Good Friday Celebrations, Easter Decor and Free Printables

Our Good Friday was an especially, well, good one spent with family—just the way we like it. Earlier this week, our family dinner plans changed a bit and I offered to host the casual gathering at our place. I grabbed a ham at the grocery store and gave the house my best once over as quick as I could, which didn't go as smoothly as planned when I came down with a case of food poisoning (never again, local Thai restaurant) on Thursday afternoon. But the husband rallied and helped get everything in order and it all turned out just fine!

I returned to the Land of the Living by Friday morning after nearly 12 straight hours in bed. (Cannot remember the last time I did that.) The ham was in the oven by 3:30pm and my parents, plus my sister, Sabrina and the quad's adorable cousin Rayne all came over to celebrate. The kids were super excited to see Rayne who, I later learned, was planning to pick a visit to our house over a trip Six Flags if she had to! What a sweet girl! Fortunately for her, she was able to spend the day at the amusement park and then come join us afterward.

Summer (my sister) and Sabrina brought adorable gifts for everyone, large stuffed eggs for the egg hunt and a Paw Patrol mega block set for the kids! That entertained them for over an hour and all five kiddos played so well in the play room together. Sabrina helped me finish stuffing our eggs then she, myself and the husband divided and conquered the front yard, making it look more like a chicken coop gone golden with so many eggs everywhere.

The egg hunt was a huge success—we had over 200 of them!—and each kiddo filled their basket up. I loved it! This year, the quads really had it down too. They didn't try to open each egg as they picked it up and Rayne helped by setting a good and quick example!

After the egg hunt, we stashed the baskets and sat down for dinner in our kitchen. Ham on the bone, baked beans, homemade potato salad, fruit salad, rolls and peach cobbler with ice cream for dessert. The kids then played pin the tail on the bunny before watching Brer Rabbit, while the adults got a little down time, chatted, play on my Snapchat (find me under TexasTales!) and sipped wine.

Later this weekend, I'll share a recap on the rest of our Easter festivities and what's in the quad's Easter baskets, but for now here's a snapshot of the only decor I managed this year. But it's on our entry table by the front door, so I figured it counts double, right!? The cute Easter printable can be found here; I sized mine down to a 5X7 to fit my frame.

Earlier this week, the kiddos had their class Easter egg hunt at school and I created these simple printable tags for a quick and cute teacher Easter gift. I've got 'em for you in a PDF download right here! They're great for teachers as well as friends and family, too. You can never have too much lip balm or, if you're like me, you just want all the coconut things.

For the past two weeks or so, the husband and I have been discussing what Easter is really about (not just the Easter bunny) with the kids and reading some books about Jesus and His life and they're understanding far more than I expected they would. We love all the cute Disney 5 Minute story books, so I was excited to find Bible Stories in 5 Minutes, which will be great to convey passages and lessons in terms the kids can relate to. Other library reads we've picked up that have been good for us include The Miracle of Easter by Jean M. Malone and The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith.

It's definitely been important to us to take a moment here and there to remember the sacrifice Jesus made on that cross that day, and how willingly He traded His life for ours. To know that I am loved and cared for so strongly and passionately—as are you—is a powerful revelation and one that certainly carries me through. And it's a truth I intend for my children to know, trust and love with their whole hearts.

Happy Easter to you and yours! He is risen!

PS - Need some extra weekend reading? Check out my guest post on fellow mom of multiples blog, Capri +3, where I share 10 ways to make life easier with kiddos!

Our Weekend

It's the start of pre-school in our house. A day that once seemed so far and completely distant has at last arrived. And it's not just pre-school. It's the very fact that twice a week, my kiddos will be going to school to learn, play and interact with teachers and fellow students and that twice a week I will get a chance to work, create, clean and perhaps even rest. (Every now and then I give myself a complete "day off" and come home after school drop-off to go back to sleep and have no real agenda during my time alone. I can't be on the go all the time. It's exhausting!)

For the weekend eve of our foray into pre-school, we got to enjoy plenty of social time, family time and even a date night. I'd been counting down the days and then, ultimately, hours until date night with the husband last Thursday. We did our favorite things—a steak for dinner (Texas Roadhouse is one of our favorite casual restaurants) and an action movie. Because this gal doesn't typically do chick flicks. I love action. The more shoot 'em up, the better! We saw The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and enjoyed it very much and really, just enjoyed the chance to sit in a cool, dark place where no children were calling for me every five seconds or needed assistance in the bathroom/kitchen/living room/mess they made. Bliss, I tell you. One hour and 56 minutes of it, if we're really counting.

I also finally wore my first-ever pair of Miss Me jeans that the husband had bought me for my 30th birthday back in June. I love them! There's nothing like having a little sparkle on your butt to get through the day.

On Friday, I spent a lot of time just me and the kids and we had a really great day. I took them to the park before lunch so they could run off some energy—and steam, apparently, since even the "cooler temps" still ducked just below 100 degrees. 

Then in the afternoon we spent some time strolling leisurely through Target, snacking on popcorn and checking out pretty much every item available in the toy aisles. They do so well with understanding that we are just looking and checking things out, not buying everything. And they don't throw a fit about it, either. They really do enjoy just seeing what all is out there and they do make sure to tell me about the stuff they just loooooove, mama. The good behavior is often because I also try to set myself up for success and not take them out or run errands with my crew when they are either tired or hungry. Because neither of those scenarios ends up going well, ya know? 

(I also realized while posting this that I took a photo of everyone in front of the Frozen display. And while Harrison likes Sven and Kristoff just fine, he was in hog heaven over on the aisle full of trains and cars. On which we spent plenty of time, so quickly wanted to clarify he's not required to endure tutus and tiaras just because he has three sisters!)

While we opted for pizza for one night's dinner and some easy fixes for other meals, I did manage to make some pretty dang good teriyaki chicken with freshly steamed veggies and a heaping bowl of brown rice. Mmmm mmm good.

On Friday evening, I got some more orders made for my Etsy shop, Texas Take—my hand stamped key chains have been a hot ticket item lately! And it never fails that when I sit down to work at my computer, despite the kids being occupied or sleeping, Bandit (our tabby cat) always has to make a prompt appearance. In my face or on my keyboard.

Saturday morning I successfully baked blueberry muffins (from a box, don't be too impressed), of which we all ate every last crumb. Then the kids watched Tangled while the husband got some yard work done and I arranged some of the blossoms I'd gotten at the store. Fresh flowers in the house never fails to make me smile. And the husband knows there are three sure-fire ways to cheer me up, make my day or earn bonus points: the movies, flowers and candles. Done, done and done.

Saturday afternoon, while the husband took Harrison and Logan with him to get haircuts for the guys followed by frozen yogurt, I took Kailey and Trystan to a pool party for a little friend's first birthday. The girls had a blast swimming and my friend, Medley, helped me toss them around in the water so I didn't have to wade up and down the pool with my arms full. 

A few cupcakes and some water-logged little girls later, we headed home for dinner as a family followed by baths and some serious giggles. The kids got a hold of my phone and started taking pictures of each other, literally posing for one another and saying "CHEESE!" without any prompting whatsoever. Ham bones!?

Sunday was spent attending an incredible service at our church, and we went back later in the afternoon for our first meet-the-teacher experience! It was awesome and I'm so excited for the kids to start pre-school! They love going to the school at our church and we have been so happy and blessed to be able to send them there. They started out one day a week last fall with the Mother's Day Out program, and are graduating to two days a week with the pre-school program this school year. It's going to be exciting to watch and see what all they learn in a steadfast educationally-formatted environment!

Our Weekend

We had one seriously action-packed weekend and I am t i r e d. In this case, though, I think it's a sign of a successful Friday-to-Sunday series of events!

The husband was home with us Friday so that made for a great start because I was already feeling a little rundown from the week—the quads keep me busy busy busy! We all slept in late, kids included, and chowed down on a leisurely breakfast around 10:30am. Even better, the husband got everyone downstairs and food made while I snoozed for an extra 30 minutes and got to wake up slowly without anyone screaming at me or crawling all over my bed. Bliss! It's so sweet when he does little things like that. Even though he had a crazy busy week at work and gets just as worn down as I do, he knows I need a little break from the kids and he looks forward to spending time with them.

About lunchtime, we split up and each took two of the kids to run some quick errands and grab some grub. The husband had Harrison and Logan and went to get hair cuts (just for the guys!). Logan loves to sit and watch them get their hair trimmed and Harrison is such a big boy with the whole process and sits in his own chairs while dada sits in a chair next to him and they get their haircuts together. Meanwhile, I took Kailey and Trystan to Chick-Fil-A for a quick lunch and playtime then on to the grocery store to grab supplies for a family gathering the next day.

Later that afternoon, we all got pretty and the girls had fun picking out any dress they wanted from their closet. It was time to make our way to the husband's dad's retirement party. The quads knew it was a party for granddaddy and were all too excited to come help him celebrate! It was at a rustic BBQ joint that had a live band performing during part of the evening and the girls shared no shortage of twirls in their frocks and grazed and ate throughout the night. We brought loads of coloring books, look and find books and grandmommy brought out glow sticks as well. Meanwhile, myself and the husband both got to enjoy a few adult beverages and catch up with family and friends!

I was rocking a side braid on some serious three-day hair, but it felt good to look (and feel) like myself again. I've been sick for almost 10 weeks with repeated viral infections after going through my first bout with strep throat at the end of May. I did two rounds of antibiotics, tons of meds and allergy meds, and got a second steroid dose when I ended up at the ER two weeks ago. At first they thought I had meningitis but additional blood tests showed that wasn't the case and it was just viral. My blood work for mono, strep and other issues all came back normal as well. Thankfully, I seem to have finally made a full recovery and gotten back to feeling like myself!

just a quad momma and her babies!!!

harrison and aunt whitney

twirling girls! 

silly dada and kailey

granddaddy and trystan

kailey and her cousin, hailey

We didn't even get home until 11pm, but the kids were doing just fine because they'd picked up some helium balloons before we departed from the restaurant. Naturally, this led to a full-on balloon war in the suburban on the drive home and tons of hilarious laughs and giggles. I was completely happy with that versus tired, cranky meltdowns!

Saturday greeted us a little earlier as the husband and I rushed downstairs to speed clean the house before his older brother and his family arrived, as well as the grandparents. It was a full house and everyone really enjoyed it! We had tons of food and I made these deliciously fun sprinkle cookies as well as this honey garlic crock pot chicken. We fed a total of 14 people, kids included, and spent tons of time in the play room in between snapping some family photos in the front yard.

Literally 10 minutes after everyone had left, the husband and I were loading our crew into the suburban to head to a birthday party for our good friends, the Shawvers. Their quad squad was turning three and the kids were ready to help them ring it in! It was an adorable safari-themed bash and touted a great play space, arcade games and an air hockey table—the quads all got their first taste of the latter and loved it!

The last photo is of myself (on the right) and Amber S. as we caught a quick moment to snap a pic and catch up for a few minutes. She did a great job planning a wonderful party and we had a fantastic time. My kiddos chattered about it for awhile on the way home before passing out in their car seats. They all perked up a little when we got to the house, enough to have a quick sandwich dinner together before baths and bedtime. The husband and I couldn't get to the couch quick enough with bowls full of popcorn (topped with Lawry's Seasoning Salt, our fav), some wine and a movie. We opted to watch The Gunman with Sean Penn, which turned out to be right up our alley with plenty of action and a quick plot.

It's now officially Monday since I'm finishing up this post well after midnight, so I better get started on my week by logging a few hours of sleep before a new day starts again!

Hope you enjoyed a wonderful weekend and that you stop by the blog again this week for the start of my new summer guest post series!