Ambrosia Creative

Can’t possibly be any happier to find Easter eggs filled with candy and money.

Can’t possibly be any more thrilled to stop for a photo.

As Kai would put it, Easter weekend was epic (his word du jour). Grandma Kirk visited from California earlier this week, followed by a visit from Lola and Lolo who went all out with eggs and Easter baskets for the kids…leaving meeeee off the hook this year – sigh of relief! We’re dealing with some fallout though between the boys, one of which was not on board with splitting the money finds 50/50, but such is life and its tough (tough!) lessons.

We’re starting our full week of spring break tomorrow, kicking it off by going hog wild at a playdate, then running errands at Target, and possibly finishing it up with a chocolate milk bender.

Via Pinterest, I stumbled on a new favorite craft blog, Pysselbolaget, which has a tutorial on these fabulous cardboard shelves. After Kai made his mountain shelf from an old shoebox, I thought the boys might like some planet ones too.

After tracing a plate onto the flat backside (or bottom) of a box, I cut out the “planet” shape with a pair of scissors, keeping part of the sides attached for stability. Dax pointed out how it resembles a couch!

We then blended a bit of black and white acrylic paint together, but didn’t mix too thoroughly so that we’d have a marbled, textured gray to paint our moon with. Then I let Dax go to town with the paint. Finally, we added in some dark spots and craters to make it a little more realistic and familiar for our lunar astronaut (we had extras from Danyelle’s brilliant astronaut Valentines we put together for classmates this year).

When unused, the shelves nest together nicely for storage.

Keeping busy this month by playing in puddles…

…making art… {idea for dragon}

…and programming video games. His first!

I’ve been feeling especially anxious lately (haven’t we all) to preserve their innocence. Locking them in a protective bubble of safety sounds better and better each day. Can’t they hold hands, play hide-and-seek, and jump and play with abandon…forever? Kai is the opposite of me and gets horrified at the idea of an eternal youth. “But mom. I wouldn’t get to learn how to drive.” Good point son, good point. I sometimes forget that growing up is fun and has a lot of perks, too.

My boys have gotten so big! A couple weeks ago, Dax and Kai turned 5 and 7 respectively. Still can’t get over having a 7-year-old. That’s only three years away from 10, and once you hit the double digits, there’s no going back!

How I love my hilarious, creative, and energetic boys to pieces. It was after a particularly trying day earlier this week, the kind filled with sass and brotherly infighting, that I was reminded of the hearts of gold at the center of my boys. Kai gave our family prayer that night, filling it with small requests that matter to a child in a big way. Like praying to receive a happy face scribble in his agenda at the end of the school day from his teacher, and also asking for help with being a better listener. And Dax…oh Dax!  He’s been trying his best to navigate the choppy waters of middle-siblinghood. He’ll have great days, but other days involve acts of passion in defense of his toys being stolen by big brother. Just when I think the mellow, unconditionally loving little boy has matured into someone a little more angsty, he’d come back with his sunny jokes and state that he’s my best friend forever. These boys and their pure, pure hearts.

We had a low-fuss Lego/Halloween mashup party for both boys since their birthdays are only three days apart. I enjoyed the easy way out by using Evites and Domino’s delivery and got only slightly crafty by making some Lego-colored ghost toppers (inspiration) for the cake I frosted so nicely in ten minutes or less.

Our first party game was a balloon pop, one of those 11th hour ideas loosely based off stuff I’ve seen on Pinterest. I didn’t take pictures of this game, but Ryan and Kai had attached balloons filled with Halloween jokes to the same sheet of pegboard we used for our homemade marble ramp. The kids took turns popping a balloon with a push pin, then reading the joke aloud. This went over really well, cheesy jokes and all because pretty much anything is ha-larious to a group of excited, giddy kids.

To burn some energy and time before food arrived, we went on a Lego man search, looking for 8 numbered paper cutouts of Lego guys hidden around the outside of our house. The search ended at a basket filled with small bags of Lego pieces. Each child was given a bag, and we did a sort of group build. Going around in a circle, each child would add one of their Lego pieces to the growing structure. In the end, most of the kids determined the very abstract creation to be some sort of factory, though there were a couple detractors that argued it was a loading crane instead (source for game).

We sent guests home with small favor boxes filled with crayons shaped into Lego Minifigures and cheap ephemera kids reliably get excited over like plastic yo-yos, erasers, and stickers. The favor packaging is actually from a Halloween box template designed by Mini-eco. I thought the boxes looked so much like Lego guy faces, I printed them onto yellow cardstock.

Two birthdays down, one more to go; little Mara gets her turn in just one more week.