Birthday "Flowers"

Betty, one of our closest friends here, had a birthday a couple weeks ago and it was the perfect occasion to try out a cake I saw on The Pioneer Woman. 

The cake looks intense, but it's the simplest thing EVER!

Crumb coat a double layer cake in the same color of icing you want to make the flowers, and then just start swirling away!

My next cake would hopefully look better, with one under my belt (literally, HA!)... but the trick is to keep the icing flowing and to just add additional swirls, in the same direction as the flowers, where needed.

Super easy, and pretty too!

A good combo in my books! :)

Snowmobiling in April?!?!

Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed it either! BUT... these are the Canadian Prairies... and it seems that the snow just won't leave us alone!

My folks made EXCELLENT time in driving to our place and arrived earlier on Saturday than we expected them to! That meant that, for the FIRST time in all their Canadian travels, they could experience the thrill of  snowmobiling with their son! Of course the girls weren't going to watch from the sidelines for long... and were out there quick as a wink!

You can tell, on her face, that she wants SO BADLY to figure out how to run that big ole' thing eh?! The day will come soon enough... I have no doubts! 

Riding with Grampa for the first time!

Off to show Grampa the infamous "snow mountains," that have come to be one of Alia's favorite winter spots!

Have I mentioned that I REALLY like living in the community we do? People don't bat an eye at snowmobiles driving through the middle of the "village"... it's just normal everyday stuff! And again... for that alone, we can not possibly move to town! Now if only we could find a bigger home right here in our little collection of houses.... easier said than done, I tell ya!! People just don't move away, so turn over is LOW, to say the least!

We were so thrilled that my parents got to enjoy the snow a bit! We even went for a "triple rider" and piled ALL OF US on the sleds to go goof around at the snow mountains. They were getting smaller and smaller by the minute, but at least we were able show Mom and Dad a little of what gets us through the long winters up here!! 

Dip and Dye

This was year number two of dying Easter eggs with Gramma and it's something Alia thoroughly looks forward to while they are visiting! 

These little tablets make the water look so pretty... that Alia thought they should smell pretty too!

We had a "magic crayon" that you could use to write secret messages on the egg... that would later appear after they had been dyed. It was a hit!

Look who woke up from nap to join in the fun! Larren had no idea what was going on... but she just knew it was exciting and didn't want to miss a moment!

Dying eggs is not for the faint hearted...

... as you can imagine, it took a good couple washes for her hands to no longer resemble an Easter egg themselves!

Some eggs got sparkly stickers...

Some eggs got hijacked by a certain someone until a search was warranted...

Some eggs got colorful "popa dots"...

Little Larren just wanted SO BADLY to help... so occasionally she would offer her services...

which more often than not, resulted in this! :)

But with each egg she got gentler and gentler... and Larren hasn't fully caught on to GENTLE... so we might be hard boiling eggs more often! :)

All in all... lots of fun, and yummy eating later!

Is Easter about Easter eggs, and Easter baskets, and pretty dresses, and chocolate bunnies? Absolutely not. BUT... these little traditions bring families together, and we're all for that. We'll be continually teaching our girls the TRUE meaning of Easter (Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, conquering DEATH, and LIVING so that we may have life right along with Him!) ... but our family will also be enjoying some good ole' traditions as we go!

I have a couple fun Easter lessons that I have come across for next year and can't wait for BOTH girls to participate!

On a blog I like to peek at every now and then, these resurrection rolls were featured and this idea of turning a picture of the child into a coloring page to make the message of Jesus dying for THEM just a little more real!

I'll be on the look out for more ideas so if you have any... I'm all ears!

Easter Morning

Wowsers.... it has been a good long while since I've been around these parts! We enjoyed my parents visit this past week and I have LOTS to share from that! But... just to stay somewhat current, here are a couple Easter morning pics of our family. 

Easter is absolutely one of my favorite days of the year. The warm sunshine and chorus of birds singing. The hope that the empty tomb brings. The joy of fresh new beginnings. Sparkly new Easter dresses. Family get togethers. Easter egg hunts. Anticipation of warmer weather around the bend. Ahhhh.... 

The white sweater club :)

And our last picture, as the youngest member of the club officially had ENOUGH... and was attempting to dive towards freedom!!

So that's that! Our Easter morning was a tad bit rushed... we made a big ole' "departure breakfast" and then had to bid farewell to my parents. Sad, indeed. But good that we can scoot off to church as a "distraction!"

Hope your family had a wonderful time celebrating Jesus' resurrection! It's glorious to know that we have a LIVING Savior who LONGS for us... his BELOVED! 

Hopes of Spring

I found these pics getting a tad bit dusty in my "blogging" folder and decided it's high time I share them with you!

A good, ohhhhh month or two back, we were getting a little antsy for Spring (who isn't, by the way!?!) and an afternoon popcorn picnic was just what we needed to boost our day! We had no idea that a month or two LATER we'd still be restless! :)

This was a couple days after Larren's goose egg event...

Those little Tupperware bowls can just be down right annoying at times... the remedy? Head straight to the source!!

Alia had popcorn and Larren had popcorn twists. It worked out well until either's source was depleted!

Dreaming of those summer bare feet days! They have to be around the corner... right?!

Right?!?! Come on... I'm getting a little panicky here!!