Hoppy Hollow Easter Village

One of Little Man's favorite ways we decorate for a holiday is the Hoppy Hollow Easter Village we put out every year for Easter.  The ceramic buildings and resin bunnies are so fun to place, and he loves coming up with different places to put things every year.  This year he arranged everything to create a park.  This year was also a first in that we used the lights that we've had for a while but never had lit up.  It was a fun, new element that made the village even more exciting that usual.  I love watching him set the village up every year, he really takes his time to pick the perfect place for every piece.

I Said I Had Lots to Share!

If I'm quiet here in blogland it's usually because there's loads going on in the real world.  That's definitely been the case this year.  Here are some more highlights!

Hubby, Little Man and I all took our first trip to Fort Sumter while we were visiting Charleston.  A beautiful ferry ride took us over, and on the way we enjoyed watching the dolphins playing.

See that big ol' bridge in the photo above? Yeah, that's the one I ran over!

During the trip over and back Little Man worked on the Junior Ranger booklet, learning answers along the way (with our help) so that when we got back to the center, he got a badge!  He's an official Junior Ranger!

Before we headed to PA we decorated our Easter eggs so they would be ready for the Easter bunny.  This year we went with Angry Birds...I drew faces, cut them out and then passed them through my sticker maker (except for the eyes...a good old hole puncher did the trick for them).

In PA, my Mom, Hubby and I had a great time taking Little Man and my nephew to the planetarium and museum.  It was so cute hearing the boys interpret art when I asked them what some of the pieces made them think of.

A special treat was the Andy Warhol exhibit...part of which was the the Mylar balloons interactive exhibit.  The museum had a fun scavenger hunt for the exhibit that we all worked together to find the answers to also.

We did our first family 5k (and Little Man's first 5k ever!) to benefit the Pawz Too Run charity.  Little Man struggled a bit for the last mile or so, it'll be a while before we do it again...but we all felt great when we finished!

Another first? I took the NC Concealed Weapons Class with two of my co-workers.  We had a blast....literally!!!

Spring Visit

Last week we headed North to visit my Mom, my brother and my nephew. We drove most of the day Thursday and enjoyed the scenery in the mountains, and made it to Mom's house for dinner. Then on Friday, we celebrated Hubby's birthday with chicken divan and carrot cake (plus presents of course).

I'm telling you, those two little boys wear you out just looking at them. They're both little balls of energy, and they LOVE playing together. Hide and seek, cars, dancing, blocks, paper airplanes, puzzles...you name it, and they probably did it over the course of the weekend.

And they both LOVED the card I picked out for Hubby for his birthday!

Don't try to guess how old Hubby is from how many candles we used...the number was picked for looks alone!

Saturday we did a little bit of shopping, visited with some family friends who stopped by, and ate some pizza (and leftover cake, yum). Oh, and Lent ended, so you know I went out and grabbed the yarn I need to finish the little sweater I talked about last post (although I have other things to finish first now).

And then, Sunday was Easter and Little Man found eggs and loved looking at what the Easter Bunny left for him.

And my brother and nephew came looking all coordinated and handsome for the holiday...

...and Mom taught the boys how to peel hard-boiled eggs.

And since egg salad isn't as popular as other salads around Mom's house, I made deviled eggs...

And then my brother dropped the container on the floor, without the lid on...

...and he quickly slopped them back into the container, with them looking like this mess. And later while we had stepped out to go to the memorial garden, Hubby ate one...and when I asked him what he thought of it later (him not knowing where they had been) he didn't comment on what a mess they were...he said he thought they were runny. hmph...

Later the boys enjoyed more time together, sitting and putting puzzles together. We left Monday morning for home, and made good time. This weekend we'll go to the beach, next week I go to Vegas, and the week after that I'll be back in PA for 2 1/2 weeks to be with Mom...because she's getting a bionic hip! No seriously, she's going to have her hip replaced and won't be able to get around or drive so I'll be up there for a while. The City of Charlotte won't know how to act without my silly self here for so long.

Catch-Up

Here's a photo of my little guy...he's crafty just like his Mommy! He had a good time decorating Easter eggs, I even bought him and my nephew a decorating kit featuring the characters from the film "Cars," and boy did they love using those stickers!

During the LONG drive up North I managed to whip-up these T-strap booties. The pattern was in the Spring/Summer 2007 issue of Knit Simple magazine, and they were really easy! I love how they came out and they really didn't take up too much yarn so I anticipate making a matching pair of these to go with any little girl items I make in order to make a more complete set.

And during my down time in PA, and the car ride home I finished the back of the Rollneck Pullover that I am making for Little Man's 3rd birthday (which is in November). I'm currently finishing up the first sleeve. Being new to knitting I've never used self-striping yarn before so it's been really fun to watch the stripes appear with no extra effort on my part. The only thing that becomes a little tricky is keeping the sleeves lined up ( I want them to stripe at the same points). I cannot wait to see how this sweater turns out, I have really high hopes!

Last week I made two cards for a birthday party we attended in Atlanta this past weekend for our friends who have children who turn 1 and 2 this month. And I added to my project list yet again when I volunteered to make a mother-daughter sundress set for my friend and her daughter. It never ends! As soon as I finish up one thing I come up with five new projects.