Happy Easter!

This is part 2 to  happenings in this house that I posted on Saturday- with Easter there were just too many pictures to post in one day!

So . . here we go :-)

 On Saturday morning we dyed eggs with the kids.  Josh really loved putting the eggs in the dye and than taking them back out and putting them in the egg carton.  Nate, well, Nate just liked tasting the egg :-)

 Next, we headed to the Bunny Train.  Josh loves trains and was in awe of this one.  He loved riding it - both boys did.  I was amazed at how entertained they were for the 1 1/2 hour ride.  And, yes, the Easter bunny came through the train several times and they all got a gift too!  After the ride, we went to dinner at Joe's Chicago Pizza.  I had gotten a gift certificate from Restaurant.com so it was an awesome deal!! When we went to leave, things took an unexpected turn.

 Do you see that spot under our truck?  Well . . .that is gas.  Yep.  We tried to leave and the truck kept stalling.  I noticed that the people sitting in the restaurant kept looking at us funny (and I was kinda perturbed with them . .  ) when the guy at the table jumped up and came out to the truck rather quickly.  Darryl opened the door and as the guy was saying "You are leaking lots of fluid", I said "I smell gas, I'll grab the kids".  Our first move was getting both kids out of the car and getting them away from it.  Darryl got on the phone to the insurance company when the next thing happened.  A couple walked out of the restaurant and he said "Would you like me to fix that?"  Turns out, this guy is a mechanic and works on . . . .Trailblazers!!!!  So, he grabbed his car mat from his car to lay on and crawled under our truck.  He saw that the gas line had broken away from the tank and knew how to fix it . . . but was unable to get it together.  We were back at square one . . when Darryl called his brother-in-law.  Craig "happened" to be at a family members house only 5 minutes away.  Craig drove right over, pick up the kids and I and drove us back to his house so we could hang out with my sister-in-law.  Darryl arranged for a tow truck.  (Don't worry - there's more good stuff!)

There's my truck.  :-(  We had it towed to my brother-in-laws house.  Why?  Because he ones a Boat Machine shop and knows "everything" about cars.  He also has a hoist so they were able to put it up on the hoist and do the "quick" fix the other mechanic told us it would be - 20 minutes and it was done.  PLUS we had enough tow mileage that the towing didn't cost a penny.  When was the last time anyone had a car break down and it cost nothing to get it fixed??  Talk about being grateful!  There are other little things we are thankful for such as - that it happened in a parking lot and not driving down the expressway and that it happened with Darryl was driving; the truck is "my" vehicle so I drive it 90% of the time - the fact that it happened when it did is a God thing.  So, a story that could have been bad turned out really good!  Oh, and for those of you wondering if this could happen to you - the 1st mechanic told us what most likely happened - a year ago, we had to have work done on the fuel system due to a problem with the gas tank (the gas gauge thingy broke).  More than likely, when that was worked on it was not put back together correctly and, over time, it worked lose.  So it was the dealers error that caused this problem.  It shouldn't "just" happen.

Now for Easter Sunday :-)

 Happy Easter from our Family!  I'm pretty impressed with the fact that we actually got a picture with all 4 of us looking at the camera.

 Easter Baskets!  The energizer bunny (aka Nate) kept moving - he liked Josh's basket.  The both got microphones (those fun ones we all had as kids); chocolate bunnies, different kinds of bubbles, matchbox cars, T-shirts and, from Grandma, a beanie baby and fruit snacks!!!  They loved everything :-)

 We went outside for an Easter egg hunt - don't you love this picture hahahaha!! 

 Nate finally figured out what to do but . . .. Josh was more interested in his cars and carrying them in his basket (Did you notice that their baskets are a football and a baseball? )

 I tried all day to get a good photo in the Easter Outfits and I finally got one of each of them!!  I had hoped to get one of them together sitting in these little chairs but that was not happening.  That's ok - I'll take the individual shots :-)

So that was our Easter :-)  Don't you just love those little plaid shorts???  I was so happy that it was warm today and the sun was out for most of the day. 

Simplify Updates

Remember?  My theme word this year is to simplify . . . .I want that "laying on the beach" feeling every day.  Ok, maybe not every day but just in general.

Well, you can do a little review of my Simplify posts if you so please but I thought I would give you a few updates since we are now halfway through the month of April !!

1.  The Bathroom - there really isn't progress on this one but I had to share - one of my big plans a week or so ago when the kids were gone was to finish up all of the touch up painting when there were no little fingers to touch wet paint.  Well, I searched and searched for the paint I had picked up about 2 months ago to no avail.  I finally gave up and moved on to other projects.  Than on Friday I was working for 10-15 minutes spurts in the basement (Every time I rebooted the laundry I would squeeze in 10 minutes of picking stuff up) I found the paint sitting in plain site on my drafting table.  So the moral of the story - I guess I wasn't meant to do touch up painting yet!  I think one of these evenings after everyone else is in bed, I'll just work on that - the paint will dry over night and all will be good :-)

2. The kitchen is still a slow moving project.  I got nothing done this past week due to lots of other things going on but I hope to get the bottom cabinets completely done this week.

3. Closets - I did do deep cleaning in both of the boys room including cleaning out their dressers and closets and rearranging their rooms.  Our bedroom is in process.  I moved clothes around but am still in the midst of organizing everything.

4. Vacation Planning - we have actually cancelled our vacation that was planned at the end of May due to the new job but there are still some things I'd like to do on this such as putting together a vacation idea binder and making my master packing list.

5. Tot Time - so . .. this is what I REALLY wanted to show you!  It all started with needing to deep clean the dining room. 

Those are a couple of before pictures.  One of the big things I did was remove the leaf from the dining room table.  It makes a huge difference in the room.  We don't have people over often so for the summer, this is a great thing for us.  Once the birthday parties start in the fall through the holidays, the leaf is needed. 
Now, this is my solution to my Mommy Time supplies, the kids arts/crafts stuff, my current projects and our scrapbooking albums.  I love it.  I'm finally able to grab what I need for my current craft or scrapbooking project without running to the basement.  Plus, this stuff is no longer living on the dining room table - instead it has a place.  I'm already finding that I take time to work on these projects now that I just grab a basket.  I'm so thrilled with this idea!!

 Here's the full view of my new organizational "dream" - it solves so many issues for me plus, this is one piece of furniture that is now out of our bedroom!!!  I want to get a tall thin basket to put next to the shelf to house our "theme" books which will mostly come from the library. 

 On top of the bookshelf, I store my laminator.  I use this a lot for Mommy Time items so that they are durable.  I also love it for my to do lists - once laminated, I can write on them with a Sharpie and than use cleaner to wipe them off each week!  The very top shelf is my project shelf.  It only holds two baskets which means, I can only have two in process projects at a time.  That's good for me :-)  Right now, I have some Easter decor projects I want to make and also my CD project is still not completely done.  I also plan on sliding my books I'm reading for my book goal each quarter in between the baskets.

 The next two shelves house my Scrapbooks.  I have wanted for so long to have them out in the open instead of stuck in our bedroom where no one can see them.  I love looking through them and now, they are easy to grab! 

 The next shelve holds 6 shoebox size containers.  This is where I keep (will keep . .. since they are still empty) everything from my hot glue gun to paint for the kids, pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes and more.  Basic craft supplies for both Mommy time and craft time for me!  There is also room to slide in our plans for each week - I want to store the items in three ring binders to keep them easily organized.

 The bottom shelf holds two things.  First, that fantastic 3 piece storage container holds my current scrapbooking project.  The top bin is big enough to hold 12 x12 pages so it is perfect.  The bottom two bins will hold my markers, punches and little things like that.  The other side will hold two of the bigger bins.  One will hold crayons, paper, and coloring books for the boys.  And, I will also put our sensory bin there as well. 

Finally, excuse the cords, those are a work in progress, but notice my paper cutter - it fits perfectly in that little spot!

I am so excited that this project is well into the works.  I don't plan on filling the bins all at once but will now have a place for the things