Nightly Habits

If you can have daily habits, you can have nightly habits too, right?  It might not be grammatically correct, but this is the sweet view I see around our house every night.  The kids do their nighttime chores, and then Trace reads them a story--or two or three or even more, depending on the night.  I usually clean the kitchen and listen in to their soft murmurs.  I love this scene, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Marbelized Eggs

So we did indeed make marbelized eggs, and it was more kid-friendly than the robin's eggs.  Easier, and fewer steps.  The only difficult part was using blown eggs, but with a little experience I took care of that step before I told the kids about the project. 

Then we had fun making dye with food coloring, water and vinegar--they loved stirring in the drops and watching it change color.  The first step was to lightly dye all the eggs.  That was very hands on, because blown eggs float, so we gently spun them on top of the liquid (and yes, I was as surprised as they were, although I did realize that I should have expected that). 

Next we added concentrated the dyes by adding a lot more food coloring--also fun to stir.  Finally, we added a tablespoon of olive oil, and tried the first egg.

 

It worked!  They had lots of fun swirling the eggs, and watching the unique patterns that were created.  Choosing contrasting colors was also fun and educational.

 Caroline is my tactile girl, and she especially loved getting her hands dirty turning over the eggs.

 The finished product was colorful and should be very decorative on our Easter table.  We haven't even broken any yet, and it's two days later already.  We've all had fun turning them over to see the swirls, and both kids have chosen their favorites.  It's fun to have kids old enough to do these projects!

An Easter Craft

I have never made blown eggs before, but yesterday when I was looking up a chickpea salad recipe on Epicurious.com, I saw this "recipe" for robin's egg place cards.  I thought the kids and I would love to make them, so I called my crafty helper (the marvelous Miss Becky Miller) and this is how we spent our Sunday afternoon. 

The best pictures would have been of Becky and I (with occasional help from the two kiddos), blowing out 16 eggs.  That was harder than it sounds!  We were definitely all turning bright red from the effort.

These pictures are of us painting the eggs, and of the finished product. 

 Jack's ready!

 Caroline concentrating while Aunt Becky helps out. 

 Beautiful Becky.

 Jack starting on his second set of four is wearing some paint already.

 Hold your mouth right Caroline!

 The clever holders were a suggestion in the recipe, although the skewers that we had at home were too wide, so Becky and I modified them by taping toothpicks to the top with electical tape.  We thought we were pretty clever:)

 The finished product.  We won't put the rest of the names on until we get a final Easter head count, but we figured we'd be there for sure.  The speckling turned out to be harder than I thought, so I finished that after my helpers were in bed.  A fun project for sure, but probably more suited for kids a few years older. 

Next I saw a marbelized egg project on marthastewart.com when I was searching for the best way to blow eggs.  It looked a little simpler for kids, so we might try that later this week.  It's spring break around here, and today it's raining, so indoor projects are in order!  Happy Easter!

Our week . . .or so

Well this is an assortment of pictures which I've been meaning to put on the blog, but I've been too busy to do more than take the pictures. So here's an mixture of photos for your perusing pleasure -- especially for Grandma Jo who enjoys seeing her grandkids even without description. I'm posting this on my phone, so I can't see the pictures right now. Here's what I think they're about.
Jack has started t-ball practice, and he loves it! It is such a delight for this mama to see how eager and confident he is. He runs to help the coach, and to pick up a bucket of balls after throwing them all. For hitting practice they hit off a tee into a chainlink fence, and last Wednesday Jack hit the ball so hard that it went through the fence. His favorite part of practice is throwing -- I think he could do it all day. He can throw further than I can!
There are also pictures of both kids making cookies, a photo of Jack's muddy back at the park one day, and reading together on the couch.

The video is of my crazy kiddos jumping barefoot into the snow.

Oh and the funny faces are eating kumquats. Although both kids like citrus, kumquats were not a hit, as you can see.

In other news, Trace has acute pneumonia and he's been at home on the couch all week, so it's been rather chaotic around here. Actually I think the chaos might be entirely in my own brain, from lack of sleep. My sweet girl has also had a cough at night, so she comes to our bed in the middle of the night -- and as my husband aptly described, I become the middle of a cough sandwich. On a positive note, they are both definitely improving daily. I might even start speaking complete sentences again soon!

Until then, goodnight.

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Crazy kids

This video wouldn't upload to the last post, so I'm trying it in its own post. Let's see if it works!

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Snowy day

This winter has been especially full of snowy days for us.  We've actually had trouble playing outside because there's been too MUCH snow.  Today we had over a foot of snow,  and since Trace had cleared the driveway early, by this afternoon there was the perfect amount of snow to sled.  I went down a number of times with Caroline, which she loved, but by the time I went inside to get my camera she was done.  Jack, however, stayed outside for another hour or so, sledding, and even helping the neighbor shovel his drive.  That's the way we spent our snowy day!

A Four Year Old in the House

The princess around here turned four. None of her young friends could make it to the party, but it is a testament to her sweet spirit that all kinds of grown-up friends took time out of their day to dress-up and come to her princess party. The ladies even dug in the back of their closets for old prom and bridesmaid dresses. Caroline loved how fancy everyone was, and that the boys even wore "handsome ties," as she requested. You are one loved girl, Miss Caroline!

All the ladies dressed up. And she might be a princess, but she's still a Fike, and she requested ribs and hot dogs for her party. She's her daddy's daughter! The man behind all the wonderful food.

Saying hello to Andrew and Katherine. Have you ever seen a princess eating ribs before?

She loved her "fancy" cupcakes! It was worth all the time I spent the night before to see the delight on her face in the morning.

Blowing out four candles.

A sweet brother who was such a gentleman all day. He and I had gone shopping earlier in the week, because he wanted to spend his own money and buy his sister a gift. We went to Ben Franklin, on his insistence, and he wandered the whole store until he found what he wanted: some buttons for her to make crafts with. He carefully chose the pink and purple ones out of the Ben Franklin "treasure chest" of buttons, and then found some bracelets for her too. It took all his money, and warmed his mother's heart.

She travelled around the room and opened each gift with the giver. She also saved all the bows and tissue papers: they were all fancy!

Her favorite Aunt Becky. On a sidenote, she told me the other day that Aunt Becky is her favorite because she makes her vanilla steamers with whip cream. Affronted, I said: "but I cuddled with you all last night when you were sick!" She reassured me with, "well you are my second favorite, Mom!" She's a cutie!

Excited to see the kitten that she and Kim had shopped for together. You're an awfully nice friend Kim!

Gifts from "Uncle" John and Hynndie.

Opening a Giants shirt with Uncle Ted. Now she'll be ready to cheer on her team this year too!

Phil reading her the poem with pictures that he wrote/made for her.

The two Carolines. Sitting on Papa's lap to open her bunnies. She played with them all day today! Every year Caroline has received a book (or two) from Mike, and a dress from Ellen. What fun gifts!

The before picture of the cupcakes, which we enjoyed all day today too! Happy birthday to the surprise girl in our family. You're all girl, and we all love your hugs and giggles and your imaginative spirit. Four years old!