Lately Maggie has been talking a lot more. Most of the time, it’s just jibberish, but I have been picking up some new words and phrases from her.

I have an alarm set on my phone for 10 minutes before Adam’s bus arrives, just so I don’t get caught up in things and lose track of time. Each time she hears it, Maggie announces, “Time get Adam!”, and then runs to find her shoes.

She gets so excited when she’s able to get me to understand her. The other day when I figured out she wanted me to refill her water cup, she clapped and jumped around like I just solved the final puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.

She’s definitely got spunk, from her sometimes wild hair all the way down to her little pink toes. I recently painted her toenails for the first time (I’ve been wanting to for ages and am amazed I held out as long as I did).

The downside with her “pretty toes”, as she calls them, is now she doesn’t want to wear socks or shoes.

Before:

After:

Amazing what a 45 minute walk can do.

We went to a kids’ workshop at Lowe’s yesterday. At one point I asked Adam if he needed any help and he said, “Nope, I nailed it…..get it mom? I nailed it?!”

That kid cracks me up (and he did nail it, literally and figuratively).

The kids got a fun Easter surprise in the mail last week from Dave’s parents.

It was a half dozen eggs with cute little animals inside. The instructions said to place the eggs in water and wait. Well, Maggie dropped one of hers and it cracked open. Once she realized there was a toy inside, she decided to open the other egg the same way.

Luke excitedly crashed his eggs together like cymbals, accidentally breaking them both open. He was disappointed about the broken eggs, but thrilled with his new frog and chicken friends.

Adam, my little rule follower, insisted on sticking to the instructions on the box. The animals expanded in the water and forced the eggs to open. We waited two days and then Adam’s toys were free.

They were a bloated from all that water, but we left them in the sun for an extra couple of days and they are back to normal now. The kids all had fun discovering their surprises and playing with their new toys.

Happy Friday Everyone!

The boys were a little wild this morning, so we actually left for the bus 15 minutes early, and walked around for a bit before Adam had to go.

Luke insisted on wearing his “pack pack” too and was a little disappointed when he wasn’t allowed to follow Adam on the bus.

The kids had a Home Depot workshop on Saturday. They built plant stands, which Luke kept referring to as “tree houses.” My mom was able to go with us. She worked with Adam and I was on Team Luke.

I love how he sticks his tongue out when he’s concentrating.

Luke’s “tree house” also doubled as a rocket ship.

We picked up a plant before we left for Luke’s stand and I need to replant the marigold that Adam planted in church school. I think they turned out pretty good though.

Posting the photos of Maggie’s new doll crib made me realize that I never shared the pictures of Adam’s lego desk.

One of the items I was searching for last summer (during my Craigslist binge) was a desk for the boys’ room. I hoped to find a cheap desk I could repaint and glue some lego plates on. I ended up finding this desk, which was cheap ($25), and also in really good shape. I didn’t even need to repaint it. However, it was almost too nice, and I didn’t want to permanently attach the lego plates to the top.

So, last October when Dave’s parents visited, they helped him build this tray to place on top of the desk.

It turned out perfectly and Adam loves it. The plates are glued to the tray and the lip around the edge prevents any bricks from falling off the tray and also keeps the tray itself from shifting or falling off of the desk.

The tray comes off of the desk easily and can be moved to the floor when we have friends over, or if Adam wants to use the desk for coloring or other non-Lego activities.

It’s an awesome creative space and gets a lot of use, by all three kids.

Before my parents left on Saturday, Adam and my dad built an Easter Bunny trap. There were some fake carrots inside the little block house. The idea was that the bunny would try to get the carrots, and the blocks would fall over. The noise of the falling blocks would wake up Adam and he would pull the string causing the box to fall and trapping the rabbit.

This is how the kids fell asleep. Unfortunately, Adam slept right through the falling blocks and the bunny got away. He did leave some chocolate behind before he hid their baskets though.

Adam found his basket (well, bag really) inside his school backpack.  Luke’s was behind the curtains in the living room and Maggie’s was in the TV cabinet.

Adam paused for a photo before removing the items inside one at a time. Luke immediately dumped his entire bag on the floor.

Luke was pretty excited about getting M&Ms for breakfast.

Maggie was thrilled with the new baby that the bunny brought her.

My goal for the day was to get a good picture of the three kids together.

It didn’t work quite as I had planned, but I did get some fun pictures this afternoon.

I took the kids to two different parks this afternoon, in the hopes of burning off some of their energy.

This second park was a new one for us. The kids loved spinning these colored shapes around. Maggie liked to run around and try to stand inside the shapes.

We’ll definitely be visiting there again. The kids had a lot of fun and maybe next time they’ll feel like letting me take some pictures.

The kids colored eggs for the first time Friday night.

We only did six eggs, but it was the perfect amount for their attention span.

There was only one casualty.

My super cool brother and his super cool wife made Maggie this awesome doll crib for her birthday. The drawer underneath is perfect for holding bottles, clothes, and anything else her babies need.

I painted it and made the mattress cover and pillow. And the mattress too I guess, but really I just used the electric knife we got as a wedding gift (that someone said we didn’t need) to cut some foam to size.

My mom crocheted the afghan, and she’s making a Maggie sized one to match.

It all turned out awesome and Maggie loves it. I know she’ll get a lot of use out of it – and so will her dolls.