Easter hunt.

Today was the city's Easter "egg" hunt.  More of just a candy hunt this year, there were hardly any prize eggs.  That's alright though! All of the kids had a blast. 

They never start on time and Georgia may or may not have just started reaching under the tape to get all the candy within her reach.  The twins had tons of fun, once they realized you put it in your basket!   Elizabeth just wanted to stop and eat it every chance she got, Georgia on the other hand was a baby on a mission.  She LOVED it!  In fact, every area we went to she picked some up (Jack and Abby's areas). 

 

So by the end of everyone's hunt this is what they got.  Izzy on the left, Georgia on the right.   Sherry said it was so heavy by the end George had to drag it behind her! HA! Atta girl.

Jack was more fun to watch though, he ran around the whole field looking for the "right" candy!  The right colors I think.  I finally told him just to pick up everything and we'll trade with the girls when we got home. 


Apparently I didn't get one of just Abby, but she scored big time too. 

Here is the whole group of hunters.  Out of everyone, only Zach got a prize egg. 

When we got home we poured all of the baskets (just our kids) in to a 5gal bucket we had out back and it filled it up half way!! 2 1/2 gallons of candy...

The night Santa came to the Laidlaw's new home.

Once upon a time Santa came to our new house to suprise four little kids. 

 

 

Ben's co-worker dresses as Santa every year and gets paid to go to parties and people's homes.  Well, he is a super nice guy and said he would come visit our kids! We kept it a secret for a few weeks, let me tell you, it wasn't easy!  I was excited they were getting a special visit, especially right before he came.

 

 

We went to the annual Laidlaw party last night that Santa also attends and the twins *hated* him!  Well, this Santa had Daddy sit on his lap while holding them... and they still scream.

 

Haha, poor babies. 

Abby and Jack had written him letters (still not knowing he was coming) earlier in the day so they were so excited to be able to hand deliver them.

Abby heard the sleigh bells as he was walking up to the door and was SO excited when he burst in.

Well, so was Jack, but he bit his tongue in all of the excitement and refused to sit on his lap... until Santa refused to give him a present until he did.  But he refused  to tell Santa what he wanted, because...

He had already written him a letter complete with pictures, so he made Santa read it instead.  Funny kid.

She warmed up just a bit when he called her name and tried to hand her a present.  This piqued her interest, so she inched forward just enough to reach the bag.

After talking a bit more to the older kids, it was time for Santa to leave.  On his way out the door he stopped to say a bit more to the twins and they just stared at him, even let him pat their heads and stroke Georgie's cheek.  Not even a peep from them.

Elizabeth was less than thrilled with her new dolly, so George got to snuggle both of them.

Jack LOVES his new "four wheeler guy"... so does Izzy, she fought him for it...

Abby got a new creepy doll lalaloopsy, she was so happy.

And here Izzy is showing how much she hates the new baby.  She threw it around the room for a few minutes then ignored it.  I tried to put it in her crib with her tonight, but she threw it out.  Whateves. 

Featured.

Anyone who talks to me about sewing knows how much I seriously LOVE Oliver + S patterns.  I rarely sew with any other brand anymore.  So I recently saw a ruffle trench pop up in my facebook feed that someone had commented on to buy and I KNEW I could make one myself (and for much, much less!!:)  So I ordered the pattern and obsessed about it for a week until it arrived.  I bought the material the night it arrived and had it nearly all sewn up the next day.  I belong to the O+S flickr group and showed it there and had many people request a tutorial, including the designer of the patterns!! I was beyond flattered.  She asked me to do a write up for her blog and she would feature it (she ended up just directing traffic to my blog instead of using the write up, but that's fine with me!)   So I made another in the size smaller since the first was WAY too big and blogged a tutorial. 

 

 

Today I was pleasantly suprised to see my coat was featured on the Oliver and S blog and Liesl said some great things about it.

 

In case you didn't want to follow my links, here are the pictures of my cute little cheeser.  She kept making this face and it cracked me up.

And here is the shot of the bit I altered.  So incredibly flattered to have it featured!

First day.

I have so many pictures to catch up on from the summer, it is embarassing.  Instead I will just go with this today. 

Abby's first day of second grade was yesterday, she was so excited! She had her clothes picked out for literally a month! She folded them and hid them somewhere in her room so they would be clean and ready to go, ha!

We dropped her off in her class and as we got back in the car Jack sighed and said "Oh Mom, I miss her already!" Sweet boy. Don't worry though, once he got done pouting he got comfy, aka in his underwear, played trains and ate snacks- so pretty much like everyother day, except no one to fight with!

We were at the Laidlaw's and while I was cutting hair Sherry had the girls outside.  Part way through the cut they came in and Sherry said to look, so I did, and nearly died at the cuteness.  (is cuteness a word? well it is now!).  I made Ben hurry and take a video of it, he wasn't fast enough getting it set up, so she backed them up and started again. 

The eclipse.

The kids were crazy excited to view the  eclipse today!  They took Ben's welding helmet around all day looking at the lights and even the sun a few times to try it out. 

We were able to hold them off until seven, then I sat outside with them while they viewed to their heart's content. 

Jack looked a couple of times, he just enjoyed being outside. (Clothed only in his underwear, as always)

Abby LOVED it, she looked through it every 2-3 minutes. 

Ben came out with the babes for a few minutes, this was their spot.

Then he showed the kids how to hold a paper with a pin prick to see the eclipse. 

They enjoyed watching the shadows from the leaves.

Here are some random bits from the last month...

George can put herself to sleep for naps most times, but Elizabeth, no way!  So I put Georgia down in her crib and went in the front room to help Iz, and this is how I found her when I went to put Iz down.  She cracks me up!  This is how I find her most times, or something similar.

Jack cracks me up.  Most days he hangs out in his underwear. All. Day. Long.  So I thought it was funny he and Elizabeth were just in their bottoms and both totally fixated on Sesame Street.

Girlfriends love their TV.  Well, mostly just Elmo and Blue's Clues.  I love that they fight for the best spot to stand and watch it!

Ben likes to put food in the middle of them and watch them duke it out.  Georgia is definitely the fighter.  I will give each of them one cracker and Georgia will steal Iz's so she has two and Iz has zero.  So most times I have to seperate them while eating snacks.

Sweet little Iz.  Still as chunky as ever.  She now has six teeth!! Whoa buddy.  For a few days she had six and George had one.  But, then George sprouted another, and she is so close to cutting another today.  I can see the white under her gums and she is a BEAST.

She put this on her head.  Or at least no one will fess up to putting it on her, so I will just believe she did it on her own.

He dressed himself today. In the shirt he wore yesterday. And his snowman tie from Grandma.  Yes, we left the house like this:)

I realized I don't have any pics of Abby from the last month... promise she is still here!! :)  She is doing ah-mazing in school, her teacher just raves about what a joy she is in class.  She tutors kids in her class, reads at a 4.8 grade level and even got to teach kindergarteners about dinosaurs recently.  She had to prepare a 20 minute "lesson" and she wrote it herself.  I didn't go, but she says it went well, so I will just have to believe her!

And since the girls are still awesome nappers I have been sewing up a storm!  They usually get in two, two hour naps. I am so lucky!! So I usually sew for one nap and clean for the other.  So if ya wanna see what I have been up to, check out my sewing blog.  (in fact, I made all but the pajamas and the onesie George was wearing in the picture with the headband)