321 Santa Wears a Bulletproof Vest

I know I took a shot at him, but the Big Guy is very forgiving. He didn't bat an eyelash when he saw me walking towards him. He smiled and waved. In truth, I felt kind of bad. Just a few days ago I was railing against him, and here I was bringing my kids to talk his ear off and snap a picture. Its not like I expected to be on the Nice List anyway. I think of it as doing Santa a favor, lightening his load. If I was a good girl all year then he would have to come up with something to bring me. I am too old for Cabbage Patch Kids and My Little Pony. Maybe if Santa worked at Best Buy we could work something out. A Flip Video camera would be superb.

But this visit was about the kids ... (and to assuage my guilt). Katie had written up her list, and we told her over and over that she should pick out the top three things she wanted to tell Santa about. Instead she whipped out the whole list. Santa was a little confused about what "AG" stood for, but Katie was quick to inform him that it stood for American Girl. Connor did pretty good, too. He was distracted by people walking around on the second floor. All the pretty lights helped also. Not that it helped him smile at the camera.
He did try to tell Santa what he wanted, but I hope Santa is fluent in baby talk!And here is the bought picture ... meh ....Afterwords we ran into Sears, and the kids geeked out looking at video games after we checked out the refrigerator selection. And the highlight of all mall trips... the smoothie. Katie had her fingers crossed that her blood sugar would be low enough for a treat. She wasn't "low" but she popped her nighttime pill and we let her get one anyway.

Now we just have to wait and see if Santa decides to bring anything off her list. Guess it will all depend on where she ended up, Naughty or Nice.

.... but seriously Santa, I have been AWFUL good this year!

201 Prep work

A Magpie Original! Katie brought this home from school last week. I absolutely ADORE it!Holidays end up being multi-day experiences when you have kids. Especially when you have grandparents that live far away! The Easter Bunny wore brown ... umm, the UPS lady brought an Easter package from Grammy on Friday. And Grammy, being the quick thinker that she is, declared the package to be a Good Friday present, so Katie was able to tear into it as soon as we got back from our egg-dye buying trip.Grammy always knows just what Katie would like! Notice the dollar bills folded up with chocolate. It is like every woman's dream come true!

Connor's basket was, of course, baby friendly. However, he ripped straight into the chocolate. And I am pretty sure he ended up eating all of his peanut butter cups and all of his sisters.

And then we had to dye the eggs. I did not hear about the silk-tie method until too late, or we definitely would have tried that. I have seen many different blog posts about it, but why not go to the craft master Martha for official instructions! And because they are gorgeous, here is another link to Our Best Bites.

I started my boring old-fashioned Easter Eggs by hard-boiling 18 eggs.

We lost two in the boiling process ...

We lost two more in the egg dying process, as well.

Katie chose the PAAS Tie Dye kit (strictly for the fact it came with glitter). It is probably the easiest kit for kids. You get a bunch of plastic bags, put in the dry egg and a few drops of egg dye. Smear the egg around in the ink in the bag and VOILA! Tie Dye Egg. You just sprinkle the glitter on while it is wet. Of course Katie managed to let two eggs slip from her grasp. It was inevitable, and I only got a little mad at the first one. By the second one I had decided it really didn't matter anyway.

I couldn't resist a little Easter Egg Love! And back into the carton to await their fate. And according to Chip, that fate is to be put outside the night before so that the Easter Bunny can hide them when he comes to fill the basket. What kind of crap is that?? Apparently we have just decided that we aren't going to even pretend we are going to eat the eggs. And that led to a discussion about what Easter was like as a child. In my house, we placed the empty Easter basket by the front door and when we woke up it would be overflowing with candy. We usually got some kind of bunny themed product. Maybe a stuffed animal, and of course one time we got the fuzzy bunny bank! Did everyone get the bunny bank? I remember mine fondly :) We would get dressed up, take pictures by the azaleas or on the hill. And then we would head over to my grandparents house to eat and have the Easter Egg Hunt.

Katie's egg hunt won't be as flower filled and glamorous as those of my youth. You wonder where I am going to hide her eggs?? Well, if you had been paying attention you could have figured it out ...