We finally were able to have our Easter egg hunt with our nephews.

Jason wanted to make a handprint fish.

 

And a monster that eats things!

Sophie was feeling well enough to eat her chocolate bunny!

Sophie finally was well enough to find her basket the next day!

And Jason discovered how the window crayons work!

Our neighbor made Jason a bottle of sunshine when he was sick. Just a bottle filled with gold glitter and water, but Jason loved it!

Jason was just barley well enough on Easter to find his basket and the eggs. Sophie slept the whole day and didn't even find her basket.

You can see how sick he looks here. Poor kid!

We made immunity soup for dinner since we couldn't attend our family gatherings this weekend. It's turkey noodle soup with homemade turkey/veggie broth and lots of veggies ground up in the broth, too. Just about everything from kale to brussel sprouts to garlic made it in the soup!

Yes, please do play on the dirt pile!

Daddy's little helper. She doesn't even know she's making her own birthday present!

This is our third year dyeing eggs with natural dyes. I love knowing that if an egg cracks in the process, the worst thing that is getting on the egg is a little beet or cabbage juice. Usually the kids are all about making the dyes with me, but this year Jason is a little under the weather on dyeing day. I decided to only make four dyes: red cabbage, beets, tumeric, and spirulina. I haven't tried spirulina for dyeing before, but it turns smoothies such a bright green, I figured I'd see what it does to eggs.

The tumeric (yellow), beets (pink, and cabbage (blue), turned out well, but the spirulina (green, well, eggs that are still brown and white really) did not take. We'll have to try a different green next year.

This is the first year the kids are getting chocolate bunnies. They saw them in the store a couple of weeks ago, so I knew it was a must. I used grain-sweetened chocolate, and a mold I found online. Jason wanted one holding a carrot! It was much easier than I thought it would be, considering I've never molded chocolates before. Just melt the chocolate, put it in the mold, stick in the freezer, and pop it out when it's hard!

I think it turned out well! I didn't get a good pic of it in the package I put it in as I was trying to keep them hidden from the kids, while making them in the middle of the day.

The best guinea pig ever award goes to Kitty the guinea pig. She lets Sophie do everything to her, within reason. Sophie is feeling Kitty's hair between her fingers here.

"Buckle in. I'll be right back..."

A few weeks ago, the kids and I picked out seeds for this year's garden, and ordered them. I had yet to plant them due to lack of space to plant them in. And I was not looking forward to putting up grow lights in my basement and using all the electricity on them. After cleaning out a few bins of hand-me-down clothes for my kids, I had an idea...

...turn this storage bin into a greenhouse!

I happened to have two 96 quart storage containers empty in my basement, so I used those. Turn them upside down, so the lid is the bottom of the greenhouse.

And I had been saving paper egg cartons, for a while, to plant in. First, I broke my cartons apart.

Then, I enlisted some help filling the bottom half of the egg cartons with dirt.

And I had pterosaurs flying by to protect me from predators.

Next, we planted the seeds and labeled the cartons appropriately.

My little helper watered them.

Then, snap the lids on and I have two greenhouses!

We ran out of egg cartons for the second greenhouse and improvised with some leftover dixie cups from making crafts. If it's getting down below freezing at night, I plan on throwing a picnic blanket on them or bring them inside temporarily.

As a kid, I remember loving orange creamsicle push-up pops. However, in our currently processed sugar-free home, those would not go over well. So I found a few recipes through Pinterest and came up with my own creation!

Homemade orange creamsicle:

1 can orange juice concentrate (I've used orange pineapple and regular orange)

1 cup cream, whole milk, or half and half

1/2 to 1 cup raw honey (to taste, I used about 3/4 cup)

2 cups ice

Blend in blender and pour into molds. I happen to have a few push-up pop molds, but it was also delicious in a 1/2 pint canning jar.

Enjoy like Sophie is doing...

Deer in our yard!

They were eating the apple tree and other young plants... including my trillium!!

Sophie is holding her nose to taste popcorn and see if it tastes different. We learned about our five senses in health class.

We went to the Metropark farm for a sheep tour today!

We learned all about wool and lanolin.

The kids liked the pigs, too.

This little lamb was less than one week old.

And the roosters and hens were fun to watch, too.

We had a great picnic with friends.

After watching a documentary on sea turtles, we just had to make our own baby sea turtles.

First, we cut off the bottoms of Dixie cups for the shells.

Then, we painted them.

Here are Sophie's (top) and Jason's turtle shells.

Next, I created a template for a sea turtle body and the kids painted them.

Jason had to mix his paints to get just the right color.

If you'd like the template, here it is.

Then, just fold in the four flaps and glue them to the inside of a shell.

And you have a sea turtle...

Playing with our guinea pigs!

Our friend enjoyed holding one, too!

Daddy took Jason to Lifetime fitness and he tried rock climbing for the first time! Look at him climb!