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!

Things for Spring

The weather in Texas has dutifully warmed up even beyond our normal temperatures this spring, making me think our summer is going to be that much hotter. But for now we're all basking in the easy-going mid- to high-60s with a few afternoons peaking at 70 degrees. Flowers are blooming and I've broken out all the kids new sandals for the year.

I wanted to go into the weekend with just a quick post highlighting some of my favorite photos of our spring thus far, like a pretty arrangement of grocery store blooms I picked up and displayed on a $3 Target tray on our kitchen island. Flowers always make me happy!

If blooms are on sale or come in a bunch, I often split them up into various arrangements and use roses or carnations or even greenery as filler to get more bang for my buck. So far, I've got lots of flowers and greenery—both real and faux—scattered throughout the house to lend a fresh air for the new season. I even saved a couple of blue-green hydrangeas and dried them out so I could continue to display them on top of my piano because they were so pretty.

Our entryway table hasn't been officially decked out for spring or Easter, but for now it's got some fresh decor with more faux greenery, framed photos and a burlap bunny all in neutral tones. I've got a DIY Easter banner to string along the wall hanging and some more cute bunnies the kids will enjoy looking at. 

Speaking of good weather, today the kids and I enjoyed a walk through our neighborhood after their naps. They loved picking up sticks, weeds flowers, acorns and other nature finds. All four do a fantastic job of staying on the sidewalk, not running too far ahead and crossing the street carefully with me. It's a great opportunity to practice basic safety habits and get a little fresh air and exercise! Plus, the crew broke in their new shoes I get from Wal-Mart each year (one of the few times I go there, I'm a Target girl all the way!). They can easily slip the shoes on themselves and the kicks are perfect to wear around the house and yard in the summer. They're plastic slip-on, clog-type shoes for less than $5 each and can be hosed off and dried with a towel for easy clean-up!

A couple weeks ago, I got a chance to spend some one-on-one time with Trystan. We went to brunch with some of my girlfriends and a few of their kiddos then did a little shopping for the afternoon. I love any exclusive time I get with my kids!

We stopped in at Anthropologie and Trystan loved their unique displays, like a collection of paint brushes suspended from the ceiling. The beautifully illustrated books caught her eye and at one point she settled onto the couch to flip through one of them. I was so smitten that she was smitten so we ended up purchasing Anne of Green Gables and I've been reading a chapter to the kids each night before bed. They really enjoy "chapter books," as they call them, and between myself and my mom they are getting to hear many of the classics read.

I've only ever owned one pair of Sperrys, so when I saw these gold-toned beauties at TJ Maxx recently I snatched them up. Much less expensive than full-price versions and very comfy for days full of walking!

On a separate round of errands, I made a few returns at Marshalls and browsed around before leaving when I found these pretty blue glasses for just $1.99 each. They are 100 percent recycled glass (which is what it says on the front) and the husband and I decided they're perfect for our new whiskey and coke glasses! We like to mix up a few, especially on the weekends when we do a DVR late night binge after the kiddos are in bed.

As spring rolls on, we look forward to more outings and little adventures with the kids and have really enjoyed watching them learn so much and so fast at school right now. Next week is spring break and we've got some bonus time to spend with grandparents and our quad buddies, but first up is a day date I'm really looking forward to with the husband tomorrow! 

The quads turn four years old at the end of May, which is so hard to believe. They are truly turning into big kids now! I've settled on a dinosaur theme for their party and already have so many fun ideas and DIY projects I hope to accomplish for the bash. The kids are excited about the dino-centric day and I've already purchased their first gift!

These four sweet babies are the best of friends and we see evidence of that every day. Just this evening, while cleaning up the dinner dishes, the husband and I heard Harrison and Trystan getting frustrated with each other in the play room. Then Harrison says in a totally calm voice, "Trystan, I love you very much, but you need to build your own lego tower!"

We never know what they're going to say! One of our favorite post-dinner laughs often comes from asking the girls to clean Harrison's face if he's thoroughly enjoyed his dinner and dessert and left evidence of it all over his mouth. The girls will each grab a baby wipe then take off giggling and chasing after Harrison who playfully screeches his protests but eventually lets them all have their turn. It's the sweetest thing! The other night they had a tickle fest and the girls are piled on top of their brother trying to get the biggest laugh out of him possible and he was the best sport, letting them poke and prod while laughing hysterically. Nothing brings the husband and I more pride and joy then seeing the unique and incredibly close bond that our children share with each other. 

It's time to pour another glass of wine and settle onto the couch with the husband and relax—the long week is officially over!

Our Halloween Weekend

Halloween was an exciting event this year! It was the first time for two things: for the kiddos to select their very own costumes, and for us to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. The past two years we dressed them up in outfits of our own choosing and last year we took them to each of the grandparents house to trick-or-treat there and visit for a little while. That was enough excitement to wear them out and don't you know they still got plenty of sweet treats!

This year, though, we've mastered going on group walks throughout our neighborhood and they totally get the whole concept of Halloween, costumes and trick-or-treating so we went with the whole shebang!

I can thank Target for making most of our costume search easy—we scored a Spiderman, Rapunzel and Ariel costume there at 50% off with a coupon on my Cartwheel app—and then Kailey picked out her cute little Minnie costume when she was with me on a shopping excursion at Costco a week before. They'd worn them a couple times before the big night, once for a Halloween party with our quad buddies, the Shawvers, and once earlier this week when we visited the husband's parents for an pre-Halloween outing and they trick-or-treated there then stayed for dinner while the husband and I got a date night!

After naps, all four were super excited to start putting on their gear and get ready to go. We'd picked up four dollar pumpkin buckets earlier that day and reviewed how trick-or-treating works and that they only take a piece or two of candy from each house—not handfuls! They did AWESOME. They traipsed all over the neighborhood and had an absolute blast the entire time, with not one complaint about all the walking, carrying their pumpkins (that got heavier with every door knock!) or getting tired. In fact, they were doing so well that when we got back to the house we loaded up in the suburban and headed to my mom's house for a surprise trick-or-treat visit there!

I brought pajamas with us, so once the fun was over we dunked them in the bath tub and got everyone dressed for bed then drove our wired but tired and very happy four little pumpkins home. They slept right up until the last minute on Sunday but thanks to the time change and falling back an hour, we made it to church only a little late. My mom sat with us then we all went to lunch afterward before heading home for naps. The kids didn't exactly cooperate on the latter, but they did get some quiet rest time in their rooms while the husband and I got a break to watch a show together on the couch and relax for a minute. 

To cap off our weekend focus of spending special time with the kiddos (which included our first-ever date day!), the husband took Harrison to an indoor bounce house for a couple hours while I stayed at the house with the girls and had a fun afternoon with them. I painted 70 nails—including my toes!—then we had cupcakes and watched Frozen Fever and a couple episodes of Team Umizoomi. They really enjoyed all the attention, and I was so glad we had been able to carve out time with all the kids.

Now I just need to check myself into Binge Candy Eaters Anonymous and find a better hiding place for my sugar stash....like the trash, if we're being honest.