patty's Day game.  Always a good time. 

After some quiet rest time (and naps - such a blessed Sunday tradition for this momma) we had a fun green dinner with these delicious drinks.

 We really didn't go all out this year but we still had a great time!  Maybe we'll make up for it next year.



Projects!

The tax season projects are well under way so I thought I'd post a little of what I've been up to to keep myself busy.  Also, I did not make these quilts during this tax season.  I've been working on them for years now (it's a little embarrassing how long they've taken me) but I did finally get them quilted (or I should say had them quilted) and bound. 

I saw these cute skirts at a local fabric shop and had to recreate them.  They had just about every color of the fabric too so it was hard to choose!  I did this color and pink.  I think they turned out ok.

This quilt was from a "block party" at my local quilt shop.  It's called "Flowers From My Garden" and I honestly think it's been sitting in my closet for about 2 years.  So embarrassing.  It's so nice to have it done!  I just put it on my bed and I think it's perfect for spring!

This one is a mystery quilt from the local quilt shop. My mom made one too and I think her's turned out cuter but that's ok.  It's called "Garden Stars" and the line of fabric was called So Sophie so I just had to make it.

I really like the back of this one too.  It's a super fun soft minky and my kids love it too!

This is from another block party and is a Pioneer themed quilt.  Each block has a fun pioneerish name like "broken dishes", "rocky pass", "churn dash" or "wagon wheel".  I like how the center block is the state of Utah.  In the corners I embroidered one of the verses to "Come, Come Ye Saints".  Also, the top corner block is a "signature block" where I wrote one of my pioneer ancestor's names (Mary Alice Cannon).  This one was a lot of fun to make even though it took me a long time too! 

Here's a fun little Valentine's table runner that I finished after Valentine's Day.  There's always next year right?

Here's another runner I saw in the same store with the cute chevron fabric.  It's called "Egg Roll" and I couldn't resist it the minute I saw it! 

It has these cute little chicks that I kind of went crazy over too!  The kit had tons of leftover fabric so my mom made one too (and of course hers turned out a lot cute again) and there was still tons of fabric left over!  Good thing it's some cute stuff!

Here's our new quilt on our bed.  I think it looks pretty happy there.  This was all so fun to do but I think I'm ready form a little break from quilting.  I'm working on another one from a block party called "Letters to My Daughter" which of course I had to do but I'm making 3 of each block for my 3 girls so that one will probably take a few years too.  Maybe it'll be ready by the time Sophia gets married!

Finally, here's some of Sophia's latest creations.  I wasn't kidding about the paper, tape and scissors obsession.  These ones she made in art class at school.  I think they turned out pretty cute.

She liked them so much she decided to make another little toilet paper roll family.  I love how the mom has a purse.  All the little details crack me up. 

This isn't really a project but it's some super cute Brazilian stuff Doug's mom sent for baby brother.  I love it all!  I was so excited about it!  She included a picture of where she bought hat too.  I think it's originally from Bolivia.  I seriously love it.  He's going to look so cute!