candy-coated pretzels

A week or so ago, the kids and I decided to make an easy little snack idea!

I had some of these "Melt 'n Mouth" vanilla-flavored candy pieces leftover from Christmas baking, so I thought I would use them up by covering some pretzels.

{Melt in microwave 30 seconds until easy to stir and smooth.}

Line some pretzels on a sheet of waxed paper.
Next time, I'll be sure to put the waxed paper on a cookie sheet first.

Let the kids drizzle the melted candy over the pretzels.
If I do this again, I though about putting the melted chocolate in my Pampered Chef frosting tube for an easier way to drizzle.

They don't have to look pretty to eat them!

Place waxed paper on cookie sheet and put in freezer for 5-10 minutes.

And enjoy!

the bug trap

I love my children's imaginations!!

class of 2024?!

We attended Mikayla's Kindergarten "Round Up" a week and a half ago. I can't believe I'm signing my baby girl up for Kindergarten!

All smiles at the entrance to her new school!

One of the stations was having your child get their fingerprints printed.

Next up we went to visit a couple of the teachers and the classrooms.

They colored a picture of a sunflower...

...and got to plant a sunflower seed. The teachers said that when the sunflower seedling starts growing into a flower, then it would be time for Kindergarten to begin! I thought that was such a cute idea. Now let's just hope her seedling will sprout, so we can transport it, so it will grow! *wink*

The kids played on the playground for a little bit.

And then we went for a quick bus ride. I think she was a little disappointed to find out that we live too close for her to take the bus (not like I would let my BABY take the bus!!)

Class of 2024...that just sounds so crazy!

Daddy got to take a break from work for a bit to come with us, but had to leave before we did, so he took the van home to get his car and because it was a beautiful day, we got to walk home! I'm hoping for many nice days (wishful thinking!) so we can walk to pick her up after school as much as we can. There is a park on the way, so it will be fun to let them play a little each day.

There weren't any tears shed, but come the first day of school, we'll see if that still holds true!

fashion frenzy!

Mikayla had a friend over this last week and they wanted to have a fashion show. Of course Austin was not going to be left out...

a day in the tulip fields!

Oops! A whole week just flew on by without me blogging. Hmmm...seems to happen often!

Last Thursday the kids and I went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm with some friends of ours. This has been a tradition each year (2009 & 2010) and we really wanted to make sure to squeeze it in this year, but the weather has been so off and on (OK, mostly just rainy...it's Oregon!) and it has been difficult to coordinate a time to go with Mikayla being in pre-school three days a week. But, we knew the farm was only open until the 7th, so my friend Kim and I finally set a date to go and there was no other choice.

Wouldn't you know it that the day before was sunny and gorgeous and the day we had planned to go, we woke up to rain? But, that was not going to stop us because we really wanted to go!! We decided to push our departure time back a little and didn't leave until 2 hours from when we were supposed to, but we still packed a lunch and our kids into the car and were on our way! The whole way there, we kept seeing raindrops on the windshield, but we just talked our way through it, ignoring the weather. It was a fun drive...despite the THREE stops we made before hitting the freeway. It was kind of like a comedy of errors and there was some good laughs between us!

The afternoon ended up being just right! It was a little cool, but it had stopped drizzling after we ate our lunch, which was the first thing we did when we got there. The sun even peeked through the clouds a little (as you can tell by some of the pictures with the kids squinting!)

{PICTURE OVERLOAD!}

{I just love this picture of the kids showing off their personalities!}
It was a little too bright for Austin's liking,
so I got a lot of "squinty" looks from him.
Being among the tulips, was the perfect opportunity
to get some "five year" pictures of Mikayla.
{The beauty of God's creation}
I just love this picture of Mikayla whispering something to Austin.
It shows her sweetness.
By the end, this was the look I was getting.
I took that as a hint that he was done!
Before we left, we let the kids ride the cow train!
They had the best time...just look at their smiles!
The End.