i’m linking up my weekly phone pics with jeannett again!  i’m thepleatedpoppy on instagram if you want to follow me there!

it has been years and years since we have been able to go to a good friday service.  its a late service with no childcare, and this is the first year all our kids were able to sit quietly through it.

i don’t know how i’ve had a “proper” easter all these years without it!  its amazing how getting a good reminder of what happened on good friday prepares your heart to fully appreciate easter morning!

most saturday mornings sean gets up early and goes for a long bike ride.  i get up late with the kids and we get donuts.  to each his own ;)

later that day the girls and i snuck away for a few hours to walk through target with our drinks (they get steamers), then home depot to pick up terrarium supplies, then to ruby rose.

we spent a fun couple hours creating our terrariums in the back yard and now we get to enjoy them all day long!

we dyed our eggs last minute – saturday night!  actually, all i did was make the dye and set it out for the kids and they did it all themselves!

after the kids ate a bit of their easter candy (thank you grandma for sending them some!), i started craving sweets of my own.  sean had squirreled away a cadburry egg and tossed it to me.  no sooner did i finish making out with it eat it then want another one.  my man knows me so well and tossed me a second egg!

 this girl woke us up on april fools day with “mommy i just threw up!”, then quickly followed by “april fools!”

she’s a keeper ;)

we had family come into town midweek, and instead of spending my time cleaning i decorated.  distract them with the cute, right?  ok, i cleaned a bunch, but just not all i should have.

we love taking family to nearby pismo beach to search for sand dollars, explore the caves and eat clam chowder!  the weather was perfect – warm from the sun and cooled off by the chilly breeze.

just a small sampling of the many beloved cousins, but it was nice to get some concentrated time with these girls.

we found these gigantic starfish in the tide pools!

mandy is an avid writer and she wanted me to help her make a bag to hold her writing supplies.  she picked out all the fabrics and decided what goes where and we whipped up this bag together – it was so much fun!  isn’t she just adorable!

we have a few days left of spring break and we’re headed up to santa cruz to visit my sister who is in the country for a bit from australia.  so so so excited to see her and my nephew – its been a year!

enjoy your weekend!

i’m a day late, but i’m linking up my weekly phone pics with jeannett again today!  i’m thepleatedpoppy on instagram if you want to follow along!

i traveled to blissdom last week  and the antics at our tiny airport had me laughing to myself.  as crazy as it is to travel and be away from my family for 5 days, i was so thankful to be able to fly from so close to home, to be able to be with the kids for lunch on the day i left and for coming home just in time for dinner.  having a little break is fun, but coming home is so much better!

i spent a couple days at the handmade market at blissdom, and this was my setup.   i had a 50 lb weight limit for my checked luggage and this whole table of goodies weighed in at a hefty 49.5 lbs!  i call that efficient packing!

 lisa was my roomie for the weekend, and also my booth neighbor.  we had 2 great other booth neighbors: ashley of the shine project and rebecca of better life bags.  it was so great to meet them both!

 one thing i love about blissdom is getting to meet online friends in real life!  i have been wanting to meet mandy for so long!

 i think i brought about 45 goody bags for new and old friends.  it was so fun giving out these fun gifts!

 i love california, but we are missing out on one good thing:  cracker barrel!  breakfast for dinner?  yes, please!  biscuits as an appetizer?  um, ok!

 i missed my kids (and husband!) like crazy.  i was so thankful for facetime on my phone.  i was that person who was walking through the hotel, talking loud to my phone, showing the kids the little train track in the atrium, the water fountains, and the crazy boot print carpet.  and being able to give everyone goodnight kisses was the best!

 my 92 year old gram is doing the email now.  i am so excited about it!  i am horrible with traditional correspondence (letters and phone), so i’m hoping that email will work for us!

 one glorious day, all my kids were playing happily.  there was no fighting, or screaming, or whining.  and to top it off, i felt the urge to clean!  now, i rarely get that urge, so i decided to ignore all other responsibilities and just give into the urge.  i cleaned our bathroom for over 3 hours!  not only is it clean now, but i also cleaned out every cabinet and drawer.  it felt so good!

lily played with her babies for a couple hours and then gave herself a pedicure while her kids were all napping ;)

 gracie is almost 10 (aaaaack!), but she can still get lost for hours in play, and i love it.

 we stayed in our jammies until late in the afternoon.  it was a good day.

 i got 2 of these door mats from target, one for the front door and one for the back.  the gold tennies were just $7 on clearance at forever 21.  i wasn’t sure if i loved them or not, but for that price, it was worth a try!

 and here’s the result of all my hard work!  a clean bathroom!

 i didn’t stop at my bathroom.  i moved on to clean up my closet, organize our linens, and clean my room.  i did loads and loads of laundry.  when i went to put away my many tank tops, i realized i couldn’t shove another one into the drawer.  so i dumped out the whole drawer and refolded each and every one.  and then i realized i have a lot of tank tops!

over the last few years i have been wearing tank tops as undershirts almost every day.  i think it grew out of a mix of wanting an extra layer of warmth and for added modesty.

most of my tanks are mossimo from target, but lately i’ve been loving the racer back ones from forever 21 (and their low price – around $4?).

2 facts about silas:  he loves baths, and he has really long hair!

emily and i were meeting about the stitch market, choosing our vendors for our upcoming market, and our girls were being awfully quiet for an awfully long time.  little did we know that they were putting on every hair clip and necklace we owned!

we have spring break this week and i have a list of projects to complete that is a mile long!  come back next week to see what i get done!