Casserole Ideas Anyone???

Our ward's Relief Society has an Enrichment Activity on April 15th. The topic will be gardening, which I'm actually very excited about, I even told the kids we would plant a garden this year (I told them this over a month ago, before I found out that around here, people don't plant anything until late April or May- oops!).
However, I volunteered to bring a casserole, but I really don't make casseroles very often, and don't have any favorite, tried-and-true recipes. So, if you have any ideas, please share, I would really appreciate it!

Resurrection Eggs

Since a couple people asked about the resurrection eggs, I decided to post the information I found here on the blog. I did a google search for "Resurrection Eggs" and found a lot of websites with directions for making your own set. (Of course this was after I impulsively bought a set at WalMart for $10, and then let Eden open it on Easter, even though I was pretty sure about returning it, out of guilt for not being better prepared.) I like the Times and Seasons FHE lesson the best, but the Eclectic Home School list is nice because it lists 21 different possible "eggs" that you can pick and choose from. I'm also thinking you really don't need to have 12 eggs, you could have less or more. I haven't modified our set yet (I really should do that before I put all the Easter stuff away for next year...), but I think we'll use the Times and Seasons version, maybe with one or two changes.

http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=2980

http://www.eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=74&resourceid=262

Easter Time

We didn't get a whole lot of good pictures, but the kids did get to do some fun stuff for Easter time. The weekend before Easter, we went to a party at the base. There was food, crafts, and of course an Easter Egg hunt. Luckily I got the kids to eat before the egg hunt, because after that, Andrew was pretty focused on his candy. Eden enjoyed making all the different crafts available, all the way until they were cleaning up and it was time to go home.


On Saturday we had planned to do an outsided hunt with some of our neighbors, but almost everyone backed out because of the cold windy weather. So, it was just Eden and Andrew and their friends Anna and Kaid. The kids had fun despite the cold wind, but they were more than ready to back inside after all the eggs had been found.


On Sunday, I had just enough time to take a few pictures of the kids before church (none of them turned out very good). We're planning to take some of all of us in a couple weeks when Scott won't have to be gone all day for church. Scott and I were preparing to give talks on Easter Sunday, so the baskets weren't ready in the morning and I wasn't sure how the bunny was going to make it to our house undetected. I managed to sneak a few minutes alone to get them ready(just chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs, we were going to start doing a chocolate bunny and a Sunday book as a tradition, but we forgot about that until too late) in our bedroom and shut the door. My plan was to move them from my bed to the downstairs after I got the kids in the car for church. But, somehow in the last few minutes before getting the kids in the car, Eden got into my room and discovered that "the Easter bunny had been super fast and sneaky while we were taking pictures outside, and left everything in Mommy and Daddy's room." I was able to happily convince them that we should wait until after church to dive into the baskets. I guess that all worked out in the end.


I had boiled eggs to dye on Saturday too, but we ended up having friends over for pizza and movie night (baby-sitting trade). So, we dyed our eggs on Monday morning and did a little hunt and Easter lesson for FHE.
I think we might ask the Easter bunny to visit us on Saturday after this. I was a little suprised at how distracted/obsessed the kids in Primary (and my own) were with the eggs and candy and bunny side of the holiday. We used "Resurrection Eggs" this year to try to teach the kids about the real reason we celebrate Easter. Mostly they fought over the things inside the eggs. The eggs focused a lot more on the bad things leading up to Christ's death than I would like, but I found directions for a different version that focused more on what happened after Christ died, so I think I'll modify our set for next year.
I can't say I enjoyed giving my talk on Sunday, but I did enjoy preparing for it. It just happened that our Book Club is reading "21 Days Closer to Christ" by Emily Freeman, so I had already been focusing on my relationship with my Savior more when they asked us to give talks. FYI- I wouldn't say this book has been one of my all-time favorites, but there have been some of the chapters that really helped me to recognize the Lord's hand in my life in ways I hadn't before. I haven't quite finished the book yet, I think I'm averaging 3 days for each chapter- not because the chapters are long, but I keep forgeting to think about the application aspect throughout the day, so I end trying again for a few days. I think a week per chapter would be more reasonable (something the author addresses at the beginning), but I'm trying to finish it before book club this Saturday.
Anyway, this post is a bit of a ramble, but I wanted to blog about our Easter.

BEWARE CATCH-UP POSTING AHEAD... First, A Potty Training Update

Lest anyone think that potty-training Andrew has been a complete breeze..... Last week Andrew almost never went in the toilet, except that he didn't poop in his pants/pull-ups, only let them get wet over and over (and didn't care about it at all- I would ask him if he was still dry and he would just say "no" and go on with what he was doing), until I finally put the underwear and pull-ups away and told him he had to wear a diaper until he started going pee-pee in the toilet again. He wasn't happy about that, but what really changed his mind was that we pulled "Doc Hudson" out of his prize box and used it the same way we used "Henry", with one change, I decided to put Doc Hudson away if Andrew was wet in the morning too (maybe unfair, but I think sometimes he was wetting his diaper after he woke up, but before I made him sit on the toilet). He caught on really fast this time around.
He's doing much better this week, he kept his underwear dry ALL DAY AND NIGHT yesterday and so far today too. I wasn't home last night, but apparently Andrew threw a big fit about putting a pull-up on for bed (something he's never done before). So Scott let him go to bed in his underwear. When I got home, I debated whether to change him or not, finally decided to let him go for it since he wakes up dry at least half the time. I think a lot of the problem last week was that we were so busy with doctors and dentists and things going on, that there was just too much distraction for him to pay very close attention. Of course, in the back of my mind, I'm starting to wonder how many "special" toys we're going to go through before he decides to stay dry without being bribed.

This & That

The very first weekend in March, we had fabulous weather, so we decided to try out the Mickelson Trail by Hill City. It used to be a train line, but they removed the tracks, and now there's a wide, almost level gravel path that runs over 100 miles in the black hills. I think we'll definitely be going back this summer. We had more great weather for most of this week too (today it was cold again). So, the kids and I have been at the park and/or riding bikes (Eden). It was nice to get outside for a while, and we can't wait for the weather to turn nice again!

Sometime earlier this week, Andrew got up and decided he was a superhero (I don't remember which one exactly). Well, we went downstairs a little earlier than normal because he said he was hungry, but this is what happened instead of breakfast. Apparently, his elbow and knee pads are now part of his superhero costumes, and superheros also need to have a horse. The next day he did the same thing, and wanted me to take his picture again, then Eden woke up and wanted to be in a picture too.

And on a completely different subject (I guess I'm catching up for being such a lazy blogger lately), I've seen some people share their favorite baby gear items on their blogs, so I've decided to share my favorite maternity find: THE SECRET FIT BELLY STYLE pants from Motherhood Maternity. They are not actually perfect, they still slide down a little bit (well, not so much anymore given my huge belly, but when I bought them back in Jan/Feb they did) but not nearly so much as the other styles of pants I have, and they are really comfortable standing or sitting since they use the new "seamless technology".

I'm still looking for these:

• The perfect or nearly-perfect nursing bra. I hated the ones I had with Eden and only had one I semi-liked with Andrew. This part of my body doesn't get super-huge, so you'd think it wouldn't be difficult, but it is. So, if you have any suggestions, please share.


• Input on the moby wrap or other carrier that is good for newborns (I'm thinking mostly of how I'll get through the grocery store with three kids)



• Input on whether or not to get a sit-n-stand stroller. The big tandem double I got with Andrew was not worth it (it was huge and took up too much space in the car, and I used it only a little bit- being able to snap the carseat in was nice). We replaced it with a pretty sturdy umbrella-style stroller, which was great most of the time, but there were times when I carried Andrew (or let him walk when he got older), and let Eden have a turn in the stroller. Andrew will be older than Eden was, so I'm leaning towards forgoing this expenditure, but I can't quite decide for sure (just today I carried him halfway home from dropping something off at a neighbor's house about 5 or 6 houses away).


• Also, thanks for the input on the diapers, we are going to give the cloth a try, so we'll let you all know how it goes in a few months.