Last Minute Easter Decorations

With all that has been going on here, we have not done anything to get our house ready for Easter.  I started to feel a little bad because thinking back over the last month, we (the kids and I) have not really had any special project.  The kids are never happier than when we are making something together.   Since we have no Easter decorations, I thought we could make something for Easter (even if it will only be out for two weeks).

Looking back at the pictures, I would say that the kids had fun.

And they made some quick and easy Easter decorations for our table.

A while ago Murray's mom told me about these painted glass balls that she had seen on The Chew.  I have been wanting to try them since she told me about them.  

I thought they might be a little twist on traditional Easter eggs.

This is a super easy project!  All you need is clear glass balls and your choice of paint colors.

I got this set of 12 from Hobby Lobby (don't forget you can always get a coupon online).

Squirt the paint into the glass balls and turn

and turn

and turn

until you have the desired effect.  We found the it helps to turn the ball while you are squirting the paint in so the paint hits in different places in the ball.

You can have more than one color in a ball.  The key is waiting for one color to dry all the way before adding another color.  We did not have that kind of patience and were perfectly happy with one color.

 And there you have it, simple, cute, (cheap), easy and fun for the kids Easter decorations!

Too bad we do not have lights in our dinning room yet, so we are not eating at the dinning room table.  But every time I walk through the room I smile.

Flying Kites

It is official, we are moved into our new house!  It only took about 3 1/2 days of unpacking and arranging to get settled in our new home.  Sara Wells is thrilled because it means there will be no more long afternoons of running from store to store to get those little things that make a house function smoothly, like toilet paper holders, shower curtains, light bulbs...

Miller, however was not quite as happy because the house being settled meant he had to come home from Granna's.  When I told Miller it was time to go home, he jumped back into Granna's car.  This is a very tame picture of the whole event.  I literally had to drag Miller out of the car while he was kicking and screaming.

So to celebrate our family being back together and settled in our new house, we headed to the lake to try to enjoy the last few days of Spring Break.  Unfortunately it poured all morning on Friday and then all afternoon.  

We took the small break in the rain as an opportunity to get outside and fly Miller and Ella's new kites.  We started in the backyard without much success.

So, we loaded up and headed to the Marina for a wide open space on the water where we could still get the breeze without the worry of the kites getting caught in the trees.

The pictures make it look like we had a very successful kite flying afternoon.

But pictures can be a little deceiving.

In all actuality, the kites spent most of the time on the ground.  Murray and I need some kite flying tips.

When the rain drops started falling, Miller lost interest.  He found this pipe (sewer drain) that he thought would be great place for all of the raindrops to go into.  Thankfully Murray noticed what Miller was playing with before he started digging around in it.

Moving News

Wednesday night was Sara Wells last night in her crib.

We had planned on moving her into a big girl bed about a month ago.  After I started the process of moving all of Ella's stuff into her room (Ella and Sara Wells are now going to share a room) we found out we would be moving again.  So, we delayed the "moving to a big bed" until the move.

The movers came Thursday morning and took down the crib for the last time (until grandkids).

No tears were shed, but it was more emotional than I was prepared for. 

The hardest part was when the movers moved the crib into the new house and it went straight into the storage room.  It is now hidden behind a mounds and mounds of boxes.

(Sara Wells is giving kisses out of the side of the slats of the bed.  Her favorite way to give kisses at night.  We are going to have to find new ways of giving goodnight kisses).

Thursday morning Sara Wells knew everyone needed some Super Strength 

and dressed proudly in her SuperGirl costume.

For the "big move," Ella and Miller went to Knoxville to spend their Spring Break with Granna and Granddaddy.  From the text pictures I have gotten, I think they are having a good time...

Chuck-E-Cheese

Pump It Up

 Ice Cream (and notice the big bags of M&M's)

Sara Wells has been spending her days with EG.  Thursday EG and SuperGirl went to Tuscaloosa and spent the day with Chloe and Fitz.  They have also been to the Zoo, Yogurt Mountain, TCBY...

All that to say, the Lee Kids are doing fine with the move.  

They actually might be fine with moving every month.

So Close!

The time has come, moving week is here.  It is hard to believe that the time has come.  I have to say that living in someone else's home (one that is not solely a rental property) has been very interesting.  We have constantly been on our guard to keep everything as good as it was when we moved in and when possible, to make it even better.  When we moved into this house the family who owned the house moved to Houston.  The plan was that the owners were going to put the house back on the market when we were close to moving out.  Things changed when the husband got offered a job at his old practice.  

We were definitely on our guard when we thought the owners were putting their house back on the market, but when we found out the owners would be moving back into the house our "constantly reminding the kids this is not our house," was stepped up a notch!  And we did so good!  The only major problem was some drawing on the wall done the first week we got here (btw, they have never, never drawn on the walls before, why here?).  That was until Sunday night...

The Lee's were hit with the stomach bug.  So far it has just been Ella and me (and I really don't think anyone else is going to come down with it at this point).  While I was sick on the couch, Murray scooped up Ella as she was in the process of getting sick.  Thinking only of how close we were to moving and leaving the house is almost the same condition as when we moved in, Murray definitely sacrificed himself!  However their was a little trail in bedroom to the bathroom.  In my vengeance to get the carpet clean and leave no stains (while I was sick), I somehow bleached the carpet! 

You can see the trail to the bathroom:(

Today I spent about 2 hours cleaning the fridge.  I am hoping that the sparkling refrigerator will just blow the owners away and they will not notice the "lighter" spots in the bedroom!  Thinking positive always helps!!!

Tornado Party

Whew, what a week it has been!  I really cannot believe it is already Saturday!  Where did the time go??? Go back with me to a week ago.  It is almost hard for me to think back that far, but let me remind you...  If you live in the Southeast or anywhere close, you will remember all the tornado/bad weather warnings.  As might be expected, The Lee's no longer take tornado threats lightly.  Friday morning when James Spann (Birmingham's weather forecaster who we will forever be grateful to because he is the one who told us to go to our safe place and within a minute the tree was in our house) told everyone north of Clanton to keep on their weather radio because severe storms that could produce tornados could pop up any minute, I went and picked Ella up from school.  Yes, a little paranoid, but better safe than sorry.  It ended up being a beautiful morning and it was kind of fun playing hooky.  We tried on shoes and then had lunch with my mom.  Doesn't get much better than that!

But we were warned that bad weather was still to come.  So, we were not taking the day lightly.  Our good friends The Baker's just sold their very sturdy, well built house and moved into a not so sturdy (built very quickly on a concrete slap) rental house.  Since Andrew was gone, we insisted that the Baker clan come over to our very sturdy rental house with a basement and full-house generator to wait out the storm. We had our own little Tornado Party.

But it was not just Carey and her kids (only 3 of the 4 came), Carey's mom and grandmother were in town for Baby Baker #3's birthday party.  And my mom was here for the weekend with us.

And Murray's mom came over since Murray's dad was out of town.

So, let's recap:

3 Lee Kids

3 Baker Kids

2 Lee Kids' Parents

2 Lee Kids' Grandmothers

Baker Kids' Mom

1 Baker Kids' Grandmother

1 Baker Kids' Great-Grandmother

That is a total of 13 people!

To say the kids had fun was an understatement!

When the Baker Kids and the Lee Kids get together, it is only a matter of time before the dress up clothes come out.

6 kids and 1 Daddy can only be cooped up in a house for so long before the wrestling begins...

And then after all the fun and excitement wore off (and no storms), they were still predicting that bad storms would come.  So the big kids passed the time with the iPads!  It still just blows me away how savvy these little kids are!  

By 8 o'clock we felt pretty sure that nothing too bad was coming our way, but we had already told the big kids that Ann Tatum was spending the night.  (Yes, we were planning on all 13 staying the night here.  Between air mattresses, Sara Wells mattress for her new bed and the couch everyone had a place to sleep.)

So, against all of our better judgement we all agreed Ann Tatum could stay the night.

Everyone was thrilled!

The spend-the-night-party started out great...

until the thunder started, which was about 2 minutes after the extremely over-tired kids laid down.

Needless to say, the-spend-the-night-party did not last very long.  But overall, our Tornado Party was very fun and very uneventful, which is exactly the kind of Tornado Party you want to have!

Dress For Sale

And no, I did not make it!

Here is the story behind why I am selling this beautiful dress.  Murray's mom bought the girls beautiful Easter dresses from this great little Linen store right on Jackson Square in New Orleans.  We picked out the perfect Easter dresses for the girls.  

The only catch was that the dresses off of the rack were all knee length and I needed the dresses longer since I wanted this to be the dress Sara Wells would get her picture made in this summer.  Since we were in New Orleans without the kids(!), I told them that I would call with the right length when we got back to Birmingham.

Well, Alabama won, it was crazy, we got home and it was even more crazy at home and I ended up calling about 3 or 4 days after I got home, thinking it would not be a big deal, surely they would not have started the dresses yet.

Well, I was wrong.  They had already cut out Sara Wells's dress:(  I am so sad because the dress is beautiful, but by this summer it will be too short for pictures.

After I tried the dress on, I talked to the owner of the store and he agreed that even though it was a custom made dress, he would sell the dress and make me a new dress.

Unfortunately, when I was folding the dress to send it back, I realized that Sara Wells had gotten sucker right on the front of the dress!  How that happened, I have no idea.  I had the dress dry cleaned and there is not a trace of sucker on the dress, but I just did not feel like I could send it back for him to sell it.

It is made from antique linen and antique Italian lace.

The dress is a size 3 and is 22 inches from shoulder to hem.  The back has 3 button closures.

And has a beautiful slip (that Sara Wells loves more than the dress) that closes with ribbon ties.

 This dress could be yours:)

 Please let me know if you are interested in this dress.  The cost is $80.