Bunny cake

My mom used to make bunny cakes at Easter. I don't remember them from when I was a kid, but I remember having them around when I was an adult, so I don't know if I just don't remember, or if she didn't start it until we were adults. In any case, I was telling the kids about Grammy's bunny cake, and we decided to make one.

They requested that it look like Louise on Max & Ruby, so we made a brown bunny, and then they chose pink for the box.

This was late Saturday night, and Taipan was back and forth to the cake, while Taisim was interested in participating in every step:

Egg coloring & pillow making

We colored eggs the Thursday before Easter so that the whole family could be a part of it - Yuta worked Friday and Saturday.

This year the kids were very much into having their OWN eggs and keeping track of which ones they did, so we were careful to keep everything separated. After we finished coloring we put the eggs in the fridge, and on both Friday and Saturday they checked in on their eggs and brought them out to look at them.

Both of them said repeatedly, "I can't wait for the easter egg hunt!"





After we did our eggs I decided to tackle a fairly quick project - making pillows! Taipan asked a few weeks ago for me to make something out of fabric. He didn't really know what, and neither did I since I'm not terribly crafty (yet). I wanted it to be something cuddly - pillow, stuffed animal, etc. So a good friend agreed to go to Joann's with me and help me find supplies.

I ended up buying fleece and stuffing, and made them fleece pillow that don't require any sewing - just tying strips of fabric to create seams. The kids love them - they couldn't wait for me to finish.

Here are the finished products:



I'd originally planned to make them both rainbows with different color backing, but Taisim said she wanted hers to be all pink. I did hers first, and asked Taipan if he wanted it that size or smaller and he said "Bigger!!", so his is a nice floor pillow size. It could use a bit more stuffing, but it's nice for lounging.

And that dress that Taisim is wearing is the Easter dress that Yuta's mom gave her. She loves it - she got it on Wednesday night, and wore it off and on throughout Thurs, Fri, and Sat.

Neighborhood walk on 3/18

I just came across these pictures, and had forgotten about them.

They're from a walk that the kids and I went on almost a month ago now. It was a bit of a chilly day, and Taisim wanted to be in the stroller with a blanket while Taipan and I walked. We just did a quick walk around the block. But about two houses down from us Taipan ran up to a tree, gave it a hug, and said, "Look Mom! I'm a tree hugger". That's the first picture. The second picture is him taking a quick break on a bench down the street from us.

Productivity

I am so thankful to Taipan and Taisim today. Yuta's at work, and I'm alone with them today, and have:

- weeded through closets and drawers to clean out clothes that are outgrown or not worn anymore. For not just Taipan and Taisim, but me and Yuta too! This means we no longer have 3-6mo size socks in the drawer.

- organized and cleaned up toys in the bedroom, two playrooms and the living room

Now I have four large trash bags of clothes and two large trash bags of toys that will go to the basement to be donated, sold, or rotated back upstairs. I'm hoping that Yuta won't mind helping me drag them to the basement when he gets home.

Woo hoo! I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the clutter, and am so happy that I was able to get all of that done, and it's only 3 o'clock. And the kids were helpful, and polite about it all. I did take breaks to play with them here and there, and Taisim hung out with me quite a bit, but I am so impressed with how accomodating they were when I told them what I wanted to get done today!

Oh, there's more I could do, but I want to play now and give them some focused time (why am I blogging then, you ask? Because they're eating and talking to me while I type).

How does your garden grow?

On Saturday night Taipan and I went to Target, and while we were there we saw flower headbands in the dollar section. We decided to get a couple. When we got home, we spent an hour or two playing with them.

Here are the kids (and me) trying on the headbands:



Then Taisim had an idea of growing flowers, so we all took turns being the gardener and the flowers. We used a pool noodle light saber as our shovel, and as soon as a hole was dug by the gardener, the flower got into the hole with their seed (the ball is the seed).

Here's Yuta getting ready to be planted, and then Taisim watering him, and giving him some sunlight (the olive pillow is the sun), and finally our beautiful Papa-flower is blooming (I think that pic looks a bit like the statue of liberty too):



Now it's Yuta's turn to be the gardener, and Taisim is the flower:


Taipan wanted to be our photographer and videographer while we were growing flowers. He took some of the ones above, and also had fun taking pictures with Yuta's iPhone. I did grab him for a mother-son picture:


Two great pictures of Yuta and Taisim:


And this is one of the pictures taken by Taipan - we've got about five of these where he took a picture of himself, and Yuta jumped in a couple:

Hopscotch and other fun

I decided to take Friday off of work ... I've had a lot of long days lately, and wanted to have some extra time with Taipan & Taisim. As luck would have it, it was a warm day. A bit overcast and windy, but not cold. So around noon the kids and I went to the park - it was so nice to be there after so many months!

Here they are at a picnic table, eating some of the many snacks we brought with us. In the first picture Taisim is helping get Taipan's hair our of his eyes, which was sweet.


After the park we stopped at the library to pick up a DVD we had on hold, and stayed there to play for about 30 mins, and then some friends were waiting for us in our neighborhood (they beat us there by about 10 mins). We did a lot of "adventure" sword and pirate play that afternon, but we also did a bit of hopscotch, and that's what I caught pictures of.

We ended up with three hopscotch ... um, boards? areas? ... anyway, our routine is to draw them, and then deocrate each of the squares. Here's the first hopscotch, before I decorated the squares:


And here's the third one (again before we decorated the boxes) - Taipan helped me draw this one. The "8" is intentionally a sideways rectangle, and when you jump on that one you're supposed to jump sideways.


The rain washed them away already .... but we're already talking about doing more once it's drier (and warmer again).

Making soap

On Sunday we made glycerin soap - it was a lot of fun, and we'll probably make more once we're out.

I put pictures on Facebook ... so instead of posting them here too, visit this link to see the pictures.  Supposedly anyone can see the pics, even if you're not on facebook.  Let me know if that's not so.

Our Valentine's Day

Even though I've titled this post "valentine's day", we didn't do a whole lot around the holiday.  We gave each of the kids some chocolate and told them how much we love them ... but that's an every day occurrence around here :-)

Anyway, Yuta was working, so the kids and I played at home all day.  We were invited to a friends' house, but we declined.   When Yuta got home from work around 7:30 I ran out to the store to get some errands done so that I could have all day Sunday to hang out at the house and not rush around.

A while back we picked up Doodle Tops at the thrift store - tops that are pens and make spirals and such.  We bring them out every few weeks - this weekend Taisim had fun with them, along with the cat.  I didn't get a good photo with Cooper, but he loved batting them around the table.

While we were doing this, Taipan had been playing Lord of the Rings on the XBox, and right about the time Taisim & I finished up, Taipan was ready for a battle.  This picture is pre-battle smiles!

I was trying to get a shot of Taipan battling, and Taisim wanted to get in the picture and smile, so here she is smiling, and Taipan is behind her with either a sword or a staff (some of our pool noodles are staffs now).  And the next one is Taipan being an archer .... we use our nerf guns as bows.

Mid-battle Taisim decided to play with Barbies, and then she wanted to be a pricess with her tiara, wand and shoes:

Princess Taisim hiding from her attacker, and Taipan poised to attack:

Taisim is 3

Our original plan for Taisim's birthday was to go to Chuck E Cheese with some friends, however we ended up not going because Taipan was sick (he's better now).  Fortunately it didn't damper anyone's spirits, and we had a great day.

In the late morning we did gifts, and then Yuta and Taisim went to pick up the cake.  She had requested a princess cake, and one with a  castle if possible.  I looked up some ideas for how to do a castle cake on my own, but the thought of it was too daunting.  Instead we went to the grocery store, and she picked a princess cake from the book.  She was so happy to have that cake, and we now have three new princesses to add to our collection.  And you'll see in the pictures below that Taisim graciously allowed Taipan to help her blow the candles.

Later in the afternoon Ama and Akon stopped by with birthday wishes.  Taisim and Taipan were happy to see them, though right around that time Taisim fell asleep, so her time with them was pretty short.

I love love love my kids' birthdays.  I appreciate and enjoy them every day, but I like having a whole day where it's foremost in my mind how important their presence is in my life.

On to the pictures:

Taisim's Birth Day (2/10/2006)

Taisim's third birthday is tomorrow, and one of my favorite things to do around the kids' birthdays is to go back and look at pictures from the day they were born.  Since I don't have these on a blog anywhere, I thought I'd put them here now.  

This is a picture taken during the last month of my pregnancy.  I was good at being pregnant (meaning I wasn't uncomfortable or waiting for it to end or not liking the way I looked) - even though I was sick sick sick during the first five months of my pregnancy with Taisim, it's not even close to being one of the first things I remember.  I remember mostly feeling good, and a little bit apprehensive about how a second child would affect us.

For those that don't know, Taisim was born at home.  Our original plan was to go to a birth center, but about two months before she was born I changed my mind.  I wasn't in love with the midwives at the birth center, and was starting to wonder why we should bother driving all the way there when we could just have her at home, so we found a wonderful midwife and had she and our doula at the birth.  

My first contraction was right around 4:30pm, and she was born at 8:49pm ... up until the first contraction I hadn't expected that day would be the day that she was born.

Here's Yuta holding her for the first time, and our first picture with her together (well, I should say the first posed picture):

Yuta and our midwife weighing her (8lbs 10oz I think ... maybe 11oz):

The next day, cleaned up a bit:

Taipan with his new baby sister - he was with my sister while she was born, and she brought him home around midnight.  He fell asleep on his way home, and went right to bed, but was glad to meet her the next day.  This picture was when she was 3 days old:

That's my trip down memory lane today.  She has brought such joy to all of our lives - her smiles, her kisses, her stories and imagination light up my life every day.  And, to be honest, I wasn't sure if she would be a good or bad thing for Taipan ... I was nervous that he wouldn't get enough attention once she was born, but I can't imagine him not having her in his life.  They enjoy each other so much, and she brings out a side of him that I don't know that we would've seen otherwise.