Fast Friday

In honor of how I live a lot of my life these days (after baby...and then baby number two), I thought I'd do a post about one of my quick fixes.  The story goes like this:

The day before the Easter party at Ella and Noah's MMO (Mother's Morning Out) class had arrived.  What's sad about this story, is that I had actually planned ahead and gone to Sam's Club to order some super cute cupcakes to take.  (I briefly...as in maybe 5 seconds...contemplated making them but then I realized although I've baked lots of things, I've never made cupcakes and don't even have a cupcake pan - I think I just forfeited my mother of the year nomination)  When we had gone to Sam's Club the day before they had a MOUNTAIN of cupcakes on display.  Naturally, I thought..."I don't need to order any when they have this abundance of super cute Easter cupcakes available, I'll just swing back by tomorrow to get some fresh ones."

                  ((Fast forward to the next day - the day before the party))

OF COURSE when we went back to Sam's there had been a run on cupcakes (I pictured something similar to the scene in Wal-Mart during Black Friday, except replace the huge tv's with cupcakes)  There were absolutely NO cute Easter cupcakes like there had been the day before.  In fact, we were lucky to get one of the last boxes of generic party cupcakes.  We had to do some quick thinking to make transform these into Easter cupcakes.  They wouldn't win an award or even make it to the Pinterest prestige level...but they worked, and I think they went over well with the preschoolers.

The BEFORE picture - these don't exactly say "Easter", right?

The AFTER picture - add a green icing nest, some Eastery sprinkles,
A peep (we used a toothpick to stick them on), and a few jelly beans,
 ...and voila - Easterish cupcakes.  

What is your latest and greatest quick fix?  I'd love to add some great ideas to my arsenal of quick fix tools!  Happy Friday!!

Perfect Timing

This time of year is so perfect for Easter, don't you think?  I mean, what if they (the infamous "they") had put Easter in, say, October...or February.  Ugh!  When I think of Easter I picture beautiful greens with shocks of pink, yellows and whites mixed in (I try to ignore the evil pollen that accompanies the amazing colors...although it can be difficult when I'm clawing my eyeballs out because they itch so freakin bad!)  Isn't that just perfect?  (not the misery pollen brings, the colors...stay with me here :)  It's perfect that Easter isn't about peeps or pollen although we kinda think it is...but it's about restoration.  Something ugly and broken being made beautiful and whole once again.  (Maybe we could call it shabby chic or thrifting...hmmm)  It's perfect because the ugly brown plants that I would've sworn were dead and ready for the fireplace, were just playin possum (I'll explain that to you later if you're not from the south).  It's even more perfect because Jesus restored our relationship to Him on Easter...see our relationship was actually dead...as in flat lined, with no hope of being revived.  There just wasn't anything we do to reconcile it...kinda like I can't jump to the moon no matter if I'm me or Michael Jordan..no amount of good acts would do the trick.  We were doomed to be punished.  To die and stay there forever.  But...
                     wait for it....
                              wait for it.......
Jesus fixed all that.  He came, lived a perfect life and voluntarily died in our place (he could've gotten off that cross with one flick of his pinky - he was God in the flesh, remember?)  HE reconciled us to himself when he came out of that tomb and beat death.  He made all things new...on Easter.  I know peeps are pretty good...I may have actually just eaten one...but man, what Jesus did is SO much better.  It makes Easter pretty stinkin amazing.

So in the spirit of realizing God is making all things new and beautiful...here are some things I've noticed around me these past few days that are beautiful in their own way:

PS - If you want some theme music to go along with the pictures, check out Gungor's "Beautiful Things"

We have three dogwood trees in our yard, but only one is pink.
The kids and I recognized how gorgeous it is right now, and
decided to bring some of that gorgeousness inside!  (I
shook as much pollen off as possible though, of course!)

You know I couldn't post about beauty without including my
kiddos, right??  Here is my sweet Ella climbing her way to the
top of that same gorgeous tree.  She was getting tired of
smiling for me...so this smile was a product of her fav joke
(Q:  What do you get when you cross a crocodile with a rooster?
A:  Croc-a-doodle-doo)
That was a freebie, just for you!

  Here is Noah blowing a dandelion.  (After
successfully clearing off the dandelion, he moved on to
try to blow the petals off the flower in his other hand...it was
pretty stinking cute.

I love this color of purple against the background of the bright green stem...
I'm secretly wondering which room of my house I could
 redo in this color scheme.  Hmmm, I'll keep you posted.

These two items have been sitting by each other for a while, but
 I just noticed how the m&m colors compliment the little roosters
 feather spoons.  That fact plus the fact that the rooster was my
great-grandmother's rooster (and I remember her using it to measure out
 flour when she let me help her make biscuits) makes this scene
 beautiful!  Love it...there could be tears involved with this one
 if I thought about it too long...so, moving on!


So what are your thoughts about Easter?  Have you noticed any beauty around you lately in this season?